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View topic - Cyberpunk 2077 as SMS game. Authenticity Animation Advice pls.

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  • Joined: 12 Mar 2021
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Cyberpunk 2077 as SMS game. Authenticity Animation Advice pls.
Post Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 12:17 pm
Hi, I started a YouTube channel a few years back making (hopefully) realistic spoofs of video games. Think 8-Bit Cinema, but instead of using After Effects or Flash, I've tried to make it look somewhat authentic to each system, by using frame by frame pixel grid animation instead. Care was taken with palette, music etc.

As a Master System owner since a child, I especially hoped to get this one right. I feel like the music is close (I know the soundchip couldn't go lower than A2 on the keyboard) and I feel like the sprite size is ok. The colours should be right also. I have taken artistic license to make 'jokes' work etc however.

Sadly I'm really struggling to get feedback from those who are close to the machine. I just hoped going forward someone here could give some constructive criticism that I can use for future videos. I hope to make more SMS style videos instead of just NES, C64 etc. This is based on Cyberpunk 2077. Fair warning, there are some references which are purely jokes and I know isn't an SMS thing. Like glitching outside the car is a 3D era joke etc etc.

I'd love any advice which could just take future videos to the next level. I hope this doesn't come across as self promo either. It's a tiny channel that I do for fun, not views. This place seems the best place to get honest feedback from people who really know the system so thanks in advance!
Much love

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  • Joined: 19 Oct 1999
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Post Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 3:54 pm
We’d already found it in the Discord chat...

Sometimes when characters stop moving, the background goes blank, as if the sprite had been swapped for a background tile, for example at 0:50, a bit like the blocky edges of “sprites” in Space Harrier. Is that intended? I don’t see why a game would do that. Cars seem to do it too, but they have more reason to be “background sprites”.

The background corruption at 1:14 isn’t really how this by a would go wrong on SMS, even if badly coded :) the data is only changed when scrolling, so it might make sense to time it with that - let the column scrolling in be a copy of what just scrolled out on the left, and draw the tiles that should have been there at some mistaken location.

When the car starts moving at 1:33 it’s suddenly pixel-smooth, that’s not really possible.

A glitched background like at 1:45 likely wouldn’t coincide with the sound getting stuck, unless it was an unbounded write to video memory in which case it’d destroy the status area, then kill the sprites and finally write garbage over the tiles themselves.
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  • Joined: 12 Mar 2021
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Post Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 7:05 pm
Maxim wrote
We’d already found it in the Discord chat...

Sometimes when characters stop moving, the background goes blank, as if the sprite had been swapped for a background tile, for example at 0:50, a bit like the blocky edges of “sprites” in Space Harrier. Is that intended? I don’t see why a game would do that. Cars seem to do it too, but they have more reason to be “background sprites”.

The background corruption at 1:14 isn’t really how this by a would go wrong on SMS, even if badly coded :) the data is only changed when scrolling, so it might make sense to time it with that - let the column scrolling in be a copy of what just scrolled out on the left, and draw the tiles that should have been there at some mistaken location.

When the car starts moving at 1:33 it’s suddenly pixel-smooth, that’s not really possible.

A glitched background like at 1:45 likely wouldn’t coincide with the sound getting stuck, unless it was an unbounded write to video memory in which case it’d destroy the status area, then kill the sprites and finally write garbage over the tiles themselves.


Oh wow it was in your Discord? That's great! Hope feedback there was kind haha!

The 0:50 bit was supposed to be half the sprite flickering out. Perhaps that's not possible. Thanks for letting me know though.

Yes the car smoothness I realise now was a bit too smooth!

The background corruption at 1:14 was based on this video at 3:45. youtube(.)com/watch?v=vlLdh5q36zs&t=65s
(I'm still too new to post links sorry)

Some of the other stuff was for 'comedic purposes' like the sustained note etc. But thanks for the feedback. I want to straddle a line of all the videos being actually interesting to watch and quick and snappy but not fall into a trap of totally not looking like a game from that system.

Thanks again for the feedback. I really like this site, even though my background is just a fan of the system and animating old games. I appreciate your knowledge.
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Post Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 8:07 pm
Yeah, the background corruption was caused by the game updating an 8px column while scrolling but the glitch was making it scroll faster than 8px per frame so you got a mix of the left and right sides of the screen - but only when you made it scroll.
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  • Joined: 19 Aug 2006
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Post Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 8:32 pm
Maxim wrote
Yeah, the background corruption was caused by the game updating an 8px column while scrolling but the glitch was making it scroll faster than 8px per frame so you got a mix of the left and right sides of the screen - but only when you made it scroll.


Maxim is answering my question about the glitches on Space Mutants when running on an NTSC system. I deleted the question by mistake. To quote the enemy: "I am error." Thanks for the explanation!
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  • Joined: 29 Mar 2012
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Post Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 8:40 pm
Hi Penneypixels!
Yes, we shared the video in the Discord, and I think it had a great reception, it's really fun!

Actually, we've wondered about how it would be to do the game "for real" in the console :-)
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  • Joined: 15 Aug 2019
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Post Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2021 8:53 am
This is really well done and very funny. Well done, I'm going to share this on twitter I think, I'll name drop you too. Great work
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Post Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2021 5:07 pm
Thanks all, this was way more tips that I expected! I'm a visual person not a techy person so the coding side for accuracy isn't easy for me.
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