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I love games that try to fake effects that are beyond the capabilities of the hardware.
Ranger-X's use of parallax scrolling to make 'polygonal' tunnels, and palette-shifting light and shadow.
Castlevania Bloodlines' reflecting water, collapsing scenery and rotating Nebulus-style towers.
Mickey Mania's, well, everything, from 3D cranes to the out-of-the-screen moose chase. (And another Nebulus tower)
Alien Soldier's enormous articulated bosses (the scanline-effect butterfly wings being a good one), Dynamite Headdy's '3D' platforms on skewers, Gunstar Heroes' title screen and the Seven Force.
Adventures of Batman & Robin's parallax-heavy opening level.
Red Zone's spinny-rotatey 3D landscape.
The Cave Salamander level of Earthworm Jim 2.
Anyone got any more? With vids/pics preferably :huh:
Smoke and mirrors A celebration of games that ignore hardware limitations
#2
Posted 12 August 2008 - 02:25 AM
Literally mirrors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03567r3ZC-o
Even thinking about that level still gives me a headache.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03567r3ZC-o
Even thinking about that level still gives me a headache.
#3
Posted 12 August 2008 - 02:37 AM
Yeah i remember Mickey Mania being ahead of its time, especially on the MD as it didn't have stuff like mode7 or the sprite scaling/rotation capabilities of the snes. Gunster Heroes does a lot of stuff not thought possible on the "humble" md, the mid-level boss on the 1st stage springs to mind. (8:40 in)
A lot of early 8bits used techniques to double the maximum sprites allowed on any point on the screen via alternating between the two.
Donkey Kong Country faked a 3d appearance (long before 2.5d was the vogue) by using sprites created on specialist 3d hardware to overcome hardware limits. It still looks amazing due to the sprites being pre-rendered, but they are just sprites. A healthy cart size helped
A lot of early 8bits used techniques to double the maximum sprites allowed on any point on the screen via alternating between the two.
Donkey Kong Country faked a 3d appearance (long before 2.5d was the vogue) by using sprites created on specialist 3d hardware to overcome hardware limits. It still looks amazing due to the sprites being pre-rendered, but they are just sprites. A healthy cart size helped
#4
Posted 12 August 2008 - 06:02 AM
Dandy_Sephy, on Aug 12 2008, 02:37 AM, said:
Donkey Kong Country faked a 3d appearance (long before 2.5d was the vogue) by using sprites created on specialist 3d hardware to overcome hardware limits. It still looks amazing due to the sprites being pre-rendered, but they are just sprites. A healthy cart size helped
It really doesn't look amazing anymore, it's a game that has aged very badly both from a visual and gameplay perspective. Try playing it on a Wii in component mode, it's a mess. Maybe it looks better in SD...
#5
Posted 12 August 2008 - 07:11 AM
I played it last year on a xbox and it looked amazing. that was over compnent in either 720p or 1080i with no effects or filters. I don't think the actual game was upscaled
#6
Posted 12 August 2008 - 07:26 AM
The final rotating tower at the end of NES Battletoads. It looked the part back in the day.
#7
Posted 12 August 2008 - 07:32 AM
DKC was a heap of shit even at the time, it seems weird to see young pups who think it was any good. Yoshi's Island was the real technical showcase.
#8
Posted 12 August 2008 - 08:16 AM
Quote
DKC was a heap of shit even at the time, it seems weird to see young pups who think it was any good. Yoshi's Island was the real technical showcase.
This (is totally wrong) and I'm 30 so can't be called a young pup. I also played these through on Xbox a couple of years back and they still look great.
#9
Posted 12 August 2008 - 08:18 AM
To this day, I still don't think I've seen as much parallax scrolling as in Lionheart on the Amiga. Look at all those clouds moving at different speeds! Plus some nice water effects at the bottom of the screen, too.
Shame the central sprite was a bit naff.
Plus the spaceship that flew out of the screen at 1:25 on this video of the intro to Stardust on the Amiga knocked my socks off. The crazy ray-traced graphics in general blew me away.
Shame the central sprite was a bit naff.
Plus the spaceship that flew out of the screen at 1:25 on this video of the intro to Stardust on the Amiga knocked my socks off. The crazy ray-traced graphics in general blew me away.
#10
Posted 12 August 2008 - 08:20 AM
Yoshi's Island is far better, yes. But DKC is far from crap, even though it is rather simple. The sequel is a lot better though.
Graphically is was awesome at the time and still pretty good today, the snow levels in particular.
Graphically is was awesome at the time and still pretty good today, the snow levels in particular.
#11
Posted 12 August 2008 - 08:22 AM
Graphically, I thought DKC was amaze at the time. It did stuff that no-one at the time thought possible on the SNES.
#12
Posted 12 August 2008 - 08:35 AM
Shadow of the Collosus pushed the PS2 to its limits, the frame rate was all over the place at times. Cant wait to see what they can achieve on the PS3, although they are taking their time.
#13
Posted 12 August 2008 - 08:43 AM
The AI in Half Life. Most of it was scripted but clever use of sound and some very good scripting made it look like your enemies were a lot smarter than they were. There is as far as I know no squad AI in Half Life but sometimes I could swear that they worked together to try and kill me. One of the best "tricks" in a game I ever experienced.
#14
Posted 12 August 2008 - 08:46 AM
I was thinking on this subject: if there isn't already, we need a word of phrase in the gaming world, to describe in shorthand the way in one which something that looks amazing now won't do so in a few year's time.
'Retro goggles' doesn't quite cut it. I'm not sure what else could.
'Retro goggles' doesn't quite cut it. I'm not sure what else could.
#15
Posted 12 August 2008 - 08:51 AM
angel, on Aug 12 2008, 08:32 AM, said:
DKC was a heap of shit even at the time, it seems weird to see young pups who think it was any good. Yoshi's Island was the real technical showcase.
I'm with angel on this.
Using rendered graphics was a bloody brilliant *idea*, but wasn't especially difficult (actually, one of the main difficulties would be getting usable 3D models, renders and animation from your largely 2D trained staff). The main technical problem was handling the massive amounts of data needed, and they side-stepped doing anything clever by having a massive cart (an economic solution to what would otherwise be a technical problem).
Yoshi's Island was really impressive in every respect.
Still, DKC is a brilliant contender for this thread, as it fooled a lot of people into thinking the SNES was doing more than it really was at the time.
#16
Posted 12 August 2008 - 08:59 AM
Meerman, on Aug 12 2008, 09:26 AM, said:
The final rotating tower at the end of NES Battletoads. It looked the part back in the day.
.::: Likewise Kirby's Adventure's parallax heaven during some of the final boss stages and ending sequence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNlhuPzRm1Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBzrMDMip0w
Very impressive back then, especially on a NES.
#17
Posted 12 August 2008 - 09:04 AM
the moment I saw this thread I immediately thought of shadow of the colossus and its fake HDR, motion blur, and fur shading techniques
That was truly a next-gen game on a current gen console.
That was truly a next-gen game on a current gen console.
#18
Posted 12 August 2008 - 09:08 AM
jcafarley, on Aug 12 2008, 08:02 AM, said:
It really doesn't look amazing anymore, it's a game that has aged very badly both from a visual and gameplay perspective. Try playing it on a Wii in component mode, it's a mess. Maybe it looks better in SD...
There's your problem. Try playing it on a modded xbox over component in 1080i, it looks fucking amazing. Modded xbox >>>>> VC
#19
Posted 12 August 2008 - 09:23 AM
Twinbee, on Aug 12 2008, 09:18 AM, said:
To this day, I still don't think I've seen as much parallax scrolling as in Lionheart on the Amiga. Look at all those clouds moving at different speeds! Plus some nice water effects at the bottom of the screen, too.
Shame the central sprite was a bit naff.
Shame the central sprite was a bit naff.
Lionheart was immense!....try running it on a modded xbox on UAEX, stretched to full screen (it was a small window on the amiga)...its utterly superb and still fun. I bought Lionheart at the time due to the AP review and loved it...despite the mincing character ^_^
Ste Pickford, on Aug 12 2008, 09:51 AM, said:
I'm with angel on this.
Using rendered graphics was a bloody brilliant *idea*, but wasn't especially difficult (actually, one of the main difficulties would be getting usable 3D models, renders and animation from your largely 2D trained staff). The main technical problem was handling the massive amounts of data needed, and they side-stepped doing anything clever by having a massive cart (an economic solution to what would otherwise be a technical problem).
Yoshi's Island was really impressive in every respect.
Still, DKC is a brilliant contender for this thread, as it fooled a lot of people into thinking the SNES was doing more than it really was at the time.
Using rendered graphics was a bloody brilliant *idea*, but wasn't especially difficult (actually, one of the main difficulties would be getting usable 3D models, renders and animation from your largely 2D trained staff). The main technical problem was handling the massive amounts of data needed, and they side-stepped doing anything clever by having a massive cart (an economic solution to what would otherwise be a technical problem).
Yoshi's Island was really impressive in every respect.
Still, DKC is a brilliant contender for this thread, as it fooled a lot of people into thinking the SNES was doing more than it really was at the time.
exactly, it was a pure brute force solution, chuck a load of cart memory at a big name game and hype the hell out of it. the poor third parties paying twice the price for cart space couldnt compete fairly at all. also it had no character, it was soulless to me...
remember the reviews at the time on the official mags...100%! forget the playstation...erm no. Only the great super play actually said it was very ordinary game-wise
#20
Posted 12 August 2008 - 09:35 AM
Mercenary and Koronis Rift on the C64. 64k. Christ the amount of times I hear coders bleating about having no memory..
