Uncommon graphics mode games

A list of games that use less common graphics modes.

BG Mode 0

BG Mode 0 is somewhat uncommon, but provides 4 independent layers of 2bpp graphics.

Game	Notes
Super Mario Kart	For the layered "Choose your driver...." screen with separately scrolling text and ground.
The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare	Used during gameplay.
Yoshi's Island	The title screen uses mode 0 for the upper portion of its title screen. 6-8 "King Bowser's Castle" has a room for Kamek with 4 layers of parallaxing pillars: video

BG Mode 3 8bpp

BG Mode 3 is uncommon, but provides 8bpp graphics. Mode 3 Direct Color cases are listed below instead.

Game	Notes
Donkey Kong Country	Used for a palette animation drawing the green lines of the Rareware logo at boot.
Ms. Pac-Man	Used for the title screen.
Secret of Mana	Used for the title screen. (Image appears to use a lossy JPEG-like compression technique.)
Sim City 2000	Used to display the city itself - the interface uses the 4bpp layer.
Toy Story	Used for many high-color screens throughout.
Yam Yam	Used for the title screen.
Zoop	A single 8bpp layer is used for gameplay.

BG Mode 4 8bpp

BG Mode 4 provides 8bpp graphics on BG1 with Offset-Per-Tile.

Game	Notes
Bust-a-Move / Puzzle Bobble	8bpp graphics are needed so that all combinations of adjacent bubble colors can be accommodated on the tilemap. Also uses vertical Offset-Per-Tile to shift the playfield.

BG Mode 7 EXTBG

While BG Mode 7 was very popular, BG Mode 7 EXTBG was not very common.

Game	Notes
Contra 3	Used on the second level.
Super Mario World	Used during the Bowser fight to move the Koopa Clown Car around on a pseudo-3D stage, occasionally overlapping all the other elements of the screen.
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts	Used to put the level over the player's feet on a rotating level.
Super Turrican 2	Used for a boss fight.
Tiny Toon's Adventures	Used on the title screen.
extbgtest	Test ROM for mode 7 EXTBG. (BG1 vs. BG2, Indexed vs. Direct Color.)

Direct Color

See: Direct color

Game	Notes
Actraiser 2	The mode 7 overworld map uses Direct Color.
Aerobiz	The title screen uses mode 7 Direct Color.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms II	The title screen and introduction sequence use mode 7 Direct Color.
Secret of Mana	The spherical world map uses mode 7 Direct Color. The flat world map uses mode 3 Direct Color. While riding Flammie, press Start for the spherical map, then press R to switch to the flat map.

High-Resolution and Interlacing

PPU register $2133 SETINI can enable hi-res mode, allowing a 512-pixel horizontal resolution.

Outside of BG Mode 5, this is usually used as a way to do a 50% blend of the main and sub screens (a.k.a. "pseudo hi-res"). Starting from 0, it causes every even column to display the sub screen and every odd column to display the main screen. The sub screen is the left column in each pixel pair. Because composite television signals had limited bandwidth, this could result in a smooth horizontal blending of the columns, but through S-Video or RGB the vertical stripes might be clearly visible.

In BG Mode 5, hi-res is automatically forced, and the main and sub screen are automatically overridden with alternating columns of the BG layers, allowing the tilemaps to be used at double-width resolution.

PPU register $2133 SETINI can also enable interlacing, causing the scanlines of every second frame (field) to be offset downward by half a line. In mode 5 this allows a double-height tilemap resolution, but at half the frame rate, and with the other visual compromises of interlacing.

Game	Notes
Bishoujo Janshi Suchi-Pie	Mode 5 and interlacing for some high resolution graphic screens when entering a location.
Chrono Trigger	Switches to interlacing mode in the cockpit view when crashing the Epoch ship into Lavos (modes 7 and 1). This may have been used as an intentional temporal-blur and jitter. (After the Epoch gains its wings, but before Lavos' head is defeated, send the Epoch to 1999 AD. (Save #12 slot 2)
Crayon Shin-Chan: Arashi o Yobu Enji	Stage 2 uses pseudo hi-res effect for a grey mist. Can be reached from the title screen by waiting for the second attract sequence.
Donkey Kong Country	After the Rareware logo shrinks and moves to the bottom right corner, it uses mode 5 to make that small logo higher resolution.
Jurassic Park	The HUD overlay and a notification box during gameplay use pseudo hi-res for a transparency effect.
Kirby's Dream Land 3	Uses pseudo hi-res for a foreground transparency effect.
Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday	Mode 5 is used in an introductory room for many levels, giving a high resolution scene one screen wide.
Radical Psycho Machine Racing (a.k.a. RPM Racing)	Mode 5 and interlacing for high resolution graphics throughout the game. The Japanese release replaced the high-resolution gameplay with low-resolution mode instead.
Street Combat / Ranma ½: Chounai Gekitou Hen	Has interlacing enabled, likely by mistake. Not used for any higher vertical resolution content.
PPU Bus Activity Demo	Demo by lidnariq which includes mode 6, among other things.
Two Ship Demo	Demo by rainwarrior comparing mode 5 + interlacing against mode 1 graphics.

Hi-res Japanese text:

Game	Notes
Dark Law: Meaning of Death	Mode 5 for text boxes, menu screens and status bar during gameplay.
Desert Fighter / Air Strike Patrol	Mode 5 and interlacing for high resolution mission briefing text.
Marvelous: Mouhitotsu no Takarajima	Mode 5 for text boxes and menu screens.
Moryou Senki Madara 2	Mode 5 for text boxes and menu screens.
Rudra no Hihou	Mode 5 for text boxes and menu screens.
Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2)	Mode 5 for text boxes and menu screens.
Shinseiki Odysselya II	Mode 5 for text boxes.
Syvalion	Mode 5 and interlacing for text screens at the beginning of the game.
Tokimeki Memorial: Densetsu no Ki no Shita de	Mode 5 for text boxes and menu screens.

Links:

• Forum thread - CRT photos of various hi-res effects.

Offset-Per-Tile: Horizontal

The horizontal version of Offset-Per-Tile is especially rare, since scanline horizontal scroll changes can already do a smooth horizontal offset, and this hardware feature only provides a coarse one.

Game	Notes
Chrono Trigger	During the introduction, this is used for a "shimmering" effect on the Black Omen ship. (video)
Super Genjin 2	Used for a screen transition effect on the title screen, when the intro animation isn't skipped. Uses mode 4.
Super Mario All-Stars	Used in Super Mario Bros 2, for a screen transition between title screen and character select.

Offset-Per-Tile: Vertical

See: Offset-Per-Tile

Game	Notes
Aladdin	Used on the final boss fight.
Axelay	Used for large vertically moving obstacles on the second level.
Battletoads in Battlemaniacs	Used for a wavy effect on a flag in the game's intro.
Bust-a-Move / Puzzle Bobble	Used to make the playfield shift downwards without affecting the fixed frame at the sides. This game also uses mode 4.
Chrono Trigger	Used to apply a vertical waving effect on the word "Trigger" at the title screen.
GT Racing	Uses mode 2 for a waving flag on the title screen.
Prehistorik Man	Used on stage 21 (Icebergs) to simulate rotation on the ice platforms.
Star Fox	Used for the slight rotation effect on the background behind the SuperFX graphics.
Super Turrican 2	Used in the fourth area of the first level.
Tetris Attack	Used for independently shifting columns of gameplay.
Timecop	Used for a wobbling effect on the time machine during the introduction.
Yoshi's Island	Used for the 1-7 "Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy" effect, and moving platforms in 6-4 "Tap-Tap The Red Nose's Fort".

Overscan (239 lines)

PPU register $2133 SETINI can choose either 224 or 239 lines of visible picture. Most games used 224, allowing a significantly longer VBLANK period, and the extra lines weren't normally visible on contemporary NTSC televisions.

Game	Notes
Rendering Ranger R2	NTSC (Japan), often manually blanks several lines at the bottom. Only rarely uses the manual blank time for PPU uploads (e.g. rotating ship at end of Stage 2).
SNES Test Program	Immediately switches to overscan mode, even on NTSC consoles.
Super Mario All-Stars	PAL version only.
Super Mario Kart	PAL version only, but with some "manual" letterboxing.
Super Mario World	The launch PAL release did not use overscan, but a later PAL revision did.
Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss	NTSC (Japan).
Super Tetris 3	NTSC (Japan).
Tetris & Dr. Mario	Both NTSC and PAL versions used the overscan area.
Tom & Jerry	NTSC and PAL.
Yoshi's Cookie	NTSC and PAL.

See Also

• Tricky-to-emulate games
• Emulator tests