SNES Background Modes

Did you know that some people still aren’t aware that the SNES has a whopping eight different background modes to play around with, not just the infamous Mode 7 that everyone has heard a load about already?

Well, the video below by Retro Game Mechanics Explained covers the the first six of the SNES’ background modes in great detail and is well worth viewing (he has a whole separate video dedicated to Mode 7 too):

In this video, you’ll find a great overview of the SNES background modes 1-6

Despite being the best resource for how backgrounds work on SNES that I’ve found [that laymen can actually understand], there were a few things that still weren’t entirely clear to me when I first watched the video above, such as the actual amounts of colours per layer and overall for the backgrounds in Mode 0 for example, or that the amount of colours onscreen can be increased well beyond the standard 256-ish total [for background and sprites combined] using both HDMA on the background colour and colour math for transparency effects. So I’ll detail some of those things more below.

Continue reading SNES Background Modes

Super Mario Bros. is 35 years old!

Some cool announcements. Happy to see Mario 64 get a proper re-release with a few small but welcome touch-ups for the modern era. And I might even get myself one of those Super Mario Bros. Game & Watches if they aren’t too expensive. 😀