Mockup Frenzy #7: Cinematendo!

[surt]

Yar. What does "1 palette per 2x2 tile block mean"?
Tiles are 2x2 pixels (no mention or tiles elsewhere), or blocks of two tiles by two tiles (if so what size are tiles, 8x8)?

[Ichigo Jam]

Tiles are 8x8, so the BG palette is selectable for each 16x16 pixel block.
Each palette has 4 entries - 3 of these are selectable colours, the fourth is always transparent.

But I don't know what the "fade region" is - is there an example of it in any of the screenshots at the top of this thread?

[AdamAtomic]

Heh...ok as usual, was clearly noted in the specs for this one that you don't have to follow it super-strictly.  But I'll try and clarify it as much as I'm able to...

Background color - one color that the entire screen is set to every frame.  In a LOT of games this is just black, but there are many where it is peach or cyan (but it can be any color from the hardware palette)

BG tiles - 8x8 pixels, and drawn in 2x2 tile (or 16x16 pixel) blocks in *most* mappers.  Some games could draw a single tile at a time (reportedly castlevania III, tho i've yet to see a screenshot that actually does).  Each block is drawn with 1 palette.

BG Palettes - same as sprite palettes, 3 colors and an alpha/dropout.  Palettes could be animated/rotated though!

Parallax - covered in previous posts

Sprites - 8x8 and 8x16 only.  Something like Mario in SMB is made up of at least 6 individual sprites at any time, but obviously that doesn't matter too much for the mockup.

Sprite Palettes - same as BG Palettes above

Vagaries of Sprite Display - only 8 sprites per raster line.  A raster line is a single pixel horizontal line across the display (basically one row of electron gun screen attack)  If you remember NES games flickering a lot, it's because they had at times more than 8 sprites per raster line, so they had to flicker some on and off.  Sprites could be displayed either behind or in front of the BG tiles layer (see Super Mario Bros. 3 for wicked example of that)

Fade Regions - umm heh this shit is pretty weird.  as far as i understand it you can specify a rectangular region of the screen (nto sure if its by pixel or by tile...i think its by pixel), and you can modify the color intensity.  This was frequently used to do fadeouts during cinematics/start/end of levels (as was palette animation).  Fade regions could display colors that are NOT in the normal hardware palette, because it would modify the color signal as it left the machine...totally weird.  Basically, I do not recommend using it for mockup purposes Was a special-case effect that was rarely used afaik.

[JonathanOfDrain]

Iceclimbers is hardly a movie, no?

I just wanted to see if this followed the NES restrictions. Sorry for the confusion.

[boojiboy]

Thanks for the explanation AdamAtomic. I'm still a bit in the dark but I guess the best way is to just make something and if it doesn't fit the restrictions to fix it up.

[AdamAtomic]

I just wouldn't fret over it too much.  Try to stick to 8x8 tiles and 4 colors per tile if you can   That'll get you something that's pretty NES-y looking!  I generally disregard one or two of the more picky restrictions, because I am more interested in the aesthetic than the 100% perfect reproduction of every weird idiosyncracy (sp?) in the system...

[huZba]

Is there a difference between ntsc/pal palettes? Some of those shots have a slightly different palette compared to the one posted. If so, which palette is the one that's up there?

[The B.O.B.]

Was givin' the restrictions a shot, but halfway there, blew it all to poo, and just quit. Was supposed to be a Children of Men mock up. Lotta' things unfinished...

[AdamAtomic]

Is there a difference between ntsc/pal palettes? Some of those shots have a slightly different palette compared to the one posted. If so, which palette is the one that's up there?

Nah, it's actually much weirder than that.  The NES does not have RGB output, and no one has bothered to like get an oscilloscope and try and ascertain what the precise intensity and values are for the colors it displays.  As far as I know NTSC and PAL have the same colors, its just know one knows exactly what they are.  My palette was made from a couple of different ones, and based primarily on looking decent on a computer monitor

[xenobond]

My first time really doing anything here. I was thinking of trying Hellboy, or Firefly, but there aren't mobs of bad guys to kill. I watched Big Trouble in Little China, and started drawing some of the stuff I saw. I spent time looking up more info on the hows and whats, and this is what I came up with so far. Still have lighting, signage, building entrances and then make one of the storms on the other side of the screen.

Here's where it's at, now. The shirt is actually a separate sprite (I was looking at megaman and how they got his face to work on top of the body), so by sacrificing a second palette he becomes a little more recognizable. I could do the same thing with his eyes and give em some whites, but kurt russel is mostly squinty, so this works, kinda.



This level is mostly from the intro, so it's loading docks, so I want to get a chain link fence goin on, some crates, and a few other things I drew in my sketchbook as I watched. I can now sorta see why there were so many bad movie based nes games out there.