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[Naibel]

I went with the original release dates because you could still import those games from other countries.

Dealing with region lock... well, I think people chipped their consoles or if you had a gameboy it was always region free.

I wasn't taking that into account, good call. Still, importing and modding wasn't cheap, and I'm pretty sure my parents would've slapped me in the face if I told them my Christmas present would come all the way from Japan, and showed them the bill. And of course, the barrier of language was quite the challenge at the time, even though it would end up being a huge motivator for learning Japanese or English. So like most gamers, I would've been patient. Still, thanks for the reminder.

PC was THE major pillar for years. It had the best games and genres of any gaming platform. Its where near all genres we play today originated, got formed, evolved. FPS, RPG, adventure, strategy, mmo's, simulations, moba's, deathmatch, e-sports, lan games.

I always felt its a shame how so incredibly console focused this forum always was. Missing the creatiion of genres and the best games because they were so focused on consoles which i always felt had infinitely inferior titles.

Of course, but I was taking into account the rise of 3D accelerators in the late 90's, the rise of LAN parties, online gaming, Half-Life, Starcraft. Thanks to that, PC gaming became even bigger than it already was, at least where I was. And yeah, the best games and genres of ANY platform ever ? PC being not only A major pillar, but THE major pillar ? Yeaaah that's debatable, even though I do love PC games. But I'm a filthy japan-loving console-focused gamer, what do I know, amirite ? /s

 

[namekuseijin]

it was a good follow up, but 98 was better

 

[JordanN]

Midtown Madness still holds up.

Just listen to the soundtrack starting at 6:40

 

[Patrick S.]

I was 21 back then. Downloaded EVERYTHING.

 

[TGO]

Funny I completed most of those the week they came out, flash forward to 2020 and I can barely finish one new game

 

[Loke]

Forgot this.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I had Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy Anthologies, and Final Fantasy VIII at launch back in 1999. I rented Silent Hill and Resident Evil 3 a lot from Blockbusters/Hollywood Video. I played a lot of the other games by renting them as well. I remember buying Marvel vs Street Fighter from Nebraska Furniture Mart. This was when you could find a mall arcade with most of the VS games. Those fighting games are gems. I bought them for Saturn. Worst part was not being able to snap in the 2nd character on the fly on PSX.

I had the Dreamcast at launch with Soul Calibur and Blue Stinger. Sonic Adventures came later. I imported ShenMue. I had the Arcade Stick and Marvel vs. Capcom reserved. Blue Stinger was a great time.

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

I got my first Playstation for Christmas back in 1999. My uncle got me NBA Live 2000, WWF Warzone and Gran Turismo.

 

[Soleil rouge]

Even if you could only have 3, it'd still be an incredible year. GT2, Shenmue, AoE...that's all I'd need.

I also played the hell out of the Underground Jampack and Dreamcast Generator demo discs from this era.

 

[JordanN]

I wasn't taking that into account, good call. Still, importing and modding wasn't cheap, and I'm pretty sure my parents would've slapped me in the face if I told them my Christmas present would come all the way from Japan, and showed them the bill. And of course, the barrier of language was quite the challenge at the time, even though it would end up being a huge motivator for learning Japanese or English. So like most gamers, I would've been patient. Still, thanks for the reminder.

My cousin chipped my PS1 for free. But he came from a family who were all into technology.

But I was able play to foreign games on my console.

 

[anthraticus]

I always felt its a shame how so incredibly console focused this forum always was. Missing the creatiion of genres and the best games because they were so focused on consoles which i always felt had infinitely inferior titles.

That's why I love the Codex so much. Plus they're even more anti sjw than here.

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

I always said the 90s was my favorite time for video games. So many options and lots of original games.

Of the games you mentioned I had/have:

WCW/NWO Thunder
Super Smash Bros.
Resident Evil 3
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Final Fantasy VIII
Silent Hill
Spyro Ripto's Rage
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
Need For Speed High Stakes
Um Jammer Lammy
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
Ape Escape
Crash Team Racing
Soul Calibur
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Donkey Kong 64
Chrono Chrono
croc 2

Some of the games I bought after the 90s though.

No DLC, no day one patches, no bullshit.

Literally just walk into a store and you walked out with a complete product.

I just had a conversation about this samething with a friend earlier. I miss that.

 

[Naibel]

My cousin chipped my PS1 for free. But he came from a family who were all into technology.

But I was able play foreign games on my console.

Lucky dude. Where I was, it was import shops, mainly based in big cities like Paris, doing that work, and they ripped you off like crazy. And they ripped you off even more when you bought Japanese imports or that new Dreamcast that's gonna come out in Europe in a year or so. Bunch of bastards.

And I had a old CRT back then, so on my PAL television, NTSC 60hz games were being displayed in black and white, if any ! We were screwed beyond belief back then.

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

No shit. Imagine growing up now and buying the PS5, playing GTAV.

Somewhere in the world there is a person that is hyped for this.

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

Dreamcast owners were too busy browsing the internet on their new machine anyway.

The Dreamcast had a lot of games I like, but yeah, I spent way too much time browsing online at a snail's pace.

 

[synchronicity]

I feel this way about every year!

 

[JordanN]

The Dreamcast had a lot of games I like, but yeah, I spent way too much time browsing online at a snail's pace.

It was a new experience so I can't blame you.

I was still using consoles to browse GAF I think as late as 2016? But this was on PS4, so I could pause a game, go online, look for some walkthroughs and read Neogaf at the same time.

I think on Dreamcast, you could only run the internet and then you had to restart the console if you wanted to game.

 

[sinnergy]

I went for Beetle Adventure Racing and DK64.
I had The Dreamcast a bit later, (2000? ) which I got Soul Reaver on and Soul Calibur.

 

[deriks]

Soul Reaver rocked my PC back then

 

[whitesugar]

halfway through the list i was kind of meh about it, but you really brought it home in the second half. great year and i wish i could have played more of them at the time

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Yeah, I think the span from 1997-2002 was the absolute best time for gaming. There are a ton of good games now, but you had absolute fucking legends dropping every couple of weeks back then. Complete insanity.

 

[Terenty]

Back when games weren't a fucking multi billion dollar business and devs could experiment and try out different things...good times

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

Back in 1999 I also had Mario Party 2, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, and Dino Crisis.

It was a new experience so I can't blame you.

I was still using consoles to browse GAF I think as late as 2016? But this was on PS4, so I could pause a game, go online, look for some walkthroughs and read Neogaf at the same time.

I think on Dreamcast, you could only run the internet and then you had to restart the console if you wanted to game.

The Dreamcast made you restart the system if you wanted to play after browsing.

 

[SkylineRKR]

I like reading the comments where people still try and justify 30fps, when PC gamers where achieving frame rates as high as 400fps in the 90s.

Our standards for gaming has fallen considerably since then.

When consoles started to become the baseline, it did hurt PC.

PC games weren't developed with consoles in mind at all. Thats why shooters had no 2 weapon limit, and were more about twitch shooting still. I think I achieved over 200fps in Unreal Tournament on a decent Geforce. And the IQ was also far better than that of the console ports. Those games were PC first and foremost.

 

[KyoZz]

Came here to be sure that Age of Empires II is here. I'm not disappointed

 

[teezzy]

Final fantasy 8
Ape Escape
And Super Smash Bros

All in the same year.

My stupid eight year old ass asked for Donkey Kong 64

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

My cousin chipped my PS1 for free. But he came from a family who were all into technology.

But I was able play to foreign games on my console.

I knew about chipping the PlayStation but was afraid it could get damaged. Lucky for me I found out you can get around chipping/moddng with just a spring and the cheat device that came with it. I still have one of them loaded with PS1 codes for import games. I had one with a metal spring and a better cheat device by I ended up losing the spring. PS1 was my first journey into import games.

 

[JordanN]

Final fantasy 8
Ape Escape
And Super Smash Bros

All in the same year.

My stupid eight year old asked for Donkey Kong 64

Still a good choice since it came with the Expansion Pak and the absolute unit Jungle Green N64.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Shenmue was the best game of that year. Way, way ahead of its time

wasn’t even a top 10 DC game of that year.

edit, speaking of 99, even though it just barely made it out in 99 in Japan. Was a 2000 game for most people.

 

[Phase]

What a wonderful time it was.

 

[Walter Matthau]

edit

 

[donfonzie]

The good old days...

 

[John Day]

Rentals were a very good way to be a gamer back then still, so i played most of those.

Except Ff8, CC, Smash Bros and Everquest! Those were miiiine.

 

[Explosive Zombie]

Didn't read whole thread but did anyone point out the missing titles like...

Worms Armageddon
Planescape Torment
Homeworld
Half-Life Opposing Force
San Fancisco Rush 2049
THE GREATEST GAME EVER MADE... SHADOW MAN
Kingpin: Life of Crime
PEPSIMAN!!!
Castlevania 64

 

[Ridaxan]

My brother and I used our pocket money to buy Unreal Tournament and Quake III on the same day. It was majestic.

 

[bosnianpie]

I got Crash Team Racing and GTA2 for my birthday that December. I remember waiting for CTR for months with only a couple of screenshots to spark my imagination, but that was enough in 1999. Beautiful, easier times.

 

[gtrwll]

Outcast was my christmas wish that year...man what a game. And what a soundtrack!

I think the demo was on some PC Gamer issue that year? That really sold the game for me.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

Going with Quake III Arena I have fond memories of weekend long LAN parties and trading bootlegs of the Matrix.

 

[JordanN]

I got Crash Team Racing and GTA2 for my birthday that December. I remember waiting for CTR for months with only a couple of screenshots to spark my imagination, but that was enough in 1999. Beautiful, easier times.

Before I had internet access, my source of learning new games was through the damn Sears catalog and collecting retail flyers.

I was actually very excited every friday to see if the newspaper came with Best Buy/Futureshop/Zellers flyers so I could check out their games section.

 

[Quasicat]

Dreamcast owners were too busy browsing the internet on their new machine anyway.

Included with that browser was SEGA Swirl which had true crossplay multiplayer with PC due to how the information was sent through email attachments. I got several family members hooked on the barebones PC version that many of them bought Dreamcasts on their own.
I miss SEGA Swirl.

 

[Damigos]

I played almost every one of these back in the end. I actually feel very lucky considering the all of today’s games look and feel the same

 

[Goro Majima]

Maybe it's because I was like 14-19 years old during most of Gen 5 but I was primarily a PC gamer because I thought and still think that most of those PS1/N64 games were super rough with atrocious load times. I really liked the Playstation for about 3 years or so until the PC just absolutely eclipsed the graphics that it wasn't even funny anymore.

I also had a Nintendo 64 but god damn most of the games that came out (when they actually came out because holy shit the droughts) felt like they were geared toward the Nick Jr. crowd so to speak. That was kinda jarring to me because the SNES wasn't "ultra kiddie" at all. Plus they were like twice the price of PS1 games!

On top of it all, I distinctly remember going to Hollywood Video and there only being a few shelves of Nintendo 64 games and multiple walls of Playstation games.

Ultimately I feel like Gen 6 just absolutely shits on Gen 5 from the highest of heights and is arguably the best generation of gaming of all time. You best believe that I was there when the Dreamcast launched on 9/9/99 because consoles needed that graphics upgrade.

I remember the feeling of booting up Sonic Adventure and Soul Calibur for the first time

It was like "holy shit I can actually tell what these characters are supposed to be!"

 

[Abear21]

I played most of those, my buddy had beast PC back then so Unreal and Quake were played to death.

Shenmue was insane on Dreamcast and it delivered on the hype. I remember opening drawers in the house and freakin out about it! Going to work was cool too, so ahead of it’s time.

 

[bosnianpie]

Before I had internet access, my source of learning new games was the damn Sears catalog and collecting retail flyers.

Haha yeah, I can imagine. It was a challenge to convince my parents to buy the very expensive $6 Official PS magazine every month. I didn't really bother to read much of it but rather scan the pages for interesting pictures.

It was something special finding them aswell because with such limited information it felt like there was no end of possibilities. The new games were anything you wanted them to be until you actually got them.

 

[HotPocket69]

Chrono Cross I’m almost certain came out in 2000 in the US.

Correct. August 15, 2000

 

[JordanN]

Correct. August 15, 2000

I went with the original release dates because Europe/North America/Japan would sometimes have titles that released months or years away from each other.

Plus, people could still import games back then and play them on their modded systems.

Before they got hit by the lawsuits, you could have bought foreign games from Lik Sang starting in 1998.

 

[Vildiil]

99 was simple, got Everquest and it proceeded to ruin my barely a teenager life.

 

[LordOfChaos]

I wonder if Gex could ever come back

 

[West Texas CEO]

1999 was good, but it can't touch the brilliance of 1998.

 

[Shifty1897]

I remember getting Chrono Cross for Christmas that year, and being in denial about how unhappy I was with it.