It never ceases to amaze us how far modern-day developers can push retro hardware. From elaborate tech demos to fully-fledged ports, programmers are willing to push vintage systems to the absolute limit, forcing them to produce visuals that, back in the day, would have been unthinkable.
Take the work of French developer @upsilandre, who has managed to create a clone of Konami's Axelay on the NES, complete with the cool 'barrel' perspective on the horizon.
The developer is keen to stress that this isn't a 'game' as such, but it does play on real hardware (you can even download the ROM and try it yourself, via either an emulator or a flash cart) and it runs at 60fps. In fact, it looks as visually impressive as Axelay itself, which runs on more powerful hardware, lest we forget.
What will they think of next, eh?
Thanks to Sam Dyer for the tip!
[source twitter.com]
Comments 34
... and how this is even possible?
(... assembly magic to be more precise)
@Shiryu
Assembly programming is seriously tough work, but the results can be astounding.
Also don't think I don't notice that's your video embedded in the article!
@RupeeClock Nintendo Life Magic!
And yet, people "deem [x] unfeasible on Switch".
@AlexSora89 That's why I say, it's all about the work you put in as a dev. Panic Button and Shin'en prove this point. There's technical limits yes, but half of programming is finding "the way" to make a game work.
This is why pro versions and upgraded systems every other year is stupid, milk the hardware then move on. The technically best games come out at the end of system lifetimes.
Bloody impressive!
Absolutely stunning, what a great work! I am going to download the rom and cannot wait to play it on my everdrive. Great
Axelay and the NES, perfect together!
That is astonishing....I want it!
@MeloMan Also most devs don't painstakingly optimize each area of the game like panic button did with DOOM when porting which you have to do for a game like that or it is going to look like the poo.
I clicked this and was like "yeah yeah, let's see what all the fuss is abo-"
This is a seriously impressive achievement!
It looks more like a waterfall than an environment you would be flying over.
I'm gonna be that guy:
This looks nothing like what Axelay looked like on the SNES. The effect feels way off.
@Iacobus Gee, really? What do you expect an NES to be, a 32-bit powerhouse?
Where's my 8-Bit Axelay music? The music in that game is absolutely phenomenal, one of my favorite soundtracks of all time.
Still, pretty neat.
@mikegamer When I see the headline, "Someone cloned Axelay on the NES, because why not?", I kind of expected to see, you know, a clone.
So it isn't a clone. Imitates? Maybe. Duplicates? No.
@Iacobus I tried it, it's really more just a demo of the distinctive "Axelay" background scrolling effect.
It's not a real game since it just loops.
It is definitely using some variation of the typical effect behind-the-car racing games used.
Checking the video memory, we can see it has a top-down view of the map, so obviously scrolling trickery it used to create the Mode 7-ish effect of the SNES game.
@Iacobus Tomato tomato shrugs
I wonder if the trick is in any way related to this one from Mickey Mania:
https://youtu.be/nt-AxAqlrOo
It looks exactly like the Axelay effect, with the exception that it doesn't have a fog near the horizon. The background manipulation looks spot on. Can anyone who disagrees please elaborate why you do so? It is the background stretched vertically at different amounts depending on the scanline height on the screen, with no stretching being done horizontally.
Looks neat, i'll be sure to try it out.
@MeloMan
You just had to say it.
I can only imagine what the whole game development world would have become, had this been an actual release during the first year of the original Famicom.
This is damn impressive. I always thought games like Crisis Force were the limit of what the Famicom/NES was capable of. Glad to see I was wrong.
@nesrocks
I guess you are right and would add that the lower the background is on the screen the faster it moves sideways too
@Pjay Funny thing is this "Axelay clone" is using ripped sprites from Crisis Force. If you watch Classic Game Room's review of Crisis Force you can see the level at 4:14. The Volcano's, small trees, the forest, lava, the ship, and even the colors.
@Dukealicious Actually I had realized that myself almost immediately after posting.
This doesn't represent much of Axelay repeating the same part over and over, but it's a nice demo with a graphic effect that would have been mindblowing in an actual NES game back then.
This is incredible this should be funded and released. Absolutely stunning!!!
Next project: port Silpheed to the Gameboy.
@AlexSora89 Yep, fell right in... I knew you wouldn't let that slip
@Fuz
Well, okay then - I've talked about technical possibility. Sorry for the mix-up.
Anything that falls in that category, however, should be theorically "feasible".
@MeloMan
It happens when you know the way.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...