Saturday, March 5, 2011

Golden Age of Sprite Animation Part 2













Now here's the good stuff... As my buddy Hyun and I say, "Capcom is King!". I've heard that they make great fighting games. I'll have to take your word on that 'cause I suck at fighting games. I love 'em for their character design. The Street Fighter roster is full of iconic Characters; Cammy with here lightning-camo leg paint, Morrigan with here Halloween leggings, Chun-li with here INCREDIBLE thighs! These guys look great painted on the side of an arcade cabinet but they're at their best while in motion!

Included in this selection alongside the original Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters are some Marvel comics superheros. Capcom has managed to enhance everything about these them - they've never looked so good. Check out Juggernaut's fists! They're enormous compared to what you'd see in a Marvel comic book. This is yet another example of how the Japanese improve whatever they lay their hands on. Americans are known for innovation, Japanese for augmentation.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Golden Age of Sprite Animation Part 1



















 I like how the face changes...

 This animation was from a special in-game event where players, after defeating this special 'Event Baphomet', were rewarded with a special item.
 This dude has a slow walking pace but if he gets close enough he'll slash you at a super speed!


 A hammer and sickle on his helmet...

 Did you catch the tiny smile at the last second?


 Sooooo weird!











Click on the images to watch them move!

Ragnarok animated sprites can look a bit stiff when compared to some Capcom glory from the same period, but one can't deny how clever some of the character designs and animations are in some of these. I've posted my favorite attack and death animations. The Orc Lord attack animation is especially ingenious. Somehow his mid-air twist comes off looking natural, even when he shifts from facing forward to facing backwards in a single change of frames.

http://www.roempire.com/database/?page=monsters&act=search(I recommend searching for large sized monsters)

Also included here are two Metal Slug sprite animations - actually I think the big Metal Slug tank is from a non-Metal Slug SNK game. Something makes me wanna say it's from a fighting game...

FFVII Loss-less Background Images



I just stumbled upon the website of a German programmer who is ripping all of the background images from the PSX version of Final Fantasy VII. Markus Shroder's process produces loss-less .png image files. Here are some samples.

If you look at his site you'll notice that the most of the game's heavily animated backgrounds are visually buggy. I hope he irons it all out - I'd like to have a complete and pristine FFVII background collection. I emailed him asking if he planed to do the same for FFVIII and FFIX. Still waiting for a reply.

Anyone with coding skills should consider shooting him an email. Help him clean this collection up!
http://ff7background.paint.at/