WEBVTT 00:00:04.049 --> 00:00:07.608 There is a certain beauty in well-designed pixel art. 00:00:08.048 --> 00:00:15.049 It speaks of a simpler era - a time when sprites reigned supreme. 00:00:17.169 --> 00:00:22.380 Designed to move across a game's playfield, sprites are two-dimensional images that represent 00:00:22.038 --> 00:00:27.080 the player, enemies, or other non-static aspect of a game. 00:00:27.008 --> 00:00:32.024 Often drawn with the help of dedicated hardware, they have been an essential facet of computer 00:00:32.095 --> 00:00:37.117 graphics almost as long as games have existed. 00:00:38.017 --> 00:00:43.021 Early sprites were small in size and limited in palette, but as the pace of technology 00:00:43.021 --> 00:00:50.021 increased they became larger; more detailed; and much more colourful. 00:00:50.094 --> 00:00:54.313 Huge sprites meant huge arcade impact. 00:00:55.159 --> 00:01:00.530 Games like Strider were held in high regard for the sheer scale of the action: towering 00:01:00.053 --> 00:01:04.072 characters and huge sweeping plasma swords. 00:01:04.072 --> 00:01:09.146 This was made possible by the powerful CPS-1 arcade board - with custom sprite chips capable 00:01:10.046 --> 00:01:15.635 of drawing 256 16-colour sprites per scanline. 00:01:16.049 --> 00:01:21.105 This was the board that would power Street Fighter II: a title which would set a benchmark 00:01:21.609 --> 00:01:26.570 within the fighting game genre, with large and diverse character sprites coupled with 00:01:26.057 --> 00:01:28.246 fluid action. 00:01:28.759 --> 00:01:35.759 It sent the popularity of fighting games skyward and kickstarted a new wave of arcade popularity. 00:01:36.479 --> 00:01:42.550 Graphics might not be important, but they certainly attract attention. 00:01:43.189 --> 00:01:49.192 One technique that proved particularly popular during the 2D era was parallax scrolling: 00:01:49.219 --> 00:01:52.301 splitting the foreground or background into a number of layers which move at different 00:01:53.039 --> 00:01:57.045 rates, to give the impression of scene depth. 00:01:57.639 --> 00:02:01.530 Moon Patrol was one of the first games to make effective use of the technique, with 00:02:01.053 --> 00:02:03.952 its colourful mountain vista background. 00:02:04.429 --> 00:02:11.400 It's a striking effect - and home computer users were quick to imitate: with games like 00:02:11.003 --> 00:02:15.068 Parallax on the Commodore 64 even named for the scrolling effect. 00:02:16.004 --> 00:02:22.103 By the time of the 16-bit machines, it was a far more attainable technical feat: and 00:02:23.003 --> 00:02:27.003 would become a common sight in 2D platformers. 00:02:27.003 --> 00:02:32.050 Shadow of The Beast's colourful implementation impressed: and as hardware power increased, 00:02:32.005 --> 00:02:38.048 scenes became more complex: and the blast-processing power of the SEGA Megadrive gave games like 00:02:38.093 --> 00:02:41.132 Sonic The Hedgehog more character than ever. 00:02:42.032 --> 00:02:49.032 It was an era of cartoon mascots, and platformers were en vogue. 00:02:50.073 --> 00:02:55.120 The arcades were no stranger to animated heroes: tie-ins to popular television series such 00:02:56.002 --> 00:03:02.003 as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or The Simpsons were major draws, and their frantic 00:03:02.021 --> 00:03:07.029 paced four-player action was the perfect fit for the social nature of such amusements. 00:03:07.029 --> 00:03:14.029 On the home consoles, the success of games like Mario and Sonic inspired a large number 00:03:14.053 --> 00:03:19.145 of similar games - and the familiarity of film licenses made tie-ins like Aladdin a 00:03:20.045 --> 00:03:22.061 huge success. 00:03:22.061 --> 00:03:26.147 The colourful world and expressive animation of Disney gave the game a great visual grounding 00:03:27.047 --> 00:03:32.052 - and ensured its place as a best seller. 00:03:32.052 --> 00:03:38.053 Some characters were home-grown: Shiny Entertainment's Earthworm Jim had all of the style and flair 00:03:38.062 --> 00:03:43.158 expected of the platform genre, but did so with a new creation: a powered-up worm wearing 00:03:44.058 --> 00:03:47.105 a cybernetic super suit. 00:03:48.005 --> 00:03:55.005 Its zany sense of humour and unique style made for a memorable close to the 16-bit era. 00:03:55.062 --> 00:04:00.147 Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island embraced a painted aesthetic: rather than a push for 00:04:01.047 --> 00:04:05.058 showy effect or realistic appearance. 00:04:05.058 --> 00:04:10.064 It's this style that helps the game's visuals stand up today: while it might not be technically 00:04:10.064 --> 00:04:13.112 impressive, there is a hand-drawn charm consistent throughout. 00:04:14.012 --> 00:04:21.012 By the mid 1990s, sprites were starting to become passe: the focus was starting to shift 00:04:22.067 --> 00:04:27.147 towards a new wave of three-dimensional games, and the potential that lay within another 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:29.787 dimension. 00:04:30.039 --> 00:04:35.680 That's not to say that 2D games went away entirely: there were still plenty about, and 00:04:35.068 --> 00:04:39.017 the mature tech behind them made for some particularly impressive visuals towards the 00:04:39.629 --> 00:04:41.676 end of the decade. 00:04:42.099 --> 00:04:47.155 The lush spritework in games like Metal Slug remains a pinnacle of the style: unbound by 00:04:47.659 --> 00:04:52.747 colour or size restriction, and with fantastic animation. 00:04:53.539 --> 00:04:59.430 Some games work best in 2D - and while 3D fighting games eventually rose in popularity, 00:04:59.043 --> 00:05:04.772 there were still plenty of traditional sprite-based ones: such as SNK's long-running King of Fighters 00:05:05.159 --> 00:05:06.216 series. 00:05:06.729 --> 00:05:13.729 Beautiful, but a dying breed: the best hand-drawn sprites require good artists. However - there 00:05:15.349 --> 00:05:21.590 are some techniques that serve as a passable alternative. 00:05:21.059 --> 00:05:26.077 Animation is a vital part of making movement in games believable - and in the days before 00:05:26.077 --> 00:05:33.077 motion capture, some artists would draw from reality using a process called rotoscoping. 00:05:33.949 --> 00:05:39.042 The original Prince of Persia's sprites are traced directly from video: A labour intensive 00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:46.060 technique, but one that delivers natural-looking movement with realistic inertia. 00:05:46.006 --> 00:05:52.475 Similar techniques were used in other cinematic platformers, such as Another World - and Flashback. 00:05:52.529 --> 00:05:58.900 Both made use of rotoscoping for in-game sprites and for cinematic cutscenes: fluid in motion 00:05:58.009 --> 00:06:03.074 yet compact enough to fit on a couple of floppy disks. 00:06:04.055 --> 00:06:09.064 Digitised sprites were fashionable for a while, too - images taken directly from photographs 00:06:09.559 --> 00:06:12.588 or video of real-life subjects. 00:06:12.849 --> 00:06:18.770 The earliest example is Journey, which featured black and white images of the band - but the 00:06:18.077 --> 00:06:23.083 technique wouldn't become commonplace until the early 90s. 00:06:23.083 --> 00:06:27.111 Winners don't use drugs - nor do they have any qualms in slaughtering drug dealers by 00:06:28.011 --> 00:06:29.940 the dozen. 00:06:30.039 --> 00:06:35.830 Narc was a very early 32-bit arcade machine, with thousands of on-screen colours and hugely 00:06:35.083 --> 00:06:40.146 impressive digitised sprites for its time - and unabashed ultra-violence paired with 00:06:41.046 --> 00:06:45.785 realistic images certainly courts controversy. 00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:50.490 The realistic characters and large number of animation frames found in fighting games 00:06:50.049 --> 00:06:51.688 were a good fit for digitisation. 00:06:52.129 --> 00:06:58.020 Reikai Doushi and Pit Fighter paved the way, but it was one game in particular that flung 00:06:58.002 --> 00:07:03.791 such sprites to the forefront: Mortal Kombat. 00:07:03.809 --> 00:07:09.826 Photo-real characters and brutal action made the game a controversial one - which in turn 00:07:09.979 --> 00:07:12.984 ensured its popularity. 00:07:13.479 --> 00:07:17.562 Like Streetfighter II before it, Mortal Kombat's realistic sprites were particularly influential 00:07:18.309 --> 00:07:23.387 - titles like ClayFighter were clearly moulded in its image, and the previously hand-drawn 00:07:24.089 --> 00:07:30.147 riders of Road Rash were replaced by real bikers in the third instalment. 00:07:30.669 --> 00:07:36.990 The impressively-rendered Donkey Kong Country was perhaps the pinnacle of 2D 16-bit platformers: 00:07:36.099 --> 00:07:43.099 colourful; beautifully animated; and a smash hit to boot. 00:07:44.629 --> 00:07:48.683 The advent of multimedia technology meant more room for pre-rendered content and full 00:07:49.169 --> 00:07:51.211 motion video. 00:07:51.589 --> 00:07:56.611 Games like Myst took full advantage of the huge amount of storage space that CDs brought: 00:07:56.809 --> 00:07:59.816 enabling atmospheric prerendered backdrops. 00:08:00.509 --> 00:08:04.596 The serene island setting of Myst proved a shining example of what the emergent technology 00:08:05.379 --> 00:08:07.386 was capable of. 00:08:07.449 --> 00:08:12.517 Most early CD-based games were pure tripe, however. 00:08:13.129 --> 00:08:17.138 Games like Night Trap for the SEGA CD are remembered not for their groundbreaking technology 00:08:18.029 --> 00:08:24.121 - but instead for their awfulness. 00:08:24.949 --> 00:08:29.680 All the bluster of new tech, and none of the impact. 00:08:29.068 --> 00:08:35.099 The future wasn't in interactive movies - and while the compact disc's extra storage would 00:08:35.099 --> 00:08:40.888 become very useful in the years ahead - FMV would eventually give way to games with more 00:08:41.779 --> 00:08:47.841 depth. 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:55.110 Join me in part three when we'll be delving into the origins of gaming's third dimension. 00:08:55.011 --> 00:08:59.047 Until then, farewell.