what do you like best about the NES do you think people were impressed by graphics?

[Yugi012 14]

I know, some may laugh. But yes, graphically the NES was actually graphically interesting, before that there were good games such as King's Quest 1 which made graphic movement interesting. But overall much of old DOS PC games had text commands "South, left, up, down" etc. Proof of that is from this commercial from the 80s "Wow nice graphics"

If i have to say. The primitive sprites is what i kind of think is nice. The typical castle graphics of rocks and colours.is sort of cool.

Though i like SEGA Master System better though. But the NES is sort of ok.

[CypherHoof 26,482]

Never had the NES; This was the era of the 8 bit computer, and by the time the NES was released, it was the commodore (vic20 or C64) fans vs the sinclair fans; acorn fans were mostly feeling smugly superior while being ignored by everyone else (so, it was the apple iThingy of the era, basically) - Consoles were basically an Atari thing, and were low quality "home" versions of arcade games that mostly had better versions for their tape-driven home computer systems.

NES came on the tail end of the 8 bit era, with a "me too" console that wasn't really much better than Atari offered (and shortly after, so did Sega with their master system)

During the 16 bit era though, consoles came more into fashion - they were significantly cheaper than the flagship home computers of the time (mostly the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga, really) but with similar power and games, plus the games loaded near-instantly from cartridges rather than the 3.5" floppy disks the non-console systems used.  SNES and Sega Megadrive were the only two real contenders at this point - and we started to see the games driving console sales (mario and Sonic being the two big examples there) rather than the other way about. Of course, kids at this point were still more likely to have a "real" computer, because it would "help them at school" (despite not owning anything that wasn't a game that would load on the thing)

[Yugi012 14]

PC gaming was popular in Europe. Commodore 64 and Amiga was very popular, even SEGA Master System outsold the NES in Europe. The reason NES did so well in USA was because of the North American console crash in 1983-1985, it didnt save gaming or anything, it just made US citizens gain interest in console gaming again, if anything Nintendo should be credited for taking advantage of the situation to their benefit. Like i dont think they would die by playing King's Quest 1 being released in 1983 or Tetris in 1984. Not that i am saying that NES is bad (except the music.. not a huge fan of it).

But the overall gaming would likely be on PC. Even other classics that i did play on PC which is great is Prince of Persia 1989 that i played on DOS. Which is amazing.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Yugi012

[Snow Frostflame 3,568]

I had never played the NES till 2007, and by then I was already spoiled with the Xbox classic, PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox 360. Though I did enjoy playing the NES more than my other consoles when I got to play one. I own an NES and I even have a Firestick with every NES game on it but I don't play that as often, they just don't amuse me as much as they use to. As for graphics, I'm a sucker for the simple 8-bit graphical art style (even more for 16-bit) which is why I love it when modern developers use 8-bit, or 16-bit art styles in their games. As for the music, I sometimes play OST from NES games through my headphones when I'm working on projects, or just hanging out on the Internet.

[Yugi012 14]

1 minute ago, Snowflake Frostflame said:

I had never played the NES till 2007, and by then I was already spoiled with the Xbox classic, PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox 360. Though I did enjoy playing the NES more than my other consoles when I got to play one. I own an NES and I even have a Firestick with every NES game on it but I don't play that as often, they just don't amuse me as much as they use to. As for graphics, I'm a sucker for the simple 8-bit graphical art style (even more for 16-bit) which is why I love it when modern developers use 8-bit, or 16-bit art styles in their games. As for the music, I sometimes play OST from NES games through my headphones when I'm working on projects, or just hanging out on the Internet.

I personally become deaf if i listen too much to NES 8 bit music. I usually dont have that problem with games on DOS or SEGA Master System. But each to their own taste.

[CypherHoof 26,482]

I think a lot of systems had games that really showcased their power - the BBC Micro had Elite; The DOS PC had Doom... but I can't think of anything the NES ever had that was really impressive.

[Yugi012 14]

10 minutes ago, CypherHoof said:

I think a lot of systems had games that really showcased their power - the BBC Micro had Elite; The DOS PC had Doom... but I can't think of anything the NES ever had that was really impressive.

Well it introduced much games in 1985/1986 that was interesting for its time, like Zelda 1 and Super Mario sidescroller. Though i have played Zelda 1 three times... and i didnt really like it. But its considered a classic atleast for a NES game. Though I sort of prefer other NES games over these.. maybe its just me though, with the exception of Mario, but i am just tired of it. Its just so overused online. Otherwise its actually not too bad.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Yugi012

[K.Rool Addict 718]

The NES was definitely impressive at the time. While earlier games like Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, Pinball (lol), and so on, had much lower quality sprites than we'd come to expect from games on later consoles, some of the games later on in the life span of the NES truly took advantage of the hardware. Super Mario Bros. 3 had some really impressive spritework, almost on par with the SNES launch game Super Mario World. Then we had the illustrious Kirby's Adventure that took out all the freaking stops. That game was my life as a 3-6 yr old xD And I have yet to play even one other Kirby game since then with such an incredible focus on deep, engaging, exploratory gameplay. It is a shame that most Nintendo IPs have been severely dumbed down since the "good old days", although, with the advent of Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, and Super Mario Odyssey, it looks like Nintendo may just be willing to bring back that awesome development philosophy of their earlier games.

But yes, the NES was quite impressive at the time from a technological standpoint. Previous home console offerings like the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and Colecovision were practically worlds apart. Those consoles could hardly handle rendering more than one screen on individual games let alone tackle the awesome spritework of the NES. Sure there existed some games that did in fact have scrolling environments or multiple screens, but they tended to look even more primitive than the static screen games. 

^Oh man... how far we have come xD 

[Floofie 799]

The NES was released in 1985. Up until that point, arcade games were big, and some notable arcade games that released in the years leading up to the NES include:

Tapper (1983)

Spy Hunter (1983)

Paperboy (1984)

 

Let's compare those games to some NES launch titles:

Duck Hunt (1985)

Ice Climber (1985)

Super Mario Bros (1985)

 

If we compare both sets, I think that the graphics of arcade machines were slightly more impressive. And while the NES's audio capabilities were certainly very good, early NES games didn't exactly have amazing soundtracks.

Of course, comparing NES launch titles to arcade games that came out during the later period of the arcade Golden Age isn't exactly fair. As time went on, NES games became more and more impressive looking and sounding, with spritework that surpasses arcades and rivals early SNES titles:

Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990)

Crystalis (1990)

Gimmick! (1992)

 

...and music that's so good we're still listening to it (and making it!) today. At the time, it was absolutely an impressive piece of technology.

As for what I personally like about the NES, that would be the stuff I listed above. I adore the pixel look, and chiptune is one of my favorite music genres.

[silvadel 1,393]

Actually the graphics was one of the weakest aspects of the NES.  Going from the Atari 5200 to the NES, I was not impressed.  I think it was mainly Mario that got people involved.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,311]

The NES is a system that I will forever respect, regardless of any of my feelings about Nintendo as a company. It is what shot gaming back into the mainstream and made companies want to compete. The graphics were actually not on the top, the Atari 5200 was actually better in that regard, but the NES had a library of games that couldn't be beat at the time. Plus, I feel the NES later on wasn't a slouch in terms of graphics. Kirby's Adventure, while being released incredibly late, looked superb despite its graphical glitches. 

[SugarCoatxMarblePie 701]

Well imagine playing this for 10 years

Then this comes out

I think a fair amount of these are improved graphics as well over the originals but still, the diversity speaks for itself. As well as the colors.

And those games were early into the nes cycle, battletoads was a little later if I am not mistaken.

Edited June 17, 2017 by CuriUndersXeno