what was the more important thing in 8/16-bit era gaming?

[Tatsujin]

i would go with music, since i listen to those tunez for hours daily over years until now and also will do till the end of my days 

[FM-77]

Gameplay. Don't really care about graphics/music as long as the game's fun to play.

This does only apply to the 8/16 bit era. I will not play new games that look like crap.

[termis]

Availability of time.  I could play a game for more than couple hours and have zero guilt about it.

Not so true these days.

[Necromancer]

Gameplay, gameplay, gameplay, and oh yeah, gameplay.  Who the hell wants to play something that's boring, controls like shit, and has poor hit detection?  But, but, but - it's pretty and sounds nice.  So f*cking what.

[Kitsunexus]

I say the music, there's a lot of sucky games that I would never play, but their music is on my MP3 player because it's just so damn catchy!

[Keranu]

Crap I wish I could change my vote from gameplay to "nothing of them above, but.." because I just realized it's the console names that make them so fun! Sega MASTER System, TURBO GRAFX 16, Sega GENESIS, etc...

[Digi.k]

music and graphics!!

[Necromancer]

Damn It Keranu!  Now I want to change my vote too.  We all know that the most important thing is what the packaging materials taste like.  Ummmm.... expanded polystyrene and cardboard. 

[Keranu]

Ok I just edited the poll with my mighty powers so you can change your vote, I hope tatsujin doesn't mind . You make a good point, Necro.

[kenomac78]

i dont care what anybody says, graphics were the ONLY thing that mattered in those days.

maybe looking back we all start to spout off this  'game play over graphics' like looking back at the NES like a normal rockell painting or something. but its not true.

EVERY kid in school only talked about grpahics. 'hey man did you see zelda 2? yea it had awesome graphics!" or "you play atari? that sucks because it doesnt have good graphics, nintendo has good graphics" also this can account for why 75% of NES games were garbage, but sold well, because of the 12 year old's mantr of  'good graphics',

and look to the 16 bit era, the game system we all adore is called turbo GRAFX! i dont think theres a bigger sign. 

look to the SNES vs genesis ads. it was never why one or the others games were more fun, it was mode 7 vs blast processing. culminating with sega CD being the 'first' to bring real life 'cd graphics' the greatest graphics of all time(sic) 'like they gotta be 64 or 128 bit  man!!'

its a battle that will always go on forever, until in some theoretical futire theres only one game system, like its a vcr or dvd player.

but at least now, some of the gamers out there realize the quality of individual games rather that the 'got good graphics' brainwash crap. but most of them just troll endlessly on fanboy boards.

[FM-77]

Actually, I was reluctant to getting a SNES because I thought the graphics were "too good". I thought that they spent all the time working on the graphics, not caring about the actual gameplay. I was happy playing my old NES games with crap graphics. Then I got a SNES and it proved just how wrong I was.

I've come to realize that the games with the awesome graphics are mostly great, whereas games with bad graphics are mostly crap. This applies to all the video game generations.

[nodtveidt]

Gameplay is king. Was back then, is still today, and always will be. Of course, the fanboys always looked for the graphics.

[Kitsunexus]

This applies to all the video game generations.

Not so sure about that, you all know about this generation, and remember those four little words:


Rise Of The Robots... 

[FM-77]

I've never played the game myself, and honestly I never found that graphics in that game very good. Low-color cg graphics (actually, any cg graphics from the 90's or earlier, for that matter) makes me sick. Yuck.

Except the DKC games. Doesn't look like cg to me.

[Kitsunexus]

What about Killer Instinct? That was a TERRIBLE PORT.