Why the limitations of the N64 and PS1 mattered

Technical limitations forced creativity in graphics and music compositions.

“The enemy of art is the absence of limitation.” - Orson Welles

PS1 era: doing more with less. PS5 era : doing less with more.

All I want to say is I really miss 4-player games of the n64 era. Playing Golden Eye with your buddies was insane back in the day.

pros of n64:- Cartridges cons of n64:- Cartridges

"Doing more with less" is a lost art now.

Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, my favorite generation of gaming. There will never be another era quite like that one.

Late 90s to early 2000s was the peak of gaming innovation. The PS3/360 era would begin the graphics innovation era that we are still in today. All innovations are visual now.

Metal Gear Solid was absolutely insane how far ahead of it's time it was. Kojima tried to do a full cinematic experience at the earliest possible time and pulled it off. The characters lips may not move but the story telling and cinematics and everything being rendered in real time was amazing. It's also the first game that I recall having dozens of hours of fully voiced dialogue, so much that it required 2 discs just for the sound files alone.

the pre rendered backgrounds of digimon world are like a dream

One of the main things that has destroyed games is micro transactions, monthly, yearly subscription. I miss the old days.

“Creativity is not thinking outside the box. It’s setting the box on fire and trying to find a way out” - One of my favorite quotes about limitations breeding creativity.

You forgot the fact that there were NO UPDATES capability, since no storage, so games were much better finalized and tested than they are today

Oh man I can't believe you didn't mention ps1's CD quality audio. That was such a huge deal back then

5th generation: using creativity to surpass the limitations of technology and make the best games ever. 9th generation: using the unlimited power of technology to squash creativity and destroy the medium.

I don’t think we’ve ever seen two competing machines that were so dramatically different! I’ve always been fascinated by how developers overcame the limitations of 16-bit consoles and earlier, so hadn’t even thought much about these consoles.

It was wild. So much diversity, so many experiments on 3D, gameplay and how to make it all work. Modern gaming tropes solidified during the ps2 era.

I'm playing through Chrono Cross for the first time (Chrono Trigger being my favourite childhood game) and i cant express how refreshing, challenging and fun it is to play a game again where you don't have a big notification telling you where to go or what to do next. The UI is slow, the frame rate fluctuates, the graphics are old.. but.. the charm and atmosphere is beyond what some AAA games have today. Its like you know it was an uphill battle against the hardware limitations of the time but the developers didnt care and worked with the limitations to deliver their vision, gameplay and story.

Limitations in storage space kept the production costs in check. With lower costs came more risk taking. The biggest problem with modern games is too many of them are absurdly expensive to make.

From time to time, you come across a video on YouTube that you just know is going to be comfort food in the future. A video you go back to, like rewatching Friends or The Office because there's just something about it. I can tell this is going to be that video for me. Incredible work, MVG. Thank you for this.