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[nkarafo]

Remember Link's Awaking on the Game Boy? Did you know it has a native PC port? Well, it has and it also has a zoom in/out function like this:

You can zoom out even further and see the whole map while playing in real time. And the best thing about this is that all enemies and items are still visible. It's not like only the things that are near you exist. Every single thing is active and functional at any given time, there's no culling of distant objects.

This reminded me of Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. Another 2D pixel art game that can be zoomed out:

I like how the low res 2D pixel art looks when you zoom out like this it. It's like the game now is taking full advantage of the higher res display.

This can even be useful and not just a visual gimmick. I'm playing the Zelda game and i often use the zoom out feature to see what's ahead, instead of the in-game map that show very little information. And maybe a game can be made with this in mind and be used for some interesting gameplay mechanics, dunno.

I would love to see more low res retro games with this feature. Here's a picture of the NES game Snake Rattle n Roll, but with all levels edited together so the whole play area is visible:

Did you know the whole game is about climbing this mountain? I didn't.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Yeah, the SRnR "world map" blew my mind the first time I saw it. That was very clever of the devs.

But wouldn't zooming out in, say, the Zelda dungeons kinda defeat the purpose? What challenge remains when you can see the entire dungeon at once?

 

[roosnam1980]

looks like OP is a fan of SNK fighting games

 

[nkarafo]

looks like OP is a fan of SNK fighting games

Actually no. Because i really dislike the sprite scaling artifacts when you zoom out in those games. The Neo-Geo doesn't have a high enough resolution to make the effect look clean.

 

[struggler_guts]

I loove when games let you do this. First discovered this when my brother had a poster of the entire zelda map

 

[nkarafo]

But wouldn't zooming out in, say, the Zelda dungeons kinda defeat the purpose? What challenge remains when you can see the entire dungeon at once?

You still need to solve the puzzles. Not sure what other aspects are spoiled with the zoom out function but maybe i don't remember much of the original game, it's been 20y since i played it on the Game Boy.

There could be secret rooms that are now visible at all times but i'm not sure if that;s the case. I remember a widescreen mod for Super Metroid having this issue.

 

[ForAcademicPurposes]

PC fan port of early Sonic games lets you zoom the camera way, way out

This is quite literally Sonic like you’ve never seen him before.

arstechnica.com

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

That does look cool. Never really thought about it but I dig it.

So not 2D but have you played Shadow Tactics or Desperados III most recently? I love the fact that the levels are basically dioramas you hover over that can be rotated and zoomed in and out of. Again, not the same thing but it's cool.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Eh, it seems like a nice gimmick, but these games were never designed to be played this way. IMO it just feels like it would break immersion if it's your first time, and throw pacing well off.

A nice little feature to have when it's your dozenth time through the game, though, and probably a good way to gauge just how far modern processing has come when you can run an entire 8 or 16-bit game's logic and game world at once in full view.

Though, it's not really all instances at once since certain events are scripted to happen when enough progression's reached, which would naturally overwrite the state of other things in the game world. Tho I guess there are ways to hack that, too.

EDIT: I agree with you tho that a modern 2D game intentionally designed with this feature in mind could be really cool, like a pseudo single-screen Gauntlet-type or Gain Ground sort of affair.

 

[kevboard]

Actually no. Because i really dislike the sprite scaling artifacts when you zoom out in those games. The Neo-Geo doesn't have a high enough resolution to make the effect look clean.

yup, I also never was a fan of the scaling SNK games for that exact reason.

 

[ReBurn]

I used to think it was so cool when Samurai Shodown would scale out as fighters moved farther apart.

 

[CrimsonTide]

I think it is cool just incase you want some type of map and you need to find something or whatever.

Looks cool no question

Could never play like that, unless the game was designed to be played such a way. Kinda makes the game feel smaller in scale and less like some open adventure that Zelda is.

 

[nkarafo]

Eh, it seems like a nice gimmick, but these games were never designed to be played this way. IMO it just feels like it would break immersion if it's your first time, and throw pacing well off.

EDIT: I agree with you tho that a modern 2D game intentionally designed with this feature in mind could be really cool, like a pseudo single-screen Gauntlet-type or Gain Ground sort of affair.

That Castlevania game i posted has this feature officially. It's not a mod/extra feature or anything so i assume it's useful in some way? I don't know, i haven't actually played it yet.

Could never play like that, unless the game was designed to be played such a way. Kinda makes the game feel smaller in scale and less like some open adventure that Zelda is.

In Zelda you can use two buttons to zoom in/out in real time whenever you want. You are not forced to play in any certain height. Thing is, if you have a massive 50 inch TV or bigger, a more zoomed out camera can actually be better than the default. Especially in a game like this that was made for a tiny screen. You can zoom out without having black bars or some overlay around the screen.

 

[calistan]

That Castlevania game i posted has this feature officially. It's not a mod/extra feature or anything so i assume it's useful in some way? I don't know, i haven't actually played it yet.

I bought that Castlevania game last week on Xbox, it was dirt cheap and I'd never played it before.

The screen zooming seems to be so you can keep track of all the other players. It's built for six players simultaneously, and you can all go off to different parts of the level in search of loot. One player can go to the top and send down a lift for the players at the bottom. Then you all go and fight the boss together.

Obviously I have no friends playing this, and it's extremely difficult with just one player, so I've got nowhere with it.

 

[crazyriddler]

I made a wallpaper with the map from Links Awakening, 4K and pixel perfect, and it has been my wallpaper for months.

 

[nkarafo]

Btw, there's a whole Youtube channel that edits gameplay videos of old games to look like that.

Atlas Videos

🧙 Retro Gaming Remastered! Merging gameplay footage with atlas maps to create a unique retro gaming perspective in high definition.

www.youtube.com

 

[Bonfires Down]

I was obsessed with the Super Mario Bros 3 guide book with the entire levels drawn out when I was a kid.

 

[cireza]

Zooming destroys the pristine look of the native pixels in 2D pixel-art games. It was quite painful to see on early consoles, like SNES, Saturn, Neo Geo etc... Either you get ugly, zoomed in gigantic pixels, or you get uneven visuals because only some pixels are missing.

It rotates ! It gets bigger ! It gets smaller ! Wow !
Yeah, Wow, it looks like shit !

 

[nkarafo]

Zooming destroys the pristine look of the native pixels in 2D pixel-art games. It was quite painful to see on early consoles, like SNES, Saturn, Neo Geo etc... Either you get ugly, zoomed in gigantic pixels, or you get uneven visuals because only some pixels are missing.

It rotates ! It gets bigger ! It gets smaller ! Wow !
Yeah, Wow, it looks like shit !

It wasn't great in older, low res consoles because they would still need to keep the low resolution even when zooming out. But in this case, with modern consoles and PCs outputting 1080p and higher, zooming out is still very clean and pristine. And there's also integer scaling.