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[RAIDEN1]

This show has production values that are of the level that it could be a TV show in its own right:

 

[Knightime_X]

I wish they would do this again today.
They would have even more flexibility and the sprites would be more detailed with much more animation.

 

[Coolwhhip]

As a kid I drooled over the manuals of DKC and KI, hoping one day Rare would make a game that looked as good as those renders in it. It never came...

 

[RAIDEN1]

As a kid I drooled over the manuals of DKC and KI, hoping one day Rare would make a game that looked as good as those renders in it. It never came...

Who needed the 32X or the PSX when you had the SNES pulling this off...

 

[Moses85]

Original Rareware from SNES to N64 Era, I miss you so much.

 

[Coolwhhip]

Original Rareware from SNES to N64 Era, I miss you so much.

Imagine them still being around and making games on the soon Switch Pro.

 

[LRKD]

I love the originally DK trilogy, and KI so much. Some of the greatest games of all time

 

[ZehDon]

Terrific channel, I recommend all of their videos. They're not the deepest dives, but they're well made and very entertaining.

 

[Sp3eD]

5e production values on this channel are insane. Look like a legit documentary you would see on any high level network television station.

 

[RAIDEN1]

5e production values on this channel are insane. Look like a legit documentary you would see on any high level network television station.

Well that's what I am saying its good enough to be on any satellite/cable network..

 

[nkarafo]

I wish they would do this again today.
They would have even more flexibility and the sprites would be more detailed with much more animation.

The point of pre-rendered graphics back in the day was to transfer the look of fancy 3D models in weak systems that couldn't do 3D.

All the source 3D models they used for the SNES games could be easily rendered in real time today. So why digitize them then?

But i do agree with you that higher-res prerendered graphics with more animation frames would look great. Same thing with digitized graphics. Mortal Kombat with high-res graphics and 60fps animations would look better than any of the 3D games IMO.

But the problem is, very few devs are willing to put too much effort when they do 2D games. Most of the time they try to do this "retro look" pixellated style which looks like shitty Atari 2600 assets with modern lighting and particles. The "NES" look is also very popular and overused. It's either that or the crappy "CalArts" or "Adobe Flash" style with the ultra clean graphics, zero shading and skeletal animations

Very few 2D game developers have actually used the full potential of modern technology to create 2D games that look like the ones we used to dream about back in the day. The last one i remember is Cup Head.

The only developer that i know of who still uses pre-rendered 2D graphics is NGDEV who still make games for the Neo-Geo specs and port them to more capable systems later on like the Dreamcast or the Switch. So still a bit out of date in terms of hardware limitations and they only used the pre-rendered style for their SHMUPS.

This is their latest port on the Switch:

This show has production values that are of the level that it could be a TV show in its own right:

Taking only production values into account, yes. Otherwise no TV show about videogames would have such quality content.

 

[Soltype]

Just watched this video and was about to post a thread, these guys really put in their work with these games, crazy to think how much effort was put into making those sprites. Truly groundbreaking stuff.

 

[ManaByte]

Imagine them still being around and making games on the soon Switch Pro.

Their current game is their best game.

 

[SirTerry-T]

Ahhj, Alias PowerAnimator Fantastic piece of software.
For the time it's NURBS modelling toolset was far better for creating organic shapes compared to packages like 3d Studio, whose toolset was very much geared towards the architectural and C.A.D side of things.

Its secret weapon though was its colour quantisizer which was great for converting the true RGB rendered images down to something more suitable for a game engine of the time, such as 256 colour.

I once worked with some ex-Rare guys in a short lived startup and we had a few of the old SGI machines that Rare offloaded once they were moving more towards the real time stuff.

 

[Kuranghi]

Stasis, made by Brotherhood Games used a lot of 3D models that were converted to 2D assets for the game proper, I believe they made a lighting system where they can alter it in real-time by doing hundreds of passes of the model in different lighting conditions, I can't find the BTS video I watched on that aspect of it (Its showed a big freight elevator being made in this way, if anyone knows the video) but here is one showing how they did the graphics for their subsequent game, Beautiful Desolation, which takes the detail and resolution to the next level:




I really hope they get good sales because I love this art style. Is this also how they did the graphics for Fallout 2 and Fallout: Tactics? I used to love watching the rapid-fire death animation lol, so violent.