Best technical and artistic tricks on the PCE

[spenoza]

Alright, I know I start a lot of these kinds of threads, but I love reading what comes out of them. So the new question is, what are the best technical and artistic tricks plied by PCE developers? Feel free to post pictures or videos to provide examples. Extremely complicated effects or very simple effects with dramatic visual or artistic results all quality in my mind. One of my favorite examples is the backgrounds in Vasteel.

[soop]

I like the "parallax" in PC denjin.  Really gives a sense of speed.  And although it's not a trick per-se, the absolutely massive sprites in The Kung Fu are very impressive.  Especially considering the time.

The thing is though, around that time, I was still playing Spectrum games, so things like sampled speech were mindblowing (like the Ghostbusters game).

[roflmao]

The thing is though, around that time, I was still playing Spectrum games, so things like sampled speech were mindblowing (like the Ghostbusters game).

The "I'll be back" from Soldier Blade wow'ed me like that back in the day.

[spenoza]

Another thing I really like is the combination of colors used in LoT on the Dezant level. Also, the desert level in GoT. I found those particular choices to be excellent design from a color perspective.

[Digi.k]

those pink clouds and scrolling effects later on in parodius DA!?! plus some of the boss sizes and drum samples especially on said level with the nutcracker suite music pc-e style!!

There are also some great graphical effects in Parasol Stars not seen in any other versions.

I was also particularly impressed with the rocking ship level in dracula X

[Arkhan]

The plains of Shadow of the Beast create a very unduplicatable atmosphere.


I also like when simple parallax is done very well to create depth.

Dead Moon stage 1 for example.  Its a simple effect, but the art is done so well that its like DAMN LOOK AT THAT.

[roflmao]

I was just watching a video about Deep Blue and was blown away by the parallax scrolling.  I'm tempted to hunt down a copy of the game just to be able to see that parallax scrolling on a real TV. 

I noticed last night that Air Zonk has really impressive parallax scrolling as well.  I think just about every level has tons of it.  Then, last night I was watching a video of Super Air Zonk and thought to myself "What happened?"  It isn't nearly as impressive from a graphical standpoint, and it's a SUPER CD!

Meh.

[_joshuaTurbo]

Super Air Zonk sucks in comparison to the original.

I loved a couple of the animated effects in a few Super CD games especially.

In Loom, when the evil wizard finally gets whats coming to him.

In Might and Magic III when you enter the training facility and it shows a horse running.  I could just stare at it for hours.. just amazing animation.

and in Shadow of the Beast, I thought many of the cut scenes were CRAZY well done.  I know alot of people loved the 'picking up weapons' animation in Out of this World for Gens and SNES, but I was equally impressed with Beasts animation for SCD!

Also don't forget John Madden Duo's crazy hyper reality intro where you fly into the football stadium!!

[nodtveidt]

The shadow effect in Jackie Chan always impressed me, even moreso now that I know how it was done. Clever abuse of the VDC's priority system.

Dead Moon's final boss. The game has pretty awesome line parallax throughout most of the game, but that final boss is just awesome... the fast-paced parallax scrolling and the sheer number of on-screen sprites (especially if you use the green or blue weapons), coupled with the intense soundtrack, make it an cool, unforgettable event. At least to me anyways, hehe. Not a lot of tricks really, just the line scrolling, but there's virtually no sprite waste, something that some other lesser horizontals screw up with even less going on.

[Digi.k]

oh I just remembered the 4th stage in magical chase.. the shadows on the background... O__o

and the green clouds and scrolling backgrounds in the final stage of detana!?! twin bee   O___O

[Black Tiger]

Kabukiden has a cool scene where the camera zooms out from the world map and the landscape shifts around. It's kinda like the 'cinematic' scenes from FFIV, only more epic and complimented with some real cinemas and real orchestral music.


Ys IV has a spot when you go over a waterfall and the world map/bg flips over in 3D.


Legend of Xanadu has some very cool parallax effects in some of its cinemas that is balanced with beautiful art.

[awack]

Ys IV has a spot when you go over a waterfall and the world map/bg flips over in 3D.

I forgot about that, it sneaks up on you.


Showing some card respect for now, scaling in Parodius, threw in the snes port for comparison.

PCE


SNES...there are 3 to 5 distorted sprites that i did not include, like the one in the box.


Ill post more stuff later.

[soop]

Street Fighter II must have some good stuff, right? 20 Megs!!!!!

[Arkhan]

Street Fighter II must have some good stuff, right? 20 Megs!!!!!

those aren't really tricks.  Those are just tons of nice f*ckin pictures, stored on a really big card.  lol

[BlueBMW]

I always thought the effect acheived in stage 3 of Metamor Jupiter was absolutely amazing!  The video doesn't do it justice, but in person it really makes you feel like you're in a rotating space ship or something.