What does a dreamcast game look like?

exodus

◉◉maru what a fool I’ve been!

But yeah, resolution and texture memory feel like it to me. I wonder where your perception of roundness comes from @devilsblush, when the DC was often pushing fewer polygons than the PS2 - though I will admit there’s less of a sharp feeling on some stuff? Maybe they were using more polys on character models and relying on textures to keep the lower poly backgrounds looking nice.

JJSignal

Everything felt kinda chunkier and more stylized on the Dreamcast. I do definitely think of brighter, more vivid colors and a crisper image quality when thinking of Dreamcast visuals, but also, on top of that, visible joints on models.

I could be remembering wrong, but even on early PS2 games, visible joints weren’t really much of a thing, but I feel like I see more visibly segmented looking models on Dreamcast games over something like the PS2, Xbox or GameCube. Almost amature-ish (but not in a bad way), or more pillowy versions of the crunchier, harder edged ones you’d see on the previous generation.

vmu_beep

I think there’s something to be said about the Dreamcast occupying a sweet spot (power-wise) between fifth and six generation consoles. Developers were freed from a lot of the technical limitations of 32bit platforms but were still somewhat constrained by the platform.

“The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.” - Bold stylistic choices felt like the norm, thinking back on my favorite games there aren’t a lot that chased realism. (With the argument that Shenmue has it’s own special approach to “realism”)

jUAN

The original Deadly Premonition looks like a port of a Dreamcast game. It has the limited graphics, one of those weird fonts devs had access to, and the wild UIs. It also has that offbeat story and environments that were common in Sega consoles. This is all fantastic.

I’m a little worried for Deadly Premonition 2. I feel a bigger budget will ruin the charm.

Illbleed is a precious game.

exodus

I buy that argument! It’s like a more polished-looking D2 almost.

And don’t worry, DP2 has had its fair share of production issues, and I don’t think the budget is that big, so… maybe the grind will shine through again :P

gyozaleaf

This is a very boring answer, but the PS2 is so highly specific (texture shimmer, jaggies, etc) that anything that might be an old PS2 game but isn’t…is maybe a Dreamcast game?

I have to admit I don’t have a lot of nostalgia for a “Dreamcast look” that I could identify or would like to see in a modern production.

What I do have a lot of nostalgia for is the creative sensibilities of that era, though! A game that feels “Dreamcasty” in the way Deadly Premonition is described above, for example, is comfortable indeed.

exodus

Hmm, I could see that - but also I could see games of that era being like a high res pc game. and yet the colors and shapes of even a game like Zombie Revenge make me think Dreamcast over anything else. could it really just be colors? Mysteries!!

gyozaleaf

I need to think about this! Maybe play some Dreamcast games while I am at it!

The questions “how do you identify a Dreamcast game” and “what defines the look of a Dreamcast game” are quite different when you come down to it, and I think probably you are more interested in getting at the aesthetic mood (created, as it often is with video games, by technical constraints)!

exodus

Yeah, I’m more talking about the look - for example if I say nes or genesis graphics, you have a good idea what I mean. If I say Xbox 360 graphics I’m sure stuff comes to mind. But dreamcast exists in such a small space that, while I get the feeling from looking at certain stuff, defining it is difficult!

gyozaleaf

Yeah, I know what you mean. I think that’s exactly when games started to become somewhat indistinguishable, and it was sort of a happy accident that for the PS2 and to a lesser extent PS3, Sony kept making bizarre hardware that actually helped keep on defining a look!

exodus

Check out how dreamcast this game looks! ミステリ－や

captain

exodus This looks and also sounds hugely Dreamcast-y. Those chunky, high-energy piano chords are not a musical flavor you hear a lot of in games these days. (Or maybe it’s just a Sega thing… it does show up in Outrun 2.)

gyozaleaf

Yeah boy howdy does that look like a Dreamcast game.

Speaking of Dreamcast games I once owned, hoped I’d like but didn’t, and sure do look like Dreamcast games… Napple Tale:

docky

gyozaleaf Napple Tale was the first non-Sega game I thought of with a Dreamcast aesthetic.

gyozaleaf

I think on reflection part of what makes a Dreamcast game look like a Dreamcast game might be in the textures. Like, naive texture mapping techniques: we’re not really sure how this all works together yet.

exodus

Yeah, I mentioned at the top of the thread something like “textures/texture detail over polygons,” whereas Ps2 was the opposite. And it makes a lot of sense in terms of Sega as a company, whose console staff would have been very 2D focused after the Saturn, and with the contemporary arcade boards they had, which had lots of texture memory. Kind of tough to place one’s finger on that though, and the Ps2 did soooort of catch up through clever techniques??

gyozaleaf

I think the PS2 caught up in terms of innovative art direction that played to the system’s strengths while mitigating its weaknesses.

In fact, I think not only does it have amazing games but they suffer visually when ported to platforms that don’t share the issues the system has! But that’s another topic.

gyozaleaf

When I thought about this topic again, Time Stalkers/Climax Landers came to mind. It does look very Dreamcasty. I haven’t played it since shortly after it came out but I remember it fondly.

fortninety

Here’s another “this looks like the quintessential Dreamcast game” to add to the pile, especially when one compares it to the arcade original: Daytona USA 2001

meric_meektrick

This thread has made me realize that while i had always considered the dreamcast the start of the ps2/xbox/gamecube era, it is maybe better thought of as the swan song of the ps/saturn/n64 period.

◉◉maru

meric_meektrick This thread has made me realize that while i had always considered the dreamcast the start of the ps2/xbox/gamecube era, it is maybe better thought of as the swan song of the ps/saturn/n64 period.

I am not even sure whether I am bringing up a good argument, but I believe many more Dreamcast games where ported to the PS2/Xbox/GC generation than PS1/N64/SS games being ported to the Dreamcast.

Also, well, the SegaSaturn existed. Then again, I have always advocated that the Saturn itself makes more sense if you consider it the swan song of the MD/SFC/PCE/Neo Geo generation, so… You might have a point?

The truth is that Dreamcast conveniently sits in between both generations, and the late surge and long life of the PS1 certainly hurt the Dreamcast as much as the PS2 nailed the coffin, but I’d still nudge its hardware, library and even overall design philosophy towards the PS2 era.

meric_meektrick

(I hope this isn’t considered a knock, i quite missed my dreamcast when it was stolen) the textures are hi res but not that large so you still have a lot of repetition, there’s a gnarled tessallation throughout. Normal mapping isn’t a thing yet so while they’re sharp enough to look like photographs they just look cut out and pasted on, there’s a kind of 3 dimensional pastiche to everything. Figures mostly stick to solid colors so the lighting is all ombre gouraud gradience. Its everything of that era just sharper and clearer and more intense, which is where the “blue blue skies” stuff comes in, i think. there’s no fancy lighting on the maps themselves to diffuse and dampen everything, just primary colors.

sorry i’m not being very succinct here.

gyozaleaf

◉◉maru The truth is that Dreamcast conveniently sits in between both generations

Yeah, this is the point. I think “generational” thinking has its limitations. The fact of the matter is that while the industry DID think this way, individual decisions made when designing hardware were also made by companies facing a lot of pressures either technological or commercial, and things don’t slot neatly into place, most notably at that era:

What generation are the Atari Jaguar and the 3DO?
The CD-ROM was the defining medium of the generation, but then look at the N64…
The Dreamcast shipped in late ’98 in JP and the PS2 shipped in early ’00. That’s quite a time lag.
The Saturn had a second Hitachi processor added late in development because word came down that the PS1 would excel at 3D.

Etc, etc…