How far we've come.....

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I remember back in 1998 when the very first GT game was released for the PS1. I'd just got out of hospital after having a nasty eye infection and my Pops had bought me the game. I can't tell you how excited I was. I couldn't imagine graphics being so good and photorealistic. I know it sounds ridiculous now but back then, it really was groundbreaking.
Didn't matter that 95% of the cars were Japanese- this was irrelevant at the time. No other racer had attempted anything close before and my friends and I were just ecstatic that we could play such a gem. Of course, cockpit views were not even part of the imagination. We loved playing 2 player split screen.

Only 12 years later, GT5 makes it's appearance. It just amazes me how far technology has come in such a short space of time and how we as gamers can take so many things for granted nowadays. So many new manufacturers have been added (Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Tesla, Maserati, Bugatti, Chapparal, Lister etc), DLC has become commonplace, cockpit views are now available and breathtaking, physics have been improved, graphics have been improved out of sight, night, weather.......

Yet most of us (myself included, I won't deny it) still sometimes find the time to moan about something. Now that I think about it, I can't actually remember complaining about anything in the early GT games (up until GT4, simply because I saw the likes of Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini etc) in other, less superior driving/racing games and felt GT was missing out.

I guess this is a bit of a trip down memory lane and a rant to boot but I thought I'd share it. Anyone else feel the same about how far technology has progressed? It's actually quite scary at times.
 
yeah i just put gt2 in to my ps3 earlier to play the awesomeness that was Midfield and was shocked by how blocky it looks, but back then in 98/99 it was the business, goodness only knows how far things will have progressedby 2026 or so.... (barring apocolypse....)
 
Yes, Gran Turismo has come a long way since 1998. Back then the 3000GT was my favorite car to use.

 
Wow, those were the days.....Amazing how bad the graphics look lol. There is relatively little difference imo between standards and premiums in GT5, on the other hand. For example, the comparison between the standard and premium XJR-9. Sure, you can clearly tell the difference but the standard holds its own very well.
 
I remember all the way back to games on cassette tapes, many people don't even know what a cassette is, let alone tape loaders.

I got GT on release day in England, I played it to death. Bought an analogue cotroler just for that game.

Now look at it, $600 wheels and 5 screen set ups!!
 
Menown
I remember all the way back to games on cassette tapes, many people don't even know what a cassette is, let alone tape loaders.

I got GT on release day in England, I played it to death. Bought an analogue cotroler just for that game.

Now look at it, $600 wheels and 5 screen set ups!!
Click to expand...
Same here!

My first computer was a Commodore Vic20. I didn't have games for this when I was a kid. I had to write them line by line in basic and save them to cassette. :scared:
vic20.jpg
vic20-cass.jpg
 
Menown
I remember all the way back to games on cassette tapes, many people don't even know what a cassette is, let alone tape loaders.

I got GT on release day in England, I played it to death. Bought an analogue cotroler just for that game.

Now look at it, $600 wheels and 5 screen set ups!!
Click to expand...

I remember when you had to press the little analog button in the middle to activate it :3 I also remember untangling the cord everytime I played a game :lol:
 
weirdkerr
yeah i just put gt2 in to my ps3 earlier to play the awesomeness that was Midfield and was shocked by how blocky it looks, but back then in 98/99 it was the business, goodness only knows how far things will have progressedby 2026 or so.... (barring apocolypse....)
Click to expand...

Two weeks before GT5 came out I popped GT1 into the PS1.

Night and Day difference.

I spent the week beating the first one, and am trying to find my copy of GT2.

Can't wait to see what the PS4 is like. It's gonna f'n blow my f'n mind.
 
Here is a video of my first racing game on the Vic 20 from back in 1983 when I was 13yrs old.

Pole Position
 
I remember when I was at a friend's house in maybe the 4th or 5th grade, we were supposed to be working on a homework assignment. Well he had a Playstation and we decided to play that instead. He had a demo disk so we played the Metal Gear Solid demo level a bunch of times then went to Gran Turismo. I think the track was Special Stage R5 and it blew my mind. The graphics were unreal, from then on I was hooked on the series.
I remember having my mind blown again a few years later watching a review of GT2 and seeing it's graphics. Its hard to imagine things getting any better than they are today but in 10 years I cant even imagine what games will look like.
 
GT5 alone has come a long way since its release a little more than a year ago. I can't even begin to compare it with the first game.
 
yes! The Vic20 was my first intro to video games too. I hated syntax errors.. ahh memory lane, but back on track. ;)

GT1's ground breaking graphics along with the ability to customize licensed cars was revolutionary. It's amazing to see how far PD has come. 👍 I know I'm not supposed to say this but GT2 is amazing with modern emulators (don't worry mods, I own the disc)
 
Back in '98 I was 33 (yup, I'm that old) and GT was a revelation. And yes, GT5 is a night & day better title but I'll tell you what...back then I was able to use a Namco NegCon controller and it was far & away the better controller compared with a Dualshock, regardless of the lack of a rumble feature. Not all things get better in technology.

Those were the days...
 
Ahh to remember the old days.
Waiting for games to load only to crash.

Yes we have come a long way!
 
I remember when if there was a big glitch (See Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing) in your game, you and the game makers were screwed.
 
I remember watching the opening video of GT3 and thinking "wow how can will it ever look better than this?". I was 15 at the time.
 
Yeah, technology has come along way. I remember the original atari, the intellivision and my own little nightmare, the acorn electron. The machine that you had to buy a magazine, go to the programming pages and literally type in page after page of code.

Brilliant idea if only for one problem. 9 times out of 10 the magazine had a typing error and there was nothing you could do about it.
 

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