History SpecialEffectFailure / VideoGames

** Related to above, but certain games on older consoles would also switch resolutions between different screens. This was most notable during the SEGA Saturn, PlayStation, and Nintendo 64 era, where games such as ''VideoGame/Tekken1'', ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', and ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'' would switch between a low and high resolution mode to squeeze out extra detail in the graphics. On original analog hardware, this is a seamless switch, but it becomes a problem for digital signals. Modern televisions, capturing devices, and resolution scaling devices are infamous for dropping the signal when there is a resolution change, which can get bad enough to make certain games genuinely unplayable.

** Many games of the past were also intended to be played at much lower resolution, as was standard at the time. This is notable in that trying to get them to play on modern computer screens or [=TVs=] often makes them look ''really'' stretched out. This is one reason many older games have to be modded or somewhat redone so that they can play without causing a ''lot'' of blur or requiring the viewer to squint as they are played at the original resolution.

** Many games of the past were also intended to be played at much lower resolution, as was standard at the time. This is notable in that trying to get them to play on modern computer screens or TVs often makes them look ''really'' stretched out. This is one reason many older games have to be modded or somewhat redone so that they can play without causing a ''lot'' of blur or requiring the viewer to squint as they are played at the original resolution.

* ''Videogame/TheDeadlyTowerOfMonsters'' is designed to look like a 1950's B-Movie. One with effects that aren't particularly good.

** Near the end of the cutscene in ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'' where Lara is speaking to a monk in the oil rig, [[BigBad Marco]] is seen approaching the room from another entrance above Lara. His head briefly clips into the low ceiling as he enters the room. In the very same scene, after Marco kills the monk, he and Lara briefly exchange gunfire, but there's no muzzle flash from either character's guns.

** Lara's teenage model in ''VideoGame/TombRaiderChronicles'' has a slight error when she holds a torch. Her hands are normally rendered as open palm, but when Lara holds a torch, the hand that is used to hold it suddenly switches to the hand from the adult Lara model, which is rendered as a closed, blocky fist and has a glove on it. This was most likely done in an attempt to save time on changing parts of the model with little effort.

** Games like ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'' made extensive use of dithering to show more hues of colors.[[https://i.imgur.com/lll7csE.png]]
** Many games with prerendered graphics such as ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' look smoother and more colorful in CRT, but more pixelated, jaggy and artifact-ridden in modern displays.[[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ERt-XslUYAUVCGW?format=jpg&name=orig]] This is one of the reasons old prerendered graphics gained the reputation of aging poorly.

** On occasion, this also extends to sound effects as well - computer hardware may have trouble reading MIDI files and causing them to sound way differently than when played on the hardware it was originally made for. On a few occasions, the hardware or sound chips themselves are used to perform the sound effects, which emulators might sometimes have difficulty replicating correctly. This is most notable in games like ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' and ''VideoGame/LiveALive'', in which some sound effects (Such as Lavos's roar or Saint Alicia's screaming) get interpreted as sounding closer to sirens, or [[SensoryAbuse shrill beeps]].
** In [[https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/List_of_CPU_speed_sensitive_games some games]], especially during TheNineties, certain things were tied to the CPU speed. This means that playing them on modern hardware can cause all sorts of things such as the sound or the animations being way too fast.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' often uses Mode 7 to dazzling effect, such as navigating the overworld or for various spell effects. The cart ride from Vector is not one of those moments, with ugly masses of brown pixels standing in for the cart track and any passing mechanical structures. The high-definition mobile release and its ports finally gave the scene a presentable appearance.

* ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' has one level that takes place in what can be considered the sun. The colors are mostly orange, red, yellow, and white and they are quite bright. On the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole version, the colors in the same level appear muted and are not as vibrant.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonSnap'' has a speed up feature that lets you move your vehicle faster if you need to skip parts of the stage. Because everything is scripted, the speed up feature also speeds up everything else. It can make certain Pokémon that jump about look quite silly at double speed.

*** The updated character models don't look quite right. Asuka in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' looks ComicallyCrosseyed and some characters in ''Vice City'' lost some details like wrinkles on their faces. Characters in ''San Andreas'' have it the worst, such as Denise (CJ's first girlfriend) looking like an old woman and her bandana becoming black and blending in with her hair. The character models also gained individually modeled fingers, but the old animations are still used and are assumed the characters ''don't'' have fingers, so you get situations where characters are waving their hands about without moving their fingers or holding guns weirdly.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'':
** In one mission, you have to follow Caesar to meet up with everyone else for some illegal street racing. CJ's sister, Kendl, is seen riding with Caesar in the cut scene. During the actual game play, Kendl's model is strangely replaced with a female NPC.
** The HD remaster gives all the character models a very noticeable shiny look to them, which even applies to their skin.

* In ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', there's a cutscene in which the title character encounters a room full of robotic copies of himself. The intended dramatic effect is ruined by the (most likely hardware-influenced) decision to render all of the Shadow androids using his low-detail model--including one positioned directly in front of the camera, giving the player a very close look at its low-res textures and polygonal quills.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'''s definitive edition did a ''lot'' of clean-up to its visuals. ''Especially'' to the character models. The characters no longer look incredibly blurry or low-res compared to the SceneryPorn background, nor are you viewing them on the screen of a New 3DS. It shows nothing but SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome... until you visit Frontier Village and end up seeing the Nopons close-up during a cutscene. Every Nopon except for Riki's mouths ''do not move''. And when Riki's mouth ''does'' move, it's obviously pixel-mouth (a popular animation tactic in heavily stylized games, such as ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2''.) ''Un''like VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 however... Riki's the only one in the world who does this, meaning he looks ''very'' out of place. It's still better than those static-faced Nopon though.

** Games like classic ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' used dithering to produce transparency.[[https://i.imgur.com/qFEvOyh.png]] Modern displays led to the misconception that the waterfalls in Green Hill Zone are supposed to look like a bunch of lines, which became so widespread that even ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' depicted them like that.

* Some of the backgrounds in ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' are [[https://thekingofgrabs.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/paper-mario-n64-104.jpg really poorly compressed,]] with obvious artifacts that make them look really jarring even on the original hardware. The Virtual Console releases also make the dialogue boxes and hud look pixelated, by contrast with everything else.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonSnap'' has a speed up feature that lets you move your vehicle faster if you need to skip parts of the stage. Because everything is scripted, the speed up feature also speeds up everything else. It can make certain Pokemon that jump about look quite silly at double speed.

* ''VideoGame/WarCraft'' 3: Reforged has this in spades:

** On release, many models were still placeholders and animations were missing from both the Reforged as well as the original (and the original was missing shading too), since it now shares a client with Reforged and thus inherts all this issues that didn't happen in the original.
** During the last orc campaign mission in RoC section, skies would turn black when infernals were summoned instead of the correct red.

*** The game also has quite a problem with textures. Viewed from afar, the game looks fantastic with its art style. Viewing certain things up close shows a number of blemishes on the textures. The most notable example is Hien, a major NPC with a unique outfit. Viewing him up close (which will happen in a lot of cutscenes) shows how horribly pixelated the textures on his outfit are. Likewise, the [[spoiler: Crystal Exarch]] has a lot of pixelation on his body when he starts to crystalize. Likewise, the Carbuncle mount's nose, when viewed up close, is just a patch of pixels rather than an actual nose texture.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has an animation for every possible movement Link can do, but there's no animation for Link doing a backflip while aiming the bow, slingshot, or hookshot; his model just rotates in a full circle without any animations at all. Strangely, the 3DS version gives Link updated animations and he still lacks animations from the previous backflip problem.

** Final Fantasy VII Remake has a chapter where Cloud and Aerith pick flowers. Not only do the flowers suddenly appear in Cloud's hand when reaches over, when he puts them in the basket, the basket is suddenly full.

*** The game also has quite a problem with textures. Viewed from afar, the game looks fantastic with its art style. Viewing certain things up close shows a number of blemishes on the textures. The most notable example is Hien, a major NPC with a unique outfit. Viewing him up close (which will happen in a lot of cutscenes) shows how horribly pixelated the textures on his outfit are. Likewise, the [[spoiler: Crystal Exarch]] has a lot of pixelation on his body when he starts to crystalize.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'': Early in the story Link defeats a Deku Scrub who attacked Zelda, prompting it to apologize and promise to stop attacking people and go back to his cave, right supposedly leaving. The problem is that the devs didn't bother making an animation of the Scrub walking away, so they just had him use the standard enemy death animation, with it exploding into nothingness, making it look as though it just died.

* Many retro games don't render correctly in modern hardware, or at least not in the way the devs intended, leading to this trope. For instance, old console games would often exploit imperfections in old [=TVs=] and display methods to produce visual effects than the system couldn't natively output. A technique that made full use of this was dithering, which would take advantage of the pixel blending in composite to display more colors or transparency, but in modern displays it looks like a set of lines or checkerboard dots instead (unless a special filter is used to simulate the old look). Some examples of these "tricks" would be:

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'':
** In the lava stages, beginning with Hot-Head Hop, the kill barrier is located at the bottom of the screen, but the surface of the lava isn't, allowing you to pass below the surface of the lava without getting hurt. It's especially noticeable in the stage Red Hot Ride, which has slowly descending hot-air balloon platforms. Of course, no one's complaining from a gameplay standpoint, as it makes this already NintendoHard game somewhat easier, but it still looks weird.