Flip-screen

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In computer and video games, the term flip-screen (sometimes also known as flick-screen or page-flipping) refers to games in which the playing environment is divided up into single screen portions (usually viewed from above, though sometimes from the side, or, more seldom, via an isometric view). Players see only one such screen at a time, and normally move to the next screen by having the player character/vehicle exit the current screen via one of the display's edges. At the point when the screen-to-next-screen move is performed, the picture abruptly "flips" to the next screen, hence the technique's name.

This mode of gameplay was very common in 2D platform and maze games on 8-bit home computers and video game consoles during the 1980s. The flip-screen technique was particularly common in games originally made for ZX Spectrum, such as Atic Atac, Jet Set Willy and Sabre Wulf. This was because the limitations in Spectrum's hardware made scrolling screens extremely difficult to implement at an adequate speed and quality.

With the maturing of the graphics programming state-of-the-art on existing platforms, as well as the industry's move to more powerful 16-bit computers and consoles, the flip-screen technique was gradually replaced by playing environments that scrolled, that is, those where the player remains in the centre of the screen while the environment "moves" past. Oddworld games on the original PlayStation are an exception.

There were also games that had some, but not all, of the earlier-mentioned aspects. The Legend of Zelda, for instance, also divides its environment into separate screen-sized sections (or rooms), as do the Game Boy games in the same series. However, instead of instantaneously flipping to a new screen when the player reached an edge, the transition between screens is achieved by rapid scrolling. A few games scroll normally within a small area but scroll rapidly to flip from area to area; these include The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and the Nintendo 64 and Nintendo GameCube versions of Animal Crossing.