Those videos were all very interesting!
I always enjoy discovering how the professionals worked their way around limitations, etc. :-)
The following is a sloppy translation of the Famicom video:
Code:
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Contra:
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Title screen:
-----------------
Albeit a kind of mediocre title screen, the graphics of their hair and shirts contain
utilise sprites.
Because the BG itself has an insufficient amount of colours, sprites are used in
order to gain more colours to the artwork.
Area 1 cleared screen:
-------------------------------
After the area is cleared we get to see this scene…
And this is how sprites are used to allow for more colours in the picture.
GAME TEXT:
------------------
" We've arrived at "point A". Commencing infilitration from here! "
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Castlevania:
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Title screen:
-----------------
Pay attention to the upper left corner! It's impressive how they're frantically
concealing the horizontally scrolling picture, eh?
Boss:
--------
When you defeat this boss [Grim Reaper], it'll undergo a transition to it's other form…
Just after the transition the remnant floor gets moved a little bit upwards.
As expected, this pretty much result in being a distraction from an otherwise
interesting scene. The transition from BG tiles to sprites, however, is really well
done, eh?
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Flappy:
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Immediately after the game begins all of the stones are represented by sprites,
however, the brown coloured stones turns into BG tiles very soon afterwards.
I don't know why, but it seems that stones which is in contact with the ground
becomes part of the BG.
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Karateka:
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Carefully observe the enemy on the other side of the gate!
The Famicom utilises some sprites which purpose is to overlap a part of the
foreground pillar. This is done in order to hide the characters when they pass
through the gate.
Something appeared! Of course, I don't mean the enemy but rather that of the pillar.
Retreat, and it'll disappear; advance, and it'll appear.
A properly timed retreat makes the enemy pass through the gate without getting
concealed by the frontmost pillar.
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Punch Out:
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This game features unusually large foes.
The player as well as the referee are drawn by the use of BG tiles, but the foes are
composed entirely by sprites. This is quite bold, really, seeing that it's normal practice
in games to use BG to draw gigantic bosses.
Little Mac's smooth movement makes it hard to think that he consists of BG tiles only.
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Rock Man 2:
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Title screen:
-----------------
The front building and the backdrop scrolls as if there were two layers of graphics, but
in reality it's only one single layer of BG artwork. The entire front building seems to
scroll independently from the rest of the BG thanks to an illusion made possible by
its patternless design together with sprites which resembling windows.
Sprites are used at the spot where the 'N' overlaps the '2'. It seems that the reason for
this would be because of an insufficient amount of BG colours.
Stage select screen:
----------------------------
This is the stage select screen.
While just playing the game one doesn't pay attention to this, but the fact is that sprites
are used in this manner…
Looking at it with this mind, it certainly looks more vivid, eh.
Woodman's stage:
-------------------------
This is Woodman's stage.
Being focused on avoiding the enemy projectiles, it may be difficult to notice that the
enemy's body is made up of BG tiles.
Dr. Wiley's stage:
------------------------
This is Wiley's first stage.
The blocks that you have to cross are part of the BG until a certain point. After that,
any new blocks are actually sprites.
The change from using BG to sprites for the blocks first happen here.
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Fire Emblem:
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Speaking of Fire Emblem, its showy battle scenes are very fascinating.
Among other things, the size of D-Knight is surprisingly large.
The party which turn it is to make an attack has its graphics changed from BG tiles to
sprites. Here you can see the sprites' framework.
Pay attention to the spear and the tail, and you'll come to see the superb design.
None of the sprites disappear nor do they appear cropped during the
animation sequence.
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Dragon Quest IV:
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Battle related…….:
--------------------------
Since DQ2, it has been thought that the enemies have been all composed up by
BG tiles, but there's actually a surprisingly heavy use of sprites involved.
Observe how sprites are cleverly put together in order to allow the enemies to have more colours.
There are also enemies which overlap the window borders. The parts of an enemy
that overlaps a window is naturally composed by the use of sprites.
----
This chap is all alone, isn't he?
For this reason, lots of sprites can be spent on him alone.
Bon voyage:
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This scene is at the end of chapter 4.
Here we get to see what is seemingly two layers of BG tile graphics.
By continuously updating the ocean tile with an animation (each animation is simply
the source tile being shifted an increasingly number of pixel rows) that matches the
speed of the ship, we're led to believe that there are actually two layers of graphics:
One layer with the ship on it, and one with the ocean + wharf.
The wharf is made up of sprites.
If you look at the frame boxes, you'll notice that there are some sprites in the upper-left
corner. It seems to be some sprite fragments.