Uncommon graphics mode games

A list of games that use less common graphics modes.

See also: Tricky-to-emulate games

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.
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.

Links:

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

Overscan (240 lines)

PPU Register $2133 SETINI can choose either 224 or 240 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.
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	Used to make the playfield jitter vertically, to warn that the playfield will be moved downwards. 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.

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.