What resolution do you like in a low-res, retro shmup?

[JustinGameDesign]

In Wings of Aetos I'm going with a resolution of 416x256 because it produces very little letter-boxing on my laptop, while still fitting a grid of 32x32 tiles nicely.





You can see very small black bars at the top and bottom of these screenshots, which I've resized to show the sprites at their native resolution.

In any case, does anyone have a preferred resolution for games of this sort?

[Xyga]

320x240 is the resolution of God.
*cough* I mean, for people who play on low-res rgb TVs/monitors of course.

[nitrofurano]

i'm more on the usual 256x224, very common on the arcade machines from the 80's

[Rozyrg]

I use the safe standard of 320x240 on the majority of my stuff; but I've also used 320×224 (Neo Geo) and I'm using 384x256 (R-Type's) on one of my current projects. The CPS resolution of 384x224 is another option if you'd like to squeeze in a few more pixels, too.

You don't have to rigidly adhere to the old standards of course (especially if you want to build your game to utilize more modern screen ratios); but it helps to have a direct, easy comparison when scaling elements to each other. Sensible scaling/sizing is what's really important here, not pixel count. So many 'retro' styled titles now fail terribly in this regard.

Particular to shmups is the issue of orientation and screen ratio determining things like how much of the screen you can effectively cover. The most ridiculous recent example that comes to mind is 1942: Joint Strike, which used a full widescreen display, despite being a vertical shmup. The consequence of all this extra space is that you can't deal with a threat coming from the opposite side of the screen as soon as you'd like, and as soon as you're conscious of all the very deliberate horizontal movement required, it feels slow. Just another thing to take into consideration.

[JustinGameDesign]

Thanks, guys. I'm definitely going widescreen on this horizontal shmup to give as much reaction time as possible, but I'll compare what I'm doing to some of what's been mentioned.

[S20-TBL]

That Legendary Wings game is starting to look better and better. Could use a little more color IMHO but that atmosphere is already there.

Regarding resolutions, when I first made my game I went for a standard 4:3 resolution (320x240), but as time went by I began looking for alternatives without having to adjust the screen size so much, and ended up with a 3:2 resolution (360x240).

Your choice of 416x256 is actually quite nice and has a lot of real estate in relation to the sprite sizes. As Rozyrg pointed out, going with a full 16:9 ratio presents its own difficulties (I've tried it...it made my game feel a little loose horizontally without truly addressing the issue of enemies approaching from the top and bottom), but depending on how enemy patterns and behavior are designed you could technically make it work.

[nitrofurano]

400x224 would fit fine as well on a 16x9 - and btw, consider that there recently some manufacturers appeared with 21x9 monitors and televisions, which would be great for games like Darius or Ninja Warriors (so imagine using 520x224 or 600x256)

[tiaoferreira]

At major part of time, I use 320 x 240 for horizontal games, and 240 x 320 for vertical games. One of few exceptions is PIXEL FIGHTERS, with this game I made an INSANITY: I decided use 160 x 120 (is too small!) and the usable area for player is 125 x 120!!! When I'm going to draw, I must increase zoom at 2000 times, hehehe!

So, DON'T MAKE THE SAME INSANITY

320 X 240 or his multiples are cool.

I suggest you play and observe GYNOUG (MEGA DRIVE) and LEGENDARY WINGS (NES) again, mainly LEGENDARY WINGS, it shows a good transition between vertical and horizontal game style, with good use of the screen.

My tv and PC screen are 4:3, maybe because this I prefer 320 x 240