Aggrogate

Listing Restlessly: Graphical Ages of Gaming

Welcome to Listing Restlessly, a new and irregular feature where we look at geek concepts and try to put them into categories that make some amount of sense. There's so much vagueness in gaming ("role-playing games," "casual games," "retro games,") that we need some way to separate these ideas. Let's start with the ages of gaming, an amorphous yet steadfast concept that everyone knows but few can define beyond "today's consoles" and "yesterday's consoles."

We've used "current-gen" versus "next-gen" versus "last-gen." Well, generations change. We've used "8-bit" versus "16-bit" versus "32-bit" versus "64-bit." Well, the Atari 2600 was 8-bit, and the Atari Jaguar called itself 64-bit when it wasn't, and the 64-bit Nintendo 64 lost the battle against the same-generation 32-bit Sony PlayStation. Instead of looking at bits and vague generations, let's look at what really defined the generations: the graphics. Specifically, what they looked like, and not what drives them. Here are the new ages of gaming. Four clearly defined ages and one semi-clearly defined half-age that run from the beginning of home video game systems to today.

The Blob Age (Pong-1983)

Technically, the graphics of the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, and other pre-NES systems were sprites, but let's be honest here: they were blocks. They were squares, blocks, outlines, and shapes, but "sprites" is pushing it on an artistic and practical level. Look at Pac-Man on the Atari 2600. Montezuma's Revenge on the Colecovision. Astrosmash on the Intellivision. These were blobs.

There are certainly many exceptions in pre-1983 systems that had decent graphics for the time, but they were closer to PCs than home consoles. The Atari 2600 stands as the symbol of the era, and it had blobs. Big, nostalgic, beeping, screeching blobs.

The Sprite Age (1983-1995)

Nintendo came into the scene in 1983, and from then to the mid-90's was the sprite age. Everything was 2D (or very simple 3D), and graphics evolved from bobs to "shit you can actually identify." The early black box NES games weren't the best example, but as the system progressed we got Super Mario Bros., Mega Man, Castlevania, and other games where you can actually figure out what the different shapes are without using your imagination. Mega Man looked like a robot. Simon Belmont looked like a warrior. There were multiple colors and outlines for each sprite.

The Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo (and Turbografix-16) are also part of this age, because even though they advanced in complexity they stayed sprite-based. Yes, even Donkey Kong Country and Vectorman. Those amazing 3D graphics? Prerendered and turned into sprites. The SNES didn't actually make a 3D Donkey Kong run and jump at your command. I'm sorry to break it to you.

Just like there were some detailed sprites in the Blob Age, there was basic 3D rendering in the Sprite Age. I'm talking about the Super FX Chip, that magical little processor that made Star Fox (and Stunt Race FX and Vortex, but who cares about those?) possible. The graphics were so basic that they didn't even have textures, but it was still 3D. And they were still in the Sprite Age.

The Polygon Age (1995-2000)

Video games finally made the jump to 3D with the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 (yes, and the Sega Saturn). Sprites gave way to polygons with textured, and game systems actually modeled (in their own, very simple ways) three-dimensional objects interacting with each other. This brought us Mario 64, Final Fantasy 7, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil. There were some shadows and "particle" effects, but only in the simplest sense, usually just blobs and animated textures. They were a leap ahead of the Super FX chip of the Sprite age and the vector graphics of arcade games of the Blob age, but they look ugly compared to graphics today. Even in standard definition, they're rough and have simple models and textures.

The Smooth Age (2000-Present)

The PlayStation 2 and Xbox brought 3D graphics to a new level, with more complex models, better animations, and more advanced effects. It's still the same basic idea as the Polygon Age, but like the Blob Age to the Sprite Age, it represents a major and necessary step in its type of graphics. Besides more polygons, higher resolution textures, and smoother animations, the biggest advance was in shadow technology, with games like ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Splinter Cell, and Gran Turismo 4 seeing shadow and reflection effects the N64 and PlayStation couldn't hope to do. Since then, lighting, physics, and particle effects have only gotten better.

Half-Step: The High Definition Age (2006-Present)

We're still in the Smooth Age. Graphics haven't advanced that much in concept beyond the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. They've just gotten smoother, with higher resolutions and better effects. It's not a jump like blobs to sprites, sprites to polygons, and polygons to complex, rendered 3D, but it's still a pretty big step in resolution. The last "generation" of consoles were standard definition. The current generation of consoles (except the Wii) are high definition. They can do 1080p video. It looks great on HDTVs. That's really the big thing. We've gotten better physics, but that's almost a separate issue than the graphics themselves. Right now, even though the Xbox 360 and PS3 are "next-gen," they're still part of the same age the PS2 and Xbox ushered in.