Graphics and Sound advice for you! straight to the point!

If you're like me who loves the past, appreciates pixel art and tries to bring it to MMF2, here's some advice:

In my opinion the pinacle of 2D gaming was with the Neo Geo arcade machines. So from their time back until
Donkey Kong was created, games were awesome to see and hear!

First and Foremost! use an Arcade game font which is also the same font used in Nintendo games!
It brings both the old school 80's and that nostalgic "action feeling" of the arcades.
The font is called press start (what a cute name) download here: Please login to see this link.

(what I do is use the font in the free paint.net program while having image/canvas size, set to 320 x 224)
You need to enable caps lock and change the font size to 6 (this is the golden secret for the font to show just like it did in the games of old)

Graphics: use and don't go higher than these!

320 x 224 (most memorable arcade game res) or
320 x 240 (some "a bit higher" arcade game res) or
256 x 224 (old school arcade game res)

Here's an example pic of the game I'm making using 320 x 224 and the above mentioned font:
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Feels like you're looking at a video arcade machine screen!
I even made a montage like so: Please login to see this link.

An awesome word of advice: Yes, you want that 16 bit look! Here's what you do:
Using paint.net grab your picture and use the "segment image" effect with settings (number of clusters between 10 to 12, and bias set to Zero)
This gives that true color depth or shading used in 16 bit games. I did not upload a pic for proof yet. But I created a Michael Jackson 16 bit pic, that I really liked! Btw, the segment image effect does not come with paint.net. You have to download it from here: Please login to see this link.
It is the best discovery I have ever made when it comes to converting pictures to game graphics!

Sound: use Synthfont for awesome 16 bit style music
here's soundfont in action: Please login to see this link.

Oh my gosh, I had to get up from my sleep, log back in to say this (and it's 4:49 in the morning :o):

On your MMF2 screen settings (window properties, this is an awesome thing here):
uncheck everything but: maximized on boot up and resize display to fill window size.
Then use the Ultimate Full screen object which will make your game instantly pop up and keep it's aspect ratio without messing with your pc's native resolution!!! and your game will end up looking just like a full screen Mame arcade game! how cool is that?
download here: Please login to see this link.
All these links are goldmines to your top quality game making fun! cheers! now I gotta sleep!

Oh thank you very much!

Thanks Marv! I was sad to see many nice games from the daily click, played in little windows that made it hard for us to appreciate the graphics! Many examples are passed on this way as well, but with these niceties, hopefully people will start converting their old or current projects to full screen gaming glory! since it "magically" happens now thanks to Walrus ultimate full screen object! (which I personally only recently discovered). And fresh news, Today, for the first time ever, I discovered how to create a fixed jumping trick just like the Ghost n Goblins and Castlevania franchises! I hope I make some time to create and upload the mfa so people can learn these and other cool tricks we can achieve using the built in platform movement, so things do get too complex (like no need for masks, and repelling invisible collision walls activated by events)!

Oh, and because I can't edit the post anymore, forgot one more hint: Well, yes you can increase your horizontal resolution up until 398 x 224, since what matters is the vertical res (understanding that you have a wide monitor, say at a resolution of 1366 x 768 like my laptop's) so the horizontal won't matter as long as you keep the aspect ratio within the vertical 224 to 240 limit, your pixels will be loved by pixel loving guys like me and thousand others! I have a game which is 398 x 224, which maxed out fits perfectly with the 1366 x 768 res aspect ratio. All you're doing really is maximizing the horizontal view of your game, while keeping that arcade's sweet spot vertical res! What you want to have when working with the segment image magic is to play between 2,3 up until 5 shades for your sprites, and maybe up to 8 shades for your backgrounds, specially cylindrical shapes like towers or metal pipes, in case they are big ones. And the bias I was talking about is actually 0.01. You might have to play with the clusters to get each element of your picture with the right shading! you will see once you experiment with it! but I tell you, it's a lot of fun! If I had a camera, I would film real time and transform the animation frames into 16 bits using this awesome effect, to bring the real world into 16bit world. I also learned that zooming at 343% in paint.net gives you a real time preview of how your game will look on the screen, (at least that's the calculation for my laptop's 1366 x 768 lcd res). Oh and here's that 16bit Michael. I talked about! He's in the 224 vertical res, just like the arcades. If you want to see him in full screen, you can take the pic to paint.net and
resize it using the nearest neighbor method up until your own vertical res keeping the aspect ratio. Save it with another name to keep the original, and using windows photo viewer tap the full screen button, and you will see him full screen, with those sharp colorful pixels!
I made this using the segment image method, and giving the final result playing with the saturation and contrast, giving that game look! includes the amazing press start font on it, written using size 6 with caps lock on!
Please login to see this attachment. Please login to see this attachment.
Silly me I did not know I could upload pics directly into here! so there goes a nice classic Playmobil for you 16bit style!

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I hope to recreate this article in the form of a new web page with more colors, pictures, links and more tips plus: interesting, new and revised mfas (plural) to aid, help and guide you to an easier and much more enjoyable MMF2 game development experience. Of course this new work will be put on my website, so updates can be made to it.
I probably will gather all my help tips from other areas to the snappy flash page as well, and have honorable mentions to other wonderful works by other beloved friends, such as the extensive and legendary Marv's MMF2 examples, Walrus Ultimate Full Screen, etc. Once it's ready I will send a note with the page's link! I will also feature it on the Daily Click website.
I have found an interesting retro trick in paint.net you won't want to miss! how to more faithfully convert a regular image to retro game art (even true Nintendo style) So yes, original palettes included not only for the NES, but SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis and even the Atari 2600!
Since making "Atari 2600" games involve a different approach, I might create a page with it's onw downloads, just on that topic.
I might make a page where you can click on your choice! who knows I might make more splits, I will see what is best as time flows.
I will call the page something like: Easy game making with the power of MMF2/TGF2 - title may change. Suggestions as to the content there and inputs will be welcome. I will place a contact form there complete with a submit button, so you can send your responses.
There will be a force there to drive people to go back to making arcade games in the likes of our beloved quarter gobblers of the past as experienced through the Mame Emulator. I will name and post pictures of some awesome, classic and unforgettable games which had this style, complete with a super mfa which comes with the famous machine cpu splash intro, High Score (wip), original Namco/Taito/NES font (which are one and the same) and working Insert Coin feature (updates should come as well).
I have it that time has come for me to reveal my game dev secrets and give back as a big thank you from what I learned here with all of you.
Ok, starting work on all this right now, let the hours of fun (organized content making) roll in!

All right! Here it is:Please login to see this link.Please login to see this link.

The page is still not finished. Much tweaking need apply, like clickable links (a must and coming soon)
Some important links are not yet available (they will be soon)
But for now, enjoy the updated article in a much fancier and more helpful way!
Once all is set, I will notify!

Clickable links are in, Arcade example MFAs (wip) are in. All done for now. Have fun!
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