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The Apple version looked much better than the NES version. The PC-88 & PC-98 version absolutely demolish the NES version.

Citation needed...oh wait, I have a citation for you that proves you wrong:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.n...

Deus Ex on PS2 had crap textures, low quality soundtrack and tiny levels

They're not tiny, they're split in pieces, the port house didn't know the trick of streaming levels. But take a look at the screenshots...

http://steamcommunity.com/shar...

and the comments at the end about the nice soundtrack and how it looks a touch nicer than the PC version. And this is people on Steam saying this, one of the more anti-console forums on the net.

Half-Life on PS2 came out three years after the PC original and still looked worse than the PC version with Blue Shift,

Do you know why I'm laughing. The graphical upgrade Blue Shift brought to the PC version was provided by the never released Dreamcast version. the High Definition pack are the textures the Dreamcast version used. The PS2 version has enhancements beyond that:

http://half-life.wikia.com/wik...

The PlayStation 2 remake of Half-Life saw even further improved models to the game, also created by Gearbox. This included full facial animation and individually-animated fingers.[4] As such, they're considered a continuation of the High Definition Pack. The PlayStation 2 port took advantage of a "Level of Detail" system, allowing these very detailed models up close without sacrificing performance. Health and H.E.V. Chargers have been converted to 3D and have special animations during use. These extra HD features were never officially released for the PC version of the game.

Both had crap controls on console, rendering them unplayable.

Really, you have copies? Played them? Citation needed, because I have both within 10 feet of me and know how they support effective dual shock controls, and also support keyboard and/or mouse. I personally recommend a hybrid control scheme, using the left half of a dual shock for movement...but mouse for aiming.

Sacred 2 looked like shit on PC, but far worse on console.

What? A game that runs at true 1080p with no upscaling tricks? Even digital foundry, notoriously partisan for the PC, said that.

It was also a very mouse heavy game which again renders it virtually unplayable on a gamepad.

That's not what Sacred 2's developers say. That's not even what people on the PC version say either. Some of them actually wanted gamepad support as well.

Diablo I on PSX came out two years after the PC version and runs at such a low resolution that you can't tell what it happening on screen.

Troll. It's one of the PSone games that runs at 240p. Yes it's low but you can easily make everything out. You can easily find video or screenshots.

Diablo III on console looks like shit compared to the PC version.

That's not what notoriously PC partisan Digital Foundry said:

http://www.eurogamer.net/artic...

On the technical scale, both the PS3 and 360 are running at the equivalent to the PC version's high settings for texture assets, physics and effects - with smoothed dynamic shadows almost a match for PC's highest preset. Quibbles with internal resolution and field of view aside, this is a pristinely presented take on a year-old game that targets 60fps on both platforms, and largely succeeds in nailing exactly

I think the reference to BO in this particular article is relevant. It also mentions the edge-online article. http://blog.hardcoregaming101....

I'm getting a strong feeling of all these things happening at the same time. BO had a few innovations (apparently pioneering the health bar), but it was no genesis of JRPG on its own. Also, BO was (IIRC) a 3D-maze-view game like Wizardry, while JRPGs generally went the Ultima way with a top-down map view, though I remember that Phantasy Star I had a top-down overworld, but a 3D-maze-view underworld.

Also note how Wizardry and Ultima came out at roughly the same time. Now my memories of the time around 1980 (my high school days) are a bit fuzzy, but among the nerdy types D&D was popular, and everyone with access to a computer wanted to figure out how to make it work on a computer. I sure know I did. But having limited RAM (16K being pretty standard in 1980, 48K-64K a year or two later), and limited storage (floppy disk drives were not cheap) were major limitations.

My gut feeling is that a similar thing was happening in Japan because of paper and dice RPGs, as well as the first wave of importing Wizardry and Ultima before they were officially released in Japan. There was this cool new type of game (both paper and dice as well as computer), and by 1983, everybody wanted to do it.

RPGs did not "arrive" in Japan with The Black Onyx, that is just a popular myth. Here is an attempt to chronicle all of the JRPGs that came earlier:

http://blog.hardcoregaming101....

Here's a good article on every myst game including uru: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/myst/myst.htm

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ has a tons!

In Total Carnage, an evil Middle Eastern dictator named General Akhboob closes off his country to the rest of the world following a war in 1999. Hundreds of reporters flocked to the zone in hopes of getting a real scoop. Unfortunately for them, one of the reporters discovers that there's more than baby milk being made at the 'Baby Milk Factory'.

General Akhboob then captures the reporter, as well as all the remaining reporters in his country. It turns out that General Akhboob has been building an army of mutants and a stockpile of chemical weapons. He's also holding several American reporters and other civilians captive. It is up to the Doomsday Squad, composed of Captain Carnage (Player 1) and Major Mayhem (Player 2), to invade Akhboob's base, wipe out his forces, destroy the mutants, rescue all the hostages and capture Akhboob.

If their secret technology is anything like the Guardian, then I demand a peaceful resolution to this conflict, and some time to personally inspect the system!

Is this close enough?

"Game development is a very special job that requires a very special person. The high stress levels often drive our staff members to become... subhuman. They're violent and need to be caged. But we need them to make good games. This is the unfortunate truth of the game industry..."
- actual in-game quote from a Segagaga NPC

Try reading sites like Hardcore Gaming 101, The Video Game Critic, and Racketboy. The article is right, in print gaming journalism is long dead, but there's still quality stuff on the internet.