face it, line-scrolling parallax sucks

[darkangel]

I can never understand this, but a lot of people are impressed that the Sega Genesis could make more parallax layers than the Super Nintendo, but I always thought the complete opposite.

Some of the games I have like Super Mario Allstars, and Donkey Kong Country have levels with 3 parallax layers, that look completely natural and real. But the first time I played Sonic 2 or Thunder Force 4, I was like, wait there is something completely wrong with the parallax? It doesn't scroll up or down? I can see horrizontal lines in the middle of clouds where layers end? It looked all wrong. Then I noticed that there is ever only up to two real layers onscreen, where as I always knew the Super Nintendo could naturally do 3, it looked like the Genesis was limited to 2.

Most people argue that games like Sonic 3 and Thunder Force 4 have more layers than the Super Nintendo could have, but I really don't care for that kind of parrallax. It hurts my eyes sometimes looking at the fake parallax scrolling and it doesn't look anything like parallax should look like.

[ASSEMbler]

Well for ten years there was nothing but static backgrounds.
So parallax was a nice improvement. You just might be too young to appreciate it is all.

[drakon]

oh lord I loved parallax when it was new. And...I STILL LOVE IT. I also love transparency.

NES fake parallax is more awesome just because it's not even real. Still curious how the intro of megaman 2 pulls it off as it scrolls to the top of the building.

[graphique]

Not that this is apropos of anything in particular, but I just want to say that "Sword Master" has some pretty good parallax for an NES game.

[darkangel]

On the Nes you had real faked parallax where the parts of the background were actually redrawn by the cpu, but on the Sega Genesis they just did line-scrolling, line-scrolling and more line-scrolling.

[Tatsujin]

yeah. it's no secret, that the MD only has two indipendent layers to produce real hardware parallax. the rest is all done either by h-sync linescrolling or simulated by using sprites or a tricky combination to reduce flickers.

in fact the PCE (ex. SGFX) has no hardware parallax (no 2nd layer), so anything you see there is again made up either by h-sync linescrolling or simulated by using sprites or a tricky combination. but some very tricky developers just like RED could do quite impressive things out of those ressources, if you looking at a Winds of Thunder, with optical real multi-level scrolling horizontally and even vertically. or check out also magical chase.

on the FC/NES they used same technics as well.

[subbie]

meh, I liked line-scrolling parallax on the genesis.

Now parallax mapping sucks balls. That stuff gives me the worse headakes ever (see kameo).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_mapping

[Yakumo]

I'm also a fan of parallax scrolling. Looks great on some games! I guess some people are too young to understand.

Yakumo

[Jamtex]

Indeed these young 'uns don't know what they missed out on, in my day we had 2 blocks and a sqaure block and we had lots of fun for hours on end.

Although reading his message it does sound like he is whining about nothing again.

[Fonzie]

I prefer parallax on one layer (line scrolling) rather than two or more layers like DK. The perspective is more impressive ^^ Sonic3 is a good example, because it switch between parallax modes all the time (ice cap !!!). Many levels give a so great impression of depth.
Okay it allow less details than slapping 4 layers of full artworks, but abstraction puts at work your imagination.
And that's definitively important!


Using tons of layers and do parallax between them (like DK) often looks so cheap to me... like if it was artwork printed on cardboard and moving.

[7Force]

I think the backgrounds in Thunder Force IV look excellent even today! Probably one of the best looking MD/Genesis games ever made.

[darkangel]

Indeed these young 'uns don't know what they missed out on, in my day we had 2 blocks and a sqaure block and we had lots of fun for hours on end.

Although reading his message it does sound like he is whining about nothing again.

I'm not whining, it only looks like I'm whining because your reading text and you can't really see my facial expressions on here.

[Tatsujin]

h-sync linescrolling <<< real parallax scrolling. i think, that was the thing DE pointed at. and i have to agree with him. but as i wrote above, there are other tricks to do very cool stuff, even the hardware is not able to produce parallax scrolling ex-work.

[darkangel]

I'm okay if people like line-scrolling. I just maybe was used to DKC style parallax before I noticed the parallax in Sonic ect. Well, when I was little I played these games I didn't even notice parallax at all, until I got older and more observant.

[Twimfy]

I'm not whining, it only looks like I'm whining because your reading text and you can't really see my facial expressions on here.

You should make a blog.

2D game analysis or something.

[grahf]

Actually the clouds in Thunderforce IV always looked weird to me too. Line scrolling itself is the bee's knees, it just stands out too much here.

For me, the biggest badass takes the cake kills all competitors thing from the 16-bit era was the SNES transparencies. If used right, it adds so much more atmosphere.

[Druid II]

Parallax linescroll looks awesome, especially in fighting games.

Regular parallax can be impressive depending on game... it is certainly pretty fucking impressive in Flimbo's Quest.

[Tatsujin]

yeah..that one on the cevi and shadow of the beast on amiga where always the reference titles for home computers back in time :)

[PhreQuencYViii]

I thought paralax was cool when I was a kid...I still like it...

[karsten]

anyone remembers the parallax scrolling in romancing saga 3 when you get on top of the hill with the devil's palance on top?

i still love those effects!