Uncommon graphics mode games

A list of games that use less common graphics modes.

Hi-Resolution and Interlacing

PPU Register $2133 SETINI can enable hi-resolution mode, allowing a 512-pixel horizontal resolution. This causes every even column to display the main screen, and every odd column to display the sub screen. Outside of 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"). Under composite, this resulting blend can look somewhat smooth, but through S-Video or RGB the vertical stripes might be clearly visible.

In Mode 5, hi-resolution is automatically forced, and the main and subscreen are automatically overridden with alternating columns of the BG layers, allowing an effective double-width resolution.

PPU Register $2133 SETINI can enable interlacing, causing the scanlines of every second frame (field) to be offset downward by half a line. In mode 5 this allows an effective double-height resolution.

Game	Notes
Syvalion	Mode 5 and interlacing for high resolution text screens at the beginning of the game.
Seiken Densetsu 3	Mode 5 for text boxes and menu screens for a higher resolution Japanese text rendering.
Rudra no Hihou	Mode 5 for text boxes and menu screens for a higher resolution Japanese text rendering.
Shinseiki Odysselya II	Mode 5 for text boxes for a higher resolution Japanese text rendering.
Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday	Mode 5 is used in an introductory room for many levels, giving a high resolution scene one screen wide.
Desert Fighter / Air Strike Patrol	Mode 5 and interlacing for high resolution mission briefing text.
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.
Jurassic Park	The HUD overlay and a notification box during gameplay uses pseudo hi-res for a transparency effect.
Kirby's Dream Land 3	Uses pseudo hi-res for a foreground transparency effect.
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.
Street Combat / Ranma ½: Chounai Gekitou Hen	Has interlacing enabled, likely by mistake. Not used for any higher vertical resolution content.
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.

Links:

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

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).
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.

Vertical Offset-per-tile

See: Offset-per-tile

Game	Notes
Tetris Attack	Used for independently shifting columns of gameplay.
Timecop	During the introduction, used for a wobbling effect on the time machine.
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".
Bust-a-Move / Puzzle Bobble	Used to make the playfield shift downwards without affecting the fixed frame at the sides. This game also uses background mode 4.
Star Fox	Used for the slight rotation effect on the background behind the SuperFX graphics.
Prehistorik Man	Used on stage 21 (Icebergs) to simulate rotation on the ice platforms.
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.
Super Turrican 2	Used in the fourth area of the first level.
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.

Horizontal Offset-per-tile

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.

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 uses 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.

Mode 0

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.
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
The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare	Used during gameplay.

Mode 3 8bpp

Mode 3 is uncommon, but provides 8bpp graphics. Direct color mode 3 cases are listed above instead.

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

Mode 4 8bpp

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 colours can be accomodated on the tilemap. Also uses OPT to shift the playfield.

Mode 7 EXTBG

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

Game	Notes
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.
Contra 3	Used on the second level.
extbgtest	Test ROM for EXTBG. (BG1 vs BG2, Indexed vs Direct color.)

See Also

• Tricky-to-emulate games
• Emulator tests