Gaming Forums => Nintendo Gaming => Topic started by: Nile Boogie Returns on February 18, 2014, 08:08:40 PM
Title: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Nile Boogie Returns on February 18, 2014, 08:08:40 PM
So I found my old N64 and 20 games in a storage locker that I have (that was about to be sold at auction no less) and all the games are polygon based. Even the 2d platformers like Yoshi and Mischief Makers are using 3D models. So my question, could it not do sprites or was it just easier to develop 3d titles since the hardware was a bitch? I can't think of 1 sprite game, I feel like I'm overlooking something obvious.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: ShyGuy on February 18, 2014, 08:11:49 PM
Mario Kart 64 used 2.5D sprites, right?
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Mop it up on February 18, 2014, 08:18:31 PM
Yoshi's Story uses sprites, so does the aforementioned Mario Kart 64. They're just taken from pre-rendered images (like the Donkey Kong Country games) so they look a little different. But they are indeed 2D sprites. Then of course there's Paper Mario, which is almost nothing but sprites.
I believe the problem with the N64 is something about how it doesn't have a dedicated 2D processor or doesn't process 2D images well for one reason or another. I think the sprites are actually just a single large, flat polygon, and so the detail suffers a bit from having to do that.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Br26 on February 18, 2014, 08:54:29 PM
Paper Mario was pretty 2D.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: BranDonk Kong on February 18, 2014, 08:59:14 PM
Ogre Battle 64 used 2D sprites for everything except the world map and spell animations.
I've been confusing this game with "quest 64" for the past 15 years. I have never seen any gameplay of Ogre Battle until 5 mintues ago. I am dumbfounded at my profound ignorance.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Ian Sane on February 19, 2014, 12:55:36 PM
I figure the emphasis on polygons was Nintendo wanting to push them as the hot new thing in videogames. Funny to think how anti-2D they came across as then when now they seem to LOVE 2D gameplay.
I know that the Playstation sucked at 2D because it had no dedicated sprite processing hardware. You created a 2D sprite game by making a flat polygon and texturing it with the sprite image. I don't know if the N64 had a similar limitation.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Mop it up on February 19, 2014, 06:48:50 PM
Quick! Let's get someone else in here to say the same thing we've all said!
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Khushrenada on February 19, 2014, 06:59:27 PM
So I found my old N64 and 20 games in a storage locker that I have (that was about to be sold at auction no less) and all the games are polygon based. Even the 2d platformers like Yoshi and Mischief Makers are using 3D models. So my question, could it not do sprites or was it just easier to develop 3d titles since the hardware was a bitch? I can't think of 1 sprite game, I feel like I'm overlooking something obvious.
Yoshi's Story uses sprites, so does the aforementioned Mario Kart 64. They're just taken from pre-rendered images (like the Donkey Kong Country games) so they look a little different. But they are indeed 2D sprites. Then of course there's Paper Mario, which is almost nothing but sprites.
I believe the problem with the N64 is something about how it doesn't have a dedicated 2D processor or doesn't process 2D images well for one reason or another. I think the sprites are actually just a single large, flat polygon, and so the detail suffers a bit from having to do that.
Ogre Battle 64 used 2D sprites for everything except the world map and spell animations.
I've been confusing this game with "quest 64" for the past 15 years. I have never seen any gameplay of Ogre Battle until 5 mintues ago. I am dumbfounded at my profound ignorance.
I figure the emphasis on polygons was Nintendo wanting to push them as the hot new thing in videogames. Funny to think how anti-2D they came across as then when now they seem to LOVE 2D gameplay.
I know that the Playstation sucked at 2D because it had no dedicated sprite processing hardware. You created a 2D sprite game by making a flat polygon and texturing it with the sprite image. I don't know if the N64 had a similar limitation.
I figure the emphasis on polygons was Nintendo wanting to push them as the hot new thing in videogames. Funny to think how anti-2D they came across as then when now they seem to LOVE 2D gameplay.
I know that the Playstation sucked at 2D because it had no dedicated sprite processing hardware. You created a 2D sprite game by making a flat polygon and texturing it with the sprite image. I don't know if the N64 had a similar limitation.
Question? I've always heard the same thing about ps1 but is that "sucks" vs saturn or in general? Street Fighter looked solid, Castlevaina looked good, well to me back then it did. Plus they had all those shumps that used sprites.
Damed newfangled polydusits, thank Hylia for the Ds family.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Mop it up on February 20, 2014, 07:09:48 PM
Probably vs. the Saturn yeah. That thing was a 2D beast at the time.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: NWR_insanolord on February 21, 2014, 12:11:31 AM
The Saturn was designed to be the next generation of 2D hardware after the Genesis and SNES. That's part of what killed it, because they didn't see 3D coming and then slapped it on top of the 2D machine late in development, resulting in a console that was hard to develop for (and borderline impossible to emulate).
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Phil on February 21, 2014, 02:02:19 AM
Blast Corps poops on this thread.
Wait. What?
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Nile Boogie Returns on February 21, 2014, 11:25:28 AM
I made a drunken post about Blast Corps on this board a very long time ago.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Phil on February 21, 2014, 12:04:28 PM
We must be kindred spirits!
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Traveller on February 28, 2014, 02:06:39 AM
Mario 64 used sprites for the trees etc
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: NWR_insanolord on February 28, 2014, 06:35:44 AM
Lots of stuff was sprites in Mario 64. The coins, for instance, were all sprites. Compare them to the DS version of the game where they're polygonal.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: bustin98 on March 02, 2014, 01:24:04 PM
Hexen64 always amused me with it's sprites.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Mop it up on March 03, 2014, 07:51:36 PM
Don't forget DooM 64.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Nile Boogie Returns on March 05, 2014, 07:59:16 AM
So I could do sprites. Albeit the absolute worst type of sprites in the history of media. Then why didn't N64 get Street Fighter alpha, Darkstalkers, Castlevania or any other sprite based 2d game? Am I missing the connection the sprites and side scrolling games. Maybe my real question:
Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing true 2D games?
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: pokepal148 on March 05, 2014, 09:16:18 AM
The ps1 also had some struggles with sprites, at least in games ported to it.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: NWR_insanolord on March 05, 2014, 10:35:48 AM
The N64 didn't get Castlevania because the cartridges couldn't do the CD soundtrack.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: BranDonk Kong on March 05, 2014, 10:46:42 AM
That's just an excuse. Mortal Kombat Trilogy used CDDA for the soundtrack, as did MK3 and MK4, and N64 got all of those games.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: NWR_insanolord on March 05, 2014, 10:50:32 AM
I'm pretty sure Castlevania had more and higher quality music than Mortal Kombat.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: BranDonk Kong on March 05, 2014, 12:22:38 PM
Quality doesn't matter, it was a full audio soundtrack that took up the entire disc. 74 minutes of CDDA is 74 minutes of CDDA.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: NWR_insanolord on March 05, 2014, 12:24:01 PM
But see, Midway, unlike Konami, was part of the Dream Team. They had access to a whole other level of technology.
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Nile Boogie Returns on March 05, 2014, 02:42:35 PM
What music, SOTN? true that music was awesome but there were huge carts at the time that could of fit that music, albeit compressed onto a cartridge? Maybe my ears are rosy, I remember symphony quality music on n64, (not as good as sotn).
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Nile Boogie Returns on March 05, 2014, 02:53:26 PM
BUST-A-MOVE!!!!! THAT'S THE FREAKIN' GAME I WAS THINKING ABOUT THAT HAD CLASSIC SPRITES!!
(I feel much better now, knowing my 2week brain fart has stopped smelling)
Title: Re: Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing sprites?
Post by: Mop it up on March 05, 2014, 07:24:16 PM
So I could do sprites. Albeit the absolute worst type of sprites in the history of media. Then why didn't N64 get Street Fighter alpha, Darkstalkers, Castlevania or any other sprite based 2d game? Am I missing the connection the sprites and side scrolling games. Maybe my real question:
Was the Nintendo 64 incapable of doing true 2D games?
The Nintendo 64 has true 2D games, such as Yoshi's Story and Dr. Mario 64. There's no special reason the games you mentioned didn't appear on the Nintendo 64, the reason is the same as to why the thousands of other games didn't release on the Nintendo 64: it was an extremely expensive system to develop or port games to, and it was extremely expensive to produce cartridges. After the popularity of the PlayStation exploded with Final Fantasy VII, there was no real reason for most companies to release games on the N64 when the PSX was way cheaper and games didn't have to compete with Nintendo games. The PSX has a library of about 2,418 unique releases worldwide, whereas the N64 has 387.
