1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 106



Only Noblemtl

Episode 106 – MD Project Unit

As soon as I returned from Japan, I started the project to port The Fist of Jongno to Mega Drive.

This transplant operation is not that easy.

The code we developed for the A1 board was based on the assumption of using two 16-bit CPUs. However, the Mega Drive only has one 16-bit processor. Even a simple calculation shows that the calculation speed is reduced by half.

In addition, the code that was optimized to utilize two CPUs freely had to be released and optimized again for the Mega Drive.

To get this job done smoothly in just 30 days –

(1) Structure of A1 board

(2) Code of

(3) Mega Drive System

(4) Completed version of MD version of

You need to have all four of these things perfectly in your head.

Here, no one in our company can do numbers 3 and 4 except me.

Moving from the A1 to the Mega Drive changed the game a lot.

First of all, the screen resolution is slightly reduced, the available colors and moving sprites are limited, the computation speed is slowed down, and the game capacity is greatly reduced.

This doesn’t just mean the screen is smaller and the colors are a bit simpler.

This means that the overall amount of information that the game can express is greatly reduced.

The number of characters that can appear on a single screen is limited, and their actions are simplified. Special effects that are flashy are also downgraded, and some are abandoned. Animations also have to reduce frames, and much of the graphic detail is cut out.

If you were to port all the games implemented in the arcade system to the Mega Drive, one ROM pack would not be enough due to space issues.

The system may become overloaded, causing the game to slow down, stutter, or in severe cases, even crash.

If you enter Stage 2 and the Judo Club rushes out, your movements will suddenly stop…

Ugh… Just thinking about it is stressful.

Then people will try it a few times and stop playing it, gaming magazines will start giving it bad reviews, and it will soon be labeled a flop and disappear quickly.

To prevent this from happening, you need to carefully decide which parts of the game to keep and which parts to boldly downgrade.

It takes a lot of precision and calculation to squeeze a game that is over 30MB into a ROM pack that is 5~6MB at most. Most people won’t even notice that they’ve done it.

While preserving the core fun of the game, it is necessary to maintain visuals that are not much different from the arcade version of , and that is impossible to do without mastering the game inside and out.

Of the many ports that have made the jump from arcades to home consoles, there are many that have failed. Most of them failed because they failed to properly choose what to keep and what to discard.

We also have to replace one of the characters with a Japanese high school student who idolizes a Korean swordsman, and we have to do all of this in just 30 days.

That’s why I, who knows everything, took charge of it.

If only I didn’t have the time limit, I would have naturally spread my skills while teaching people about the Mega Drive system, step by step.

It’s a bit unfortunate, but I can’t do everything the way I want.

“From Team A, Mr. So-Ryong Lee Yong-Ju will help, and from Team B, Mr. Ji-Seok will help. The three of us will work together as an MD project unit to port this game for a month.”

Lee Yong-ju and Ha Ji-seok moved their seats to my desk.

I used one development kit, and Lee Yong-ju and Ha Ji-seok shared the other one. Since Ji-seok is still a high school student and comes to the company after school, there was no big problem in sharing.

“Mr. Yongju, please take care of the character data and animation, and Mr. Jiseok, please transplant the physics system to the Mega Drive. You will refine things like collision detection and hit judgment.”

“Just that? What about the rest?”

“I should do it.”

From graphic processing to game stage creation, everything is done quietly.

“No, you can give me more work. Don’t you think you’re doing too much on your own?”

“First, I’ll start with a lecture on the Mega Drive system. I’ll just pick out the key points, so you can study the rest yourself by looking at the manual. If you don’t understand something, feel free to ask. Once you’ve finished all the work you’ve been given, I’ll give you more work to do.”

And I gave an MD lecture to both of them as an attribute.

“Do you understand? How about I divide up the work a bit more?”

“Hahahaha! I’ll start with the part I’m in charge of. You too, right, Ji-seok?”

“Yes. First, I have to start with what I’m in charge of.”

The two people, who were full of enthusiasm about joining the company’s first overseas project, suddenly became polite after taking a crash course in the MD system lecture.

“Don’t be too greedy and just do what you’re assigned to do. On the other hand, if you feel like something isn’t right while you’re doing it, speak up right away. If you struggle alone and things get delayed, you’ll be in big trouble.”

For this project, a bigger problem than not being able to do the work is having a problem and delaying it because you try to solve it alone.

Games are like the human body, no matter how insignificant a part may seem, it is always connected to the whole.

If you just tell me in time, I can cover it up, but if you keep your mouth shut and say sorry, and then something happens later when it is beyond repair, then the entire project will be ruined.

I will continue to communicate with care to make sure that this does not happen, but I emphasized that part the most out of concern.

With the development part organized like that, next is the graphics part.

The A1 board has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels, which is a perfect 4:3 ratio.

The Mega Drive, on the other hand, has three modes: 64 x 48, 256 x 192, or 320 x 224.

256 x 192 was a mode that existed for compatibility with the Master System, i.e. the Gemboy.

We were planning to develop using the largest screen mode, 320 x 224, of course.

“Since there is a 16 pixel difference in height, I just cut off 8 pixels from the top and bottom of the background. I made the stage like that and if there are any particularly annoying parts, I just touch them up a little.”

“Yes, then the ratio problem seems to be easily solved. But the problem is the color.”

AD Choi Han-il said while looking at the Mega Drive screen.

Overall, the Mega Drive boasted a fast 16-bit processing speed and a high-resolution screen that was comparable to that of an arcade board.

There are three things that Sega emphasized when advertising the Mega Drive on TV in Japan.

Speed ​​Shock! Visual Shock! Sound Shock!

Being able to enjoy high-resolution games of the same level as the flashy arcade games at home, rather than the monotonous 8-bit game screens, was definitely a huge selling point for the Mega Drive.

However, there was one sacrifice that had to be made for high resolution: vivid and varied colors.

The Mega Drive can display a total of 64 colors simultaneously. Up to four color palettes containing 16 colors could be used.

Of course, it was much more than the 8-bit game consoles that could usually express about 16 colors, but it was quite disappointing considering that Nintendo’s Super Famicom could use up to 2,048 colors simultaneously.

“We have no choice but to keep the shape of the existing visual assets as is and readjust the colors overall.”

“Yes, please readjust the colors from the characters to the background based on the color palette for MD. If necessary, you can give each stage a different color touch from the arcade.”

“Okay, we’ll do some color research and take action. It’s inevitable that the overall tone will be a bit toned down.”

“I’m also sorry, but there’s nothing I can do because of the limitations of video memory.”

To display graphics on the screen, that is, to display information on a pixel on the screen, the corresponding information value must be stored in the memory.

No matter how big the monitor is or how high its resolution is, if the system does not have enough video RAM (VRAM) to handle the high resolution, only a portion of it can be used.

The hardware is honest.

Want more colors at higher resolution? Just use more video RAM.

Arcade boards can be customized to suit the game, and can be used in a mass manner by using as many chips as needed.

It’s possible, even if it means paying more, and you just have to decide what’s better for your game and your business.

However, it is not easy for home consoles to be produced and distributed in the millions or tens of millions of units with the same specifications.

If you really, really need it, there is a way to add additional VRAM to the ROM pack, but it becomes more difficult to make and the ROM pack becomes more expensive.

Retro game consoles have always been tight on memory, so memory management has always been a major issue.

As the 16-bit era arrived, hardware specifications increased dramatically, but RAM and video RAM did not.

The Mega Drive had 64KB of main memory, plus 64KB of video RAM. It also had an additional 8KB for sound processing.

The main memory of my Gemix V is 64KB, and the video RAM is 16KB.

The Mega Drive’s 64KB of video RAM, converted to bits, totals 512,000 bits.

The total number of pixels in the Mega Drive’s 320 x 224 resolution is 716,800.

The onboard video RAM is not enough to process all the pixels on the screen.

So instead of processing pixels one by one, they are processed in 8×8 sized tiles, and the number of colors that can be used simultaneously is also limited.

But what can I do? No matter what country I am in, the given hardware is the same. As always, it is important to get the best results within the given limitations.

However, the Mega Drive is a console based on the arcade board, so it is fortunate that it supports various special effects. It seemed that the direction shown in could be similarly contained without major modifications.

The music also needed to be modified to fit the FM sound source format, so we decided to outsource it this time as well.

In this way, the division of roles for the MD transplant work of was decided.

The rest is now running towards the destination.

We were all tidying up our work and taking a breather, when Captain Park came to my seat, saying he had something to tell me.

He said he wanted to change the name of the game.

The name was .

“ is good. It’s easy to pronounce, and it’s easier to say than . It also feels like the atmosphere has deepened. Have you talked about it with your team members?”

“Yes, we got together and talked about it as soon as we got to work. We all agreed to change it to .”

“Okay, then. The title of this game will be from now on. But that’s a bit unexpected. I thought you’d be more attached to .”

“I used to think that way too, but I think those days are over now. is a game I made when I was foolish, so I thought it would be right to be reborn.”

“I don’t know if I’m being foolish, but I think the new title is better anyway. What about the game? Are you thinking of changing the entire story?”

“No, that’s not it. We plan to keep the basic story and three-act structure as is. We’re currently discussing how to structure each stage.”

“So how did you decide on a direction?”

“I plan to focus on the fact that the main character’s spaceship is a transforming robot. I also need this game to feel like a tech demo that shows the A1 board’s capabilities, so I think it needs different action from . I’m thinking about featuring as many different weapons as possible and creating flashy battle scenes.”

“The basic direction is good. Who is doing robot design now?”

“Woo-seok said he wanted to take charge, but I decided to work with Mr. Ko Seong-beom. I recently bought some Japanese robot animation videos from Akihabara and am currently studying them.”

“I think those two would make a pretty cool design. So, will they transform in the middle of the stage?”

“Actually, I’m having trouble with that part right now. It’s meaningless if the shape just changes, and the fighting style has to change as the shape changes to have real meaning, but I don’t see any part that would do that.”

“Even if I transform, it’s meaningless if I fight the same way.”

“Yes, so when you transform, the weapons you can use change. I’m thinking about this concept right now. After all, the core of a shooting game is that I shoot things like guns and fight enemies. The stronger and cooler the weapon, the better.”

When I heard that, a scene from an animation that I had seen and found impressive came to mind.

“Then, instead of having to change in the middle, how about something like this?”

“What is it?”

“Super magnetic charging!”

I said, raising both fists in the air.

Oh, was my voice a little louder than necessary?

Everyone around me was staring at me. It was a little embarrassing.

But Captain Park didn’t seem to have any feelings at all even after seeing me.

“I···, I’m sorry, sir. I don’t quite understand what you’re saying···.”

“Ah···, you haven’t seen this. There’s an animation called . I think they’re doing it right now. The original title was , I think. Anyway, what’s unique about that animation is that there are three main characters, and depending on the situation, the main characters need different equipment and weapons, right? But an operator transmits it from a base in space. Every time the main characters equip a new weapon, they shout ‘Super-Charge!’”

“Oh, so.”

“How about applying this? Rather than transformation, we can introduce a variety of weapon systems so that you can operate the weapon system according to the situation and your own taste. Although it is a shooting game, it also includes some strategic elements, so the way you play will be much more diverse.”

Now that I think about it, it seems like a good idea.

Just as the build changes depending on the weapon selection in an action RPG game, a similar principle can be simply applied to a shooting game.

Then, you can play in your own style, and even after seeing the ending, you can play it multiple times while challenging new weapon styles.

“Did you say the title of the animation is ? I should go and watch it today.”

“No, the title is . Every time you receive a weapon from space, you shout out super-charge.”

“But do I have to shout it to get it?”

Captain Park asked with his characteristically serious and earnest expression.

Judging from his expression, this person really doesn’t know and is asking.

The rule is to shout out the name of a skill when using it.

Anyway, this is why people who only knew how to study during their school days are a problem.