Digital Foundry Retro Discussion [2018 - 2020]

My first PC (that actually was mine) was a Toshiba convertible tablet laptop. Got it for college in 2005, and of course I was tempted to run games on it, and boy was it terrible (Intel Xtreme Graphics 2!). But it was enough to play Far Cry (with graphical glitches), Call of Duty, and Age of Empires 2. The following year I invested in a much more appropriate laptop that I could game on, though I should've looked for something with a more beefy GPU to go with it's Mobile Athlon 64 4000. The Mobility Radeon X600 sounded good at the time to me, though in reality it was not sufficient for games moving into 2006. But it did get me my first real taste of modern PC gaming. Played alot of BF2, CoD2, HL2 and numerous other games on that machine.

My first PC build was in early 2007:

Athlon 64 x2 5600 Windsor, Socket AM2
EVGA Geforce 8800GTS 320 MB
2 x 1GB DDR2-1066
EVGA nForce 5 Mobo (Or was it 4?)

Finally being able to play FEAR and my other games in their full glory at 1440 x 900, was......well........GLORIOUS!
 
Sorry for second post, but is anyone aware of what instructions ATi X1000 series vertex and Xenos' unified shaders were capable of (ADD, MULL, MADD)?
 
My first PC build was in early 2007:

Athlon 64 x2 5600 Windsor, Socket AM2
EVGA Geforce 8800GTS 320 MB
2 x 1GB DDR2-1066
EVGA nForce 5 Mobo (Or was it 4?)
that was a heck of a PC back then. I had a puny, by comparison, X360 -playing on a 1024x768 CRT and thinking it looked incredible- and a laptop back then.

In the late 90s, raytracing was common in static images that computers used to generate after a few days of calculations.

Now, merging the past and the future, there is a new version of Quake 2 with Ray Tracing and Path Tracing, in real-time! And the entire game is meant for ray tracing.

 
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that was a heck of a PC back then. I had a puny, by comparison, X360 -playing on a 1024x768 CRT and thinking it looked incredible- and a laptop back then.

8800GTS was quite fast early 2007. A64 x2 5600 not really :)
Early 2007 i had a 8800GTS aswell, with a Q6600, it wasnt that expensive really (for a new quad core cpu), and had great performance, especially overclocked one could reach QX6700 levels or beyond. 4GB DDR2, not that uncommon either in 2007. Played Crysis very well, especially with tweaked/modded settings.

In the late 90s, raytracing was common in static images that computers used to generate after a few days of calculations.

Now, merging the past and the future, there is a new version of Quake 2 with Ray Tracing and Path Tracing, in real-time! And the entire game is meant for ray tracing.

Think it was posted elsewhere here but very impressive indeed, i want more old games remastered in RT. The first Half Life, Dues Ex etc use the same engine. Doom 3 with RT would be on another level.
A modern AAA game designed completely to the RTX strengths would be awesome too.
 
8800GTS was quite fast early 2007. A64 x2 5600 not really :)
Early 2007 i had a 8800GTS aswell, with a Q6600, it wasnt that expensive really (for a new quad core cpu), and had great performance, especially overclocked one could reach QX6700 levels or beyond. 4GB DDR2, not that uncommon either in 2007. Played Crysis very well, especially with tweaked/modded settings.



Think it was posted elsewhere here but very impressive indeed, i want more old games remastered in RT. The first Half Life, Dues Ex etc use the same engine. Doom 3 with RT would be on another level.
A modern AAA game designed completely to the RTX strengths would be awesome to
o.
that's a great idea indeed, but for classic games. The new GPUs run classic games with flying colours. Add Ray Tracing to the mix and those games come alive again. Maybe even at 4k with Ray Tracing and 60 fps.
 
that's a great idea indeed. The new GPUs run classic games with flying colours. Add Ray Tracing to the mix and those games come alive again. Maybe even at 4k with Ray Tracing and 60 fps.

Now that is what i would call real remasters, other then simply scaling up the resolution and calling it a day. Apart from upping the res all the way to 4k, 8k or 16k @Whatever fps, one can often mod games with higher res textures, assets etc, Skyrim is a great example, but last night i modded vice city and its really looking great, with all the PS2 assets and proper widescreen/fov etc.
Theres no better way reliving those classics! No need for a PS2 or emulator, the community fixes it for free.

https://web.archive.org/web/20171128105215/https://www.gtamodding.com/wiki/Fixes_and_restorations

 
8800GTS was quite fast early 2007. A64 x2 5600 not really :)
Early 2007 i had a 8800GTS aswell, with a Q6600, it wasnt that expensive really (for a new quad core cpu), and had great performance, especially overclocked one could reach QX6700 levels or beyond. 4GB DDR2, not that uncommon either in 2007. Played Crysis very well, especially with tweaked/modded settings.

Yeah I was a bit of an AMD fanboy. And I wish I had sprang for the 640 MB version or the 8800 GTX. The 320 MB wasn't enough for Crysis, though I can't think of any other games I had an issue with.
 
8800gtx had 768mb i think. 8800gts came with 640mb (2006). Had no trouble with crysis, offcours some settings altered.
 
8800gtx had 768mb i think. 8800gts came with 640mb (2006). Had no trouble with crysis, offcours some settings altered.

The original G80 based GTS was available in both 640 MB ($399 MSRP) and 320 MB ($299) flavors. G92 based 8800 GTS has 512 MB on a smaller 256 bit bus. I remember selling lots of 8800 GTs in late 2007 when I worked at a local Fry's Electronics. :smile:

I also acquired an eVGA 8800 GTX recently off ebay. Going to do some retro GPU testing and make a video for Youtube. Should be fun but the one I've been working on for the Radeon X1800 XT is giving me crazy editor's [writer's] block.
 
Oh yes i remember the 8800GT being very popular here too, quite a good buy for what you got. Nvidia needs prices like that again.

I also acquired an eVGA 8800 GTX recently off ebay. Going to do some retro GPU testing and make a video for Youtube. Should be fun but the one I've been working on for the Radeon X1800 XT is giving me crazy editor's [writer's] block.

Ok cool, always like retro hardware/games. Too bad i dont have my old gpu's/pcs left, have a X1900XTX 512/FX55 pc still though :p
 
The original G80 based GTS was available in both 640 MB ($399 MSRP) and 320 MB ($299) flavors. G92 based 8800 GTS has 512 MB on a smaller 256 bit bus. I remember selling lots of 8800 GTs in late 2007 when I worked at a local Fry's Electronics. :smile:

I also acquired an eVGA 8800 GTX recently off ebay. Going to do some retro GPU testing and make a video for Youtube. Should be fun but the one I've been working on for the Radeon X1800 XT is giving me crazy editor's [writer's] block.
8800 GTX + 1800XT - wow, very jealous of that hardware you have there. It makes me wonder what R600 series scaled like over time vs. G80 :D
 
It makes me wonder what R600 series scaled like over time vs. G80 :D

Closest thing I have to R600 is a 2600 XT, but I'm going to postulate that G80 and it's successors were closer related architecturally allowing closer relevancy in driver and game support. Despite relation between all the Ati/AMD VLIW GPUs, I think it was really only the 5000 and 6000 series that really got extended support being DX11. Once GCN arrived, the pre-DX11 GPUs were relegated to legacy status.
 
Konami's Contra 3 for Super NES is one of the greatest shooters of the 16-bit era - with some fascinating ports. DF Retro returns with an extended look at a stone cold classic:

 
Konami's Contra 3 for Super NES is one of the greatest shooters of the 16-bit era - with some fascinating ports. DF Retro returns with an extended look at a stone cold classic:

Super Probotector is one of the best games ever! Along with Super Castlevania IV and UN Squadron -SNES version is better than the arcade, imho-. When I managed to complete Super Probotector without continuing, I couldn't believe it. It was the same feeling I experienced when I managed to beat Gamer difficulty mode -a secret difficulty level- in UN Squadron.

I didn't know well how the final boss fight worked back then, so I didn't choose the right iteration to make it easier. When I managed one day to beat the game without continuing...., gosh, I couldnt believe it. Also the odd looking boss just before the final battle gave me the creeps, I usually died there.

Still, the game was sooooooooo fun that I didn't mind playing it again and again.

Every level is great, even those with the cenital view are very fun to play. The game is very well crafted, a flawless game. The turtle boss is one of the coolest I've seen in gaming. It was perfeclty playable in coop, both in the side-scrolling levels and the top down levels.

As for the Super Probotector vs Super Contra III thing..., here in Europe since I didn't know any other version of teh game, I thought the game originally had robots, and that was pretty cool. I mean, I always found more fun to battle aliens and stuff like that, than humans. That little fact just made the game even more flawless, and the design of the robots was very fitting given the setting of the game.

Every level of Super Probotector/Super Contra III made me feel like I was in an adventure. A game and level that reminds me of that feeling is this level of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV, with the catchy music and overall smoothness.

It has one of the best videogaming music on the SNES, Neon Night-Riders.

 
Konami's Contra 3 for Super NES is one of the greatest shooters of the 16-bit era - with some fascinating ports. DF Retro returns with an extended look at a stone cold classic:

something that puzzles me from this episode is that I wonder why the Gameboy Advance version of the game is so bad compared to the original. I mean, the Gameboy Advance is theoretically way more powerful than the SNES, yet the streams of fire run at half the framerate, it isn't as playable and so on and so forth.
 
My body is ready. New DF Retro episode again. Maybe it was a meltdown, yes, maybe it was, it also started the mythical Wii360 movement. But you go to the E3 to excite the public as much you can and Sony managed to achieve that aplenty.

 
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My body is ready. New DF Retro episode again. Maybe it was a meltdown, yes, maybe it was, it also started the mythical Wii360 movement. But you go to the E3 to excite the public as much you can and Sony managed to achieve that aplenty.

Not that year. It was awful.
 
My body is ready. New DF Retro episode again. Maybe it was a meltdown, yes, maybe it was, it also started the mythical Wii360 movement. But you go to the E3 to excite the public as much you can and Sony managed to achieve that aplenty.

They managed to set my expectations over the roof, I ve never been so excited about gaming until hard truth hit me.
Thank God we did get some amazing gems though from Sony's first party studios which approached at least the feeling and some of the elements demonstrated. But they were scarce.
 
Every level of Super Probotector/Super Contra III made me feel like I was in an adventure. A game and level that reminds me of that feeling is this level of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV, with the catchy music and overall smoothness.

It has one of the best videogaming music on the SNES, Neon Night-Riders.

If you like that, check out this genesis cover a friend of mine did. Holds up pretty well vs the arcade version.


Wow, just realized this is 5 years old.
 
My body is ready. New DF Retro episode again. Maybe it was a meltdown, yes, maybe it was, it also started the mythical Wii360 movement. But you go to the E3 to excite the public as much you can and Sony managed to achieve that aplenty.

So many memories, love these press conference retrospectives. I really miss the days of more original titles being the headlining reason to pick up a new console. I still remember playing through Heavenly Sword and Uncharted in late 2007.

But Sony really put themselves in a bind with that launch price and still having a substantial loss per console.
 
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