I love when NES games are made to today standards. I even love it more when the creators share the making of stuff. Another great example is Micro Sages. Great Video!
Love this kind of videos. Developers had (and still have) to be so much more creative to solve all kinds of technical problems on limited hardware! Sometimes it's just mind-blowing 😄 People who are also interested in all kinds of 'problem solving' solutions like in this video, 'GameHut' is a TH-cam channel by a former Traveler Tales developer who also created games on the Sega Mega Drive/Saturn like Sonic 3D Blast, Mickey Mania, Toy Story and Puggsy. The channel has LOTS of video's on how 'things were done' on those consoles and how they solved all kinds of technical limitations. I hope it's OK I mentioned the channel 😅
Hey stuff like this I think is cool. I think noticed a possible unusual technique in Mario 2, (game related from Doki Doki Panic orgins lol) The tiles for the numbers appear on the pause screen & level intro screen. But I've seen Mario 2 with corruptions, some of the tiles have a pattern you never normally can see. IIRC, The tile that has number 2, you see vertical lines exist, but not normally seen because it "camouflages". The color of the numbers typically seem to be like: Bg color is "Banana-yellow". The camouflaged verticle lines are also the same color. The digit has 2 different colors, but, they are both "Caramel Brown." Identical. The unseen "hidden pattern" of the tiles actually looks like they would fit for the graphics seen on the side of the level intro screen. Like a page boarder. I'd like to think that palletes can reveal or obscure graphics graphics. The drawback being you need to "camouflage" by making at least 2 colors identical. Limits you to use just 1 color, so no fancy drop shadow on the NES graphics font lol. It would be interesting to know if those little patterns are used at all haha.
As a novice NES developer and a big fan of Witch n' Wiz, I love this! I would be thrilled to see more videos in this vein, especially digging into more graphics tricks and tips (even some of the stuff you left out of this one, like the other effects you mentioned in the mirror sequence).
Love this!! Highest quality and great voice too! Thank you for this, would love to see a follow-up video with even more Classic NES vfxs and technical explanations
It was actually the most enjoyable part of making the video too; digging into licensed-era games to confirm my suspicions of how they are done. If you haven't already, I highly recommend checking out RetroGameMechanicsExplained (th-cam.com/users/RetroGameMechanicsExplained). They were a huge inspiration for this video.
Thanks so much for this behind the scenes. I’m sure it’s probably been covered elsewhere but you put things in simple terms and showed great examples of not only your game but popular games of the NES era.
Dude… I can honestly say that you and your game, Witch n Wiz, is what inspired me to get into NES development. I am going through NES Doug’s tutorials, and although they are good, I find them hard to understand a lot of times. Found your website and I’ve ordered the “Making Games for the NES” book by Hugg I think his name is. Honestly, I would be tickled if you ever decided to make some NES dev tutorials and put them up here. The creativity and cute chibi style sprites you have in your game are very representative of what I’d like to make someday. Alas, it’s kind of a slow process for me right now, what with all the hexidecimal conversions and needing to know how the hardware works most efficiently. Hopefully I’ll get there one day, I’ll be sure to let you know lol 🤟. Awesome job!
This is mindblowing ! You are a beast ! I adore that type of videos. Not only because it's absolutely well explained but it triggers creativity and ideas too... A huge thank you to you !
Awesome game! I only found out about this today, else I would have bought the limited run game :) But I will buy the rom this month when my salary is in! I wish you all the best from Holland
This was an informative and approachable video. Thanks! Since you asked, I'd be interested in learning more about your dev environment and dev/build process. What sorts of resources do you use to learn about the platform and programming for it? Where do you go when you get stuck?
Awesome! That is actually what the original script for this video covered but I thought it might be too "dry", so I switched to focus more on graphics. I'll probably revist that idea though.
Very neat. I love learning about these cool tricks, so I'd appreciate if you talked about anything else of that kind. About your game or any other that you may consider noteworthy. On the sprite going behind the nametable tiles... I was under the impression that you could select which tiles the sprite(s) could go behind, not that it would go behind all of them. And on the mirror screen, maybe you could have achieved the same effect by making the background color blue instead of black. No sprite overlay necessary, I don't think.
Thanks! There is a trick to be more selective with how you go behind tiles. This is in one of the Dizzy games, which I can dig up if you're curious. But that is a different "trick", although its actually cool how it works! Not sure if that's what you are thinking of. Re: the mirror, I think you are correct. I haven't gone through the whole exercise of mapping out how it would all work, but it seems like it could be done. As you probably know, there's usually a trade off in there somewhere (duplicate CHR data, additional palette definitions, etc) which may mean it's not "free".
@@MattHughson I know it takes time to make videos, but do you know this channel called Blast Processing? He usually talks about awesome little things mostly in Sega consoles (as the name of the channel implies). There's another one called GameHut that used to make games for the Genesis and the Saturn back in the day and has videos about "impossible" things they pulled off and how it was accomplished. So, I think there could be something like that but for the NES. Well, Retro Game Mechanics Explained does some of that, where he goes really in-depth with the technical stuff... But maybe too in-depth. Still, it would be cool if somebody else made videos on that subject. Talking about things possible via the use of mappers could be interesting (partial CHR switching, writing sprites on the fly, etc.)... But also effects achieved in the most basic NES carts. As for your mirror screen... I believe that if you made your background color blue (thus transparent on the bg tiles) you only had to set the reflection sprites to go behind the bg tiles when they reached the right edge of the mirror. I mean, unless there's something else going on that I didn't catch...
it makes me want to acquire and play the game just by looking at the beautiful work you have done. that said, I thought the sprite behind background trick would be simpler just by adjusting their priorities like on sega genesis
I assume you mean the mirror part. You might be right! This was one of the first effects I created on the NES, and the sprite overlay just seemed most intuitive.
Still learning NES stuff so just asking. For the Mirror Clone: to reduce the amount of sprites on one row. Could you make the bg colour purple. and bring the black colour into the tile palettes and give the mirror reflection no bg priority so it falls behind the frame? I've not coded so much in ASM so just curious
Super interesting tricks! I was wondering why Megaman was flickering @10:10 if the dragon was background tiles, but then I noticed that the wings and lower jaw were made out of sprite tiles, maxing out the eight horizontal tile limit.
There are a few featured in the video. I think you are probably talking about either Mesen (an NES Emulator) or NES Screen Tool (a tool for authoring sprites and backgrounds for the NES).
Check out the "tools of the trade" section of my blog post. It should list eveything you might have seen. www.matthughson.com/2020/12/07/from-completely-in-the-dark-to-complete-in-box-making-an-nes-game-in-2020/
So why would anyone be interested in such an old console if there are so many limitations and such? Do you know why, because back in the 80's this is what most people had when it came to home video games. So the interest was very high to push the console to its limits and to make content for the system. Back in the 80's everyone had an NES, so this was basically the standard console to play on.
I think there's a bunch of different factors. For me it's a mix of nostalgia for my childhood system, mixed with the enjoyment of working on such a small, limited platform.
It is nice to look at older, simpler hardware, that did a lot with hardly any resources or bandwidth. When you are waiting for your computer, think about how it can execute somewhere between 4-16 billion ops per second, per core and has about 16GB/s memory bandwidth, and can read 120MB/s or 500MB or 3300MB/s (hdd/sata/nvme). Somehow software is so bad, you have to wait. See Wirth's Law.
I love when NES games are made to today standards. I even love it more when the creators share the making of stuff. Another great example is Micro Sages. Great Video!
Gorgeous game.
Love this kind of videos. Developers had (and still have) to be so much more creative to solve all kinds of technical problems on limited hardware! Sometimes it's just mind-blowing 😄
People who are also interested in all kinds of 'problem solving' solutions like in this video, 'GameHut' is a TH-cam channel by a former Traveler Tales developer who also created games on the Sega Mega Drive/Saturn like Sonic 3D Blast, Mickey Mania, Toy Story and Puggsy. The channel has LOTS of video's on how 'things were done' on those consoles and how they solved all kinds of technical limitations. I hope it's OK I mentioned the channel 😅
These are great ones too:
th-cam.com/play/PLn5sTGew1WGD2Tnspn9vhpLGf-kqDRbYy.html
and
th-cam.com/users/RetroGameMechanicsExplained
Amazing, Matt
Awesome video. That reflection effect looks beautiful
Hey stuff like this I think is cool.
I think noticed a possible unusual technique in Mario 2, (game related from Doki Doki Panic orgins lol)
The tiles for the numbers appear on the pause screen & level intro screen.
But I've seen Mario 2 with corruptions, some of the tiles have a pattern you never normally can see.
IIRC, The tile that has number 2, you see vertical lines exist, but not normally seen because it "camouflages".
The color of the numbers typically seem to be like:
Bg color is "Banana-yellow". The camouflaged verticle lines are also the same color. The digit has 2 different colors, but, they are both "Caramel Brown." Identical.
The unseen "hidden pattern" of the tiles actually looks like they would fit for the graphics seen on the side of the level intro screen. Like a page boarder.
I'd like to think that palletes can reveal or obscure graphics graphics.
The drawback being you need to "camouflage" by making at least 2 colors identical.
Limits you to use just 1 color, so no fancy drop shadow on the NES graphics font lol.
It would be interesting to know if those little patterns are used at all haha.
Beautiful mirror effect, congratulations!
Thanks you!
As a novice NES developer and a big fan of Witch n' Wiz, I love this! I would be thrilled to see more videos in this vein, especially digging into more graphics tricks and tips (even some of the stuff you left out of this one, like the other effects you mentioned in the mirror sequence).
It's been on my backlog for a while. I would love to do more of these.
Love this!! Highest quality and great voice too! Thank you for this, would love to see a follow-up video with even more Classic NES vfxs and technical explanations
It was actually the most enjoyable part of making the video too; digging into licensed-era games to confirm my suspicions of how they are done.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend checking out RetroGameMechanicsExplained (th-cam.com/users/RetroGameMechanicsExplained). They were a huge inspiration for this video.
Seeing this makes one appreciate your game even more, since it avtually uses elaborate tricks to work around limitations!
Thanks!
Thanks so much for this behind the scenes. I’m sure it’s probably been covered elsewhere but you put things in simple terms and showed great examples of not only your game but popular games of the NES era.
Thanks! It's quite a bit of work to make these videos, so it means a lot to hear that.
Really great video, I love these behind the scenes/old console tech videos, well produced and good audio/VO, looking forward to more.
Thanks so much!
PHYSICAL VERSION preorders for Witch n' Wiz end on December 12, 2021! Grab it while you can!
limitedrungames.com/collections/witch-n-wiiz
Subscribed 🕹🤩🎧📺
Dude… I can honestly say that you and your game, Witch n Wiz, is what inspired me to get into NES development. I am going through NES Doug’s tutorials, and although they are good, I find them hard to understand a lot of times. Found your website and I’ve ordered the “Making Games for the NES” book by Hugg I think his name is. Honestly, I would be tickled if you ever decided to make some NES dev tutorials and put them up here. The creativity and cute chibi style sprites you have in your game are very representative of what I’d like to make someday. Alas, it’s kind of a slow process for me right now, what with all the hexidecimal conversions and needing to know how the hardware works most efficiently. Hopefully I’ll get there one day, I’ll be sure to let you know lol 🤟. Awesome job!
Thank you so much for sharing this! It’s VERY helpful! I’m hoping to achieve these challenges through NESMaker.
This is mindblowing ! You are a beast !
I adore that type of videos. Not only because it's absolutely well explained but it triggers creativity and ideas too...
A huge thank you to you !
Awesome, all the love and good touch you put on this game!
Thanks so much! Very kind of you to say.
This is amazing! It honestly makes me want to create something within the limitations of the NES!
Do it!
Fantastic vid!
Awesome game! I only found out about this today, else I would have bought the limited run game :)
But I will buy the rom this month when my salary is in!
I wish you all the best from Holland
Thanks so much!
This was an informative and approachable video. Thanks!
Since you asked, I'd be interested in learning more about your dev environment and dev/build process. What sorts of resources do you use to learn about the platform and programming for it? Where do you go when you get stuck?
Awesome! That is actually what the original script for this video covered but I thought it might be too "dry", so I switched to focus more on graphics.
I'll probably revist that idea though.
Wow I'm really glad I found this
Thanks for watching!
Ah, changing the palette! Besides NES-dev videos, I've also watched some Amiga-stuff, and IIRC, that's the secret behind their rotating ball as well.
Neat!
Very neat. I love learning about these cool tricks, so I'd appreciate if you talked about anything else of that kind. About your game or any other that you may consider noteworthy.
On the sprite going behind the nametable tiles... I was under the impression that you could select which tiles the sprite(s) could go behind, not that it would go behind all of them.
And on the mirror screen, maybe you could have achieved the same effect by making the background color blue instead of black. No sprite overlay necessary, I don't think.
Thanks!
There is a trick to be more selective with how you go behind tiles. This is in one of the Dizzy games, which I can dig up if you're curious. But that is a different "trick", although its actually cool how it works! Not sure if that's what you are thinking of.
Re: the mirror, I think you are correct. I haven't gone through the whole exercise of mapping out how it would all work, but it seems like it could be done. As you probably know, there's usually a trade off in there somewhere (duplicate CHR data, additional palette definitions, etc) which may mean it's not "free".
@@MattHughson I know it takes time to make videos, but do you know this channel called Blast Processing? He usually talks about awesome little things mostly in Sega consoles (as the name of the channel implies). There's another one called GameHut that used to make games for the Genesis and the Saturn back in the day and has videos about "impossible" things they pulled off and how it was accomplished. So, I think there could be something like that but for the NES. Well, Retro Game Mechanics Explained does some of that, where he goes really in-depth with the technical stuff... But maybe too in-depth. Still, it would be cool if somebody else made videos on that subject.
Talking about things possible via the use of mappers could be interesting (partial CHR switching, writing sprites on the fly, etc.)... But also effects achieved in the most basic NES carts.
As for your mirror screen... I believe that if you made your background color blue (thus transparent on the bg tiles) you only had to set the reflection sprites to go behind the bg tiles when they reached the right edge of the mirror.
I mean, unless there's something else going on that I didn't catch...
Really cool!
Amazing!
it makes me want to acquire and play the game just by looking at the beautiful work you have done.
that said, I thought the sprite behind background trick would be simpler just by adjusting their priorities like on sega genesis
I assume you mean the mirror part. You might be right! This was one of the first effects I created on the NES, and the sprite overlay just seemed most intuitive.
great
Really interesting
Still learning NES stuff so just asking. For the Mirror Clone: to reduce the amount of sprites on one row. Could you make the bg colour purple. and bring the black colour into the tile palettes and give the mirror reflection no bg priority so it falls behind the frame? I've not coded so much in ASM so just curious
I think so!
This is very cool!
Super interesting tricks! I was wondering why Megaman was flickering @10:10 if the dragon was background tiles, but then I noticed that the wings and lower jaw were made out of sprite tiles, maxing out the eight horizontal tile limit.
Yah exactly! I was tempted to not use that example because it's using so many extra sprites but it's just too iconic not to show 😆
Very interesting! :)
Thanks for watching!
What program are you using to mess around with the NES assets there?
There are a few featured in the video. I think you are probably talking about either Mesen (an NES Emulator) or NES Screen Tool (a tool for authoring sprites and backgrounds for the NES).
Check out the "tools of the trade" section of my blog post. It should list eveything you might have seen.
www.matthughson.com/2020/12/07/from-completely-in-the-dark-to-complete-in-box-making-an-nes-game-in-2020/
@@MattHughson Probably NES Screen Tool as it was the one where you were dragging the sprite around easily.
@@inceptional yes, that's nes screen tool!
@@MattHughson Cool, I'll have a look. Cheers.
So why would anyone be interested in such an old console if there are so many limitations and such? Do you know why, because back in the 80's this is what most people had when it came to home video games. So the interest was very high to push the console to its limits and to make content for the system. Back in the 80's everyone had an NES, so this was basically the standard console to play on.
I think there's a bunch of different factors. For me it's a mix of nostalgia for my childhood system, mixed with the enjoyment of working on such a small, limited platform.
It is nice to look at older, simpler hardware, that did a lot with hardly any resources or bandwidth. When you are waiting for your computer, think about how it can execute somewhere between 4-16 billion ops per second, per core and has about 16GB/s memory bandwidth, and can read 120MB/s or 500MB or 3300MB/s (hdd/sata/nvme). Somehow software is so bad, you have to wait. See Wirth's Law.
Please use pop-filtr next time.
I'll check into what that is, thanks!