Sprite Supreme: A Brief History of Graphics, Part Two

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

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

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

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

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

graphics almost as long as games have existed.

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

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

Huge sprites meant huge arcade impact.

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

characters and huge sweeping plasma swords.

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

of drawing 256 16-colour sprites per scanline.

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

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

fluid action.

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

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

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

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

rates, to give the impression of scene depth.

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

its colourful mountain vista background.

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

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

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

would become a common sight in 2D platformers.

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

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

Sonic The Hedgehog more character than ever.

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

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

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

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

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

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

huge success.

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

- and ensured its place as a best seller.

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

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

a cybernetic super suit.

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

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

showy effect or realistic appearance.

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

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

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

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

dimension.

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

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

end of the decade.

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

colour or size restriction, and with fantastic
animation.

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

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

series.

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

are some techniques that serve as a passable
alternative.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

or video of real-life subjects.

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

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

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

the dozen.

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

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

realistic images certainly courts controversy.

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

were a good fit for digitisation.

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

such sprites to the forefront: Mortal Kombat.

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

ensured its popularity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

motion video.

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

enabling atmospheric prerendered backdrops.

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

was capable of.

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

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

- but instead for their awfulness.

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

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

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

depth.

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

Until then, farewell.