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The Glorious Wonder of Parallax Scrolling
- Thread starter SharpX68K
- Start date
OP
OP
I do have much love for multi-layer parallax and line scrolling. My love for it started with Shadow of the Beast on the Amiga, 16-bit arcade games and the early 16-bit era of 1987-1990.
Cool video. I always loved scrolling effects in 2d games, going back to stuff like Defender and Moon Patrol (neat to see the latter in the video). Some early SMS games like Choplifter and Black Belt were really impressive in that regard so I was disappointed more late '80s 8-bit games didn't have those effects. The 16-bit console/computer era really ramped up the parallax scrolling for home games, as the video mentions and it was exciting to see.
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parallax scrolling was a big deal to me when i was a kid. the first time i saw it in action was like the first time i experienced a 60fps game--- game changing.
It always blows my mind when i see it in a less than 16 bit game too
It always blows my mind when i see it in a less than 16 bit game too
I wish I had that game back then. I was impressed with Hot Wheels' effects which is another 1985 C64 game.
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SEGA's 1985 arcade remake of Choplifter, known to be one of the first home computer game-to-arcade ports/remakes, and Ninja Gaiden III on the Famicom/NES impressed me greatly. As do many MD/Genesis/PC-Engine/CD-ROM/SNES /NEO-GEO/Arcade/Japan high-end comps.ETC.
I played Shadow of The Beast on the c64 mini the other day and after all these years, it still looks good in motion!
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I watched this video and loved every moment of it.
Sadly, I apparently didn't care enough as a youngster to notice it much. But, even today, I still feel that something is missing if I'm playing a 2D game with no parallax scrolling.
So, did games actually actively advertise parallax scrolling as a feature back in the day? Or was it kind of a nice extra feature to have in a game, but not a big deal if it wasn't there?
Sadly, I apparently didn't care enough as a youngster to notice it much. But, even today, I still feel that something is missing if I'm playing a 2D game with no parallax scrolling.
So, did games actually actively advertise parallax scrolling as a feature back in the day? Or was it kind of a nice extra feature to have in a game, but not a big deal if it wasn't there?
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I gotta check YouTube for C64 Shadow of the Beast footage.
Not that I recall. It's not a term most people buying games would know but reviewers in magazines would sometimes mention it.
Haven't watched the video yet, but for everyone who loves this and haven't seen them yet, check out both Ori games, but especially Will of the Wisps. Absolutely magical.
I really like how modern 2D games are taking advantage of 3D engines like Unity to push as many parallax layers as possible. Like how Ori or Hollow Knight's environments are made up of dozens of 2D planes stacked on top of each other in 3D space, so the parallax comes naturally as the camera pans around:
I'm pretty surprised he didn't bring up Choplifter for Master System (and I believe a few other 8-but platforms as well).
I suppose, like Shadow of the Beast, it's one of the better known examples out there, so he didn't feel compelled to bring it up.
Ah, ok - he made it seem like it was a major point to bring up during the console wars - and maybe it was in certain groups. I guess I figured it was fairly well known among gamers back then.
I was pretty young back when it would've been spoken about, so I missed that train.
I suppose, like Shadow of the Beast, it's one of the better known examples out there, so he didn't feel compelled to bring it up.
Ah, ok - he made it seem like it was a major point to bring up during the console wars - and maybe it was in certain groups. I guess I figured it was fairly well known among gamers back then.
I was pretty young back when it would've been spoken about, so I missed that train.
yeah i remember back in the day when all we had were still shots in magazines, i rarely remember parallax being mentioned. so when you saw a 16 bit game in motion, there was an added element of being amazed.
i like that in the video, sega lord X brings up Robocop in the arcade, as that was definitely one of my first memories of parallax
Yeah, Technosoft was just showing off at this point. LOL Plus, that soundtrack...Thunder Force 4 on the Mega Drive.
I really like how modern 2D games are taking advantage of 3D engines like Unity to push as many parallax layers as possible. Like how Ori or Hollow Knight's environments are made up of dozens of 2D planes stacked on top of each other in 3D space, so the parallax comes naturally as the camera pans around:
so glad this was mentioned! i've been playing through hollow knight and the layering is crazy good. sometimes i just count the layers in certain rooms.
Not only that but I loved the mode 7 effect used in Super Castlevania 4. Even with slowdown it was impressive and showed the difference between the SNES and the NES. It was definitely a cool next gen feature.
My God! Imagine what every 10 year old at that time must have felt seeing this. Is this one of the most technologically impressive games of any time? I want to play it.
In my anecdotal experience, a lot of gamers took notice of the "3d effects" and thought they were cool but usually only the hardcore crowd reading magazines like EGM and Gamefan would use more technical terms like "parallax scrolling", "sprites", "scaling", "Mode 7", etc..
whoa this game reminds me of a bad ass version of Super Locomotive (which has some nice lil 1982 parallax scrolling of its own)
It seems like Suicide Express stood on the shoulders of giants.
The creator, Antony Crowther, made a bunch of really great games in that era. Actually as a teen at the time, and being interested in game dev, I called the publisher to see if I could speak to him. They put me through and we had a good chat. That was so nice of him.
Interesting. I had never heard of that arcade game. Yeah it's clearly inspiration. Not surprising really, in those days everyone was trying to recreate the arcade in the living room.
The first time I remember seeing parallax scrolling is in this Commodore 64 game, Forbidden Forest:
I had absolutely no idea what was going on but man that effect was cool.
I had absolutely no idea what was going on but man that effect was cool.
*barf*
What game is this? Also, is there an explanation for why the two bg layers are moving in the wrong direction?
Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D
I think the weird parallax is because it was released with some 3D glasses. I've never actually seen the glasses or how it looks while using the glasses, though.
It's absolutely nauseating to play. The gif doesn't capture it, but running to and fro causes the background to whip around in a really disorienting way. The game's also really hard in general, from what I remember.
A parallax technique not often mentioned makes use of multiple character sets (usually four) where the graphics in the characters for the background are in different positions. This allows for more detailed parallax backgrounds and a good illusion of an actual layer. You see this in C64 games like:
Flimbo's Quest (the hi-score table in the title sequence is made of sprites)
or some of the shoot em up levels of Turrican 2
A more recent example there is Soul Force
Flimbo's Quest (the hi-score table in the title sequence is made of sprites)
or some of the shoot em up levels of Turrican 2
A more recent example there is Soul Force
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Suicide Express is a futuristic sequel to Loco which is a copy of Super Locomotive.
Fun fact, Tony Crowther who directed that game, still works with us at Sumo, which of course was founded by a bunch of ex-Gremlin staff. ^^
Great video. I loved how classic Sonic games used parallax scrolling. It made for a nice pseudo 3D effect that gave depth to stages, for example here in Sonic 2:
Thanks! Yeah, it seems having the backgrounds move in the opposite direction helps with the 3D effect. And yes, very hard to watch (and I would assume play) in motion.
DAMN. That Astal game! That shit looks ridiculous!
Guardian Heroes looks incredible as well!
Never had a Saturn, didn't know those games.
Why there aren't more games like those today? Are they harder to make?
I think a lot of the 2D games nowadays look so bad when compared to this era. For example, Bloodstained looks bland, while SotN is so beautiful
EDIT: I mean, we do have some games that really pushed forward 2D visuals, like Cuphead and Ori. Hollow Knight looks great as well
Guardian Heroes looks incredible as well!
Never had a Saturn, didn't know those games.
Why there aren't more games like those today? Are they harder to make?
I think a lot of the 2D games nowadays look so bad when compared to this era. For example, Bloodstained looks bland, while SotN is so beautiful
EDIT: I mean, we do have some games that really pushed forward 2D visuals, like Cuphead and Ori. Hollow Knight looks great as well
It kinda was, those 8 bit machines usually can't actually do parallax scrolling by using multiple layers, these effects are usually faked by scrolling the single tile layer left and right on H-blanks, effectively causing intentional screen tearing. Same with any wavy screen effect at the time. Notice how the layers don't have any overlapping graphics, when they do they're usually having sprites move along with a different background line. Of course that didn't stop in the 16 bit era, since you can theoretically put every single pixel line on a different scrolling speed you could do waaaaay more with it than you could with just the few tile layers the SNES or Mega Drive hardware could push, especially when you're simulating a tilted ground surface like in, say, Street Fighter II.I love seeing some of this stuff on the NES, just feels like the hardware is punching way above its weight.
A lot of those games were the AAA-equivalent of their time, top talent and top budgets. Now most 2D games are indie projects and there isn't as much of a big industry interest in sprite art talent.
Still thought Green Hill Zone in Sonic 1 did it best.Great video. I loved how classic Sonic games used parallax scrolling. It made for a nice pseudo 3D effect that gave depth to stages, for example here in Sonic 2:
