@profkross a funny thing is, American platformers of the era were as heavily inspired by Euro Platformers as by Japanese ones. Duke Nukem 1 & 2 were inspired by Turrican. Jazz Jackrabbit famously resembles Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but I have it straight from Cliff Bleszinski that it was also directly inspired by Turrican. Id Software's Commander Keen and Dangerous Dave games took inspiration from Mario, but their level design much closer resembles games made for microcomputers popular in PAL territories. So do EGA DOS platformers from Apogee, including Secret Agent and Crystal Caves.
I recall some criticism of non-Japanese platform games during the 90s, but it was all Western platform games, and especially ones not designed for consoles. It was console elitism at that time more than anything else.
@1040STF I wrote my comment before the article was updated, so it's moot. But as originally written, it was implied that not only had arcade footage been used, but that it was from a game never released on NES, and that a prop cartridge of this imaginary release had been fabricated to match the game footage. That they matched would've suggested some level of coordination at least. Like even if the Duffer Bros hadn't intended to feature a non-existent NES game, the person creating the prop and the person sourcing the footage would have to be doing the same thing on purpose for the results to match. So that's where I was coming from.
But as it turns out it's a game that WAS released on the NES, that's probably a real cart of it (it's inexpensive and easy to find), and somebody just grabbed footage from the arcade version by mistake, which does seem incredibly easy to miss.
The Crash was always a console-specific event. A few American arcade makers got spooked, but the arcade and computer markets generally continued unabated, even here in the States. It's a bit odd then, that people keep presenting "well, we didn't really have much of a console market here yet anyway" as an invalidation of the event. Imagine if Rock and Roll had almost died out in its native United States before it caught on globally, and the Beatles had singlehandedly saved it. That would be an extremely important event in the history of popular music in general, let alone rock music specifically, wouldn't it? Prior to the global boom, the U.S. rock scene WAS Rock and Roll.
Now imagine someone goes, "well actually the Rolling Stones popularized Rock here in Brazil.. We don't really care much about the Beatles." That would be a valid and interesting thing to cover, but it's a "this also happened," not a counterpoint. The Stones were part of the same British rock boom that (in this alternate history) saved Rock and Roll from the dustbin elsewhere.
Except in this case the UK is Japan, the Beatles are Nintendo, and the Stones are Sega.
Nevermind that "America almost destroyed an entire industry it created, but Japan swooped in and saved it from our own idiocy and greed" is hardly the jingoistic narrative it's been painted as recently.
It's true that this used to be extremely common. A startling amount of the assets from the original Duke Nukem (no, the original Duke Nukem) were traced from MegaMan for DOS and from Turrican. The Turrican series ripped off art from heavy metal albums and music from Transformers: The Movie.
But video games as an industry and as an art form were much younger then. It's not normal now. It's not as easily overlooked now. We're all supposed to know better now. It's past. That's not hypocrisy, it's growth. Chris Huelsbeck, who once copied from Vince DiCola has now collaborated with him.
@-wc- what they're listening to mostly isn't the music or the speakers so much as the amplifiers. The sound they look for from vinyl and wooden blocks and all of that mostly comes from tube amps.
Konami's conversions from arcade to NES tended to tighten the controls and expand the content. Contra, Gyruss, and TMNT stand out to me in particular, especially the Famicom version of Contra.
I prefer to play these versions, but of course I'd love even more to have remakes of Contra and TMNT that play like the home versions but with the arcade graphics missing content restored.
@Blofse I think PSX could be better described as a dark horse than as an underdog. An underdog you expect to lose based on their history. A dark horse comes out of nowhere and wins.
If Saturn had been able to play Genesis and 32X cartridges, there would've been more incentive to develop 32X games as a way for publishers to hedge their bets. With more games available, consumers would have more reason to own a 32X. And the backwards compatibility would've made the Saturn more appealing to existing customers as well.
It's still doubtful the add-on would've been highly successful (add-ons never are). But keeping an older platform on as a third pillar, with enhanced games and backwards compatibility is something Nintendo had success with during the overlap between GB/GBC/GBA and between GBA and DS.
@NinChocolate the old fix used to be to get a 32X. It pulls nice clean RGB from the main console, and they had much better composite encoders. Obviously there are much more practical solutions now, but it was effective!
@Cyber_Akuma it's not the only one, but there are a lot of misconceptions about that. The blurring is less to do with CRTs and more with composite and RF video. Checkered dithering is often assumed to be intended for blending, but is actually common even when it's not (e.g. Game Boy games) and vertical bands are more effective for that.
I'm not aware of any convincing evidence that developers relied on visible scan lines (no, not even the SoR piano), and that idea actually runs counter to the idea of reliance on general blurriness. Most NTSC consumer TV sets throughout the 80s and 90s hid scan lines almost completely due to shadow mask patterns and phosphor bloom. Unless you were gaming on a high end Trinitron or a video monitor made for computers, you weren't likely to see gaps between lines. It definitely wasn't something the developers could rely on being present.
A good rule of thumb for separating the myth from the reality (which I'm stealing from the developer of I Wanna Be The Guy) is to ask yourself, "if the effect wasn't intended, would this have been done any differently?" If the answer is no, then it's probably a neat coincidence.
@Cyber_Akuma in this case it's actually an effect of the composite video encoder chip. Sega sourced those from multiple vendors, so some boards ended up with worse ones than others, which accounts for why lots of people never encountered it.
The rainbowing is almost certainly not intended, only happens over composite on consoles from batches with especially cheap/bad encoder chips, and was definitely never as pronounced as it is with this filter. The intended effect was fake transparency, which you'd get on composite from any batch, of any revision, on any screen.
On the specific consoles that have this issue, it's present not just in waterfalls, but also in palm fronds, glass tubes, lighting and shadow effects, and basically anywhere a transparency effect was attempted.
The SGB 2 Vaporwave Edition palettes are originally from a ROM hack: "Super Game Boy 2: Vaporwave Edition"
I don't know if I'm allowed to post a link, but you can find it on RHDN. It features the same 32 custom palettes plus a full set of custom Super Game Boy borders, and it works on FXPAK Pro carts as well as multiple emulators, MiSTer FPGA, and the Super Game Boy core for Analogue Pocket.
The Vaporwave Edition palettes in the APGB pack are converted directly from the ROM hack. In the future I'll make expanded versions to take better advantage of the APGB format.
Comments 22
Re: A Puyo Puyo-Themed Variant Of An Obscure Compile Puzzler Is Making Its Way To Nintendo Switch For Christmas
Now all we need is for Kirby Star Stacker and SegaSonic Bros to be reskinned with characters from Nyanpi, and the circle will be complete.
Re: Tired Of "The Usual North American Perspectives", This New Book Aims To Offer A Global View Of Game History
@profkross a funny thing is, American platformers of the era were as heavily inspired by Euro Platformers as by Japanese ones. Duke Nukem 1 & 2 were inspired by Turrican. Jazz Jackrabbit famously resembles Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but I have it straight from Cliff Bleszinski that it was also directly inspired by Turrican. Id Software's Commander Keen and Dangerous Dave games took inspiration from Mario, but their level design much closer resembles games made for microcomputers popular in PAL territories. So do EGA DOS platformers from Apogee, including Secret Agent and Crystal Caves.
I recall some criticism of non-Japanese platform games during the 90s, but it was all Western platform games, and especially ones not designed for consoles. It was console elitism at that time more than anything else.
Re: Donkey Kong Country Composer Thought The Soundtrack Would Be Changed By Nintendo
@ricklongo Forest Interlude should definitely be more popular than it is. Even better than Aquatic Ambience in my opinion.
Re: Random: Did You Spot This NES-Related Blunder In Stranger Things Season 5?
@1040STF I wrote my comment before the article was updated, so it's moot. But as originally written, it was implied that not only had arcade footage been used, but that it was from a game never released on NES, and that a prop cartridge of this imaginary release had been fabricated to match the game footage. That they matched would've suggested some level of coordination at least. Like even if the Duffer Bros hadn't intended to feature a non-existent NES game, the person creating the prop and the person sourcing the footage would have to be doing the same thing on purpose for the results to match. So that's where I was coming from.
But as it turns out it's a game that WAS released on the NES, that's probably a real cart of it (it's inexpensive and easy to find), and somebody just grabbed footage from the arcade version by mistake, which does seem incredibly easy to miss.
Re: Random: Did You Spot This NES-Related Blunder In Stranger Things Season 5?
EDIT
I commented based on the original version of the article, so any conclusions I drew from it aren't relevant anymore
Re: Tired Of "The Usual North American Perspectives", This New Book Aims To Offer A Global View Of Game History
The Crash was always a console-specific event. A few American arcade makers got spooked, but the arcade and computer markets generally continued unabated, even here in the States. It's a bit odd then, that people keep presenting "well, we didn't really have much of a console market here yet anyway" as an invalidation of the event. Imagine if Rock and Roll had almost died out in its native United States before it caught on globally, and the Beatles had singlehandedly saved it. That would be an extremely important event in the history of popular music in general, let alone rock music specifically, wouldn't it? Prior to the global boom, the U.S. rock scene WAS Rock and Roll.
Now imagine someone goes, "well actually the Rolling Stones popularized Rock here in Brazil.. We don't really care much about the Beatles." That would be a valid and interesting thing to cover, but it's a "this also happened," not a counterpoint. The Stones were part of the same British rock boom that (in this alternate history) saved Rock and Roll from the dustbin elsewhere.
Except in this case the UK is Japan, the Beatles are Nintendo, and the Stones are Sega.
Nevermind that "America almost destroyed an entire industry it created, but Japan swooped in and saved it from our own idiocy and greed" is hardly the jingoistic narrative it's been painted as recently.
Re: "Definitely Possible" - Could A Golden Axe: Revenge Of Death Adder Mega Drive Port Be On The Way?
It should've been alongside the Superscaler games that were ported to 32X
Re: "No Generative AI Was Used In Earthion's Final Version" - Yuzo Koshiro Debunks GenAI Rumour
I can't believe people thought an old school polymath virtuoso like Yuzo Koshiro would resort to slop. Especially in a magnum opus like this one.
Re: Developer Of New €60 Mega Drive / Genesis Game Accused Of Using Stolen Artwork
It's true that this used to be extremely common. A startling amount of the assets from the original Duke Nukem (no, the original Duke Nukem) were traced from MegaMan for DOS and from Turrican. The Turrican series ripped off art from heavy metal albums and music from Transformers: The Movie.
But video games as an industry and as an art form were much younger then. It's not normal now. It's not as easily overlooked now. We're all supposed to know better now. It's past. That's not hypocrisy, it's growth. Chris Huelsbeck, who once copied from Vince DiCola has now collaborated with him.
Re: "The Most Bafflingly Poor Products We Have Ever Reviewed" - Marseille's mClassic RGB Collection Fails To Impress The Experts
@-wc- what they're listening to mostly isn't the music or the speakers so much as the amplifiers. The sound they look for from vinyl and wooden blocks and all of that mostly comes from tube amps.
Re: Talking Point: Is There A Home Port You Prefer To The Arcade Original?
Konami's conversions from arcade to NES tended to tighten the controls and expand the content. Contra, Gyruss, and TMNT stand out to me in particular, especially the Famicom version of Contra.
I prefer to play these versions, but of course I'd love even more to have remakes of Contra and TMNT that play like the home versions but with the arcade graphics missing content restored.
Re: Random: This US Bakery Still Uses A Commodore 64 For Sales In 2024
We did it. We found the comic bakery.
Re: Don't Forget The Sega 32X Turns 30 This Year, Too
@Blofse I think PSX could be better described as a dark horse than as an underdog. An underdog you expect to lose based on their history. A dark horse comes out of nowhere and wins.
Re: Don't Forget The Sega 32X Turns 30 This Year, Too
If Saturn had been able to play Genesis and 32X cartridges, there would've been more incentive to develop 32X games as a way for publishers to hedge their bets. With more games available, consumers would have more reason to own a 32X. And the backwards compatibility would've made the Saturn more appealing to existing customers as well.
It's still doubtful the add-on would've been highly successful (add-ons never are). But keeping an older platform on as a third pillar, with enhanced games and backwards compatibility is something Nintendo had success with during the overlap between GB/GBC/GBA and between GBA and DS.
Re: What Do You See In Sonic The Hedgehog's Waterfalls?
@NinChocolate the old fix used to be to get a 32X. It pulls nice clean RGB from the main console, and they had much better composite encoders. Obviously there are much more practical solutions now, but it was effective!
Re: What Do You See In Sonic The Hedgehog's Waterfalls?
@Cyber_Akuma it's not the only one, but there are a lot of misconceptions about that. The blurring is less to do with CRTs and more with composite and RF video. Checkered dithering is often assumed to be intended for blending, but is actually common even when it's not (e.g. Game Boy games) and vertical bands are more effective for that.
I'm not aware of any convincing evidence that developers relied on visible scan lines (no, not even the SoR piano), and that idea actually runs counter to the idea of reliance on general blurriness. Most NTSC consumer TV sets throughout the 80s and 90s hid scan lines almost completely due to shadow mask patterns and phosphor bloom. Unless you were gaming on a high end Trinitron or a video monitor made for computers, you weren't likely to see gaps between lines. It definitely wasn't something the developers could rely on being present.
A good rule of thumb for separating the myth from the reality (which I'm stealing from the developer of I Wanna Be The Guy) is to ask yourself, "if the effect wasn't intended, would this have been done any differently?" If the answer is no, then it's probably a neat coincidence.
Re: What Do You See In Sonic The Hedgehog's Waterfalls?
@Cyber_Akuma in this case it's actually an effect of the composite video encoder chip. Sega sourced those from multiple vendors, so some boards ended up with worse ones than others, which accounts for why lots of people never encountered it.
Re: What Do You See In Sonic The Hedgehog's Waterfalls?
The rainbowing is almost certainly not intended, only happens over composite on consoles from batches with especially cheap/bad encoder chips, and was definitely never as pronounced as it is with this filter. The intended effect was fake transparency, which you'd get on composite from any batch, of any revision, on any screen.
On the specific consoles that have this issue, it's present not just in waterfalls, but also in palm fronds, glass tubes, lighting and shadow effects, and basically anywhere a transparency effect was attempted.
Re: New Doom Cheat Code Surfaces After 27 Years
@mashk I know the Saturn version is clunky, but even the DOS original was hard capped at 35 fps 😅
Re: Anniversary: The Super Game Boy Is 30 Years Old
Somewhat related ROMhack:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6449/
Re: We're One Step Closer To A "New" Sega Neptune Console
Does it work with the Power Base Converter? That would be a cool improvement over existing methods.
Re: Guide: How To Use Game Boy Custom Palettes On Analogue Pocket
Thanks for the mention!
The SGB 2 Vaporwave Edition palettes are originally from a ROM hack: "Super Game Boy 2: Vaporwave Edition"
I don't know if I'm allowed to post a link, but you can find it on RHDN. It features the same 32 custom palettes plus a full set of custom Super Game Boy borders, and it works on FXPAK Pro carts as well as multiple emulators, MiSTer FPGA, and the Super Game Boy core for Analogue Pocket.
The Vaporwave Edition palettes in the APGB pack are converted directly from the ROM hack. In the future I'll make expanded versions to take better advantage of the APGB format.