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We have certain expectations when it comes to retro games. By now, we've pretty much seen each system's entire library as the games trickled out on Virtual Console, PSN, and XBLA. Even so, there are a few people that just don't want these systems to die, and are constantly finding new hardware tricks and pushing their limits, just for fun, and there are also a few amazing official games you might have missed. Here is a showcase of some of the most impressive games and tech demos I've found.
The SuperGrafx is basically a PC Engine / Turbo Grafx 16 with extra RAM. The system had trouble doing convincing parallax scrolling and often used animated tiles or sprites in the foreground over a slower moving background layer. At 10:10 in this video, a tech demo does two layers of scrolling and applies a warping effect to the background, with a huge boss character on top, reproducing one of the sections of SNES shmup Axelay.
StarFox on the SNES requires a SuperFX DSP to manipulate all of the polygons you see onscreen at 15 frames per second. Part of the first level has been reproduced on the Genesis using only the main CPU, very impressive!
First person shooters on 16-bit systems were very rare. Wolfenstein 3D was released on the SNES, but could the Genesis handle it? Yup!
The SNES is famous for its Mode 7 graphics capabilites, used to scale and rotate a background plane. Here's a Mario Kart demonstration on the Genesis using the same effect!
More mode 7 on the Genesis? Here's a more complete looking demo, showing the first track of F-Zero.
The NES was a classic, but have you ever seen it do 3D? Here's a classic vector graphics-based game Elite, the complete game has been ported to the 8-bit system!
Zippy the Porcupine? Wait... That seems a little familiar... Anyway, here's a platformer featuring a blue... porcupine... on the Atari 2600, a system that typically featured single-screen games with no scrolling at all.
We know Mario Bros was on the Atari 2600, but what about some good old goomba stomping platforming action? Here's a very impressive side-scrolling Super Mario Bros clone, with very nice spritework!
The Super NES was all set to receive a port of Comanche when it was cancelled late in development, but one coder shows us the same voxel graphics that would have made the game possible on the SNES, using the SuperFX chip.
Sega's 32X was criminally underwhelming, seeing only a handful of worthy releases in its time. Sega shows us with its own tech demo what would have been possible on the system.
Shenmue was a great Dreamcast game, but Yu Suzuki originally intended for the open world game to come to the Sega Saturn. When the system's life was cut short, development moved to the Dreamcast. How far along was the Saturn version? You can see that right here in a video of the first act, showing the Saturn was truly capable of such a complex and cinematic game.
Gunstar Heroes was a gameplay and graphical showpiece on the Genesis, but those lucky GameGear owners in Japan received a very complete port. The game has been recreated as close as can be on Sega's portable, with many jawdropping effects intact, such as multi-segmented bosses and backgrounds with line scrolling effects.
This title showcases what high production values and the larger cartridge space of later games can do for an NES title. Parallax scrolling and fluid sprite animation almost makes this look like a 16-bit title.
The NES has a classic sound, many pop songs have been remixed with NES style instruments, and many actual songs have incorporated its unique aural qualities. Lagrange Point included a special chip, the VRC7, which allowed it to produce FM Synthesis music far beyond the original system's capabilities.
Bringing us to a more modern era, High Voltage was so excited about their 3D engine's capabilities on the Wii that they demonstrated what the system could be capable of, making gamers excited for the eventual release of The Conduit, one of the more technically impressive titles on the platform.
I hope you enjoyed a look at what some intrepid coders are doing to push the limits of the systems we love to give us the best experience possible. Let us know what games you thought were impressive, and how they impacted you!
