Videomation

Last updated
Videomation
VideomationBoxArt.jpg
Cover art
Developer(s) FarSight Studios [1]
Publisher(s) Toy Headquarters [1]
Programmer(s) Rand Siegfried [2]
Platform(s) NES [1]
Release
Genre(s) Productivity [1]
Mode(s) Single-player [6]

Videomation is a North America-exclusive art application for the Nintendo Entertainment System that was released in 1991.

Contents

Videomation saw official release outside North America, by BIC, who sold it in Asian cartridge. They give the official license to a well known, regional famiclone distributors like BiT Argentina [4] (known from Bitgame, Super Bitgame and Video Racer), BobMark Int. Poland [5] (known from Pegasus) and others.

Overview

Designing a fantasy house through the use of the Videomation drawing program. VideomationSampleDrawing.png
Designing a fantasy house through the use of the Videomation drawing program.

This application allows players to create artwork using a mostly freestyle method, with support for full video animation. The game does not support the use of a mouse or any other external component, requiring users to rely on the NES game controller to draw objects. There is a basic grey screen surrounded by graphics stamps. This application utilizes the CHR RAM chip that is also used in a variety of other contemporaneous NES video games. Thirteen different variations of palettes and seven different kinds of tools (including a pen, various geometric shapes, and the eraser) are available for use in creative compositions. [7] Once the user chooses one of the palettes, there are different colors to choose. The colors include these: turquoise, pink, purple, light blue, and colors that have been dithered.

After drawing a stationary picture, the game allows to place one of a few possible animatable objects (these include a man, a child, a car, a plane, etc.) and then choose a path it will follow on the screen. One options allows the object to follow the cursor.

The game's instruction manual has some ideas for drawing including these: geometric designs with intense patches of color, [8] birds flying over untamed jungles, [8] cars on a race track, [8] and dinosaurs in the user's imaginary backyard. [8]

There is no data storage or export medium, so pictures and video can only be saved by recording a playback of the NES's display through a VCR. [6]

Reception

According to InstallSoftware.com, the game offers a relatively good short-term replay factor while lacking on the long-term replay factor. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atari 7800</span> Home video game console

The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a home video game console officially released by Atari Corporation in 1986 as the successor to both the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200. It can run almost all Atari 2600 cartridges, making it one of the first consoles with backward compatibility. It shipped with a different model of joystick from the 2600-standard CX40 and Pole Position II as the pack-in game. Most of the announced titles at launch were ports of 1981–1983 arcade video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enhanced Graphics Adapter</span> IBM PC graphic adapter and display standard

The Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) is an IBM PC graphics adapter and de facto computer display standard from 1984 that superseded the CGA standard introduced with the original IBM PC, and was itself superseded by the VGA standard in 1987. In addition to the original EGA card manufactured by IBM, many compatible third-party cards were manufactured, and EGA graphics modes continued to be supported by VGA and later standards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Super Game Boy</span> Accessory for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Game Boy is a peripheral that allows Game Boy cartridges to be played on a Super Nintendo Entertainment System console. Released in June 1994, it retailed for $59.99 in the United States and £49.99 in the United Kingdom. In South Korea, it is called the Super Mini Comboy and was distributed by Hyundai Electronics. A revised model, the Super Game Boy 2, was released in Japan in January 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game Boy Player</span> GameCube accessory

The Game Boy Player (DOL-017) is a GameCube peripheral developed by Nintendo which enables it to play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges, allowing those games to be played on a television.

<i>Mario Paint</i> 1992 video game

Mario Paint is a 1992 art creation video game developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1 (R&D1) and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Mario Paint consists of a raster graphics editor, an animation program, a music composer, and a point and click minigame, all of which are designed to be used with the Super NES Mouse peripheral, which the game was packaged and sold with. Per its name, the game is Mario-themed, and features sprites and sound effects that are taken from or in the vein of Super Mario World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nintendo VS. System</span> Arcade cabinet series

The Nintendo VS. System is an arcade system developed and produced by Nintendo from 1984 to 1990. It is based on most of the same hardware as the Family Computer (Famicom), later released as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Most of its games are conversions from the Famicom and NES, some heavily altered for the arcade format, and some debuted on the VS. System before being released on the Famicom or NES. The system focuses on two-player cooperative play. It was released in three different configurations: upright VS. UniSystem cabinets, upright VS. DualSystem cabinets, and sit-down VS. DualSystem cabinets. Games are on pluggable circuit boards, allowing for each side to have a different game.

A tool-assisted speedrun or tool-assisted superplay is generally defined as a speedrun or playthrough composed of precise inputs recorded with tools such as video game emulators. Tool-assisted speedruns are generally created with the goal of creating theoretically perfect playthroughs. This includes but is not limited to the fastest possible route to complete a game and/or showcasing new ways to optimize existing world records.

Strategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete solutions to specific video games. The line between strategy guides and video game walkthroughs is somewhat blurred, with the former often containing or being written around the latter. Strategy guides are often published in print, both in book form and also as articles within video game magazines. In cases of exceptionally popular game titles, guides may be sold through more mainstream publication channels, such as bookstores or even newsstands. Some publishers also sell E-Book versions on their websites.

ROM hacking is the process of modifying a ROM image or ROM file of a video game to alter the game's graphics, dialogue, levels, gameplay, and/or other elements. This is usually done by technically inclined video game fans to improve an old game of importance, as a creative outlet, or to make new, unofficial games using the old game's engine. ROM hacks either re-design a game for new, fun gameplay while keeping most if not all of the items the same, as well as unlocking/reimplementing features that existed in the game's code but are not utilized in-game.

<i>Snake Rattle n Roll</i> 1990 video game

Snake Rattle 'n' Roll is a platform video game developed by Rare. It was published by Nintendo and released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in July 1990 and in Europe on March 27, 1991. The game features two snakes, Rattle and Roll, as they make their way through eleven 3D isometric levels. A Mega Drive version was released by Sega in June 1993 with an extra level. Snake Rattle 'n' Roll was developed by Rare members Tim Stamper and Mark Betteridge. The music was composed by David Wise and was inspired by "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and other 1950s-era songs.

Import gamers are a subset of the video game player community that take part in the practice of playing video games from another region, usually from Japan where the majority of games for certain systems originate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game Boy</span> Handheld game console by Nintendo

The Game Boy is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same team that developed the Game & Watch series of handheld electronic games and several Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games: Satoru Okada, Gunpei Yokoi, and Nintendo Research & Development 1.

This is a list of video game accessories that have been released for the Game Boy handheld console and its successors. Accessories add functionality that the console would otherwise not have.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workbench (AmigaOS)</span> Graphical user interface for the Amiga computer

Workbench is the desktop environment and graphical file manager of AmigaOS developed by Commodore International for their Amiga line of computers. Workbench provides the user with a graphical interface to work with file systems and launch applications. It uses a workbench metaphor for representing file system organisation.

GameCube accessories include first-party releases from Nintendo, and third-party devices, since the GameCube's launch in 2001.

There have been a variety of Sesame Street video games released for video game platforms. Most of the Sesame Street video games were published and developed by NewKidCo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">3D modeling</span> Form of computer-aided engineering

In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of a surface of an object in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, and polygons in a simulated 3D space.

Fatpaint is a free, online (web-based) graphic design and desktop publishing software product and image editor. It includes integrated tools for creating page layout, painting, coloring and editing pictures and photos, drawing vector images, using dingbat vector clipart, writing rich text, creating ray traced 3D text logos and displaying graphics on products from Zazzle that can be purchased or sold. Fatpaint integrates desktop publishing features with brush painting, vector drawing and custom printed products in a single Flash application. It supports the use of a pressure-sensitive pen tablet and allows the user to add images by searching Wikimedia, Picasa, Flickr, Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Fatpaint's own collection of public domain images. The completed project can be saved on Fatpaint's server or locally. Fatpaint is affiliated with Zazzle, and owned by Mersica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Source Filmmaker</span> Video capture and editing application

Source Filmmaker is a 3D computer graphics software tool published by Valve for creating animated films, which uses the Source game engine. Source Filmmaker has been used to create many community-based animated shorts for popular Source games, such as Team Fortress 2, the Left 4 Dead series, and Half-Life 2.

Composite artifact colors is a designation commonly used to address several graphic modes of some 1970s and 1980s home computers. With some machines, when connected to an NTSC TV or monitor over composite video outputs, the video signal encoding allowed for extra colors to be displayed, by manipulating the pixel position on screen, not being limited by each machine's hardware color palette.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Additional release information". Gamervision. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
  2. "Programmer information". Game Developer Research Institute. Retrieved 2013-01-12.
  3. "Release information". GameFAQs . Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  4. 1 2 "Este es el equipo para tu próxima aventura!". Action Games (3): 4–5.
  5. 1 2 "Wieści ze świata grania". Top Secret (30): 39.
  6. 1 2 "# of players information/recording information". Gamervision. Retrieved 2010-05-17.
  7. "Game tools information". DEngel (GameFAQs). Retrieved 2010-05-16.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Instruction manual". NES World. Retrieved 2010-05-16.
  9. "Retro Video Game Evaluation: Videomation (Nes)". InstallSoftware.com. Retrieved 2013-01-12.