Originally Posted by
Wavelflack
There is no Choplifter on NES. I presume that you meant SMS, but I wonder.
In any case, I am not talking about scrolling the entire screen, but line scrolling. There is nothing of the sort in SMB, and indeed (to my awareness) not at ALL on NES. Perhaps line scrolling is an archaic term, so I'll explain: Individual scanlines scrolling at independent rates. Street Fighter 2 reviewers called this "warping". Look at the floors of SF2, or the water in Sonic 1 or 2. Now you know what I mean. Got get a copy of Choplifter and an SMS, and play it. Then tell me if it could be attempted on NES, and if so, why have I seen nothing of this technique on NES?
Not only does it have the line scrolling, but also has independent (ie; separately scrolling) background layers. The game is not slow, either, nor does it slowdown.
Incidentally, I can see careful timing and VDP tricks creating a pseudo line scrolling effect, but not when foreground objects are present; they would warp as well, and that's no good. Again, look at Choplifter. Rocks, tanks, buildings, etc.
This is an early 1st gen SMS game. I have only seen pictures of the last gen SMS games, but they are extremely impressive and I literally cannot imagine the NES coming remotely close to pulling some of that off. See the MK series, or whatever you like. If NES could do any of that (even Choplifter graphical techniques), then it would have. Look at the number of developers NES had working on it. They were not sitting on their thumbs. Look at the Nintendo R&D depts., Rare, Codemasters, whoever, all working to squeeze what they can out of the NES. Somehow they overlooked ways to beat SMS on all of this? I doubt it.
Give examples. Show where the peak of NES achievement outshone SMS. Until then, it's a theoretical dream that has proven insuperable.