The controls in Ikari Warriors for NES are sluggish to say the least. It seems like it takes forever just to turn in the direction you want to go. This is quite different from the overhead levels of Super C where you snap to face the direction that was just pressed. The arcade version of […]
“Is my copy of Mega Man III messed up?” This question is a common one from those that either have not played the third game in the series or are returning to it after a number of years. There is a graphical glitch above Shadow Man in the Stage Select screen. A segment of pixels […]
In a previous episode of Behind the Code, we talked about how the scoring logic of Tetris can crash the game at high levels. Now what is even more interesting is that you can hook up extra controllers to the expansion port on a Famicom and use them to redirect code execution to the A-Type […]
While I was working on the previous episode of Behind the Code and researching Jekyll’s walking speed in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the NES, I noticed that the frame rate was rather odd. Turns out it is REALLY odd. If you’ve played the game, you may have noticed that the speed is inconsistent. […]
A friend of mine rented Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when it was new, and we gave it a try. It was certainly different than any of the other games we had played on the NES. Try playing Contra or Punch-Out and then switching over to a game that demands patience like this one does. […]
NES Strider feels janky. We’ve known that since it was released. But how bad could it be? … Oh! Absolutely terrible! Jumping, running into a wall, and falling – simple things in any other game seem to be half-baked in Strider. The physics are worse than you could possibly imagine. Why do you slam your […]
Sprite limitations and flicker define what the NES is. They are a part of history. This video dives into Object Attribute Memory – OAM – to explain why the system is limited to eight sprites on a scanline as well as how both sprite limitation and sprite priority are used by programmers to add some […]
The NES needs a clock in order to function. Both the CPU and PPU use clock cycles to perform their duties. These chips run at different speeds, but each speed is derived from the same source – a 21.47727 MHz crystal on the NES motherboard. How do these components work in tandem? This video dives […]
Unique graphics. Giant sprites. No flicker. How on earth does this game work? The MMC2 chip contained in Punch-Out’s cartridge allows the NES to switch between two pairs of tiles for each half of the pattern table. While the MMC1 already allows bank switching for graphics, the MMC2 allows the switch to happen in the […]
Punch-Out!! has been on my list of games to investigate for a long time, and I finally have something to show after a crazy amount of research. This video covers how opponent data is used to determine where to branch and what to do in code, how to manipulate boxer behavior, secrets that you will […]
