Line #21 Main/FlipScreenScrolling


1	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/CrushPinball https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flip-screen-scrolling_9867.jpg]]]]
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3	In the early days of video games, memory was limited and quite expensive, and some games simply could not afford the CPU cycles to present a continuous, smoothly scrolling game world. The world was thus divided into a series of "screens", analogous to rooms with fixed camera positions. Travelling off one side of the screen caused the game to scroll by an entire screen at a time to reveal the next area -- or, if the hardware couldn't afford ''actual'' scrolling, simply "flip" to the next screen with no transitional effect.
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5	A curious side effect of this is that, just as the game couldn't afford the memory to provide continuous scrolling, it couldn't afford the memory to keep track of whatever was offscreen, either; [[BehindTheBlack the screen edges essentially became borders]] to [=NPCs=], monsters, attacks and projectiles alike, and ''only'' the player was able to cross from one screen to the next. Is there a hungry wolf bearing down on your [[VideoGame/KingsQuest Sir Graham]]? Simply run off the edge of the screen to the next, and it'll forget all about you.
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7	Some of these games made things more interesting by giving every screen a title and displaying these titles prominently, perhaps next to the StatusLine.
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9	Sometimes {{justified\|Trope}} (or at least {{Hand Wave}}d) by placing actual barriers (walls or doors) at the edge of a screen to provide a logical separation.
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11	It can become a cause of TrialAndErrorGameplay, by preventing the player in a PlatformGame to evaluate whether or not that gap before them is a BottomlessPit or if there is a screen below it to land safely on. It can also lead to the PlayerTic of performing some action (like jumping) near the edge of the screen to see if it persists across the transition.
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13	Common in games designed for old computers like the Platform/{{MSX}} and Platform/AppleII which had no special video hardware for scrolling. Even the Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem only had enough video RAM for scrolling in one direction (though extra VRAM could be put on cartridges), so it wasn't uncommon for NES games to use some flip screen transitions just to avoid the programming complexities of scrolling vertically and horizontally in the same area. More recent games featuring {{Retraux}} themes may purposefully invoke this.
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15	!! Early examples:
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17	* Many classic {{Adventure Game}}s, including those made by {{Creator/Sierra}} use discrete 'screens' with no transition effect between them, with [=NPCs=] and monsters (generally) limited to the screen they resided on.
18	** Sierra's ''VideoGame/QuestForGlory'' series, however, allow wandering monsters to pursue the player from one screen to the next.
19	** Early text adventures typically divide the world into a grid, with a name and description for each square "room". When adventure games get graphics, this trope was carried over. Moving towards a compass direction to the next room becomes walking off the edge of the screen.
20	* The game version of [[Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy Below The Root]] encourage the "edge of the screen" trick to avoid hostile [=NPCs=].
21	* ''Cybernoid'' (originally for the Platform/AmstradCPC) flips from screen to screen when you reach the edge. However, it has a fun unit where an enemy appears just against the side you flipped in from.
22	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
23	** The original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' scrolls in full-screen intervals, both horizontally and vertically. Dungeon maps were explicitly divided into a grid of discrete rooms, but the overworld map was not.
24	** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]'' has map areas about twice as big as the screen, giving it both a smooth scrolling within a map area and a "flip" scrolling from one area to the next.
25	** The first Platform/GameBoy title, ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening Link's Awakening]]'', has exclusively "flip" scrolling in both the above-view ''and'' platforming sections.[[note]]And a glitch in the former can be exploited for SequenceBreaking; for the [[UpdatedRerelease DX release]] they wised up and fixed most of the bugs surrounding the scrolling.[[/note]]
26	** The [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle games]] also use it on the overworld map, but added rooms bigger than the screen in dungeons.
27	* In ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'', horizontal scrolling is generally continuous (doors and gates aside), while vertical scrolling occurs in full-screen intervals. Later games have continuous scrolling in all cases, but keep the flip scrolling for the hallway just prior to the boss for the nostalgia factor.
28	** This leads to an interesting bug in ''VideoGame/MegaMan3''. [[DemonicSpiders The Giant Bees]] that drop nests full of [[MookMaker smaller bees]] that homed in on you can be taken out effortlessly by backtracking just enough for them to leave the screen and thus vanish from existence.
29	* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' has continuous horizontal scrolling, with vertical scrolling occurring in intervals of three-fifths of a screen; although offscreen enemies and items are still accounted for and can drop in on the player from above.
30	* All of the ''VideoGame/{{Glider}}'' games do this up to ''Glider Classic'', with a CheckPoint for every room. The drawback of not being able to see surrounding rooms is remedied by 9-room mode in ''Glider PRO''. Rooms are titled in ''4.0'' and ''PRO''; the former even puts the title of the room where you died on the High Scores list.
31	* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia1'' and ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia2'' (flip).
32	* The Platform/AmstradCPC oldie ''Mission Elevator'' displays three floors, and scrolls two floors at a time.
33	* Many {{Platform Game}}s by Creator/{{Capcom}} based on Disney animations in the NES era like ''VideoGame/TheLittleMermaid'', ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' and ''VideoGame/DuckTales'' games.
34	* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' on the [=MSX2=] use flip screen scrolling, as did the NES version of ''Metal Gear'' and ''VideoGame/SnakesRevenge'', the latter of which also had flip screen scrolling on its side-scrolling levels.
35	* ''VideoGame/{{Adventure}}'', with very confusing warping due to the Platform/{{Atari 2600}}'s graphics limitations.
36	* ''VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''
37	* ''VideoGame/RaidersOfTheLostArk''
38	%% * ''VideoGame/SupermanAtari2600''
39	* ''VideoGame/{{Faxanadu}}''. Averted in the Platform/PC88 and Platform/{{MSX}}1 game it's based on, ''VideoGame/DragonSlayerIIXanadu'', even though those systems lack scrolling hardware.
40	* With many games that appeared both on the {{Platform/MSX}} and the Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem, the NES versions feature continuous scrolling within sub-levels in the horizontal direction only, but their MSX counterparts use flip-scrolling exclusively. To name a few:
41	** ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania\|I}}''/''Vampire Killer''
42	** ''Castle Excellent''/''VideoGame/{{Castlequest}}'' (the NES version still flips between rooms, but rebuilds them all to be wider than the screen)
43	** ''Dragon Slayer IV''/''VideoGame/LegacyOfTheWizard'' (sub-areas are the same width in both versions, though they're divided into five slightly overlapping screens on the MSX)
44	** ''VideoGame/GanbareGoemon! Karakuri Douchuu''
45	** ''VideoGame/TheGoonies'' (the Platform/PC88 version, based on the NES version, also lacks scrolling)
46	** ''VideoGame/MazeOfGalious''
47	* Creator/{{Activision}}'s ''VideoGame/{{Pitfall}}'' has this exclusively, as also did ''VideoGame/KeystoneKapers''. The sequel ''Pitfall II: Lost Caverns'' introduces smooth scrolling, but only for vertical transitions.
48	* ''VideoGame/SmashTV'', using much the same excuse as ''The Legend of Zelda'': progress from one room to the next.
49	* ''VideoGame/BlasterMaster'' generally scrolls in all directions, but flips when going through doorways between "rooms", both in sidescrolling and overhead modes.
50	* ''VideoGame/TheGuardianLegend'', during the labyrinth areas.
51	* Early IsometricProjection games such as ''VideoGame/HeadOverHeels'' and ''Highway Encounter'' work this way, out of necessity.
52	* All the 2D ''VideoGame/{{Hydlide}}'' games, except for the Sharp X1 port of the first game. ''Super Hydlide'' exemplifies a FakeDifficulty aspect of this by allowing enemies to attack you from adjacent tiles that happen to be just barely offscreen.
53	* ''VideoGame/{{Mantra}}'', being very closely inspired by ''Zelda'', does this. May qualify as {{Retraux}}, since the classic Mac platforms need a lot more power than the NES hardware Zelda was built on to do tile-based games because of the lack of hardware sprite support.
54	* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosSpecial'' for the Platform/PC88 flipped the screen not at the right edge, but a few tiles short from the edge. Together with RatchetScrolling as in the NES original, this imposes considerable FakeDifficulty, since the levels make jumping over screen boundaries ridiculously risky.
55	* ''Golvellius'' does this in the overworld sections.
56	* ''Kid Kool'' on the NES has continuous horizontal scrolling, but flips on vertical transitions.
57	* ''VideoGame/MagicalDoropie'' had full horizontal scrolling, but flips on vertical transitions, like the ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' clone it is.
58	* ''VideoGame/{{Spelunker}}'' (computer and NES versions) scrolls continuously in the ''vertical'' direction only.
59	* ''VideoGame/KidNikiRadicalNinja'' does this in the Platform/AppleII and Platform/{{Commodore 64}} versions.
60	* ''[[VideoGame/BombJack Mighty Bomb Jack]]'' and ''VideoGame/{{Metroid\|1}}'' on the NES are careful to keep horizontal corridors separated from vertical shafts by doors.
61	** All of the side-scrolling Metroid games keep the scroll effect every time you go through a door for the [[TheArtifact sake of nostalgia.]]
62	* The Platform/AmstradCPC port of ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' (known as ''Gryzor'') scrolls by about two-thirds of a screen, in addition to its RatchetScrolling. The {{Platform/MSX2}} version scrolled at screen boundaries.
63	* ''VideoGame/TheMysteriousMurasameCastle'' has this throughout the game.
64	* ''Bagman'' (1982) is one of very few arcade games that did this.
65	* ''VideoGame/GoofTroop''
66	* ''VideoGame/CastleWolfenstein'', although enemies you've killed stayed dead.
67	* ''VideoGame/MontezumasRevenge''
68	* The castle stages in ''VideoGame/AlexKidd in Miracle World'' and ''Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle''.
69	* ''VideoGame/AlienSyndrome'' (Platform/SegaMasterSystem version)
70	* ''VideoGame/{{Hunchback}}'' is another example that originated in arcades. The screen doesn't scroll until Quasimodo hits the CheckPoint at the right side of every screen, even though the intro has continuous scrolling.
71	* A lot of early DigitalPinballTables use playfields several screens tall. When the ball moved off one screen, Flip Screen Scrolling is used to show the next one:
72	** The VideoGame/CrushPinball series: ''VideoGame/AlienCrush'', ''VideoGame/DevilsCrush'', and ''VideoGame/JakiCrush''
73	** ''VideoGame/KirbysPinballLand''
74	** ''VideoGame/MarioPinballLand''
75	** ''VideoGame/MileHighPinball''
76	** ''VideoGame/PokemonPinball'', in which the screen flashes while transitioning from one part of the table to the next.
77	** ''VideoGame/RevengeOfTheGator''
78	** ''VideoGame/RollerBall''
79	** ''VideoGame/TimeCruise''
80	* ''VideoGame/{{Skweek}}'' uses screen-flipping in the Platform/AmstradCPC and Platform/IBMPersonalComputer ports.
81	* ''VideoGame/SmurfRescueInGargamelsCastle'' and ''VideoGame/CabbagePatchKidsAdventuresInThePark'', both Platform/ColecoVision games, use screen-flipping.
82	* ''VideoGame/{{Faria}}'' uses this in the tower areas.
83	* ''VideoGame/{{Flashback}}: The Quest For Identity''
84	* ''Mad Professor Mariarti'': The Platform/AtariST version is purely flip-screen; the Platform/{{Amiga}} and Platform/AcornArchimedes versions have horizontal but not vertical scrolling.
85	* ''[[VideoGame/{{Oddworld}} Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee]] and Abe's Exoddus''. The later games dropped this.
86	* ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'', set in a labyrinthine mansion, with several exits from most rooms. Each room has an unique name, displayed at the bottom of the screen.
87	* ''VideoGame/HansKloss'', set in a mazelike bunker. In this case, borders of each screen can be dangerous because that's where enemies randomly spawn.
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89	!! {{Retraux}} examples:
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91	* ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy''
92	* ''VideoGame/LaMulana'', as part of its MSX theme, due to MSX hardware having little support for continuous scrolling. The remake gives a name to each room.
93	* ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'' and ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan10 10]]'' faithfully mimick the scrolling behavior of their NES predecessors.
94	* ''VideoGame/{{VVVVVV}}'', with titled screens.
95	* ''VideoGame/HeroCore'' (flip)
96	* ''VideoGame/AnUntitledStory''
97	* ''VideoGame/DistortedTravesty'' did this for certain areas.
98	* ''VideoGame/{{Knytt}}'', '' VideoGame/KnyttStories'', and ''VideoGame/KnyttUnderground''. Creator/{{Nifflas}} actually avert this in his abandoned project ''Knytt Experiment''.
99	* ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline'' is TwoPointFiveD with a top down view MMORPG. Nearly all the maps are rectangles with transfer gates on the edges.
100	* ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'' mimics the scrolling of many classic games, including continuous horizontal scrolling and vertical flip-scrolling (and smooth vertical scrolling in some AutoScrollingLevel[=s=].
101	* ''VideoGame/CatPlanet''
102	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'', which takes place in the same world as ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]'' (see above), uses this to help maintain continuity between the two games despite being set generations after ''A Link to the Past''.
103	* ''VideoGame/{{Purple}}'' features vertical flip-scrolling, though some areas feature smooth vertical scrolling and a horizontal WrapAround.
104	* ''VideoGame/{{Karoshi}}'' games occasionally feature levels that use flip-screen scrolling to puzzle the players by hiding things BehindTheBlack.
105
106	!! Other examples:
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108	* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' on the Gamecube features a form of this without the justification of limited technology. In addition, objects and characters continued to move and act, even across screen borders. {{Lampshaded}} by calling them "Acres". The later games avert this with continuous scrolling, but still use 16x16 "acres" for internal purposes such as building placement (never across an acre boundary), {{cap}}ping geometry density (no more than 6 trees per quarter-acre), and so on.
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Context Main / FlipScreenScrolling