Mario 16-bit on NES

[LS_Dracon]

I'm studying NES hardware these days, and find something really interesting.

Using OAM DMA with NMI to plot sprite pixels, I can draw a 16 bit looking graphics on a stock NES hardware!

It is really difficult to get the timing, but the result is really good!

Don't believe me? Download the rom below and test it on your favorite NES emulator!

I've designed this sprite specially for this new technique. How cool would be a Megaman or Castlevania game with sprites like this?

Oh, and I'm not cheating, this is the basic mapper, CHR ROM (no cart RAM) and no co-processor.

Tell me your thoughts.

mario16.nes

[LS_Dracon]

It was an April fools... Sorta.

 

The rom really displays a 16 bit looking sprite, but the DMA thing was BS.

 

I've stacked 4 sprite layers, each layer with 3 colors, to get all 12 colors you see.

 

The problem is I'm using all the NES resource just to show that sprite, I can't display anything more on same horizontal area.

 

Here's the sprite sheet, showing the process of creation.

 

 

[Kiwi]

 

I really really like the animation and the background artwork. Really cool!

 

Codemaster NES games like Ziggy uses multiple layer sprites to show more color for their character. Capcom do this for their games too. Their late releases really show sprites with more than 3 colors like Chip and Dale 2.

[MemberAtarian]

Looks really cool, I like it! Detailed animation with NES graphics.

Mario16bit.gif

 

I really really like the animation and the background artwork. Really cool!

 

Codemaster NES games like Ziggy uses multiple layer sprites to show more color for their character. Capcom do this for their games too. Their late releases really show sprites with more than 3 colors like Chip and Dale 2.

[LS_Dracon]

Mario16bit.gif

 

I really really like the animation and the background artwork. Really cool!

 

Codemaster NES games like Ziggy uses multiple layer sprites to show more color for their character. Capcom do this for their games too. Their late releases really show sprites with more than 3 colors like Chip and Dale 2.

 

Yes, I know. But they never did a 12 color sprite

Thanks for creating an animated gif.

[MemberAtarian]

How much sprite is left for all the other character then? This means you used 4 sprites as layers?

 

Yes, I know. But they never did a 12 color sprite

Thanks for creating an animated gif.

[LS_Dracon]

You have 64 tiles 8x8 pixels per screen, only 8 on same scanline. You stack them to make a "meta sprite".

 

Mario uses 8 tiles (2x4) for each layer = 32 tiles, you can have 2 sprites like that on same screen. Actually my original plans was draw the princes on top of the tower, but I ran out of space for sprite graphic data (I would need a RAM cart for that).

 

64 tile limit is not really a problem for an 8 bit machine like NES, the problem is processor speed to set all sprites registers (X,Y position, graphics, collision check). This is why you have slowdown when too much sprites is on screen, you ran out of time to set all sprite registers at 60 fps.

Edited April 4, 2018 by LS_Dracon

[LS_Dracon]

This little demo shows all 64 sprites moving independently.

 

SprTest2.nes