Huge and ugly status panels

[JudasEZT]

Originally Posted by discomeats

another dinamic success of small screen

http://hol.abime.net/2784 Grand Prix Master


I remember there was a vertically scrolling game in which you drive a car around various obstacles, I forget its name

it seemed to have a 320x100 playing area and a 320x100 panel at the bottom of the screen, it made the game pretty much unplayable as vertically scrolling not much made it hard to see all things in the way.

Could be 5th Gear - http://hol.abime.net/2366

[discomeats]

Originally Posted by JudasEZT

Could be 5th Gear - http://hol.abime.net/2366

That's the blighter

I overestimated the size of the stupid status bar but it's still so huge an aircraft carrier could have a nap on it.

[JudasEZT]

Yes, I though the same thing.. a pity the game had so small play area.

What surprise me is the very nice shadow effect ( EHB mode thing? )
Look at the vid: [ Show youtube player ]

[Marcuz]

Warlock:
http://hol.abime.net/3382

Jupiter Probe and Jupiter Masterdrive
http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?find=jupiter

[discomeats]

I think if some of these games, someone just took all the graphics and made them into fullscreen games with stylish overlaid stats and stuff they'd probably look pretty decent.

well, some of them.

Not this one though:

http://hol.abime.net/1646

recoloured 8bit graphics maybe? I got no idea, dire game though.

[Retro-Nerd]

The logic seems to be that they can't get smooth frame rates at full screen, so they have to fill the space with something...

Probably true. I guess most of them were original Atari ST games, later unfortunatly 1:1 ported to the Amiga. But some got better ports, e.g. Pac-Mania.





Pac-Mania ST



Pac-Mania Amiga

[s2325]

Edited Indiana Jones screenshot:



Galivan for Amstrad CPC. I don't know any game with bigger borders:

[discomeats]

I think it's a case of a mixture of variably being up to the task and time pressure to get stuff shifted so it could be sold.

Still, doesn't undermine the result at times being less desirable, there are limits of what can be done of course but things were so frequently pooped out so completely half assed. Unlike the prices of games, which were fully assed. so to speak.

edit to add: heh

While I appreciate a flight simuilator will require some space for status display....

[ Show youtube player ]

http://hol.abime.net/573

Flightpath 737

"some" view of outside would be nice.

[Galahad/FLT]

Scramble Spirits had a large side panel if memory serves me right

[s2325]

Thank you for Flight Path 737 screenshots It's almost like Gunboat http://hol.abime.net/2809

[discomeats]

Originally Posted by s2325

Thank you for Flight Path 737 screenshots It's almost like Gunboat http://hol.abime.net/2809

oh god

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by JudasEZT

The reason is that that reflection effect is much more suitable for Blitter capabilities.. meanwhile its not an easy effect to plan with the sprites system of Megadrive.

In fact even the blitter is not needed for this on the Amiga, it can be done entirely by modifying the bitplane modulo and/or scroll registers with the copper. Mr Beanbag does it.

Originally Posted by s2325

Thank you for Flight Path 737 screenshots It's almost like Gunboat http://hol.abime.net/2809

The only game with a smaller playing area than Gunboat that I can think of is Sub Hunt on the Mattel Intellivision, mind you I suppose that's fairly accurate for a sub. Although the "status panel" in this case could be considered another playing area.

I always found the illustration of the different levels at the bottom of Fire and Ice a little unnecessary. Sometimes I wonder if these things are only there to fill the space at the bottom of the PAL version, so the NTSC version wouldn't lose anything.

[lilalurl]

Not really ugly, but in Last Ninja 2 the status panel, if organized correctly, could easily fit either the bottom part or the right part, not need to cover both.

http://hol.abime.net/840/screenshot


So I guess it was made to be sure to have good frame rates.

[viddi]

Originally Posted by s2325

Galivan for Amstrad CPC. I don't know any game with bigger borders:

Midnight Resistance ....a close one...

[s2325]

Yes and this version of Midnight Resistance is too slow, almost unplayable: [ Show youtube player ]

[s2325]

PC Engine version of Gunboat have even smaller view: [ Show youtube player ]

[s2325]

Some playfield measuring:

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 260x136 pixels
Guardian Angel 303x92
Rolling Thunder 223x126
Dynasty Wars 256x129
Strider 266x140
Thunderbirds 320x112
Flintstones 236x108
Army Moves 320x140
Running Man 320x133
Dreenshar 173x139
Dynamite 291x177
Heliosfera 288x109
Lasermania 2 239x179
Lazarus 223x227
Secret of Amber Room 243x177
W Potrzasku 210x147
Skarbnik 144x100
Thalimar 193x113
Twilight Knights 193x143
Ghouls 'n' Ghosts 287x191
Sly Spy 288x161
Barbarian (Psygnosis) 320x158
Barbarian 2 (Pandamonium) 320x149
Barbarian 2 (Palace) 320x120
Barbarian (Palace) 230x131
Plutos 191x158
Into the Eagle's Nest 255x191
Fire Power 311x137 for 2 players
Vampire's Empire 254x165
Goldrunner 193x193
Goldrunner II 191x181
Prospector in the Mazes of Xor 192x194
Steel 320x131
Corona Magica 320x103
First Person Pinball 155x203, useless first person view 152x95
Power Pinball 163x256
Time Scanner 192x204
Banshee 256x256
Raiden 240x256
The Killing Game Show 320x130
Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge 320x100 for single player
BosCar 227x127 for single player
Grand Prix Master 162x162
5th Gear 320x123
Warlock 320x100
Jupiter Probe 193x200
Jupiter's Masterdrive 192x192
Zynaps 320x146
Flight Path 273x73
Scramble Spirits 224x199
Gunboat 272x68
Last Ninja 2 240x148
Last Ninja 3 240x148
Ninja Remix 240x148

[Predseda]

[s2325]

some more:
Seven Gates of Jambala 257x127 pixels
Dragonflight 271x115
Astaroth 320x129
Warp 189x166
After the War 320x164
Satan 289x160
Castle Warrior 253x173
Baby Jo 305x144
Dogs of War 192x201
Aquatic Games 287x162
Bad Company 320x150
Leatherneck 191x200
Return to Genesis 290x96
Spitting Image 320x133
Silver Star 320x145
Future Space 288x171
Alert 320x173
Belial 320x145
Caverns of Palle 320x173
Metal - A Robot Combat Simulation 320x160
Miami Mice 288x143
Manhattan Dealers 288x151
Colorado 320x148
Le Fetiche Maya 239x202
Mad Show 263x156
Windsurf Willy 261x138
Turbo Trax 320x85 for single player
Tanglewood 223x120

So all these years we played GameBoy games in disguise?

[Galahad/FLT]

Hellbent