8-bit accuracy?

So I'm still considering working on an 8-bit style Mega Man game. I'm going to try to stick as closely to 8-bit limitations as possible (three colors plus transparency per sprite, using the NES palette, et cetera), however I might break the rules here and there for aesthetics and laziness.

My question is this: if a game is supposed to be in "8-bit style" (or let's say "pseudo 8-bit style"), would it be terrible if the game didn't strictly stick to that? I'd definitely stick to the colors the NES uses, and I'd try to limit myself to three colors per sprites, but there are some finer points (25 colors per scanline, four sprite palettes, et cetera) that I'll likely ignore. Would that be acceptable, or should I just go 16-bit if I'm going to ignore those rules?

I doubt it's noticable to anyone except if you intentionally look for it.

As long as it looks like 8-bit, then it should be fine.

scanline-based limitations would be nearly impossible to do anyway, since that's a pretty specialized setup

If you were really going to make a NES-style game, you'd have to actually make it an NES rom.

Yeah, it'd be fine to break the rules a little bit

As long as it looks like 8bit

Use the 8-Bit Pallette, but don't follow the rules. Just follow the Pallette.

Follow the palette and color rules and you're all fine.

I really should write the 'how do i 8bit sprites' document again. Either way, here's some pointers:
-Stick to the NES palette
-One 8x8 tile may only have 3 colors and transparent
-These tiles may be laid on top of each other (see 'the megaman effect')
-Use only 5 sound channels. If a sound must be played while you're using all the 5 channels for the music, one channel must mute so the sound can play

This

I love you Jeff

> Sprites
> Sounds

:}

Wouldn't it be enough if he just sticked to the palette and color rules?

"A total of 64 sprites may be displayed onscreen at a given time without reloading sprites mid-screen" (wikipedia) "Sprites may be either 8 pixels by 8 pixels, or 8 pixels by 16 pixels," (wikipedia) "The standard display resolution of the NES is 256 horizontal pixels by 240 vertical pixels." (wikipedia).
I don't think it matters if you ignore some stuff as long as it look 8-bit.

What I'll probably follow:

• The NES palette.
• Three colors plus transparency per sprite. I'll probably bend this rule a bit and have four per sprite since the Mega Man series does this a lot (and I'm not going to bother with making two sprites and overlapping them since I really don't need to).

What I'll ignore:

• Anything about scanlines. I'm doing this in MMF.
• Only having X sprites on screen at any given time.
• Anything involving sound channels. Too lazy to care, and I'll probably just end up using .midis from the original series that authentic enough to pass. On that note, anybody know where I can find some NES Mega Man samples?

Don't use the term 8-bit. It covers loads of computers and video game consoles, not just the NES, and they've all got different display "rules"

There's not much point in trying to replicate everything that the NES does... I mean you could in theory just hack an already existing MegaMan ROM of you wanted that. I mean you'd have to do flickering for when too many sprites came on screen, and that would be needlessly excessive.

So yeah just stick with a few colours per tile and put Scrooge McDuck as a robot master.

Fangamez.net's sound section has some Megaman NES sound effects.


...But sadly, they're down.

This post has been edited by MrChidna on Nov 3 2008, 07:06 AM

that wouldn't be hard to do really

just pick X amount of sprites and make the rest invisible; could be done quite easily with object groups and a fastloop

but yeah people would probably call it a bug even though it isn't lol

that'd probably lag alot considering he'd have to loop through all actives constantly. Beside, it wouldn't work with backdrops (considering these are being used).

were backgrounds even affected by scanline limits... i thought it was just the sprites

and i doubt it would lag; worst case he'd have to run as many loops as there are rows on the game screen, which isn't a lot

no, the background is a separate from the sprites.

Good example is the overlay of the clouds in AirMan's stage.