Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Space Harrier – Developer Interview Collection

shmuplations.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 33 posts

Re: Space Harrier – Developer Interview Collection

#21

Post by JohnBooty »

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #20

I was amazed when I it came out and was so fast, I've spent a lot of money on Space Harrier as a kid and the color checkered bottom inspired some effects in the demos I've written back then. Out Run though brought even more 3d feeling with the up and down.

Man, those were good memories.

Interestingly enough I had the opposite experience with Out Run and Space Harrier!

Out Run definitely brought a lot of cool new graphics and sound, including those hills, but it felt to me like "just another racing game" like the ones we'd been playing since Turbo and Pole Position.

For me Space Harrier felt like it was a big leap in freedom over those old driving games where you were glued to the ground. Why would I want to drive when I could fly?

Well, it's this kind of difference that makes these games so worthy of discussion. They meant things to us, and they can mean different things to different people. I'm glad that the world has begun to appreciate these games as art.

Re: Space Harrier – Developer Interview Collection

#23

Post by sundvor »

JohnBooty wrote: post #8

It's hard to convey how absolutely transformational it was for me to play Space Harrier in an arcade back in the day. The graphics were mind-blowing. Big part of why I became a programmer, even though I went down a different path than game development. Those big, bright, detailed sprites moving around with hardware-accelerated scaling at a smooth rock-solid 60fps! There had been nothing like that before. I mean, we'd…

Yeah, I must admit I had forgotten about the game - but I do recall how it had me mesmerised back in the days. I must have been about 12 when it came out.

Here's a video recording to really jog those memories; make sure to watch at 60fps! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLOf2StF_zY

However you really need to look at the cabinet design too, which was really cool: https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9660

Re: Space Harrier – Developer Interview Collection

#24

Post by benj111 »

"Originally, the “Harrier” in the title was going to be a French VTOL-capable fighter jet"

I did wonder why it was called space Harrier.

But it isn't French, its British. Although I suppose enough Chinese and Japanese things have been confused by westerners, so I'll let them off.

Re: Space Harrier – Developer Interview Collection

#28

Post by wiz21c »

JohnBooty wrote: post #8

It's hard to convey how absolutely transformational it was for me to play Space Harrier in an arcade back in the day. The graphics were mind-blowing. Big part of why I became a programmer, even though I went down a different path than game development. Those big, bright, detailed sprites moving around with hardware-accelerated scaling at a smooth rock-solid 60fps! There had been nothing like that before. I mean, we'd…

Makes me realize how MAME is insufficient to reproduce the incredible gameplay of Space Harrier (I don't say this as a critic of Mame but more to express that there was somethign really special about Space Harrier). The moving cabinet was so smooth and the joystick reacted so well to the manoeuver (especially when you had to do that "triangle" to avoid the mech at the higher levels).

Anybody remember the Asute level with blinking obstacles ? Mindblowing gameplay !

Welcome to the fantasy zone !

Re: Space Harrier – Developer Interview Collection

#29

Post by PhasmaFelis »

JohnBooty wrote: post #8

It's hard to convey how absolutely transformational it was for me to play Space Harrier in an arcade back in the day. The graphics were mind-blowing. Big part of why I became a programmer, even though I went down a different path than game development. Those big, bright, detailed sprites moving around with hardware-accelerated scaling at a smooth rock-solid 60fps! There had been nothing like that before. I mean, we'd…

This makes me realize how amazing it is that the C64 port of Space Harrier was fully playable and actually pretty good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgMHuYjIlpY

Re: Space Harrier – Developer Interview Collection

#30

Post by lostgame »

Pulcinella wrote: post #16
lostgame wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, wow, this was a fantastic read, thank you!

See also this video https://youtu.be/K7gWmdgXPgk to see how the snes mode 7 (though really you also need HDMA) perspective transformation worked. The whole series of videos is amazing.

I really appreciate the simple explanation of how raster effects worked in your original article.

It's something I always feel like I understood, but couldn't necessarily explain to someone else if I had to.

Post reply on HN