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.) |
