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Deleted member 52823

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Jan 29, 2019
342
I dunno about forgotten, but these are my favorite old console features:

PS3:

Being able to download media off the web browser, like movies and such. Also, using a USB stick to transfer music, movies, saves etc from one PS3 to another.

Being able to rip music CDs to the PS3 and create MP3s out of them.

You can play the MP3s while playing certain games. On PS4, all you get is Spotify.

OG PS3 obviously runs PS2 and PS1 games at higher upscaled resolution, without the need for a physical memory card. All PS3s can run physical PS1 games, but yeah.

Can support (8? Or 6?) DS3 controllers at once vs PS4's 4. This actually makes a difference if you ever wanted to play NHL or NBA2K with that many people locally.

Wii:

Being able to play GameCube games at 480p with component cables (the GCN ones cost more IIRC).

Using the Wavebird on Wii for GCN and certain Wii games. Obviously there are lots of consoles that don't let you use old controllers.

The Virtual Console was a cool service and cheap alternative to paying for physical versions of most old games. Plus, older consoles can have issues connecting to modern TVs.

Problem now is that it seems lots of new TVs don't have component inputs.

PS2:

Made PS1 completely obsolete with its "Smoothing" feature as well as faster loading times for PS1 titles.

PS1:

Could play music cds.

Wii U:

Can play Wii games through HDMI. While not as crisp as component cables (IMO), the plus side is that any TV these days has HDMI input.

Great streaming through the web browser. Able to stream to TV, and surf the web on the Gamepad simultaneously. Use of web sites like Couchtuner and Putlocker. Much superior at browsing web than PS3 or PS4.

Able to run games off of USB sticks.

OG Xbox:

Not much experience with Xbox, but playing music while playing games was a first IIRC.

HDD meant faster loading times and higher storage capacity.

GCN:

Nothing off the top of my head other than having the first official wireless first party controller with Wavebird.

Dreamcast:

First online service. Didn't work for me very well.

The memory card thing.

DS:

Suspend mode was awesome coming from GBA.

Getting bored of this post sorry.
 

TubaZef

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,563
Brazil
The touch-screen on the Switch. I wish more games supported it on portable mode, at least to navigate menus.


The reason the Wii U can play GCN game is because the Wii U hardware is basically just suped-up Wii hardware, which in turn was just suped-up Gamecube hardware. The reason there was never any official support for that potential feature in the Wii U is because, unlike the pre-2010 Wii systems, it's disc drive wasn't designed to physically load the smaller GCN discs.

Also, the Wii had GC controller and memory card ports built-in. Without those on the WiiU, you would need some extra peripherals or some hack that was not worthy for Nintendo to do.
They've done nothing for the Wii even, when running GC games, all the Wii features get locked, CPU gets underclocked and memory restricted, the Wii pretty much becomes a Game Cube.
 

SpinierBlakeD

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt account
Banned
Oct 28, 2018
1,353
The snap feature on Xbox One was amazing. I used to watch Netflix while playing Black flag all the time. Really wish MS would bring it back
 

julian

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,757
One I've seen repeatedly forgotten on this forum: the Switch has a built-in Mii maker app. I have no idea how I've seen multiple posters act like it doesn't exist since there are multiple places in the OS that direct you to it, but I've seen it many times here.
 

Nuri

Member
Jan 4, 2018
256
Two features I miss most from Xbox are Kinect integration and games and Netfix party mode on Xbox 360
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Manmademan

Election Thread Watcher
Member
Aug 6, 2018
15,992
Its common knowledge that the ps1 could play music cds, but not as common that many ps1 games could be played on a standard CD player to hear in game BGM or bonus tracks.

Symphony of the night is probably the best known example of this.
 

Crazymoogle

Game Developer
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
2,879
Asia
  • The PS2 was the first console to support DTS. I believe Square's The Bouncer was the first game to support it.
  • Both the OG Xbox and PS2 supported Dolby Digital 5.1
  • GCN was limited to Dolby Pro Logic II. It may have been the only console to support that.

On the PS2, DTS became popular because some developers figured out how to re-task the VU0 vector processor to encode DTS instead. DTS 4.0 and 5.1 were both much cheaper encodes than a real-time DD5.1 stream, which is why EA used it so much, but I guess GTA3 was the most famous example? Some games could do DD5.1 (such as MGS2) but that was only for cutscenes. Otherwise, your only options were DPL/DPL2 or just straight up stereo sound.

Pro Logic 2 as a standard was really new at the time - it went public less than a year before GameCube released - but it's a simulated, "mix" Dolby mode, not true 5 channel audio. The upside is that the encode cost is super-cheap - Wii and GameCube both easily supported it - but the downside is you just don't get the same kind of separation as with DTS/DD. Factor 5 popularized this standard with Rogue Leader, but Nintendo used it as late as Super Mario Galaxy, I think.

Remember when the PS3 was supposed to have 7 wireless controllers connected to it

PS3 uses Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR, which only allows for 8 devices. But one of them has to be the master (the console). So that leaves 7 for any game controllers/bluetooth peripherals you have. Of course, actually having enough CPU time to process and display the results of seven inputs is...questionable, but it is there.
 

Xero grimlock

Member
Dec 1, 2017
2,944
The "hidden" startup menu on the PSX was a good one... If you turned the console on without a game you got a pretty simple bios, but the built in CD player was this bizarrely advanced UI for playing music with different sound effects.

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It was pretty rare to boot a console without a game in it back in those days so not everybody knew about this.



Lol I do remember that. It was such a weirdly specific thing. Wasn't one of them supposed to be the PSP, too?
this and the other disc based systems actively sold playing cds as a feature, and almost everyone i knew used it as a cd player at times.

doesnt quite fit, but i always thought it was neat if you like help the should buttons and start or something when you started a gamecube, up yiu got a different noice for the gamecube logo on boot.
 

Protoman200X

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
8,553
N. Vancouver, BC, Canada
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nillapuddin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,240
I use HDMI in/USB Antenna on my Xbox and I could not imagine a cooler setup, I'll be so sad if next gen doesn't include it.
Having my Switch plugged into it is so convenient.

I miss snap mode too :(
 

Flavius

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,314
Orlando, FL
Sega Saturn's audio player was definitely a product of its time. Loved to play with the pitch and/or remove vocals from songs just for the hell of it while watching the spaceship screensaver.

Ripping cds to mp3s to play custom soundtracks on the Xbox was also a joy.
 

Sprat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,684
England
this and the other disc based systems actively sold playing cds as a feature, and almost everyone i knew used it as a cd player at times.

doesnt quite fit, but i always thought it was neat if you like help the should buttons and start or something when you started a gamecube, up yiu got a different noice for the gamecube logo on boot.
My ps1 was completely different to that. Mine was like this

 

Pyro

God help us the mods are making weekend threads
Member
Jul 30, 2018
14,505
United States
I'd say the "ANALOG" button in the middle of the PS2 controller. I've never known what the hell it did.

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