DF Retro Super Show: The History of Killer Graphics

In this week's episode of DF Retro Super Show, our hosting team of John Linneman, Audi Sorlie, Coury Carlson and Marc "Try4ce" Duddleson explore the best visual effects in the history of retro games. And with this quartet, we're actually shocked to have kept the topic down to roughly 90 minutes.

Our conversation moves from one technological feat to the next with explanations of how developers originally achieved each effect on limited hardware of their eras and compelling examples that remain impressive to the modern day. In the 8- and 16-bit eras, we chronicle techniques like moving-cloud skyboxes, parallax scrolling, rotoscoped animation, sprite-tile animation tricks to simulate 3D effects and sprite-based, fixed-perspective rendering of 3D viewpoints (commonly seen in golf games on older PCs).

Then moving into powerful arcade machines and 32-bit consoles, we look at both pre-rendered backgrounds and pre-rendered animation as mixed with real-time imagery, along with super-scaler sprite techniques, simulations of natural phenomena like rain and water, pioneering work in stencil shadows, shell texture effects for 3D-seeming grass and fur, parallax mapped textures and heat haze effects.

Plus, we conclude with a surprising mention of a Sega-developed, arcade-specific technology that we'll leave as a fun surprise for viewers and listeners alike.

Additionally, we dig into "news," which for the DF Retro Super Show always revolves around new developments for either classic games or classic hardware.

We briefly touch upon Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection, a jam-packed compilation of Mortal Kombat games that spans from its arcade debut to the series' first forays into real-time 3D action. The preservationists at DF Retro are mixed on the package in its current state, due to issues with input latency on PS4 and PS5, lingering connectivity problems in online play and quirks in the console games' emulation.

We're hopeful to see the devs at Digital Eclipse clean this release up, and the studio's reputation with patches and fixes on the likes of TMNT: Cowabunga Collection have us relatively confident that most of MKLK's issues will be resolved. The documentary half of the title is quite robust in the meantime, with tons of access to the series' original devs, even if its narrative loses steam once the story reaches Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, with far fewer colourful anecdotes detailing the production of weirdly loveable games like MK: Special Forces and Sub-Zero: Mythologies. (We must admit, the fact that the collection includes the previously "lost" WaveNet arcade edition of UMK3 is arguably reason enough to dive into the game.)

We also offer our positive impressions of the new, retro-adjacent brawler Absolum, as developed by Guard Crush (Streets of Rage 4) with artistic direction from French VFX studio Supamonks. Its combination of a satisfying mechanical core and build-your-fighter roguelite systems has proven addictive for everyone on the DF Retro crew, and its co-op combat shines thanks to meaty, fantastical abilities and varied builds in each run that emphasize new mechanics in electrifying ways.

In other recent retro news, Audi shouts out a surprising announcement of a sequel to Sword of Sodan, a cherished Amiga classic, while Coury points to an illuminating conversation between longtime retro enthusiast Zophar (of Zophar's Domain fame) and zsNight, the creator of ZSNES, one of the truly pioneering SNES emulators of the 1990s. The group talks about the surprising anonymous upload of a working, seemingly legitimate prototype of the unreleased RPG Splatterworld: Rick to Kyoufu no Daiou, made by Namco for the Famicom in 1993. And if you're looking for a classic game port that makes you wonder at the scene's ingenuity, look no further than Sonic the Hedgehog on the beleaguered Amistrad GX4000.