Unexpected details of quality in games

[JudasEZT]

What details of quality surprised you?

I got really surprised of this shadow effect in 5thGear from Hewson.. a very low key game.

check it here: [ Show youtube player ]

Another detail would be the copper-bars scrolls of Turrican 3.
[ Show youtube player ]

[Predseda]

Many. For example the fluent palette change when Ruff Rogers enters the wet parts of underground in Ruff n Tumble level 2. You can notice it here: [ Show youtube player ] - time is around 0.23:31. Authors needed the blue tone for water and so the palette changes during the playing. Many players dont even notice. Awesome.

[s2325]

Arabian Nights - small leaves when you walk on trees, 18th screenshot: http://hol.abime.net/3289/screenshot
Venus: the Flytrap - idle mode animation like real insect

[Predseda]

Turrican II - switching between two tunes (Secret Dungeons and the Great bath) while entering / leaving water in level 3.

[lordofchaos]

Chaos Engine for it's real time dynamic sound mixing routines...perphaps not that technically impressive but very effective.

[Predseda]

Disruptor weapon of 852 security droid in Paradroid 90. When fired it flashes the whole screen by changing the game palette. Also lights dim when the deck is clear. Few other effects there as well - you can break shuttle antennas and food plates on tables accidentally. Graftgold's infinite perfection.

[alkis21]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Turrican II - switching between two tunes (Secret Dungeons and the Great bath) while entering / leaving water in level 3.

Also in Turrican II, the bridge that is slightly bend under your weight was a very nice touch for the era.

[Predseda]

Tons of additional visual effects in Brian the lion AGA.
[ Show youtube player ]

[JudasEZT]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Tons of additional visual effects in Brian the lion AGA.
[ Show youtube player ]

Indeed, those rotating and deformation effects are amazing.

[Retro-Nerd]

Battle Squadron: The stealth enemies.

[killergorilla]

The thing is none of anything mentioned is a sign of "a quality game".

So, a lot of the games mentioned aren't going to be good

[Retro-Nerd]

It's not a about quality games, but quality details in games.

[lilalurl]

Actually it is unexpected qualitiy details, so it more or less implies that you noticed something that you did not expect to see such details in a game of that "level".

At least that is how I understand the title.

While both point of view are interesting, they are not entrirely the same thing.


The only example that comes to mind right now is Stardust. I played it after playing Super Stardust. And what I did not expect was the small animation, in the background, of the crater on the planet/asteroid in world 1.

As I was used to SS static background (which is almost the same) I was surprised by that.
I don't know if they removed the animation from SS because thought it was distracting or for technical reasons.

[JudasEZT]

Lilaurl explained the point of the thread perfectly.
unexpected good things,.. the game not necessary to be good.


The turn of the subaquatic music in Traps'n'Treasures is a quality detail.
[ Show youtube player ]

To be fair, the game is fantastic.

[frikilokooo]

The animated backgrounds with copper effects in Dithell In Space(made in Amos):

[ Show youtube player ]
http://hol.abime.net/368/screenshot

The ripple of the screen while I play in Babeanoid(made in Amos):

http://hol.abime.net/pic_full/screen...4_screen15.png

[jimbob]

Pretty much all of Another World. The beast in the opening level. The speed blurs on the running aliens, the weapon animations and sounds, the weapon recharge animation and sounds, the alien language.

For something a bit less well known, I like the water and weather effects in Ugh!

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by frikilokooo

The animated backgrounds with copper effects in Dithell In Space(made in Amos):

[ Show youtube player ]
http://hol.abime.net/368/screenshot

Looks like colour cycling, simple but effective, even Sonic the Hedgehog uses it in places.

The ripple of the screen while I play in Babeanoid(made in Amos):

http://hol.abime.net/pic_full/screen...4_screen15.png

You can write custom copper lists in AMOS, I hope that's how they did it, with the scroll registers. You can have a lot of fun with copper lists.

[JudasEZT]

@Mrs Beanbag Copper, yes.. I said Blitter, just I was the grafician. My brother was the programmer.. he would have tell the correct chipset.

@frikilokooo. Amos were more useful than some 'false' elitist spread. Btw, do you remember the little game Builderland?

Sure if it would be redeveloped in asm it would have been bigger and better.. but as a draft copy is very worthy.

[Dan]

The red collored background in dithell isnt copper, its called plasma effect. its precalculated picture with collor cycling.

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by JudasEZT

@frikilokooo. Amos were more useful than some 'false' elitist spread. Btw, do you remember the little game Builderland?

Sure if it would be redeveloped in asm it would have been bigger and better.. but as a draft copy is very worthy.

AMOS sadly got a bad reputation from a few bad examples, but you could do some impressive things with it if you knew how. I pretty much remade the fast-scrolling level from Project X (where you collect the gems, itself a fairly blatant rip-off of Turrican II but never mind) in pure AMOS, 50fps scrolling with no asm.

I can only find a video of the ST version of Builderland, but I don't see anything there that would even make AMOS break out a sweat.