Hacks in video games - Speaker Deck

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How people can create better video games Ange Albertini, Hack.Lu 2015

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Computers have limitations.

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Game developers study how things work, in detail.

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Because they know how things really work, they found some tricks.

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Thanks to these tricks, they can create better video games.

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Let’s look at graphics...

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Count the colors! This computer was limited to 16 colors...

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But this picture has more than 16 colors!

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62 colors on the same system! How?

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The 16 colors are updated while the picture is displayed.

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Now let’s use our ears...

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Sound can be very fun in video games.

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Games music is made with multiple voices.

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That computer had a very limited sound.

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By quickly changing sound, one can get better music.

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By using a bug in the hardware, a different kind of voice could be created!

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Now let’s look at animation

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Some systems could only display small objects.

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But this game had a huge moving monster! How ?

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This is the picture...

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The background takes the whole picture.

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But the moving objects are quite small.

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So the monster is drawn on the ground of a dark room. A big room where various animations of the monster are drawn.

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By understanding how things really work, game developers can create better games (beyond the initial limitations)

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If they didn't spend time trying to understand how things really work, their video games would be not so nice.

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Hacking: spend time to understand how things really work (and get awesome results)

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Thank you! Ange Albertini, Hack.Lu 2015

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References backgrounds: Super Mario Kart Wii, Rick Dangerous, Super Mario Bros, Yoshi, NinjaGo, PollyPocket, Pikachu, Ben 10 Archon - The Light and the Dark, Bio Challenge ● Smooth Mc Groove - Contra youtube.com/watch?v=l2yYauKujfM ● C64 Christmas Demo youtube.com/watch?v=X7AjnpT6guk [1:00] ● Rob Hubbard “Thundercats” youtube.com/watch?v=cdfocyMsT5s ● Joeren Tel “Stormlord” youtube.com/watch?v=w3t5P7pvxlE ● Super Mario Bros youtube.com/watch?v=Af-80nW9lc8 [10:50] ● Master Blaster youtube.com/watch?v=2STUx_9bkB4 [48:00] Licence CC BY - Ange Albertini & son