underrated graphics trick used on a few Super Nintendo and Genesis games

There is this graphics trick where tiles get wiggled up and down on the screen and it isn't mentioned wery often and wasn't done that much either. It was used on the Jafar Snake boss in the SNES Aladdin, the giant mutated turtle boss in Contra: Alien Wars, the worm platform in Super Turrican 2, the giant wiggling alien on the top of the screen in Alien Soldier, and one of the bosses in Revenge of Shinobi.

I don't know why that trick never got much attention. First of all it looks way cooler than that boring Mode-7, and plus, Snes can actually show a background when doing it, unlike Mode-7.

post some pictures, I only have one of those games and I am not in the mood to play it and find out...unless its in Mega Turrican, which I'm also not in the mood to play.

I gotta get my cool spot fix...

The snake boss in Aladdin for the SNES uses column scrolling. It's a hardware feature of the snes where it can vertically scroll each 8pixel wide column(tile aligned) with a separate value. The Genesis also has this hardware feature, but is setup for 16pixel wide columns (every two tiles).

Which "Revenge of Shinobi" boss??? I don't recall any whiz-bang effects being used in that game. Could you be referring to that ugly monster.......thing that's the boss of Stage 2 (or was it 3?) of "Shinobi 3"? I'd provide a YouTube video of it, except that all of the "Shinobi 3" speed-runs up there whoop that boss' ass so badly that he never even shows up on-screen. :D

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Originally Posted by Aarzak

Which "Revenge of Shinobi" boss??? I don't recall any whiz-bang effects being used in that game. Could you be referring to that ugly monster.......thing that's the boss of Stage 2 (or was it 3?) of "Shinobi 3"? I'd provide a YouTube video of it, except that all of the "Shinobi 3" speed-runs up there whoop that boss' ass so badly that he never even shows up on-screen. :D

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQDK6cwlP08

boss at 3:00

EDIT: it is also used at 7:30. BTW, this game looks fun, I must buy it on Ebay as soon as I get a job.

Super Aleste (Space Megaforce) on the SNES, uses this effect on one stage. You can check it out 3:05 into the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zN_M...eature=related


The backgrounds in Thunder Force IV: Lightning Force use this effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6njc76AIua0

Check it out at around the 2:30 mark.

Rocket Knight Adventures uses this effect as well. Check it out at the 3:40 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I30Zqtrl9S4

I didn't have time to look it up, but I believe one level in UN Squadron uses this effect (background) on a desert scene, to simulate desert heat.

gamevet, you're thinking line-scroll which only works horizontally.

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Originally Posted by dragonboy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQDK6cwlP08

boss at 3:00

EDIT: it is also used at 7:30. BTW, this game looks fun, I must buy it on Ebay as soon as I get a job.

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Yup.......just the one I was talking about.

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Originally Posted by Joe Redifer

gamevet, you're thinking line-scroll which only works horizontally.

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The level in Rocket Knight Adventures is not line scrolling. The platforms shrink and grow larger vertically, to create a heat-wave effect.

No, but it's the same method that's used for line scrolling. They change the vertical position of the screen on every scanline, instead of the horizontal position. A common Hsync effect.

I looked at it again; I did notice what you're talking about. The first time I saw it, I was thinking it was just the red platforms that were morphing. It turns out it is the whole screen. ;)

Anyways, here's the Contra 3 boss (40 seconds in) that uses the same effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn6c-vORje8

The fire level of Thunder Force III and the menue background of Yu Yu Hakusho: Makyo Toitsusen also use this effect, I think.

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Originally Posted by tomaitheous

No, but it's the same method that's used for line scrolling. They change the vertical position of the screen on every scanline, instead of the horizontal position. A common Hsync effect.

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This sounds like the Bomberman logo effect that Chris Covell used in his "Bomberman" Raster Demo.

The Shinobi 3 boss wobbles both vertically and horizontally. Is this the same effect/method that Chris Covell used for the under water pics in his Wavy Graphics demo?

Would the collision have remained static, anchored to the position of the image as though it weren't wavy or could it be calculated around the wobbles?

Can it be done to sprites as well?

It is very hard to do anything on sprites... I managed to fill a 32pixel wide vertical strip of screen with 1 sprite on MD, but the result is very jiggly... so its not too useful.

Horizontal tricks on MD are piece of cake, there's a line scrolling table, so no need for any Hblank to do wavy backgrounds. The vertical fake scaling effects are nice. Mega Turrican uses it in the alien stage, and on Factor 5 logo... nice effect.

I think we are all thinking of different effects. Some people are thinking line scroll (Thunder Force 3 example), some are thinking about the vertical H-sync displacement (Rocket Knight, Castlevania Bloodlines, Castle of Illusion) but the effect stated in the first post indicates vertical column scrolling (the cat face boss as well as falling down the vertical part of stage 2 in Batman and Robin, the plane you fight on in Gunstar Heroes, etc).

The vertical H-sync line displacement is actually a perfect substitute for vertical scaling. It can be done both ways (downsize, upsize). If only they could do this well in the horizontal dimension, they'd have perfect scaling of backgrounds without having scaling built into the hardware and it would eat up next to no CPU.