Technically Impressive PSX Games

While the original PlayStation debuted more than a quarter of a century ago, its arrival alongside its contemporaries in the fifth generation ushered in a revolution in gaming. From cinematic FMVs to highly-detailed environments with a dynamic camera, the PSX took gamers into a new dimension (the third) thanks to an explosion of innovation in design and programming.

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The following games weren’t just impressive because of their leap to 3D. Using optimization, crafty art techniques, or hacking memory allowances, they rewrote the game design rulebook (sometimes the computing rules of the console itself) to produce technological miracles.

Spyro The Dragon (1998)

Space-Age Flight Controls And Setting The Standard For Draw Distance

Systems

Released

September 9, 1998

ESRB

e

• Pioneered LOD (level of detail) scaling, meaning that far away objects would still be rendered at lower resolution, doing away with the need for fog
• Uses NASA flight system technology to provide a smooth and satisfying control system for flight on a rigid D-Pad (before analogue sticks were available)

In an era when fog effects or the clever use of walls were used to hide pop-in and pop-out with the limited draw distance the PlayStation could provide, the team behind Spyro the Dragon at Insomniac proved that the sky is the limit by developing now-ubiquitous level-of-detail scaling, which converts distant objects to a lower-resolution render, freeing up processing power in a large map.

This may have been developed in part due to the team’s aspirations to allow Spyro to fly freely through certain levels. Spyro was released before the widespread distribution of the analogue stick, and to compensate, a rocket scientist from NASA, Matt Whiting, was hired to provide players with space-age flight controls that would feel as smooth as flying on a real pair of dragon wings.

Gran Turismo 2 (1999)

A Photorealistic (For The Time) Racer

Systems

Released

December 11, 1999

ESRB

e

• Innovative lighting that gives each car a metallic, reflective sheen that shimmers while moving
• Able to cue up an instant replay with zero processing delay

Although Gran Turismo 2 was infamously riddled with bugs on release, its wins in the graphical realm and immersive instant replays department ushered in a bright future for the Gran Turismo series and helped put the PlayStation in front in terms of production value.

The metallic sheen that seemingly reflected the track and surroundings made its cars look photorealistic to gamers of the time, a feature that could be admired from the impressive instant replay feature that blurred the lines between playing a game and watching an actual race on TV.

Crash Bandicoot (1996)

Rewriting The Rulebook Before It Even Hit The Printing Press

Systems

Released

September 9, 1996

ESRB

e

• Overclocked the console by hacking the in-built system memory and real-time “data chunk” swapping
• Raised the bar for 3D animation quality with in-game stretch frames, efficient animation data storage, and textureless shading
• Wrote advanced theory for 3D platforming before the genre had even been established

Even though they had no model to work from in 3D platformers (or 3D space in general), Naughty Dog had high ambitions for their first foray into this new dimension with Crash Bandicoot. They wanted to go beyond stiff animations and cumbersome loading times.

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However, to get the processing power they would need, Naughty Dog’s lead programmer Andy Gavin would need to squeeze every drop of memory out of the console. By injecting data chunks like information packets and eschewing textures in favor of memory-light shading, they were able to give Crash obscenely detailed levels and animations, cartoon-like stretch frames and bone weighting that contributed to the bandicoot’s astronomical popularity in the 90s and 2000s.

A Masterwork That Uses Every Shred Of The PSX’s Architecture

Systems

Released

October 20, 1998

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Suggestive Themes, Violence

• Used innovative blurring and camera effects to produce cinematic, seamless look between cutscenes and gameplay
• Uses optimized code assembly to display models and textures at an unusually high level of detail and polish
• Overcame the PSX’s pixel integer glitch that causes many textures in games to wobble, creating solid, stable surfaces

It is hardly difficult to appreciate Metal Gear Solid as a technically impressive achievement given its graphical fidelity and mechanical depth. From small details, such as the lack of wobbling in the environment (caused by a console-wide pixel rendering issue) to the obvious high level of detail on each model and environment, MGS blows its contemporaries out of the water.

The cinematography the series is famous for was made possible by a suite of technological breakthroughs, from blurring to smooth animation rendering and audio compression. Some of the most memorable fourth-wall breaking moments, such as the fight against Psycho Mantis, were made possible thanks to a thorough understanding of the PSX’s architecture.

Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver (1999)

Not One Seamless, Loading-Screen Free Worlds, But Two!

Action-Adventure

Platformer

Fighting

Puzzle

Adventure

Released

August 16, 1999

ESRB

m

• Eliminates loading times via innovative culling and data streaming
• Dynamic, instant transitions between two levels (the spectral and physical realm) with the press of a button
• Astounding lighting, fluid animation, and dynamic audio transition effects

Although the PS5 boasts the near-elimination of loading times as its main selling point, Crystal Dynamics managed to produce a game with zero loading time from the moment the player starts or loads their save in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. With the clever use of twisting levels and culling, Raziel is able to traverse the entire map without a single cut away (including during portal fast travel).

Not only is the game rendering a continuous level, but it renders two at all times. Raziel is able to shift between the material, physical world and the eerie world of wrathes and ghosts any time, any place. When he does, the then-groundbreaking audio manager seamlessly transitions between an alternate music track to match the atmosphere.

Quake 2 (1997)

Giving Cutting-Edge Computer Hardware A Run For Its Money

Released

December 9, 1997

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Violence, Language

• Built from the ground up (rather than ported with lesser quality) with technology that could overcome the PSX’s limitations
• Uses sophisticated algorithms and data chunk loading to compress large levels and provide high FPS

When Quake 2 released on PC, it was a game-changer for first-person shooters. As the PlayStation did not come with the bleeding-edge rendering capacity of contemporary gaming PCs, the porting team was given a choice: cut and make compromises or build the now-legendary 90s sci-fi shooter from scratch.

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Heroically, they chose the latter option. They developed a brand new, PSX-oriented engine that used algorithms and dynamic level loading to milk every last drop out of the console’s processing power. As a result, the port ran just as smoothly and beautifully with no cut to frames-per-second, and is still known as being one of the greatest ports ever produced.

Terracon (2000)

More Like A Game From The PlayStation 2 Than The PSX

Terracon

Systems

• Huge open areas reminiscent of the sixth console generation (PS2) with impressive detail, all with smooth FPS and minimal fogging
• Demonstrates features that were well-ahead of their time for the PSX, including highly-detailed facial animations, a day-night cycle, and impressive particle effects

As Terracon was never released outside of Europe, it is not well known in retro gaming circles as other innovative titles. However, this PS1 game may as well have been released as a launch game for the PS2 given its insane draw distance and ability to render detailed objects in these massive, fully-explorable environments.

Players traverse over 30 massive levels in search of launch codes to take down the Terracon, rogue machines intent on destruction. Terracon was ahead of its time in big and small features, from its day-night cycle to its impressive, fully 3D and fully expressive facial animations.

Vagrant Story (2000)

The Envy Of Even The Greatest Developers

Systems

Released

May 15, 2000

ESRB

T For Teen due to Animated Violence

• Pioneered camera and lighting effects, including depth-of-field techniques and secondary models with hand-placed, brighter pixel work
• Simulates environmental lighting through painstakingly lightened and darkened pixels similar to 2D pixel art
• Uses super-compressed audio by eschewing memory-heavy sampling for memory-light waveform manipulation

The artists behind Vagrant Story were veterans of 2D and isometric art, but new to creating 3D characters and environments. While this would have been a handicap for any other team, they instead used what they knew about simulating lighting and creating fine detail with pixels on a flat plane to bring the world of Ivalice to life.

Not only are environments “lit” with the clever use of color shading, to the point where the engine can portray diffused light without a dedicated lighting system, but character models are also “lit” in scenes thanks to model swapping. Facial expressions, lip movement, and realistic eye tracking are all portrayed on models with half the polygon count given to characters in other Square eyecandy games, such as Final Fantasy 8.

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