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How I make graphics for retro systems and retro-styled games
Game consoles, especially older ones, are defined more than anything by their graphics capability. The unique graphical limitations of a system can often make it possible to identify a game console just by a screenshot; for example, the average SNES game has more colors but a lower resolution than the average Genesis game. The NES has a distinctive palette that’s unique to it. But these limitations also mean that you can’t just shove a BMP into VRAM and call it a day. Here’s my process for how I do things.
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Pirates of the Orochi: Looking into a bootleg arcade board
Recently, I looked into the MVS that wasn’t multi-video, a set of officially licensed single-game boards from SNK Playmore that plugged directly into JAMMA. But they only did that for a few games at the end of the system’s life; what if you were an arcade operator who didn’t want to shell out for the flexibility of an MVS, and only wanted to have King of Fighters ‘97? SNK wouldn’t help you, but pirates can! Let’s sail the seven seas and check this out!
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Atomiswave, or, how SNK learned to stop worrying and love the PC
It is the early 2000s. Titans are falling: the arcade business sinks to new lows every week, Sega has left the console business, and SNK/Playmore has finally ended the reign of the Neo Geo. And then a pachinko manufacturer decided to take all of those trends, wrap them in a red plastic box, and name it after their founder. Behold, the arcade series continues!
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The Multi-Video System that wasn't Multi-- the SNK Playmore MV0 series!
Have you ever become fascinated by a piece of hardware, even when it’s not objectively that useful? No? Just me? Well, that does explain why I have the LaserActive… Today, my fascination has turned to a few interesting arcade releases done by SNK Playmore in the dying days of the Neo Geo. And since I said arcade hardware, we’ve got to waste a few words talking about a “supergun”. No weapons, we promise!
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Review! The Sega Saturn Satiator
Optical disc? More like flop-tical disc, am I right? No, wait, I’m wrong, that’s something else. Nevertheless, people are increasingly abandoning the old optical disc; CD sales are down (and may even fall behind vinyl), streaming massively outdoes Blu-ray, Nintendo abandoned discs with the Switch, and now, even classic 90’s consoles can get rid of their optical drives! But what if you want the best of both worlds: the ability to use discs when you want, and flash memory otherwise. That’s what one product, the Sega Saturn Satiator, hopes to deliver.
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Using PAL video output in America
Though you might not know it from my blog, I’m told by very reliable sources that there are countries outside of North America and Japan! In some of these countries, they encode their analog video in a different way, at a different frame rate. But what if you want to bring 8-bit computers across the video encoding border? I’ll talk about my experiences and give some techniques I’ve used!
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High Speed Coding for the Neo Geo!
It was inevitable, wasn’t it, that I spend so much time digging into technical details of Neo Geo games, that I’d want to make one of my own. But I’m pretty busy and am starting a new job soon, so let’s make this go as fast as possible. I imposed myself a challenge for the new year: can I make a Neo Geo game in one week?
