Did you see it? This sneaky step design in “Super Mario Bros.”Hidden for 39 years!This game is a classic for the Nintendo Famicom in 1985, but you may not know that a certain “cunning design” of this game still makes people exclaim to this day:“Are you still using it today?”
Grass = cloud? This is not laziness, but a divine operation at the extreme technical limit!
then Famicom (FC) The hardware is very limited,The entire game is only 32KB! Yes, every photo on your phone is several times bigger than this game. Therefore, Nintendo developers must Extremely streamlined Everything, including image material.
You may not have noticed that in the levels of “Super Mario Bros.”Clouds and grass are actually the same material, just different colors!
- The clouds are white and look normal.
- The grass is green because the clouds change color!
This design was not just laziness at the time, but because of the limitations of the FamicomLimited memory, developers must cram all game content into ultra-compact storage space. This kind of “One picture has multiple uses” way to make the game look richer without taking up too much valuable memory space.
Lao Ren’s aesthetic magic: you can’t see it!
This “color change and reuse” technology may seem like an obvious trick now, but players in 1985 didn’t even notice it!The reason lies in the clever combination of optical illusion + game design:
- The level design makes the grass always on the ground and the clouds always in the sky. Players will naturally not doubt that they are the same thing.
- The low resolution and blurry images of the Famicom prevent these similar elements from being too obtrusive.
- Dynamic graphics + parkour game rhythm leave players no time to take a closer look!
This technology is quite common in the 8-bit era, because the focus of early game development was not “dazzling graphics” butHow to maximize performance with limited technology。
Is this still used now? Don’t doubt it, game development is always making progress!
If you think this kind of “Color change and reuse“The method only exists in the 8-bit era, then you are wrong!” In fact,Today’s 3A masterpieces are still using this technology, just more advanced and less visible:
Some players discovered that the NPCs in “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” actually use an advanced version of the Mii system.
- Many NPCs in “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” are actually the same model with different outfits and hair colors.
- Some enemies in the “Dark Souls” series may simply change their textures and enhance their AI to become “advanced” enemies.
- The furniture in “Animal Crossing” is actually the same 3D model, and it becomes “different styles” by changing the textures.
This approach allows developers Save resources,reduceRepeated modeling, making game production more efficient,At the same time, it gives players the illusion of “rich content”。
39 years later, you are still deceived by Lao Ren’s technology
Although now we can all see thiscloud = grassIt’s a secret, but almost no players discovered it back then, and even many people didn’t realize it until today. This kind of “Creativity in extreme hardware environments”, but it has become one of the charms of classic games.
so,Next time you play an old game, you might as well look at the background, maybe you will find more hidden sneak moves!