Anyone else think F-Zero holds up well? It works great as a pick up and play kind of game. Also those cloth physics on the GameCube. It's like PhysX before PhysX.
@@huttyblue It was actually ArtX, an off-shoot of SGI, that designed the GPU in the GameCube. ArtX was acquired by ATI just a few months before the GameCube launched, not enough to make an impact on the design itself, while ATI was acquired by AMD in 2006.
Going from Super Mario World to Super Mario 64 was a true leap like we probably won't see ever again, unless the next Mario will be some full open world VR game or some such.
Wii = 2x Gamecube basically W. Broadway and Hollywood CPU and GPU. More RAM and Starlet co-processor. It isn't all that different than the Gamecube hence the full backwards compatibility, same with Wii U, though the AMD graphics chip is superb, the CPU and RAM bottlenecked the otherwise **somewhat** competent for the generation components. Them being so similar may be why they didn't include technical details.
I would almost say I would like to see a DF Retro on the Metroid Prime Trilogy, but that would almost be boring because the games are extremely well optimized with some incredible visuals and running flawlessly at 60fps.
I think the Super Famicom and N64 had by far the best launch titles. I don't think Nintendo have come close to matching that kind of launch since. I'm hoping the lack of another 3D Mario title on the Wii U is a sign we might be getting one as an NX launch title. Hopefully it's Galaxy 3 and not 3D World 2... I would definitely like to see a DF Retro video on Nintendo's handheld launches!
Ugh... advert mid video completely broke my stream, awww well the first half was good. Will watch out for this in future, would rather a video to begin with or at the end, a 2 minute break which literally breaks the end of the video from playing is just a pain in the ass.
I think it's awesome that you use real hardware to capture your footage, but why did you use composite for your SNES footage? The color bleeding! The console supports RGB out of the box, you just need the right cable (and a converter if you don't have a way to display RGB SCART).
I did not buy gamecube on day one due to the lack of a Mario game, but when I did get it. Rouge one was the only game I brought home. And the title I did still play on it rather often even today. Tho the sequel was less impressive tbh.
I've owned every single Nintendo console ever released up to and including the Wii (I lost interest in around 2006 when I picked up PC gaming) I can't say the same for Sega, Sony or Microsoft. Every single Nintendo console and game has their heart and soul poured into it and you can feel that as an end user. Sony and Microsoft can keep their hardware wars; I have a PC for power. Nintendo's games and consoles are timeless and are made by people who truly love their work.
I'd love to see a handheld version. Let's see.... for GameBoy I'd say the game was Tetris. Super Mario Land is a god candidate too, as it was essentially SMB1 on a handheld. For the Advance.... I guess it must have been Super Mario Advance, which was based on the All Stars SMB 2 with extra stuff. DS had Super Mario 64 DS... and I don't remember what the heck 3DS had.
I truly enjoyed this video but I disagree with the assertion that Star Wars was the most impressive launch of all times. Halo was by far more impressive than Rogue Squadron. I'm not trying to take anything away from Factor 5 as they were true legends in the gaming field; However, Halo was just so...truly awe inspiring when it hit the market. At the time I was so absorbed by the PlayStation 2 that I truly didn't want to buy an Xbox. That us until I saw a demo of it playing when I picked up GTA3. It absolutely floored me and I bought it day and date of launch.
Yes but these videos are not just for Americans their for viewers worldwide for example in from the U.K and we go by European release even though we’re technically not part of Europe due to having a powerful military.
I would honestly support John & DF Retro over on Patreon if it meant more could go into it. I've never seen a channel on youtube do such a deep analysis on games and their technology from the past. I can't get enough. I look forward to new episodes every weekend. Really looking forward to john having a look at Shenmue 2 and HL2. I Rarely comment but i thought about sending over an email of my thanks, Its that good.
There is no comparison. Ahoy's videos are light years ahead of not just anything Digital Foundry has ever done, but light years head of just about anything done period. Technical analysis is a very very tiny part of a game's judgement. As you saw, Waverace ran at 20 FPS which is deemed unplayable to most, but it certainly didn't feel like it was 20 frames and there is still NO game today that can touch Waverace, not even the sequel on Gamecube. Ahoy's analysis goes way beyond simple tech analysis that it almost makes tech analysis completely irrelevant. Not to say that DF did a bad job here, and they won't do a bad job on Half Life 2. They just won't even come close to Ahoy. To be completely fair Ahoy's videos take days to even months to write, prepare, capture, and edit. DF's videos take a couple of hours to no more than a day to make.
The N64 used the 4MB of RAM as VRAM whenever needed, so the RAM was shared between the CPU and GPU (as well as the audio, data bus controller, DSP and I/O chips). The GPU however had only 4KB of memory for the framebuffer cache used for textures, so only 4KB of textures could be used to draw what appears on screen at any given moment. Contrast that with 128KB of texture cache on the PS1 and you get why it was such a problem (hence why everything on the N64 looked cartoony with textures looking like almost featureless smears).
aww I was hoping for a analysis of Metroid Prime, it was one of the best looking games on GameCube. I know it wasn't exactly a launch title so maybe they'll do it for the retro bit they do
Awesome episode John as always. Some suggestion: Primal Rage, the dinosaur fighting arcade game, came out for 12 different systems, all of them with VERY different and dispair results, wich can be taken as a different game each, and as today, there is not a single one that it´s a close or perfect rendition of it. Being port or being emulation. The closest is the one included on Midway Arcade Treasures for PC and Xbox (On ps2 and GC suffers from issues too). There you go for a challenge!
iMiguelAOG that's a good point...'when' you had friends. Still, when we did....good memories. The metroid game with five friends was my favorite probably
Man, the days where Nintendo was pushing the edge of hardware as a business philosophy... Ah well. Tell me there's a chance for a DF Retro on the miracle that is the N64 version of Resident Evil 2.
Rogue Leader does make me wonder why more Gamecube games didn't take advantage of the Gamecube's built-in pixel shaders for bump/normal mapping. Most GC games could have been even further ahead of the curve.
***** By your own considerations for what can be called retro, then about 1/3 ro 1/2 of this video should not have been included. So... why are you not commenting on that? (not an actually question)
John Linneman Cool man. I personally think, that Playstation, is a bit better, when it comes to launch titles & how they were able to push game titles to the max, with the technology they had.
I think you're under-selling what was on offer. PS1? Yeah, not great, but Rayman is a phenomenal game that still holds up today and RIdge Racer was a far more impressive racing example than Daytona on Saturn. Stuff like Toshinden actually sucks now but, at the time? It showcased the system well. PS2, though, actually had some good titles beyond SSX. Ridge Racer V is one of the best arcade racing games of all time (at least I think so), Tekken Tag offered the most beautiful and feature packed Tekken yet, Dynasty Warriors 2 started the Musou line, Armored Core 2 was a great follow-up to the PS1 games, and TimeSplitters was a great multiplayer game with 4-player support at 60fps. It was no Dreamcast, but it still had a decent launch. PS3 wasn't great, though, and PS4 wouldn't be included anyways.
***** are you kidding me? Th PS2 launched with Armored Core 2, Midnight Club, Moto GP, FUCKING TIMESPLITTERS, Tekken Tag Tournament, Unreal Tournament, Orphen: Sicon of Sorcery, Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore, and Eternal Ring. Not only that, but the following year, the PS2, had Jak & Daxter & Final Fantasy X. What the hell were you smoking?
Well, to be fair, Factor 5 used EVERY SINGLE OBSCURE feature of the GameCube hardware. The Dolphin team has had HUNDREDS of headaches because there are HUNDREDS of features that only Factor 5 used, and no other dev ever used
![Tee Grizzley - Blow for Blow (feat. J. Cole) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wNLN5xsx5dc/mqdefault.jpg)
“With all the NX news this week..”
WOW that brings back memories.
"and with all the NX news this week..." Holy crap what did I just click
ah the old good times
Damn never imagined to hear that name again
trueeeeeeeee
Anyone else think F-Zero holds up well? It works great as a pick up and play kind of game.
Also those cloth physics on the GameCube. It's like PhysX before PhysX.
@jonny j ati is amd, amd aquired ati in 2006. Not that it's relevant for a cpu based physics effect.
@@huttyblue It was actually ArtX, an off-shoot of SGI, that designed the GPU in the GameCube. ArtX was acquired by ATI just a few months before the GameCube launched, not enough to make an impact on the design itself, while ATI was acquired by AMD in 2006.
Keep it up john, love the retro series. Can't wait for the hl² episode
NX and DF upload at the same time... What a treat.
Nostalgic video. Reminded me of why I used to love Nintendo & why I don't anymore
Going from Super Mario World to Super Mario 64 was a true leap like we probably won't see ever again, unless the next Mario will be some full open world VR game or some such.
I love DF Retro! I think it´s the best content on youtube!
Thank you John!
wow I forgot all about the water physics in waverace64, really impressive for the hardware its running on
macbook broke my immersion.
?
Well Nintendo did work on the MacBook back then Kappa
great b8 m8
I thought that was a RDR2 immersion memes people mention unitl i realized this was 2 years ago xD
I can confirm, Rogue Leader was absolutely stunning at the time. It’s still very impressive to this day.
No technical info on Wii and Wii U?... A bit lacking on insight compared to the previous ones :(
Wii = 2x Gamecube basically W. Broadway and Hollywood CPU and GPU. More RAM and Starlet co-processor. It isn't all that different than the Gamecube hence the full backwards compatibility, same with Wii U, though the AMD graphics chip is superb, the CPU and RAM bottlenecked the otherwise **somewhat** competent for the generation components. Them being so similar may be why they didn't include technical details.
Rogue Squadron 2 still today, looks fantastic! What a game!
Good lord, no slopes in mario maker.
One of the reason why RomHacking is your hardcore veteran mario maker
I love that Star Fox music when discussing Rogue Leader. Don't wanna incur the wrath of Disney's lawyers, I guess.
I've never played Rogue Leader before, but it looks truly amazing. Thanks for another great video!
Can't wait for the next episode! And definitely do a handheld analysis. Maybe even non-Nintendo handhelds some time if you can get your hands on them.
Great stuff! Amazing to hear about the under the hood mechanics, of revolutionary technology!
Thanks DF!
Really enjoyed this. Had forgotten how spectacular Rogue Squadron looked on what was perhaps my favorite game console of all time.
Awesome video! I think it would've also been interesting to see you analyse Mario Sunshine and Galaxy, but, they weren't launch titles!
i drop a like in every episode of DS retro, keep up the good work :D
Til this day I still have no idea how they pulled off Rogue Squadron 2. That game had no business existing in 2001.
Retro DF is like the best idea ever.
i cant believe I've own all of this consoles! almost cry remembering all of those games.....
The Super Nintendo is still my favorite game console.
Super Metroid , Chrono Trigger , Zelda so many great games.
really great video John! keep it up
Mario Sunshine is a masterpiece and deserved its dues even not as a launch title
so does Mario Galaxy, one of the best things to ever greet our world
I would almost say I would like to see a DF Retro on the Metroid Prime Trilogy, but that would almost be boring because the games are extremely well optimized with some incredible visuals and running flawlessly at 60fps.
Looking forward to the HL2 episode of DF retro.
Great work John.
I think the Super Famicom and N64 had by far the best launch titles. I don't think Nintendo have come close to matching that kind of launch since. I'm hoping the lack of another 3D Mario title on the Wii U is a sign we might be getting one as an NX launch title. Hopefully it's Galaxy 3 and not 3D World 2...
I would definitely like to see a DF Retro video on Nintendo's handheld launches!
This was amazing, I am loving DF Retro, even more so the sneak peak for next time. Half-life! I can't wait.
It would be great if you guys covered all the Zelda games in a DF Retro episode!
I'm curious to see an analysis on Ocarina of Time.
YES, do a Nintendo Handhelds episode!
Wave Race better than Pilot Wings?? Man you crazy!
I looove this series!!!
I think I played Pilotwings 64 nearly as much as Mario 64. Awesome game.
Ugh... advert mid video completely broke my stream, awww well the first half was good. Will watch out for this in future, would rather a video to begin with or at the end, a 2 minute break which literally breaks the end of the video from playing is just a pain in the ass.
Amazing episode as always but dat ending tease
amaZing video I'll be honest I usually skip on videos this long .... but not that one 👌🏼
I think it's awesome that you use real hardware to capture your footage, but why did you use composite for your SNES footage? The color bleeding! The console supports RGB out of the box, you just need the right cable (and a converter if you don't have a way to display RGB SCART).
Wave race 64 was my jam
Liked and subscribed. Thanks, great video
I'm pretty sure, Wind Waker was one of the best looking games on the GameCube.
Sadly no, but it should of had a mention at least in terms of graphics for the Gamecube.
I remember there being a mirror in Luigi's Mansion that was just a sprite of Luigi's 3d model...
Still blows my mind the Super Mario Maker 1 didn’t have slopes. Wtf was Nintendo doing?
“And with that, we’re out of time.”
Says the guy filming himself, not on television...
We need something like this for Playstation.
this was awesome!!
I did not buy gamecube on day one due to the lack of a Mario game, but when I did get it. Rouge one was the only game I brought home. And the title I did still play on it rather often even today. Tho the sequel was less impressive tbh.
The bets game for Gamecube was Nfs Underground 2 and for N64 Super Mario 64 that was childhood
Please do the handheld one! Only fitting since NX is a hybrid
Great video!
Probably their best console was Snes, even if it had issues with sound quality.
Where was the NES and SNES frame rate analysis? I thought this was Digital Foundry!
I've owned every single Nintendo console ever released up to and including the Wii (I lost interest in around 2006 when I picked up PC gaming)
I can't say the same for Sega, Sony or Microsoft.
Every single Nintendo console and game has their heart and soul poured into it and you can feel that as an end user. Sony and Microsoft can keep their hardware wars; I have a PC for power. Nintendo's games and consoles are timeless and are made by people who truly love their work.
Awesome video.
Game cube was such a good console
I got chills.
I'd love to see a handheld version. Let's see.... for GameBoy I'd say the game was Tetris. Super Mario Land is a god candidate too, as it was essentially SMB1 on a handheld.
For the Advance.... I guess it must have been Super Mario Advance, which was based on the All Stars SMB 2 with extra stuff.
DS had Super Mario 64 DS... and I don't remember what the heck 3DS had.
please do one on handheld gaming from Nintendo and others
Snes is my favorite console of all time, Ps2 is my second favorite and honestly it's the last great console in my opinion.
Totally agree with everything you just said!!!
oh my god you're the avgn's hidden son.
How are you guys getting funded anyway? Ads revenue? You should start a Patreon, you're doing great work!
GC: If Only they hadn't 'crippled' it (from 3rd-party perspective) by doing minidiscs.
Damnnnnnnn no love for Luigi's Mansion on the gamecube in the intro
The Game Cube has been the best console made by Nintendo
Can someone tell me the name of the song which starts at 0:17?
Nintendo's that company that while people ridicule for it's odd choices in hardware and games, never talks ill of the risks they're willing to take.
I still can't believe killzone: shadow fall as a launch title. Still one of the best looking PS4 games to date.
I truly enjoyed this video but I disagree with the assertion that Star Wars was the most impressive launch of all times. Halo was by far more impressive than Rogue Squadron. I'm not trying to take anything away from Factor 5 as they were true legends in the gaming field; However, Halo was just so...truly awe inspiring when it hit the market. At the time I was so absorbed by the PlayStation 2 that I truly didn't want to buy an Xbox. That us until I saw a demo of it playing when I picked up GTA3. It absolutely floored me and I bought it day and date of launch.
so much good stuff, until the Wii portion begins :(
Love how Americans class game consoles launch date as when it came out in the U.S totally ignoring it's Japanese launch.
Yes but these videos are not just for Americans their for viewers worldwide for example in from the U.K and we go by European release even though we’re technically not part of Europe due to having a powerful military.
awesome!
Really no Pilotwings?
I love those retro videos :D
great video.
Do Resident Evil 4 GCN vs PS2, with HD versions as a bonus please!
DF Retro is currently the best thing in this channel. Keep continuing this!
I would honestly support John & DF Retro over on Patreon if it meant more could go into it. I've never seen a channel on youtube do such a deep analysis on games and their technology from the past. I can't get enough. I look forward to new episodes every weekend. Really looking forward to john having a look at Shenmue 2 and HL2. I Rarely comment but i thought about sending over an email of my thanks, Its that good.
cough Ahoy cough
TrueKinth True but there wasn't that much technical analysis in here to be honest.
DF is the best channel
There is no comparison. Ahoy's videos are light years ahead of not just anything Digital Foundry has ever done, but light years head of just about anything done period. Technical analysis is a very very tiny part of a game's judgement. As you saw, Waverace ran at 20 FPS which is deemed unplayable to most, but it certainly didn't feel like it was 20 frames and there is still NO game today that can touch Waverace, not even the sequel on Gamecube. Ahoy's analysis goes way beyond simple tech analysis that it almost makes tech analysis completely irrelevant. Not to say that DF did a bad job here, and they won't do a bad job on Half Life 2. They just won't even come close to Ahoy. To be completely fair Ahoy's videos take days to even months to write, prepare, capture, and edit. DF's videos take a couple of hours to no more than a day to make.
Holy shit! that star wars game looked better than that recent Godzilla game! :O
Damn! Nintendo 64 had 4k... bytes of vram!
The N64 used the 4MB of RAM as VRAM whenever needed, so the RAM was shared between the CPU and GPU (as well as the audio, data bus controller, DSP and I/O chips).
The GPU however had only 4KB of memory for the framebuffer cache used for textures, so only 4KB of textures could be used to draw what appears on screen at any given moment. Contrast that with 128KB of texture cache on the PS1 and you get why it was such a problem (hence why everything on the N64 looked cartoony with textures looking like almost featureless smears).
Coming home from school, having an ice pop and playing some N64 was just the best dude.
aww I was hoping for a analysis of Metroid Prime, it was one of the best looking games on GameCube. I know it wasn't exactly a launch title so maybe they'll do it for the retro bit they do
Same here!
it wasn't a launch title though
I was thinking for the retro bit segment they could do it
tbh it was the best nintendo game ever. But yeah, it wasn't a launch title.
Dat soundtrack though.
Fuddy Duddy yeah it's music is killer and it's one of favorite games of all time
gamecube and dreamcast are my favorite consoles of the 6th generation. So many great games on both systems that many people overlook
The 6th generation as a whole was just god-tier
@@RhythmGrizzI'm more of a 7th generation stan, but I won't deny that the 6th generation of gaming was awesome!
That Mario music is ageless!!!
ITS SOOO GOOOOD!!!
Yeah, it felt so good at 16:46 when Buoy Base Galaxy started! I couldn't help but whistling its melody
+Tao S. (Gnash) Mario Galaxy had one of the best soundtracks ever in a game
whats the name of 17:06 music?
Buoy Base - Super Mario Galaxy
+kevin oriordan The Sonic Unleashed soundtrack say hi
Digital Foundry, can you do a retro video on the Tony Hawk series? It'd be awesome.
There were so many impressive tittles back in the day, even sports games were impressive.
***** Yeah so? I asked if they could do a video on the Tony Hawk series at a later time.
Gamecube
Gamecube had actually amazing and ambitious games. Wii U not many. So no.
Awesome episode John as always.
Some suggestion: Primal Rage, the dinosaur fighting arcade game, came out for 12 different systems, all of them with VERY different and dispair results, wich can be taken as a different game each, and as today, there is not a single one that it´s a close or perfect rendition of it. Being port or being emulation. The closest is the one included on Midway Arcade Treasures for PC and Xbox (On ps2 and GC suffers from issues too).
There you go for a challenge!
Dude that moment when the Wii Sports music kicked in, it hit my heart
Ikr
Same here
Instantly takes you back ten years
Wait... it's been ten years since the Wii launched? Shit
Umami Cupcake Thanks for your input, anime girl
Nintendoland was a very good, imo underrated, launch title for Wii U
I thought it was good too
it was fantastic when you had friends.
The Luigis Masion ghost game was great
iMiguelAOG that's a good point...'when' you had friends. Still, when we did....good memories. The metroid game with five friends was my favorite probably
And 1,2 Switch is a shame to the legacy of Wii Sports.
Man, the days where Nintendo was pushing the edge of hardware as a business philosophy... Ah well.
Tell me there's a chance for a DF Retro on the miracle that is the N64 version of Resident Evil 2.
Holy crap. Fantastic presentation, as always. Great episode.
Rouge Leader was an astonishing game. The "Battle for Endor" level was just so epic.
Rogue Leader does make me wonder why more Gamecube games didn't take advantage of the Gamecube's built-in pixel shaders for bump/normal mapping. Most GC games could have been even further ahead of the curve.
Because of ports???
Blame the PS2s complex and unique hardware for that.
And developer laziness and craving for the quick easy buck with no effort whatsoever. If only our jobs could be like that.
DF Retro: Halo
***** 2001 and 2004 is retro enough
they just featured stuff that was on GC and Wii... how is that retro but orig xbox is not?
***** The original triology is 9 years old
Halo 2 is 12 years old
Halo Ce is 15 year old
Also Halo CE had a lot of backstory
*****
By your own considerations for what can be called retro, then about 1/3 ro 1/2 of this video should not have been included. So... why are you not commenting on that? (not an actually question)
Whoa, Mario 64 only runs at 30fps? I’ve thought for years it ran at 60fps, and I always wondered how Nintendo managed it!
I'd love to see a DF Retro of Super Mario Sunshine! One of the best looking Gamecube games that has a lot of interesting elements. :)
+FirPtl I think it'd better than Mario 64, but that's just my opinion of course. I find Mario 64 hard to play and annoying at times.
Hey DigitalFoundry, do you think you can do a launch title video, on Playstation next?
I've been thinking about that too!
John Linneman Cool man. I personally think, that Playstation, is a bit better, when it comes to launch titles & how they were able to push game titles to the max, with the technology they had.
CodeNameZ Please show me a link. Also, is it based off of launch titles?
I think you're under-selling what was on offer.
PS1? Yeah, not great, but Rayman is a phenomenal game that still holds up today and RIdge Racer was a far more impressive racing example than Daytona on Saturn. Stuff like Toshinden actually sucks now but, at the time? It showcased the system well.
PS2, though, actually had some good titles beyond SSX. Ridge Racer V is one of the best arcade racing games of all time (at least I think so), Tekken Tag offered the most beautiful and feature packed Tekken yet, Dynasty Warriors 2 started the Musou line, Armored Core 2 was a great follow-up to the PS1 games, and TimeSplitters was a great multiplayer game with 4-player support at 60fps. It was no Dreamcast, but it still had a decent launch.
PS3 wasn't great, though, and PS4 wouldn't be included anyways.
***** are you kidding me? Th PS2 launched with Armored Core 2, Midnight Club, Moto GP, FUCKING TIMESPLITTERS, Tekken Tag Tournament, Unreal Tournament, Orphen: Sicon of Sorcery, Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore, and Eternal Ring. Not only that, but the following year, the PS2, had Jak & Daxter & Final Fantasy X. What the hell were you smoking?
I hope you take a look at some of the "gaming computers" as well, like the atari ones, c64, amiga and so on.
Well, to be fair, Factor 5 used EVERY SINGLE OBSCURE feature of the GameCube hardware. The Dolphin team has had HUNDREDS of headaches because there are HUNDREDS of features that only Factor 5 used, and no other dev ever used