Retro Games.. are they 30 FPS? 60 FPS? Help!

[Dr. BaconStein]

I know this thread is a year old (literally), but I feel it's something that needs to be brought up again, since according to certain people, 30 FPS is "unplayable" and a slideshow. I'm hearing Ocarina of Time runs at 20 FPS. Is that true? Because if so, then I think a lot of this frame rate bellyaching with modern games is being grossly exaggerated.

Not to say 60 FPS isn't something to aim for on a current machine, but it seems kind of ridiculous at this point that some people will refuse to play anything under that.

[Tanooki]

When you get under around 15fps I can see a lot being unplayable, but people pissing and moaning about 30 being unplayable are snobs and attention gathering criers. I can see to a point where in a FPS game where it's so precise fast and twitchy that 60 is required playing against another human, or at least the other guy being locked at the same FPS for all fairness. But to whine if Zelda OOT 3DS is unplayable at 20fps is a joke, a sad elitist joke. I used to have it and that game flowed just fine.

[Leo_A]

I doubt it's as low as 20 FPS. Maybe once in a great while when the action is particularly busy, but I bet that it's closer to the mid 20's. 23-24 FPS seems to be what I remember frequently being quoted back in 1998.

Some people like to overstate frame rate issues, especially when they're repeating what they've read. Half-Life for the original Xbox and Star Fox for the SuperNes are two that are often exaggerated.

Scrolling's not a big deal, you just talk about that parameter independently. For instance, Pitfall on Sega 32X has 60Hz sprite animation but 30Hz scrolling for some reason. Zaxxon scrolls at 6Hz, or 6fps.

Scaled sprite games get a little bit trickier when the player sprite is updated at 60Hz and the backgrounds aren't, but again, I think you can just talk about that parameter specifically.

And 3D games are no different. Refresh rates for shadows for instance aren't likely to be 60 FPS in a game that labels itself as 60 FPS, since it simply doesn't need to be in order to still look good.