Best 5 year period of game development?

[quash]

99-03 for me. The immediate post-Dreamcast era saw some of the best games ever made.

[MintyTheCat]

Those are all five years, even though it looks like four. 1997-2001 for example would be 97, 98, 99, 00, 01. 1996-2001 would be six years. That's why I included a start date (Fire Pro Wrestling Returns' release) in my original 2005-2010 post.

We use the terms inclusive and exclusive:

2000-2005 inclusive is: 2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005.
2000-2005 exclusive is: 2001,2002,2003,2004.

[MR_Soren]

Sometime in the 1990s, no doubt.

Maybe 1994 to 1998.

Tail end of the 16-bit era, almost everything for the Sega Saturn, some great arcade games, a healthy chunk of Neo Geo stuff, and some classic PC games.

Some notables: Super Metroid, Alien Soldier, Battle Garegga, Guardian Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, StarCraft, Heroes of Might and Magic II, Civilization II, Metal Slug, Sim City 2000, Front Mission, Chrono Trigger, Fire Emblem 4, DoDonPachi, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Der Langrisser...

Eh, I think anything that contained Battle Garegga would be a correct answer.

[MX7]

I would be OK with committing myself to 94-98. You have the fag-end of the 16-bit consoles and the ridiculous things certain developers were doing with both the visual and sonic capabilities of these consoles. Then you have the giddy excitement of the birth of the 32-bit era, with lots of lo-poly fetishism, sprite heavy RPGs with rotatable backgrounds, and the enthusiasm of VG magazines going in to overdrive. Point & clicks weren't as fuckable as they used to be, but the ridiculous quality of Sierra's mid-90's meant we didn't care. And of course, a ridiculous amount of amazing shooters were released.

[DestroyTheCore]

2006-10

The rise of DLC, QTE and DRM is what really brought gamers together and made everything we love about the video game industry today.

Plus CV1000 Cave games.

[Xyga]

^

Thinking about it again, even thought the development of my favourites happened during the period trap15 mentioned, I remember with the delay in the western world the greatest time for me as a player was actually 90-95.

Won't say I hadn't fun during the second part of the 90's but lots of the best stuff that was developed and published during that period of time was a bit further from reach, happening more in the best furnished arcade and japanese imports, and the transition to 3D bitching was already spoiling the mood a bit.

In other words I lived the 90-95 period more like the unquestionable 'awesomeness-in-my-face-everyday' for real, when the 95-2000 was more complicated.

[MintyTheCat]

2006-10

The rise of DLC, QTE and DRM is what really brought gamers together and made everything we love about the video game industry today.

Plus CV1000 Cave games.

Sorry, are you being ironic here?

[Xyga]

I think we can safely say he was.

[MintyTheCat]

I think we can safely say he was.

Thank the Lord for that.

[Obiwanshinobi]

"DLC", "QTE" and "DRM" are all way older than 2006, though.

[MX7]

"DLC", "QTE" and "DRM" are all way older than 2006, though.

Yeah, when people say 'QTE' I think 'Shenmue', though there are a few in Resident Evil 4 et al.

DLC definitely only became a 'thing' in the last decade, unless you count Doom WADs etc

[Obiwanshinobi]

I believe MMOs have lived by DLC all along. Neither was TrackMania the first one to endorse sharing content developed by its users, was it? Even console games like TimeSplitters got a smidgeon of the latter via memory cards.

[MintyTheCat]

"DLC", "QTE" and "DRM" are all way older than 2006, though.

Basically when the model went from buy/own to service/rental and the "peripheral" / "side market" model (or what they wish to call it). Mind you, the Arcade model was service so...

[Tregard]

1996 to 2000. A fantastic era that will never be beaten.

In FPS, we start out with Quake and Duke Nukem 3D, and end with the phenomenal Deus Ex, passing through countless classics like Half Life, Hexen 2, The Quake sequels, Unreal Tournament, Goldeneye, Thief... so much growth and innovation.

Adventure games also hit some big highs, with Grim Fandango, Curse of Monkey Island, Discworld 2, The Last Express, The Longest Journey, Toonstruck, Broken Sword...

Then there's Final Fantasy 7 - 9, Dungeon Keeper, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, the first four Tomb Raider games, Einhander, Dodonpachi, G-Darius...

'96 was the year I upgraded to a PC from the trusty Amiga 1200, and though I'd gamed my whole life to that point, it was the moment where gaming truly came alive for me. So many of my favourite games were experienced in those five years, before I took myself off to uni.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I think of 1996 as the year when 3D acceleration went mainstream (obviously, PSX launch paved the path before, but it was 1996 when textured polygons defined the future). Admittedly, I think of Quake and Tomb Raider before Super Mario 64 (and frankly, I prefer the look of SOFTWARE-accelerated 3D from that period).

[ED-057]

If you could only play games from a period of 5 years, which span would it be and why?

Hmmm, well is this going to be retroactive, or is it, like, starting right now? 'Cuz I mean, there are some games that I've already played to death, so do I need to worry about including them in my magic five-year window despite having BTDT? Or maybe I could choose 2025-2029 if I was feeling optimistic about the future (nevermind, I'm not).

According to wiki, HoMM3 was released 1999/02/28. So if I start my window on 1994/03/01 just for the sake of including that endpoint, I'd also have plenty of good 16/32-bit console stuff and arcade.

If I was looking for something good amongst games that I haven't already played, I'd look earlier ie. '89-'94. For instance, I haven't played much PCE-CD, MegaCD, or Japanese computer stuff due to not having any of those systems...

[Obiwanshinobi]

According to wiki, HoMM3 was released 1999/02/28. So if I start my window on 1994/03/01 just for the sake of including that endpoint, I'd also have plenty of good 16/32-bit console stuff and arcade.

2nd expansion (The Shadow of Death) as well as the unified Complete edition came out in 2000, so you might prefer that.
P.S. My,

Community team note: But why only RoE? To understand the origin of the project and its development we need to go back to 2003. At that time we asked New World Computing to retrieve their archives for all the Might & Magic titles. We found tons of documentation and data but regarding Heroes III we had nothing but the usable source code of Heroes III Restoration of Erathia.

(source).
Come think of it, this beloved sub-series could have ended up much worse (at least "HD Edition" looks nice & faithful to the original thing). I'm happy with Complete letterboxed/windowed, thank you very much, but the fullscreen-only crowd are living beings too.

[Stevens]

If I was looking for something good amongst games that I haven't already played, I'd look earlier ie. '89-'94. For instance, I haven't played much PCE-CD, MegaCD, or Japanese computer stuff due to not having any of those systems...

89' - 94' is a great answer with regards to games I've never played either. Never thought about it that way.

Especially the Sharp x68000, would love to get my hands on that one day.

[evil_ash_xero]

Holy crap, I can't answer this.

I would not be one to say 97-01 though. PS1 and Saturn games look awful, if they're not sprite based. I feel like PS2 really picked up where it left off, and delivered for the most part.
Now, I am guessing you guys are talking about all the shmups and fighters?
You have a good point there, but I'd like to play other games too.

And I can't say no to all my old school faves, which I still play often. Or all the 3D games, of which there are many classics as well.

So, I will not vote.

[azmun]

Can't limit myself to exactly five years but I'd say:

'88-'93
Some of the best years for side scrolling action games, shoot and beat em ups. This was transition period from 8 to 16-bit and we saw developers making best games on FC, PCE and MD.

'97-'02
This was also transition period for consoles. Sadly, it was death of 2D beat em ups but pinnacle for fighting games both 2d and 3d. Driving games were also coming of age as the hardware at home could finally handle graphics and physics in more sophisticated ways.

[BrianC]

1991-1995

[MommysBestGames]

Ah.. this is fun.
90-95 for me... Sega Genesis all the way, 16-bit. Ranger-X, Gunstar Heroes, Sonic 2, Sonic CD, Gaiares, Granada, Lightening Force... okay Darius Gaiden in the arcade, Metal Black, Last Resort ...and sure some SNES: R-Type 3, Space Megaforce, Cybernator.

I'd like to propose an amendment to the rules and say you can add one 'bonus year'. And the bonus year *can't* make your 5 years into a contiguous 6 years
Mine is 1998: R-Type Delta, Radiant Silvergun, MGS, Half-Life, Starcraft.

[Obiwanshinobi]

My Bonus Year™ right now would be 2000 because of Sky Odyssey, Thief II: The Metal Age and Crimson Skies (in case of Monkey Ball prototype being fully developed A.D. 2000 - that one too, although I doubt it was).

Driving games were also coming of age as the hardware at home could finally handle graphics and physics in more sophisticated ways.

It has to be said - I had practically no interest in exclusively vehicular games before PS2 (and the first one I found impressive was SCUD Race, but as a spectacle rather than any serious runner for my coins).

[ciox]

96-2001, for all genres.
Just my candy-assed opinion, while I can't deny that some essential research was being done in the 90-95 era and a lot of pioneering games came out in that period, the years right after are when the most polished and replayable games applying those principles were made, right before standards dropped like a rock and good gameplay went to hell. In theory it was very much possible to further polish and improve on the 96-2001 games making them less of a big deal and maybe even creating games that better respect the original qualities of the 80s and early 90s with more polish but that did not happen for the most part and exceptions only strengthen the rule.

Were there a lot of good shmups out in 2001 to make people include that year? There's just Ikaruga and Progear off the top of my head.
Leaving out 2002-2003 does cause me some minor pain since it leaves out the Cave PGM shmups which are pretty nice..

[Obiwanshinobi]

What's "all genres" that isn't shmups?

[ciox]

What's "all genres" that isn't shmups?

FPS, FPS/RPG and other immersive sims of that type like Thief, RTS and fighting games. I am biased in many ways as I'm pretty much a PC/emulator player (i do own a bunch of console ports of games like Psyvariar and Third Strike for PS3 mostly to show support but would rather stick to emulators and fightcade than mess with the console)

It's funny how so many genres have problems similar to bad shmups
- peashooter weapons that trigger no real feedback from enemies / take long to do anything
- boring enemies that take forever to kill / do not change behaviors when damaged / do not have destructible parts
- hamfisted "there I fixed it" balance (a billion overlapping bullets but you have a lifebar to get through in shmups, in FPS twitchy unpredictable enemies that you can barely dodge but there's medkits on every corner plus "second wind" mechanics or such, in RTS units with incredibly high unbalanced DPS that are balanced by a unit that can easily kill a hundred of them in 2-3 seconds to "fix it", in fighters you have very powerful moves but the designer decides in a binary fashion if they can connect in a combo or not and at what point instead of using move recovery and hitstun to make this occur logically and intuitively)

[Obiwanshinobi]

Genres aside, I think at least two sorts of game engines have developed for the better since 2001: TPP action and car games. The likes of Midnight Club II and Spartan: Total Warrior have to count for something. I can also think of at least three Marble Madness-likes that benefitted from then-modern tech greatly.
Now, if I'm not particularly into "vast terrain" FPPs like Project I.G.I. and FarCry, I so happen to be thankful for the likes of Dragon's Dogma and Gothic. These wouldn't run quite so well on the last century's game engines. I guess the latter could be said about Bettlefield-likes too, although I personally don't fall for those.

That shmups devs blissfully ignore possibilities modern tools give them* doesn't make those tools insignificant within the grand scheme of things (as grand as video games get anyways).

*) I've yet to play PixelJunk Shooter, mind.

[Ex_Mosquito]

Wow, there are a lot of young people on here! For me nothing can beat the magic and excitement of the UK import boom of the late 80's. Monthly game magazine coverage of exotic games machines from Japan were almost to much to handle for a videogame obsessed 10-year old. Independent import shops were the norm back then with lush Scart powered RGB TVs showing off near-arcade perfect conversions. Going to London's Tottenham-court road in the late 80's/1990 at the peak of imports is an experience that will never be bettered for me.

If you remember these then you'll understand what is mean... And the legendary C&VG / Mean Machines, or course.

[Xyga]

^ Exactly the same scenario in France.
There was also a kids show basically showing 10 year olds video game porn fresh from Japan.
Nothing could have made us miss it, along with specialized press it contributed a lot to the development of import.

[Rob]

Wow, there are a lot of young people on here!

Shmups.org? I doubt it.