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There is a certain beauty in well-designed
pixel art.

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It speaks of a simpler era - a time when sprites
reigned supreme.

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Designed to move across a game's playfield,
sprites are two-dimensional images that represent

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the player, enemies, or other non-static aspect
of a game.

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Often drawn with the help of dedicated hardware,
they have been an essential facet of computer

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graphics almost as long as games have existed.

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Early sprites were small in size and limited
in palette, but as the pace of technology

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increased they became larger; more detailed;
and much more colourful.

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Huge sprites meant huge arcade impact.

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Games like Strider were held in high regard
for the sheer scale of the action: towering

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characters and huge sweeping plasma swords.

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This was made possible by the powerful CPS-1
arcade board - with custom sprite chips capable

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of drawing 256 16-colour sprites per scanline.

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This was the board that would power Street
Fighter II: a title which would set a benchmark

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within the fighting game genre, with large
and diverse character sprites coupled with

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fluid action.

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It sent the popularity of fighting games skyward
and kickstarted a new wave of arcade popularity.

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Graphics might not be important, but they
certainly attract attention.

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One technique that proved particularly popular
during the 2D era was parallax scrolling:

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splitting the foreground or background into
a number of layers which move at different

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rates, to give the impression of scene depth.

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Moon Patrol was one of the first games to
make effective use of the technique, with

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its colourful mountain vista background.

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It's a striking effect - and home computer
users were quick to imitate: with games like

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Parallax on the Commodore 64 even named for
the scrolling effect.

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By the time of the 16-bit machines, it was
a far more attainable technical feat: and

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would become a common sight in 2D platformers.

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Shadow of The Beast's colourful implementation
impressed: and as hardware power increased,

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scenes became more complex: and the blast-processing
power of the SEGA Megadrive gave games like

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Sonic The Hedgehog more character than ever.

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It was an era of cartoon mascots, and platformers
were en vogue.

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The arcades were no stranger to animated heroes:
tie-ins to popular television series such

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as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or The
Simpsons were major draws, and their frantic

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paced four-player action was the perfect fit
for the social nature of such amusements.

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On the home consoles, the success of games
like Mario and Sonic inspired a large number

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of similar games - and the familiarity of
film licenses made tie-ins like Aladdin a

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huge success.

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The colourful world and expressive animation
of Disney gave the game a great visual grounding

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- and ensured its place as a best seller.

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Some characters were home-grown: Shiny Entertainment's
Earthworm Jim had all of the style and flair

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expected of the platform genre, but did so
with a new creation: a powered-up worm wearing

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a cybernetic super suit.

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Its zany sense of humour and unique style
made for a memorable close to the 16-bit era.

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Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island embraced
a painted aesthetic: rather than a push for

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showy effect or realistic appearance.

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It's this style that helps the game's visuals
stand up today: while it might not be technically

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impressive, there is a hand-drawn charm consistent
throughout.

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By the mid 1990s, sprites were starting to
become passe: the focus was starting to shift

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towards a new wave of three-dimensional games,
and the potential that lay within another

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dimension.

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That's not to say that 2D games went away
entirely: there were still plenty about, and

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the mature tech behind them made for some
particularly impressive visuals towards the

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end of the decade.

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The lush spritework in games like Metal Slug
remains a pinnacle of the style: unbound by

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colour or size restriction, and with fantastic
animation.

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Some games work best in 2D - and while 3D
fighting games eventually rose in popularity,

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there were still plenty of traditional sprite-based
ones: such as SNK's long-running King of Fighters

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series.

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Beautiful, but a dying breed: the best hand-drawn
sprites require good artists. However - there

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are some techniques that serve as a passable
alternative.

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Animation is a vital part of making movement
in games believable - and in the days before

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motion capture, some artists would draw from
reality using a process called rotoscoping.

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The original Prince of Persia's sprites are
traced directly from video: A labour intensive

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technique, but one that delivers natural-looking
movement with realistic inertia.

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Similar techniques were used in other cinematic
platformers, such as Another World - and Flashback.

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Both made use of rotoscoping for in-game sprites
and for cinematic cutscenes: fluid in motion

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yet compact enough to fit on a couple of floppy
disks.

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Digitised sprites were fashionable for a while,
too - images taken directly from photographs

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or video of real-life subjects.

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The earliest example is Journey, which featured
black and white images of the band - but the

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technique wouldn't become commonplace until
the early 90s.

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Winners don't use drugs - nor do they have
any qualms in slaughtering drug dealers by

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the dozen.

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Narc was a very early 32-bit arcade machine,
with thousands of on-screen colours and hugely

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impressive digitised sprites for its time
- and unabashed ultra-violence paired with

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realistic images certainly courts controversy.

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The realistic characters and large number
of animation frames found in fighting games

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were a good fit for digitisation.

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Reikai Doushi and Pit Fighter paved the way,
but it was one game in particular that flung

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such sprites to the forefront: Mortal Kombat.

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Photo-real characters and brutal action made
the game a controversial one - which in turn

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ensured its popularity.

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Like Streetfighter II before it, Mortal Kombat's
realistic sprites were particularly influential

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- titles like ClayFighter were clearly moulded
in its image, and the previously hand-drawn

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riders of Road Rash were replaced by real
bikers in the third instalment.

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The impressively-rendered Donkey Kong Country
was perhaps the pinnacle of 2D 16-bit platformers:

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colourful; beautifully animated; and a smash
hit to boot.

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The advent of multimedia technology meant
more room for pre-rendered content and full

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motion video.

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Games like Myst took full advantage of the
huge amount of storage space that CDs brought:

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enabling atmospheric prerendered backdrops.

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The serene island setting of Myst proved a
shining example of what the emergent technology

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was capable of.

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Most early CD-based games were pure tripe,
however.

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Games like Night Trap for the SEGA CD are
remembered not for their groundbreaking technology

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- but instead for their awfulness.

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All the bluster of new tech, and none of the
impact.

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The future wasn't in interactive movies - and
while the compact disc's extra storage would

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become very useful in the years ahead - FMV
would eventually give way to games with more

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depth.

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Join me in part three when we'll be delving
into the origins of gaming's third dimension.

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Until then, farewell.