26th January 2015, 6:53 PM
The jump from the N64/PS1 to the Dreamcast was the biggest graphical leap 3D ever made. It was just stunning, to everyone involved. From there, games on the PS2 and Gamecube went on to shock us all the more. I think it was the jump from obvious block video game graphics to smooth "rounded" fully articulated character models. Yes, graphics have come a long way since then, but I distinctly recall that no generational "jump" ever had the same jaw dropping shock that the Dreamcast generation heralded. In fact, I recall being somewhat disappointed when I first saw the earliest 360/PS3 games, in that they weren't the "jump" I had come to expect each generation (the jumps from Atari to NES, NES to SNES, and especially SNES to N64 were really stand-out moments). These days, each massive jump in power just adds more and more texture layering and lighting tricks and so on to games. Over time they add up (Destiny, graphically, makes Halo look positively Amish), but we'll never see such incredible leaps again.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)