Which PS1 Games Pushed the Hardware the Most?

[marurun]

You know, some of those games I'm not sure actually pushed the PS1 hardware that much. I think there may be a case of, "It looked and sounded good so it must have been pushing the hardware," going on, here. But some of that can be explained by good art design and asset management.

That could be true. Which ones come to mind?
I have some notes for most of these that do help the argument, but I'm curious which ones you're thinking of

While I am pretty familiar with the PS1 hardware, I'm not always up-to-date on techniques or challenges used in specific games. Here are my concerns.

Chrono Cross
Very well-done game with lots of great art assets, but I'm not sure what about the game really stressed the PS1's hardware. Seems mostly like a case of skilled design.

Einhander
Another great title with solid graphic and sound design, but in what way does it push the technical capabilities of the system?

Ehrgeiz
Graphically speaking, this game seems pretty unimpressive. What way does it really stress the PS1's capabilities?

Honorable Mentions
Silent Hill
Bushido Blade
Rival Schools

All well-designed games, but none of them stand out to me as games that use crazy programming or hardware hooks or really push the hardware.

I'm happy to be enlightened and have my ignorance revealed. Edumacate me, peeps!

[racketboy]

Chrono Cross - the detail and animation of the 3D models. Particle effects

Einhander, Ehrgeiz, and Tobal all do 640X480 resolution at 60fps -- each with some great animation and detail while holding those specs.

[marurun]

Chrono Cross - the detail and animation of the 3D models. Particle effects

Einhander, Ehrgeiz, and Tobal all do 640X480 resolution at 60fps -- each with some great animation and detail while holding those specs.

I haven't found any information on Einhander's resolution, but it does appear to render at 60 fps. Ehrgeiz and Tobal appear to actually run at 512x480 (still impressive). If what I'm reading is correct, only 1 game ever ran at the full 640x480 at 60 fps, and that was Is- Internal Section.

OK, I feel better about this now.

[racketboy]

Chrono Cross - the detail and animation of the 3D models. Particle effects

Einhander, Ehrgeiz, and Tobal all do 640X480 resolution at 60fps -- each with some great animation and detail while holding those specs.

I haven't found any information on Einhander's resolution, but it does appear to render at 60 fps. Ehrgeiz and Tobal appear to actually run at 512x480 (still impressive). If what I'm reading is correct, only 1 game ever ran at the full 640x480 at 60 fps, and that was Is- Internal Section.

OK, I feel better about this now.

Thanks for those details -- I will dig into that more and make the proper modifications.

[marurun]

I just Google good. If you find someone who actually knows more firsthand, value their information more than mine.

[Jagosaurus]

I think Vanark deserves to be in the discussion. This one gets lost with StarFox 64 & Panzer Dragoon being in the same generation. Of course, hasn't aged beautifully but it has always impressed me.





What about some of the games that were downgraded DC ports? I always thought it was interesting to see them on PS1.

[Segata]

Games that push the hardware don't need to be exclusive. Resident Evil 2 is a game that pushed the N64 hardware to crazy degrees, but it wasn't that amazing on PS1. Sometimes a game pushes hardware on one console whilst being no problem to run on another.

Agreed. And something like Quake II was a complete rewrite instead of a port. It was an impressive effort to compensate for the PS1s limitations

Pretty much what I was saying the Saturn 2d ports.

[Jagosaurus]

Games that push the hardware don't need to be exclusive. Resident Evil 2 is a game that pushed the N64 hardware to crazy degrees, but it wasn't that amazing on PS1. Sometimes a game pushes hardware on one console whilst being no problem to run on another.

Agreed. And something like Quake II was a complete rewrite instead of a port. It was an impressive effort to compensate for the PS1s limitations

Pretty much what I was saying the Saturn 2d ports.

I would say Resident Evil is technically impressive on the Saturn, so yeah I'd say the opposite is true as well (2D on PS1). The Capcom 2D fighters on the PS1 at the least would be honorable mention in my book.

[Segata]

Crazy that RE looks better on Saturn but SOTN looks better on PS1.

Here is one of those Capcom fighters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2C-jpMQmFY
PS1 is missing details in the visuals. Less animations and heck some missing entirely like the selection screen. This game required the 4MB Ram cart on the saturn. Meaning it at least needed 4 and maybe used 5 total.

They somehow crammed this on PS1 with just under 1MB to work with. The load times on PS1 are pretty long. The other thing I find impressive is Marvel vs Capcom just was not meant for the 32 bit era. yet it got a PS1 port. The DC port was pretty flawless and easily th ebest version with sharper visuals and all the nice animations. I really don't know how they got it to fit on the PS1. DC version is nearly arcade perfect but the PS1 version while obvious it's missing a ton of detail and animation..it's impressive for the hardware.

[racketboy]

I've received some strong recommendations for the following to be included on the main list. I'm less familiar with them, so if you have any primary points to share on why they should be included, I would greatly appreciate it. Bullet points are fine, but the more the merrier:

Soul Reaver (I've played the Dreamcast version, but not the PS1)
Driver 2
Omega Boost
Colony Wars 3: Red Sun
Alien Resurrection
Fear Effect 2
Tekken 3
Dino Crisis 2
Vagrant Story
Capcom vs SNK (I know Street Fighter Alpha 3 was solid, but was this post just as good if not better?)