Lucky Penguin

A place where you can keep others updated about your NES-related projects through screenshots, videos or information in general.

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Macbee
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Re: Lucky Penguin

Post by Macbee »

rainwarrior wrote: Comparing the ice blocks here to the ones with flicker on, you're actually getting some in-between colours already just from the horizontal halftone patterns VS the NTSC + TV signal degradation.

Just food for thought. I don't think either version looks bad at all, but the no-flicker version is definitely better on this TV in my opinion, and it's not to do with the perception of flickering (non-existent because it's 480i 30fps) but just the problem of interlacing.
Ha, very interesting! Thanks for posting.
But as Nesrocks pointed I won't worry too much with the NES + AV + HDTV combo right now (I wonder if there's an uglier way to play Nintendo).
M_Tee wrote:I would consider taking a more marketable approach than "flicker" when referring to it though, especially since most consumers likely associate flicker with sprite flickering (for scanline usage). Something like "Enhanced Color" and "Standard Color" instead "Flicker" and "X Flicker" could be both more informative and sound more commercial.

Then, somewhere in the documentation, or some "learn more" screen of text explain something along the lines of:

Enhanced Color mode alternates specially chosen patterns at a rapid rate to produce the illusion of more colors on screen. The effectiveness of this mode depends on your game hardware, type of display, and visual sensitivity. If you find the flickering of Enhanced Color mode distracting or uncomfortable, select Standard Color mode.
You're right about giving a good explanation on this in the instruction booklet.

However I'll keep the name at title screen. First because it's not incorrect.
Second because there's no space to a bigger name (on screen and in image bank).
Third because I feel I would underestimate people if I replace a technical name to an easier one.

I remember myself as a kid figuring out what "SAVE" and "LOAD" mean when I played Excite Bike (just to give a random example) - then a magazine explained and I loved to learn that. In fact I think that a good number of people from my generation learned English by ourselves only playing videogames (since there was almost zero games in Brazilian Portuguese back in the day). So if someone play this game to have fun - but learn a new concept as a bonus - to me this is edutainment at its best.
FrankenGraphics wrote: I presume this is already known, but according to CC BY-SA 3.0, you can from a legal perspective "remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.", provided that you "indicate that changes were made" and distribute those contributions under the same license.

So in case you want to experiment with changing the mix, that's at least doable from that standpoint. Are you using the famitracker engine for sound?
I don't have knowledge to change music in Famitracker. If I mess with these songs, I'm sure I'll destroy them! :D
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: Lucky Penguin

Post by FrankenGraphics »

In fact I think that a good number of people from my generation learned English by ourselves only playing videogames
This is about true for me. :) I first learned english via my brother introducing me to Magic the Gathering (trading card game). My next source was games like zelda and metal gear (i can hear you giggle from here). Then school.
knowledge to change music in Famitracker.
If you're interested, PM me the ftm files and i'll edit them so you can compare. Should be a quick "job". :)
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rainwarrior
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Re: Lucky Penguin

Post by rainwarrior »

nesrocks wrote:t's somewhat agreed that HDTVs are horrible for retro consoles without proper upscaling, I don't think nes devs should care too much about it.
It's quite obvious that a lack of good upscaling is bad for the picture, but that doesn't stop it from being convenient.

Most people don't want to buy an extra TV or a $300 upscaler to play their NES games on. They just want to hook it up to the same TV they use for everything else, which has a fixed comfortable position in front of their couch. In "real life" I know a lot of people with an NES, but I'm the only person I know who owns an upscaler. Everybody seems happy with the "worst" but easy solution of just plugging it into their regular TV.

I don't see why this isn't relevant to an NES developer? I think it's a good idea to consider the actual conditions your game will be played under. At least, that's why I'm interested in it.
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