Before this generation greatly expanded the capabilities of consoles games, developers had to work around console restrictions if they wanted to publish a game. Even if they could have better graphics or design new areas, certain things had to be scrapped in order to finalize their game. Here are five ways that game developers and publishers worked around these limitations and changed the gaming scene.
5) Procedural Gameplay
I’ve already written an article on the wonders of procedural gaming. It was originally created to accommodate for the low amount of memory on game cartridges. By generating areas according to a formula, games could have complex settings with minimal space used on the cartridge. The games that use this best are the Dark Cloud series, the weapon system of Borderlands, and Diablo 3’s dungeons. However, it also makes an appearance in games which generate entire worlds, such as Minecraft and Terraria.
4) Mew
After cramming 150 Pokémon, 165 moves, and hundreds of trainers into the Gameboy cartridges, the Pocket Monsters development team realized there was room for just one more Pokémon. Shigeki Miyamoto programmed one last monster into the game—Mew—and expected no one to find it. However, when coders and hackers came across Mew in the script, it renewed interest in the game, and the company decided to give Mew out legitimately. This renewed interest in the series greatly contributed to its success, and it probably influenced the way DLC was treated in later generations of gaming.
3) Silent Hill Fog
Graphical limitations on the original Playstation meant that the draw distance for high-quality games would need to be very low. The Silent Hill development team dealt with this by weaving the fog and darkness into the plot—instead of a gimmick that kept you from noticing there was nothing in the distance, they found a way to hide enemies and pop-up scares. Silent Hill’s fog and darkness are practically the game’s trademarks, and stayed in the main series games even after the graphical limitation was removed by newer consoles.
2) Pixel Art
Arguably one of the best art styles to come out of gaming, pixel art and sprites were an easy way to cut down on graphics space for console games. Even though 3D rendering was available as early as 1976, it took consoles a few decades to catch up. In the meantime, minimalist pixel art was the best way to display characters and scenery or add graphic style to a game. While most game covers depicted paintings of the characters, the actual pixel art of retro games remain the most memorable depictions of classic characters.
1) Memory Cards
While there were already memory cards being used for computers and occasionally borrowed by video games, game saves were usually kept on a game cartridge’s RAM up until consoles started using read-only discs. Since the discs became read-only, memory cards were required to keep the RAM of expansive games intact. However, this allowed for multiple games to be played using the same disc, the transportation of said game save to another disc, and occasionally the transportation of a save from a console to an arcade system for a better control layout. Allowing a user to have multiple saves gave developers a reason to add more replay value than before, as well as incentive to have multiple games. This ultimately added depth to the games we play today—even if memory cards are no longer necessary to play on consoles.
You’re confusing Mew and Missingno. Missingno was the one only found by gitching or hacking, Mew was locked on the cartridge and could be unlocked by going to Nintendo-sponsored promotional events. It wasn’t hidden.
Also the Pokemon designs weren’t by Shigeru Miyamoto (or “Shigeki Miyamoto” whoever he is), they were by Ken Sugimori. Do you do any research at *all*, Sara?
MissingNo wasnt a pokemon added to the game it was a graphical glitch caused by the game looking for a non existant pokemon. Mew was hidden on the cartridge to be unlocked at the nintendo events. Also I dont see the article claiming that Shigeki Miyamoto designed the pokemon just that it was put in the game by him. Do you do any research at *all*, Tim?
Yeah, Missingno was the one found by hacking the game files; specifically it was found that it was an error handling code meaning “Missing Number.” Mew was never secret (or possible to unlock in any normal way), Nintendo had intended from the start to have it unlocked at special events.
“Programmed one last monster” implies that Mew wasn’t one of the original designs, which implies whoever this “Shigeki Miyamoto” is would have designed and programmed it then and there. Ken Sugimoto designed all 151 together, and there were always intended to be that many.
Actually Mew can be captured without hacks in the original series of games. I’ve done it myself on Yellow. Here is a link showing how it is done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_YweIBbJZo I believe this qualifies as catching Mew normally as it involves no hacks or events.
That’s a rare case where the event lock is disengaged based on your game’s data files. It’s not possible in the average game. Related to that, Missingno doesn’t need to be hacked into the game on red and blue. Just go to cinnabar island and surf on the east edge. Before doing that you should put a valuable item in the seventh slot, as it can be multiplied infinitely after a battle with Missingno. And don’t forget you can catch a wild ‘M too, which is a secondary filler that makes sure that the game also doesn’t crash.
it only changes the items value by 255 if you catch missingno. or 128 if you defeat it
Yeah. And?
Then everything changed when the fire nation attacked
Ah, I see, it’s Shigeki Morimoto. Helps if you fact check things like this (especially since Tsunekaz Ishihara was the one who created it, Morimoto just put it in the game code). Still, Ken Sugimori had already designed 151 Pokemon (actually a lot more) and the Mew design was grabbed from a huge stack of existing ones. Morimoto didn’t include any method of unlocking it at all and threw it in as a practical joke because after the debug software was removed there was room for one more set of monster data. Hackers didn’t find it in the code; it was found accidentally due to a rare glitch that could make it appear in a player’s save file.
It does seem on further inspection that Nintendo didn’t originally intend to give it out, but this was a very rapid thing (the first unlock event being literally a month after the game shipped). This could hardly be said to have “renewed interest in the game” since it was still setting sales records at the time.
The “Pokemon” which was only found by hacking the game was Missingno; there was a lot of interest in it after screencaps showing it in battle started appearing, but it was ultimately proven to just be an error handling code.
So yeah, no research done here. DLC wasn’t influenced by Mew at all, it was primarily influenced by the non-stand-alone expansions popular in the PC era such as the add-ons for C&C Red Alert and Quake, and by the PC mod scene.
What? You have that reversed. Missingno. was the glitch and mew was to be hacked. Did you actually even PLAY the game? Surf along the eastern edge of cinnabar island and you will find Missingno. There is a rumor that you could use strength on a truck in Vermillion city by the SS Anne, but that’s never been proven true without heading to a promotional event or carefully hacking it. I know no one who has though.
Also really? Memory cards caused multiple game saves? There were tons of SNES games with multiple save slots. All the Donkey Kong Country games had more than one for a start, and so did Mario All-Stars. So memory cards changed everything…by giving us a capability games already had.
And sprites weren’t space-saving, they were because early consoles were physically incapable of real-time 3D rendering, having no hardware to support it. Why do you think the SNES needed a graphics processing chip on a cartridge to run even something as basic as Starfox?
Wow guys sorry for being such a douche bag a few months back, I was just going through some personal issues. But im officially out of the closet and everythings fine now!
Alright since facts seem to be at a low here, and it’s mostly opinions that vary, I’m going to provide some much needed (and very accurate) information. Most of this is directed towards Tim since he seems to have the “I know all” attitude more than anyone. First concerning the Mew & MissingNo argument.
“Mew was a little-known secret when Pokémon Red and Green were first released in Japan. Even Nintendo was not initially aware that Shigeki Morimoto had programmed it into the game.”
“In an interview with Game Freak and Creatures, Inc. in Nintendo Power issue 134, Tsunekaz Ishihara revealed that he created Mew two weeks before game development was finished”
The fact that Nintendo released the game and didn’t even KNOW that Mew was on it is pretty much the exact definition of “hidden”. Tsunekaz Ishihara is the President and CEO of The Pokemon Company, basically he runs the show end to end.
Next, about the memory cards. The main point wasn’t the multiple saves, it was the portability of them. Sure there were some games that allowed multiple saves later on, which usually allowed you 3 different save files. Obvious examples are things like Super Mario World, Chrono Trigger, etc…I could go on for a long while, but you get the point.
But these saves required you to bring the game WITH you. You couldn’t save to a memory card, pull the card out and then say go to a friends house and play. You had to physically bring the game with you. Also as I said the number of save files was usually extremely limited, 3 or less in most cases. The PSX memory card (8mb) usually allowed 15 save files, from a variety of games. The increase in save files as well as convenience in bringing the memory card with you was the key point, they weren’t trying to say that it was the first time multiple saves ever existed.
And lastly, about the sprites. For the love of grammar can you not read? This is an EXACT piece of what is written in the Pixel Art section of the list “Even though 3D rendering was available as early as 1976, it took consoles a few decades to catch up.” You proceed to argue by saying “And sprites weren’t space-saving, they were because early consoles were
physically incapable of real-time 3D rendering, having no hardware to
support it”
You’re arguing for the sake of argument. It’s like if someone told me snow was white, and I turn around and said “No it’s not, it’s white”. There’s pretty much no logic of any kind to what you say.
The idea of Mew was already thought up, but the decision to actually include said Pokemon was done at the last minute (and without Nintendo’s knowledge)
Nothing on Metal Gear? In Silent Hill, a game’s (great!) identity and style were born out of hardware limitations, but, with Metal Gear, a whole genre was created because this game’s intended platform couldn’t handle too many sprites being simultaneously drawn, as was required by the straight action-oriented design it originally was intended to have.
Great article anyway: it reinforces to me the concept that great – and, in that, some of the best – ideas can come out of tough restraints, as is exposed by Hideo Kojima in his GDC ’09 keynote.
normally i would believe you but shigeki miyamoto is another miyamoto who worked on the pokemon series and at least might have put mew in. and second satoshi tajiri did create pokemon but Shigeru Miyamoto did help him alot along the way.
Procedural generation was common BEFORE consoles, with games like Rogue, Empire, Hack, and Nethack,. It wasn’t done that way because memory was at a premium, but because it made for better, more replayable games.
I picked up a B.A. in English with a specialty in Poetry. I also draw manga-inspired webcomics and play far too much Minecraft in my free time. My favorite game is Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, while my favorite series is Suikoden!
You’re confusing Mew and Missingno. Missingno was the one only found by gitching or hacking, Mew was locked on the cartridge and could be unlocked by going to Nintendo-sponsored promotional events. It wasn’t hidden.
Also the Pokemon designs weren’t by Shigeru Miyamoto (or “Shigeki Miyamoto” whoever he is), they were by Ken Sugimori. Do you do any research at *all*, Sara?
MissingNo wasnt a pokemon added to the game it was a graphical glitch caused by the game looking for a non existant pokemon. Mew was hidden on the cartridge to be unlocked at the nintendo events. Also I dont see the article claiming that Shigeki Miyamoto designed the pokemon just that it was put in the game by him. Do you do any research at *all*, Tim?
Yeah, Missingno was the one found by hacking the game files; specifically it was found that it was an error handling code meaning “Missing Number.” Mew was never secret (or possible to unlock in any normal way), Nintendo had intended from the start to have it unlocked at special events.
“Programmed one last monster” implies that Mew wasn’t one of the original designs, which implies whoever this “Shigeki Miyamoto” is would have designed and programmed it then and there. Ken Sugimoto designed all 151 together, and there were always intended to be that many.
White knighting is pathetic.
Sugimori, even.
Actually Mew can be captured without hacks in the original series of games. I’ve done it myself on Yellow. Here is a link showing how it is done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_YweIBbJZo I believe this qualifies as catching Mew normally as it involves no hacks or events.
That’s a rare case where the event lock is disengaged based on your game’s data files. It’s not possible in the average game. Related to that, Missingno doesn’t need to be hacked into the game on red and blue. Just go to cinnabar island and surf on the east edge. Before doing that you should put a valuable item in the seventh slot, as it can be multiplied infinitely after a battle with Missingno. And don’t forget you can catch a wild ‘M too, which is a secondary filler that makes sure that the game also doesn’t crash.
it only changes the items value by 255 if you catch missingno. or 128 if you defeat it
Yeah. And?
Then everything changed when the fire nation attacked
And then Nim died because The Last Airbender is overrated.
Ah, I see, it’s Shigeki Morimoto. Helps if you fact check things like this (especially since Tsunekaz Ishihara was the one who created it, Morimoto just put it in the game code). Still, Ken Sugimori had already designed 151 Pokemon (actually a lot more) and the Mew design was grabbed from a huge stack of existing ones. Morimoto didn’t include any method of unlocking it at all and threw it in as a practical joke because after the debug software was removed there was room for one more set of monster data. Hackers didn’t find it in the code; it was found accidentally due to a rare glitch that could make it appear in a player’s save file.
It does seem on further inspection that Nintendo didn’t originally intend to give it out, but this was a very rapid thing (the first unlock event being literally a month after the game shipped). This could hardly be said to have “renewed interest in the game” since it was still setting sales records at the time.
The “Pokemon” which was only found by hacking the game was Missingno; there was a lot of interest in it after screencaps showing it in battle started appearing, but it was ultimately proven to just be an error handling code.
So yeah, no research done here. DLC wasn’t influenced by Mew at all, it was primarily influenced by the non-stand-alone expansions popular in the PC era such as the add-ons for C&C Red Alert and Quake, and by the PC mod scene.
What? You have that reversed. Missingno. was the glitch and mew was to be hacked. Did you actually even PLAY the game? Surf along the eastern edge of cinnabar island and you will find Missingno. There is a rumor that you could use strength on a truck in Vermillion city by the SS Anne, but that’s never been proven true without heading to a promotional event or carefully hacking it. I know no one who has though.
Also really? Memory cards caused multiple game saves? There were tons of SNES games with multiple save slots. All the Donkey Kong Country games had more than one for a start, and so did Mario All-Stars. So memory cards changed everything…by giving us a capability games already had.
And sprites weren’t space-saving, they were because early consoles were physically incapable of real-time 3D rendering, having no hardware to support it. Why do you think the SNES needed a graphics processing chip on a cartridge to run even something as basic as Starfox?
Wow guys sorry for being such a douche bag a few months back, I was just going through some personal issues. But im officially out of the closet and everythings fine now!
You really know your gaming history.
Yeah, kid, that’s really funny.
You haven’t really changed.
It’s Shigeki Morimoto… Not Miyamoto or something like that…
@Tim You should really do your homework before you post. All you need is a quick google search.
Alright since facts seem to be at a low here, and it’s mostly opinions that vary, I’m going to provide some much needed (and very accurate) information. Most of this is directed towards Tim since he seems to have the “I know all” attitude more than anyone. First concerning the Mew & MissingNo argument.
“Mew was a little-known secret when Pokémon Red and Green were first released in Japan. Even Nintendo was not initially aware that Shigeki Morimoto had programmed it into the game.”
“In an interview with Game Freak and Creatures, Inc. in Nintendo Power issue 134, Tsunekaz Ishihara revealed that he created Mew two weeks before game development was finished”
The fact that Nintendo released the game and didn’t even KNOW that Mew was on it is pretty much the exact definition of “hidden”. Tsunekaz Ishihara is the President and CEO of The Pokemon Company, basically he runs the show end to end.
Next, about the memory cards. The main point wasn’t the multiple saves, it was the portability of them. Sure there were some games that allowed multiple saves later on, which usually allowed you 3 different save files. Obvious examples are things like Super Mario World, Chrono Trigger, etc…I could go on for a long while, but you get the point.
But these saves required you to bring the game WITH you. You couldn’t save to a memory card, pull the card out and then say go to a friends house and play. You had to physically bring the game with you. Also as I said the number of save files was usually extremely limited, 3 or less in most cases. The PSX memory card (8mb) usually allowed 15 save files, from a variety of games. The increase in save files as well as convenience in bringing the memory card with you was the key point, they weren’t trying to say that it was the first time multiple saves ever existed.
And lastly, about the sprites. For the love of grammar can you not read? This is an EXACT piece of what is written in the Pixel Art section of the list “Even though 3D rendering was available as early as 1976, it took consoles a few decades to catch up.” You proceed to argue by saying “And sprites weren’t space-saving, they were because early consoles were
physically incapable of real-time 3D rendering, having no hardware to
support it”
You’re arguing for the sake of argument. It’s like if someone told me snow was white, and I turn around and said “No it’s not, it’s white”. There’s pretty much no logic of any kind to what you say.
Pokemon Green?
In Japan, the original versions were Red and Green. Which is why the remakes for the GBA were Fire Red and Leaf Green.
Wait, so Mew was programmed at the last minute? But then where did they get the idea for Mewtwo?
The idea of Mew was already thought up, but the decision to actually include said Pokemon was done at the last minute (and without Nintendo’s knowledge)
Nothing on Metal Gear? In Silent Hill, a game’s (great!) identity and style were born out of hardware limitations, but, with Metal Gear, a whole genre was created because this game’s intended platform couldn’t handle too many sprites being simultaneously drawn, as was required by the straight action-oriented design it originally was intended to have.
Great article anyway: it reinforces to me the concept that great – and, in that, some of the best – ideas can come out of tough restraints, as is exposed by Hideo Kojima in his GDC ’09 keynote.
First of all: It’s SHIGERU MIYAMOTO
Second:He is not the creator of Pokemon ,It was Satoshi Tajiri
normally i would believe you but shigeki miyamoto is another miyamoto who worked on the pokemon series and at least might have put mew in. and second satoshi tajiri did create pokemon but Shigeru Miyamoto did help him alot along the way.
Procedural generation was common BEFORE consoles, with games like Rogue, Empire, Hack, and Nethack,. It wasn’t done that way because memory was at a premium, but because it made for better, more replayable games.
whats the name of the game on the thumnail in Number two “pixel art”???please someone?