FNaF for Super Nintendo (work in progress)

[furrykef]

A few months ago I started making a port of Five Nights at Freddy's for the Super Nintendo. I'm not actively working on it right now, but I got pretty far along and made a neat little demo that should be sufficient to prove that the Super Nintendo is capable of handling the game. (Be sure to view it in HD; otherwise the jump scare at the end may appear very blurry. It's crystal clear on an actual SNES or emulator, though.)

Scott, if you're reading this, let me know if we can work out a deal for commercializing this project and selling cartridges of a complete SNES port of FNaF. Perhaps you can add me on Steam?

[Fancy Bunny]

Try putting all of that on a SNES. All of it. It isn't going to work. Should've tried a Gamecube.

[furrykef]

You aren't giving me enough credit here. Do you really think I spent two to three months working on a demo without ever bothering to calculate exactly how much space I would need to fit everything on the cartridge?

Let me give you a breakdown. There is roughly 386 seconds of voice audio in FNaF. At 8 kHz using the SNES's native BRR encoding, that's about 1.7 megabytes. Let's add perhaps 650 KB for the music Freddy plays (one minute of 11 kHz audio); now we're at around 3.40 megabytes. There are four full-screen jump scares in the game (Bonnie, Chica, Freddy in the office, Freddy in the dark); each jump scare takes about 288 KB, so that brings the total to around 4.2 megabytes.

I was aiming for this to be a 6 MB cartridge, so that leaves 1.8 megabytes for the rest of the game's graphics. The graphics I have in the demo are 724 KB, leaving well over a megabyte for the graphics that I haven't done yet, and that should be more than sufficient.

[Fancy Bunny]

Originally posted by furrykef:

You aren't giving me enough credit here. Do you really think I spent two to three months working on a demo without ever bothering to calculate exactly how much space I would need to fit everything on the cartridge?

Let me give you a breakdown. There is roughly 386 seconds of voice audio in FNaF. At 8 kHz using the SNES's native BRR encoding, that's about 1.7 megabytes. Let's add perhaps 650 KB for the music Freddy plays (one minute of 11 kHz audio); now we're at around 3.40 megabytes. There are four full-screen jump scares in the game (Bonnie, Chica, Freddy in the office, Freddy in the dark); each jump scare takes about 288 KB, so that brings the total to around 4.2 megabytes.

I was aiming for this to be a 6 MB cartridge, so that leaves 1.8 megabytes for the rest of the game's graphics. The graphics I have in the demo are 724 KB, leaving well over a megabyte for the graphics that I haven't done yet, and that should be more than sufficient.

And what about gameplay?

[furrykef]

What about it? Code costs a negligible amount of space; I'm confident that all the code (as opposed to data such as graphics and sound) could all fit in 32 KB.

[Fancy Bunny]

No. Just No.
Thats all.

[furrykef]

What do you mean? No it can't?

On what do you base this opinion?

[Fancy Bunny]

Scripts and coding take much much more then KB's
My best friend studied this ♥♥♥♥ in collage.

[furrykef]

He studied it in college, huh? Well, I'm actually doing it. I've got two commercial (and licensed) Nintendo DS games under my belt; I've written a nearly complete NES clone of Pac-Man (which, incidentally, is 24 KB for the entire game -- graphics, gameplay, everything -- as it currently stands).

For what it's worth, the code used in the YouTube video takes up 8.5 KB.

Also, for comparison, Super Mario Bros. is only 40 KB, with 8 KB used for graphics and 32 KB for everything else. That 32 KB includes the game's levels, AI, physics, music, sound effects, everything. You think FNaF has more complex gameplay than Super Mario Bros.?

[Fancy Bunny]

Originally posted by furrykef:

You think FNaF has more complex gameplay than Super Mario Bros.?

Yes. Acutally.

[furrykef]

Let's review what features Super Mario Bros. has:
* Gameplay can alternate between Mario and Luigi (from here on read "Mario" as "Mario/Luigi")
* Mario starts with three lives; running out of lives results in Game Over
* Basic physics, including movement, acceleration and gravity
* Super Mario and Fire Mario can smash bricks, but small Mario can't
* Question blocks yield power-ups or coins when hit from below
* Background terrain features (hills, clouds)
* About 15 enemies, each with their own traits and behaviors
* Three power-ups, plus the 1-up mushroom
* Three forms of Mario (normal, Super, and Fire)
* Mario can grab coins; player gets a 1-up every 100 coins
* Different results when Mario collides with enemies by jumping on them than when colliding from the sides or below
* Different results when Mario hits a brick or question block from below than when colliding from the sides or above
* Fire Mario can throw fireballs (which involves more physics)
* Invincible Mario will defeat enemies instead of taking damage
* Mario can kick Koopa Troopa and Buzzy Beetle shells
* Koopa Troopa and Buzzy Beetle shells can rebound off pipes
* Both Mario and enemies can die from falling into bottomless pits
* Mario can die by falling into a bottomless pit
* Mario can go down pipes to warp to other parts of the level
* Mario can climb vines to warp to other parts of the level (this includes climbing physics)
* Mario can swim (more physics)
* Mario has a limited amount of time to complete the level
* Jumping on multiple enemies without touching the ground awards increasing amounts of points and eventually a 1-up
* Finishing the level at certain times will result in a fireworks display
* Bowser can be killed either by fireballs or by grabbing the axe in the level

Need I go on? And let's not forget that the code for all this is also shared with data for 32 levels and several different pieces of music, and it all fits in 32 KB.


Now let's review what features FNaF has:
* The player can open and close doors.
* The player can turn the door lights on and off.
* Four animatronic enemies (two of which I have already nearly fully implemented)
* The player can look at various cameras in camera view (you will note I have already programmed this)
* Animatronics can jump-scare the player (I've already programmed this too)
* Several actions the player can take will drain power at a constant rate.
* When the power runs out, the doors are forced open and Freddy will eventually attack
* Time progresses throughout the night and the night ends at 6 AM.
* The player can choose difficulty levels for the four animatronics.
* The player character occasionally hallucinates.
* Golden Freddy.

So what makes FNaF's game logic so complicated?

[Fancy Bunny]

Your missing the point. Mario was made for the snes. FNAF was made for comptuers.

[furrykef]

NES, actually, not SNES, though code size for the two systems is comparable. I also don't see how that is relevant. Logic is logic; the essential game logic is the same regardless of the system it was designed for. Being written for computers is not going to magically make it more complicated and difficult to port to an old console, especially if I don't even use the original code.

Furthermore, I don't think you understand how insulting your attitude is. I'm an expert on programming games, including SNES games, and have been for years. Yet you act as though I'm an infant who fell into the deep end of the pool.

Tell me which of the following applies to you:

• I have programmed in assembly language
  
• I have programmed a complete or nearly complete video game, including the game's engine, for any system
  
• I am comfortable with programming the 65816 CPU
  
• I have studied game development for over 15 years
  
• I have hung around with people who program for these consoles for nearly 15 years
  
• I can explain what an IRQ is, how it works, and what it would be used for
  
• I can explain what a DMA controller is, how it works, and what it would be used for
  
• I can explain what vertical and horizontal blanking are and how a programmer might exploit them

I eagerly await your list of qualifications.

In what respect are you more qualified than I am? Tell me, if you commissioned someone to build you a house, would you tell them what wood and concrete to use? Would you tell them they probably have no idea how to lay down a solid foundation? Or would you quietly accept that their years of study and experience mean they probably know more about building a house than you do?

If you have questions, by all means ask and I will be more than willing to answer. But please, drop the condescending and insulting attitude. I know my stuff.

[MMellowMiq]

What is the point of making it on the SNES?

[Fancy Bunny]

Originally posted by furrykef:

NES, actually, not SNES, though code size for the two systems is comparable. I also don't see how that is relevant. Logic is logic; the essential game logic is the same regardless of the system it was designed for. Being written for computers is not going to magically make it more complicated and difficult to port to an old console, especially if I don't even use the original code.

Furthermore, I don't think you understand how insulting your attitude is. I'm an expert on programming games, including SNES games, and have been for years. Yet you act as though I'm an infant who fell into the deep end of the pool.

Tell me which of the following applies to you:

• I have programmed in assembly language
  
• I have programmed a complete or nearly complete video game, including the game's engine, for any system
  
• I am comfortable with programming the 65816 CPU
  
• I have studied game development for over 15 years
  
• I have hung around with people who program for these consoles for nearly 15 years
  
• I can explain what an IRQ is, how it works, and what it would be used for
  
• I can explain what a DMA controller is, how it works, and what it would be used for
  
• I can explain what vertical and horizontal blanking are and how a programmer might exploit them

I eagerly await your list of qualifications.

In what respect are you more qualified than I am? Tell me, if you commissioned someone to build you a house, would you tell them what wood and concrete to use? Would you tell them they probably have no idea how to lay down a solid foundation? Or would you quietly accept that their years of study and experience mean they probably know more about building a house than you do?

If you have questions, by all means ask and I will be more than willing to answer. But please, drop the condescending and insulting attitude. I know my stuff.

What does this have to do with my point? My point is you can't make fnaf run smoothly on a SNES I don't care about your life goals. Go that you made them. But I don't care.

[furrykef]

Originally posted by -=๖MєllσWLiviиg๖=-:

What is the point of making it on the SNES?

I think it would be an interesting novelty item. A lot of people don't think the SNES can run a game like FNaF. Case in point being Fancy Bonnie Bunny here.

Originally posted by Fancy Bonnie Bunny:

What does this have to do with my point? My point is you can't make fnaf run smoothly on a SNES I don't care about your life goals.

It's not about life goals, it's that 1) I am far more qualified than you are to assess the ability of the SNES to run FNaF, and 2) you are insulting me by refusing to acknowledge point #1.