Name that Playstation one game ??

Parawind

I am struggling to remember a ps1 game that I played once or twice at a friend's house many moons ago. My memory of the game is quite bad but I figured someone here might have encyclopedic knowledge and be able to help.

It would have been released in the 1st or 2nd year of the PS1.
It was a third person action game.
The main character was human and wore red.
I recall one level was set in a dock.

Like I said no much to go on.

It's been bugging me for a week as I am trying to add a few titles to my ps1 collection and would love to find it.

Retr0gamer

Lone Soldier?

Apocalypse?

Parawind

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Lone Soldier?

Apocalypse?

No, it was something a little brighter and looked a little more kid friendly.

Don't think I ever saw the game anywhere else so I can't imagine it would have sold huge numbers.

martineatworld

I know you said human, but dock and red makes me think of the ghost in the Shell demo.

Chris_Heilong

Fade to black?

Parawind

Neither of those I am afraid. I should have said human male to be more accurate.

Also I don't think the camera was fixed behind the player.

Parawind

Found it, I went to wiki's list of ps1 games and lucky found it before I got past the A section.

It was Agent Armstrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt3GI9Lsi94

Just looked on ebay and only a single PAL copy in Australia :rolleyes:

RNB

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00004TN17/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1397032001&sr=8-1&keywords=agent+armstrong&condition=used

Retr0gamer

Well that game just reminds me of how terrible early PS1 games were

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well that game just reminds me of how terrible early PS1 games were

Something I really love about early PS1 games (and 32X games actually) is it's basically a historical look at how game designers were trying to make the changeover from 2D into 3D. And really struggling in many cases.

We kind of take the 3rd dimension for granted these days, but it must have been crazy to go from developing sprite based 2d games to suddenly having this extra axis to develop :eek:

GottaGetGatt

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Lone Soldier?

Apocalypse?

Ah apocalypse,there's a gem of a game from my childhood.i remember it had Bruce Willis voice the main character.Good times,good times

Retr0gamer

o1s1n wrote: »

Something I really love about early PS1 games (and 32X games actually) is it's basically a historical look at how game designers were trying to make the changeover from 2D into 3D. And really struggling in many cases.

We kind of take the 3rd dimension for granted these days, but it must have been crazy to go from developing sprite based 2d games to suddenly having this extra axis to develop :eek:

Yeah there's an awful lot of just making 2D games but with 3D backgrounds or just straight up crazy stuff. Then there's weird hybrids like this and something like Bug where 3D just seems to be shoehorned in.

Then there's the weird ones that were experimental and managed to get it right like Jumping Flash.

GottaGetGatt wrote: »

Ah apocalypse,there's a gem of a game from my childhood.i remember it had Bruce Willis voice the main character.Good times,good times

You should play it now. Time has not been kind.

Michael D Not Higgins

o1s1n wrote: »

Something I really love about early PS1 games (and 32X games actually) is it's basically a historical look at how game designers were trying to make the changeover from 2D into 3D. And really struggling in many cases.

We kind of take the 3rd dimension for granted these days, but it must have been crazy to go from developing sprite based 2d games to suddenly having this extra axis to develop :eek:

Yeah but you also had stuff like the original Wipeout game which just blew my mind as a kid.

Retr0gamer

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Yeah but you also had stuff like the original Wipeout game which just blew my mind as a kid.

Which isn't so great if you go back and play it now.

Michael D Not Higgins

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Which isn't so great if you go back and play it now.

It's a game from 20 years ago, still impresive for its time.

o1s1n

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Yeah but you also had stuff like the original Wipeout game which just blew my mind as a kid.

Oh definitely, I'm not saying there wasn't stuff that got it right (see Retr0's comment about about Jumping Flash) - just pointing out that it was a very interesting and experimental time.

The 32X is even worse for it, I think every 3D game on that system falls into the category in some way or other. They hadn't a clue what to do with it.

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Yeah there's an awful lot of just making 2D games but with 3D backgrounds or just straight up crazy stuff. Then there's weird hybrids like this and something like Bug where 3D just seems to be shoehorned in.

Then there's the weird ones that were experimental and managed to get it right like Jumping Flash.

As a matter of interest, any idea what the first proper fully 3D Ps1 game was?

It's gas when you think back on them how many just had prerendered backgrounds.

Jumping flash,
Its all coming back to me now.
my uncle had a demo of this on a disc that came with his PS1.
It has scitchen on it too afair

He had Krazy Ivan too
now that was balls

Retr0gamer

o1s1n wrote: »

As a matter of interest, any idea what the first proper fully 3D Ps1 game was?

It's gas when you think back on them how many just had prerendered backgrounds.

Plenty of games were fully 3D even at launch. Ridge Racer, Battle Arena Toshinden etc.

If you mean fully 3D world you could explore then probably the very first japanese only Kings Field or Jumping Flash.

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

If you mean fully 3D world you could explore then probably the very first japanese only Kings Field or Jumping Flash.

Yeah that's more what I meant. People tend to go on about the virtues of things like Mario 64 and OOT but completely forget about PS1 equivalents.

Retr0gamer

To be fair Mario 64 was the first game that actually made that type of game work and work well, although jumping flash was still pretty good. Mario 64 was pretty much Nintendo saying 'out of the way amateurs this is how it's done'.

longhalloween

Parawind wrote: »

Found it, I went to wiki's list of ps1 games and lucky found it before I got past the A section.

It was Agent Armstrong.

I read the description and I knew it was that game, though I couldn't remember the name either. It was on a demo disc from an early PS1 magazine.

Chris_Heilong

I could see how primitive 3d was when the PS1 was released, which is why unlike my peers at the time I didn't abandon 2d, I was hoping 2d was going to develop onto the next level, unfortunately sony saw the 2d capabilities of the PS1 as a handicap and so tried to turn developers away from it, which is why I then bought a saturn and all its 2d glory, silent hill had very good 3d at the time.

Retr0gamer

Well Sony were more open to 2D than Sega. Sega actively suppressed the release of 2D games in the West. Sony was anti 2D, they famously turned down a port of Devil Summoner and blocked the release of Soul Hackers in the West but loosened up a bit after a while. We were actually very lucky to get Symphony of the Night, it was touch and go that it would be released becasue it was 2D.

o1s1n

Due to that Sega sillyness we still missed out on the Saturn SOTN version - which had extended levels, extra weapons, extra music and you could play as Maria too.

Still should be fairly playable in Japanese though, might pick it up and see if I can manage it.

Retr0gamer

o1s1n wrote: »

Due to that Sega sillyness we still missed out on the Saturn SOTN version - which had extended levels, extra weapons, extra music and you could play as Maria too.

Still should be fairly playable in Japanese though, might pick it up and see if I can manage it.

It's actually a really shocking conversion. It suffers from awful slowdown and framerate problems and the graphical effects are really lazily ported. Transparencies are either dithered or just plain removed altogether. The two new areas are pretty tiny and add nothing to the game. Just get the PSP version which lets you play as Maria and Richter from the start.

CiDeRmAn

Total NBA was a cracker on the PS, very polished compared to some of the other awful sports titles out at the time, like Actua Soccer.
Fade to Black I liked a lot, looked better than the PC version too, I had the both of them.
I mention it here a bit but Descent was amazing, proper 3D fps, of a sort, and followed by an equally good Descent 2.
I know Ridge Racer was the PS' Mario 64,giving gamers something they could only dream of before but Ridge Racer Revolution was brilliant.

Chris_Heilong

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It's actually a really shocking conversion. It suffers from awful slowdown and framerate problems and the graphical effects are really lazily ported. Transparencies are either dithered or just plain removed altogether. The two new areas are pretty tiny and add nothing to the game. Just get the PSP version which lets you play as Maria and Richter from the start.

Yeah, I was really dissapointed when I got around to playing it, it was ugly. I didn't know Sega done this as I remember my first 5 games were all 2D and always thought sega was on my side. Darius Gaiden, Guardian Heroes, Xmen cora, Darkstalkers and Saturn Bomberman(I think I got this later on).

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It's actually a really shocking conversion. It suffers from awful slowdown and framerate problems and the graphical effects are really lazily ported. Transparencies are either dithered or just plain removed altogether. The two new areas are pretty tiny and add nothing to the game. Just get the PSP version which lets you play as Maria and Richter from the start.

Madness, I did not know that.

Imagine being given a game like SOTN to port and doing a bad job, sacrilege!

Retr0gamer

o1s1n wrote: »

Madness, I did not know that.

Imagine being given a game like SOTN to port and doing a bad job, sacrilege!

It was the same Konami team that made the N64 games and Circle of the Moon. (Kind of liked those games though).

It was just a rushjob because there's no way the saturn should be slowing down when there's too many sprites when the PS1 can handle it and while the Saturn had trouble with transparent polygons it could easily do 2D transparencies. Sure one of the extra areas is filled with lame transparent ghosts yet they can't put transparencies in for the rest of the game.

Myrddin

You're a wealth of gaming knowledge Retr0, fair dues

o1s1n

He's handy to have around alright

Retr0gamer

Aw shucks you guys