/vr/ - Retro Games

>>2893824
>Do people prefer this to 64?
They aren't people if they do.

Question: is there any benefit to making your character permently small on the select screen, like fasterness or something?

I personally would draw the line between 2D and 3D hardware. If your machine has dedicated hardware used to facilitate rendering polygons, or enough horsepower to do non-trivial 3D software rendering, then you aren't retro. This would throw out N64, PSX, Saturn, Dreamcast, etc. but provides an unambiguous demarcation line for classification. GBA would be considered retro under this definition, even though it came out later then all of the above. I think why this definition is solid is because once 3D became a commodity it had serious repercussions on game design.

Thoughts?

>>2863943
You only have to worry of there are ROM sniffing dogs OP. If that happens prepare for some Midnight Express type shit to go down.

Remember, winners don't use ROMs. -Some FBI Asshole

>>2814834
The SNES can operate in 1 of 8 different background configurations per scanline labelled (uncreatively) Modes 0-7. Backgrounds cover the entire screen and are in general composed of tiles (often 8x8 or 16x16 pixels) that are limited to a certain amount of colors per tile.

For instance, Mode 1 allows for 2 16-color/tile backgrounds and 1 4-color/tile background.

Mode 7 allows the definition of a single background layer. What makes Mode 7 special is that the background is transformed with a 2D affine transformation when drawn (essentially it undergoes a matrix multiplication and vector addition). This is useful practically because you use linear algebra to describe scaling and rotations.

An independent function of the SNES (and many other consoles of the time) was something called Horizontal Direct Memory Access (HDMA). HDMA allows you to set up small memory transfers that modify video registers each scanline, and is key to most non-trivial graphic effects. For instance, you could scroll a background in a sinusoidal pattern each scanline to achieve a wavy background for underwater or heat mirage effects.

In combination with the SNES exclusive Mode 7, HDMA could be used to modify the affine transformation parameters per scanline to achieve lots of effects, most notably pseudo-perspective (see image).

TL;DR learn yo' linear algebra!

>>2716974
The false perspective stuff is the poster child of HDMA + Mode 7. Just look most RPG world maps, F-Zero, or PilotWings.

The warping effects can be seen in games like Terranigma's underworld or Castlevania 4's cylindrical rooms.

Castlevania 4: (around 4:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JICVErYZ4KQ

Sorry if you thought I meant something different.

Honestly I'm stil trying to figure out what's up with Chrono Trigger's time gauge background. I don't have a save atm to verify, but I suspect it's Mode 7 too with a wacky HDMA pattern. It may be a different BG mode though using an offset feature though, but I seriously doubt it...