Building the World of Super C

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces Part II

My second platformer game world is Area 1, Fort Firestorm from Super C (Konami, 1988). I am creating the world in 3-D after analyzing the level's cabinet oblique projection, which gives some sense of depth into screen space and dimensionality to the game world.

Comparison between Super C and my project

As can be seen in the gif above, I have been recreating the game world of Fort Firestorm in 3-D. I spent some time tuning and adjusting the camera settings so now the cabinet oblique projection seen in the game is perfectly recreated.*

Yoshi's Island graphic distortion analysis by destroyerofseconds Source

Super Metroid graphic distortion analysis by destroyerofseconds Source

* Almost perfect, that is. As I've written about before, there is a difference between a "pixel-perfect" image of NES or SNES graphics (such as is displayed on most emulators) and how those graphics would look on a CRT screen. The full graphic resolution for both systems is 256 x 240 (an 8:7 aspect ratio) that would be stretched horizontally, with "wide pixels," to display at a 4:3 aspect ratio on a standard definition television. That means that the 45 degree angle of the receding lines of the cabinet oblique projection in Super C should be at a smaller angle in order to be screen-perfect.

However, there is evidence that many Nintendo artists did not take this aspect ratio distortion into account when creating their graphics. This is most noticeable with objects that are perfect circles. As seen in the images above, the circles in these two first-party Super Nintendo games look correct at 8:7 ratio, but become distorted at the 4:3 ratio they would be seen in by the player (note that NES and SNES both have the same graphic resolution).