How NES Games Are STILL Made in 40KB

Ойындар

The Nintendo Entertainment System (released as the Family Computer in Japan) is the world's most iconic home game console. With a Ricoh 2A03 CPU based on the popular MOS 6502, it had 2KB of RAM, 2KB of VRAM, and with the built in Picture Processing Unit and Audio Processing Unit, was used to run some of the world's most popular games ever released.
Although early NES games were design for 40KB cartriges (32KB of PRG ROM and 8KB of CHR ROM), later advancements led to larger chips being used, and more game content being added, but the system itself remained the same. In order to bridge this gap, Mapper Chips were developed to allow the system access to certain parts of the PRG or CHR ROM sections.
I've created a new NES title to show how programming an NES game from scratch can be accomplished. No Internet for the NES is available now: notin.tokyo/nointernet
Development help:
www.nesdev.org/wiki/Nesdev_Wiki
Further reading:
www.copetti.org/writings/cons...

Пікірлер: 220

  • @soryabuscompany
    @soryabuscompany3 ай бұрын

    I've never seen a more thorough technical explanation of the NES in such a short time

  • @gblargg

    @gblargg

    3 ай бұрын

    Came here to say that as well. It sounds like it will be a quick gloss over, but then covers the important conceptual details of how subtle things like split-screen scrolling work. Well-done.

  • @ego-lay_atman-bay
    @ego-lay_atman-bay3 ай бұрын

    The end really caught me off guard. It was such a scott the woz ending.

  • @itskdog

    @itskdog

    3 ай бұрын

    *3D Dot Game Heroes

  • @ego-lay_atman-bay

    @ego-lay_atman-bay

    3 ай бұрын

    @@itskdog Yeah, I know, but I feel like that song is most commonly associated with scott the woz.

  • @Therap3

    @Therap3

    2 ай бұрын

    ​@@itskdogwow I had no idea it was from that game. Thanks!

  • @dagaffalads

    @dagaffalads

    2 ай бұрын

    A Scott vid was recommended after this lol

  • @kirabey8946

    @kirabey8946

    10 күн бұрын

    Its the old one too...

  • @JadeLombax
    @JadeLombax3 ай бұрын

    I got into coding super tiny games a few years ago. I've made scaled-down Mario & Zelda games in about 1KB, working on some ideas for Metroid.

  • @InkboxSoftware

    @InkboxSoftware

    3 ай бұрын

    That's sounds way cool, do you have any stuff I can check out?

  • @JadeLombax

    @JadeLombax

    3 ай бұрын

    ​@@InkboxSoftwareI have an Itch page w/ some of my games (Jadelombax is my username there), tried to post a link, but KZread keeps deleting my responses.

  • @themadmallard

    @themadmallard

    3 ай бұрын

    1kb? what platform are they made for?

  • @JadeLombax

    @JadeLombax

    3 ай бұрын

    ​@@themadmallard Been using Pico-8 due to its ease of use and short syntax. It's not assembly, but things can still get crazy cryptic when you're optimizing bytes.

  • @s3rverlord

    @s3rverlord

    3 ай бұрын

    You can imagine that game in your brain and play it.

  • @Arcad3n
    @Arcad3n3 ай бұрын

    The game boy color has one of my all time favorite visual styles for a retro console. Games like Mina the Hollower demonstrate how great it looks, it’s so appealing! Excited for that episode.

  • @bassguitarbill
    @bassguitarbill3 ай бұрын

    I love your NES videos, but as I actually have a bit of experience programming on the DMG, I'm looking forward even more to your future projects!

  • @StereoMadnessss
    @StereoMadnessss3 ай бұрын

    Assembly is just amazing really on how small its code can be when it's compiled

  • @williamdrum9899

    @williamdrum9899

    3 ай бұрын

    6502 in particular is tiny. Most modern cpus use 4 bytes per instruction at all times but we have much more room now so it hardly matters. NES code size is mostly negligible when it comes to file size. It's the data tables that hog the most cartridge space

  • @bradallen8909

    @bradallen8909

    2 ай бұрын

    Assembly isn’t compiled. It’s assembled.

  • @rethardotv5874

    @rethardotv5874

    2 ай бұрын

    Shouldn’t be C with modern compilers as efficient as writing assembly?

  • @rya3190

    @rya3190

    2 ай бұрын

    ​​@@rethardotv5874If you cut out bigger libraries (or go without a standard), and remove the elf file cushions, you can get C down to assembly sized programs. A guy made a QR-based snake game a little while back and was finding his assembly program was larger than his trimmed down C. edit: I should probably note, this is likely due to the optimization for a very common architecture, x86. I'm not sure how efficient one for say the 6502, PowerPC, or Risc-v would be...

  • @stefanmilicevic5322
    @stefanmilicevic53223 ай бұрын

    The amount of effort you put into each programming project is truly inspiring. Keep up the great work!

  • @essayharper
    @essayharper3 ай бұрын

    The way the Famicom/NES handles data will never fail to amaze me

  • @Roid33
    @Roid333 ай бұрын

    Scott the Woz outro whatt

  • @FloatingSunfish
    @FloatingSunfish3 ай бұрын

    The NES will always be my favorite console. It helped save the video game industry!

  • @shinyagumon7015
    @shinyagumon70153 ай бұрын

    My guess is black magic or programming if there's a difference between the two 😂

  • @error.delete4945

    @error.delete4945

    3 ай бұрын

    a great programmers code is like a master close up magicians act: nothing flashy under the surface, super efficient and seamless. The average programmers code is like a magician you hired last minute for your kids birthday party: it kind of works sometimes but is otherwise a total mess of copied tricks and a pigeon in a hat, and the pigeon is dead and useless but they kept it in the act anyway.

  • @dacueba-games

    @dacueba-games

    3 ай бұрын

    "Is this too much voodoo?"

  • @angeldude101

    @angeldude101

    3 ай бұрын

    As a programmer and self-proclaimed sourcerer, no; there isn't a difference.

  • @designator7402

    @designator7402

    3 ай бұрын

    ​@@error.delete4945 I will not remove the KillPidgeon() method from my code, no matter who the IRS sends!

  • @KertaDrake

    @KertaDrake

    3 ай бұрын

    Simply speak the binary incantations and technomagic will occur. You use hex for hexes, of course.

  • @alexandredecarvalho4357
    @alexandredecarvalho43573 ай бұрын

    We need more of these!! :D thank you for your explanations!

  • @famitronic9870
    @famitronic98703 ай бұрын

    This is one of the best summarized explanations on how to build an nes game from scratch that I’ve seen! Thanks for the great video. 👍

  • @Willfa_
    @Willfa_3 ай бұрын

    can't wait to see what you do on the gameboy. Love your videos!

  • @mcleodautomation
    @mcleodautomation3 ай бұрын

    Your audio is SOO good - keep it up! Love the dry mic sound tbh.

  • @Sinistar1983
    @Sinistar19833 ай бұрын

    Can't wait to see what game you make on the GBC. Its a personal favorite of mine to code on as well. And with how awesome GB studio is its now more accessible than ever to work with. And in case you're wondering my GBC game is called Eternal Memory.

  • @Bobbias

    @Bobbias

    3 ай бұрын

    It's a shame their visual programming interface is awful though. Makes doing anything reasonably complex a nightmare without learning the actual scripting language.

  • @Sinistar1983

    @Sinistar1983

    3 ай бұрын

    @@Bobbias I don't think its that bad honestly plus it's actually really competent at making more complex games. I've managed to create a pseudo real time reflection using just the stock visual scripting.

  • @huskenator857
    @huskenator8573 ай бұрын

    Love your videos dude, can’t wait to see you unpack the gameboy color. Also Scott The Woz jump scare

  • @1008md
    @1008md3 ай бұрын

    That was amazing. I didn’t understand a lot but was still mesmerized!

  • @Adiee5Priv
    @Adiee5Priv3 ай бұрын

    Sidenote: Image data is NOT loaded into vram, PPU reads image data directly from chr rom, that's why image data is stored in a separate chip from program itself

  • @ricarleite

    @ricarleite

    3 ай бұрын

    But vram stores the pallet and table name information doesn't it

  • @Adiee5Priv

    @Adiee5Priv

    3 ай бұрын

    @@ricarleite yes, but that's something else

  • @ricarleite

    @ricarleite

    3 ай бұрын

    @@Adiee5Priv I mean he didn't claim vram stores a bitmap representation of the screen

  • @Adiee5Priv

    @Adiee5Priv

    3 ай бұрын

    @@ricarleite ah, yes, i was reffering to a one scene, where it was visualised that way, but it seems like i didn't include the timestamp

  • @williamdrum9899
    @williamdrum98993 ай бұрын

    Later games used "bank switching" to fit more code/data than the NES's 64k address space would typically allow

  • @Controllerhead
    @Controllerhead3 ай бұрын

    What a wonderful explanation, sure with i had this video when i started years ago. Great work!!!

  • @Squigdude13
    @Squigdude133 ай бұрын

    went from a random recommended video to wanting to get one of those romhack carts from back in the day you could load games onto

  • @merman1974
    @merman1974Ай бұрын

    That was a brilliant explanation and a fun game as a result. Great work.

  • @cdkw2
    @cdkw2Ай бұрын

    I would love to see the gbc videos, good luck!

  • @coolbrotherf127
    @coolbrotherf1272 ай бұрын

    It's so cool that Nintendo invented golf.

  • @Holital
    @Holital3 ай бұрын

    Yooooo I love your channel!!!

  • @thechosenone729
    @thechosenone729Ай бұрын

    Amazing video as always thanks for your work.

  • @MoustiluigiRandom
    @MoustiluigiRandom3 ай бұрын

    Amazingly well explained.

  • @mukulnag1578
    @mukulnag15783 ай бұрын

    This is amazing... As some how now works closely with cpu hardware and firmware learning about the limitation that we went through is fascinating... And i see how some of the stuff/limitations from 90 is till there in mordern cpu... We just find more ways to go around them

  • @skRapKlan
    @skRapKlan3 ай бұрын

    Nice work! Thanks for the cool video!

  • @adryanlucas096
    @adryanlucas0963 ай бұрын

    Clicked as soon as i saw the notification 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 ur videos are always the best!

  • @IraKane
    @IraKane3 ай бұрын

    I have been programming games for over 10 years now, C#, gdscript and back in the days of the NES I programmend in BASIC using an MSX....but I'm nobody! You are my hero!🤪

  • @EWARS_2
    @EWARS_23 ай бұрын

    Scott the Woz outro?! (Breakout?)

  • @golvellius6855
    @golvellius68553 ай бұрын

    Incredible😮 i learned a lot in this video❤❤❤

  • @Mobik_
    @Mobik_3 ай бұрын

    The good thing about the GBC is that you can actually use cool things, like C instead of Assembly. I did the iconic DVD bouncing logo and made it run into original hardware (GBC and GBA)

  • @InkboxSoftware

    @InkboxSoftware

    3 ай бұрын

    You can use C for the NES, too, I just prefer assembly

  • @dinaariaudio4944
    @dinaariaudio49442 ай бұрын

    ive been making a 32kb game for pico-8 and now i appreciate the wizardry that is needed to truly craft something playable within the limitations

  • @spg3331
    @spg33313 ай бұрын

    Loved playing the game boy color as a kid!

  • @anon_y_mousse
    @anon_y_mousse3 ай бұрын

    If you were using C, it'd be awesome to have a C23 compliant compiler to handle resource embedding. Towards that end, the oscar64 project intrigues me. It's intended for the C64, but it shouldn't be too difficult to modify it for other 6502 based systems.

  • @jumbledfox2098
    @jumbledfox20983 ай бұрын

    What an epic video!

  • @aplanebagel
    @aplanebagel3 ай бұрын

    Well explained !

  • @FernieAriel
    @FernieAriel3 ай бұрын

    1:40 that’s the music from Goal 2, one of the best soccer games of all time. I’d recognize it anywhere.

  • @deltapi8859
    @deltapi88593 ай бұрын

    beautiful svg art in the video.

  • @ehippo1
    @ehippo13 ай бұрын

    Nice video ❤

  • @intangiblematter_misc
    @intangiblematter_misc3 ай бұрын

    I wasn't going to comment, just a really solid video. Then the Scott the Woz ending whiplash hit

  • @wingedsaviour7327
    @wingedsaviour732717 күн бұрын

    Loved it!

  • @Clancydaenlightened
    @Clancydaenlightened3 ай бұрын

    Hint they didn't do it with only 32k rom and ppu rom Kirby on nes was around a 1megabyte cartridge

  • @codeway4374
    @codeway43743 ай бұрын

    Nice vid !

  • @OmeedNOuhadi
    @OmeedNOuhadiАй бұрын

    Congratulations!

  • @lazysh508
    @lazysh508Ай бұрын

    really helpful

  • @maazali6283
    @maazali62833 ай бұрын

    Your my inspiration to become a better programmer

  • @VideoGamer945
    @VideoGamer9453 ай бұрын

    I learned something today!

  • @RareSun
    @RareSun2 ай бұрын

    Can't wait to watch the episode where you program a 3D Mario for the GameCube in 10 years.

  • @NegaafellagaTV
    @NegaafellagaTV3 ай бұрын

    Really cool!

  • @HollowProject
    @HollowProject3 ай бұрын

    Yay! Waiting for GBA videos!

  • @Tavg123
    @Tavg1233 ай бұрын

    great video

  • @alexela_
    @alexela_3 ай бұрын

    Am I on time?! I'm enjoying it already

  • @ShinoSarna
    @ShinoSarna3 ай бұрын

    You inspired me to try to make a version of Minecraft for NES.

  • @Guilhermeabcd
    @Guilhermeabcd3 ай бұрын

    loved it!

  • @Mrwaffles-gr3so
    @Mrwaffles-gr3so3 ай бұрын

    I totally understood everything.

  • @ChaossX77
    @ChaossX773 ай бұрын

    Real original ending music.

  • @cube2fox
    @cube2fox3 ай бұрын

    Now I'm really interested in the difference between NES and GBC. Especially black cartridge games look quite similar to NES games, apart from the resolution.

  • @eboatwright_
    @eboatwright_3 ай бұрын

    Very cool!

  • @modlich_303
    @modlich_3033 ай бұрын

    what about the Minecraft? since you are moving on from NES, and that Minecraft is on NES, what's gonna be with that?

  • @bootime265
    @bootime2653 ай бұрын

    time for a cool video

  • @sippingthepeachsoda
    @sippingthepeachsoda3 ай бұрын

    seems like the audio was fit into 40 kilobytes too😂😂

  • @KingF-hi4wg
    @KingF-hi4wg3 ай бұрын

    I’d like to see this guy cover sega master system homebrew

  • @9a3eedi
    @9a3eedi3 ай бұрын

    You'd be surprised by how much you can do if you have a couple of kilobytes of storage space, if you just didn't have any of the bloat of modern software

  • @taagoallas3336
    @taagoallas33363 ай бұрын

    It's always a good day when Inkbox uploads!

  • @Sky_kidharry
    @Sky_kidharryАй бұрын

    A few swag genesis games utilize alternating color palettes as a way to save space as frames of a sprite are stored in individual colors of the sprites, with the limitations of the nes having it so sprites can only alternate 3 colors, this can allow only 2-3 sprites created by alternate color palettes but nonetheless could this be utilized so background sprites can be “animated” if you can change the colors of the palettes?

  • @NikodAnimations
    @NikodAnimations15 күн бұрын

    I think a jump is better represented by a parabola, with the amount going up constanly reduced by a constant number.

  • @Storin_of_Kel
    @Storin_of_Kel3 ай бұрын

    Explain to us how Final Fantasy on the NES was made in only 40 KB please

  • @mathchessdnd

    @mathchessdnd

    3 ай бұрын

    Inkbox forgot to mention memory mappers. I'm dumb, so please accept this attempt: 40KB is the "working memory" of the NES. Final Fantasy had something like 256KB of data. Games could hold more data, as long as they had a mechanism to control what part of data the NES could see (called something like a "memory mapper chip".) The NES can only see 40KB at once, but the game decides what 40KB its seeing. It's like having some books open on your desk -- When your desk is full, you can put away one book to make room for another. For instance, the overworld might be handled by one "book" with instructions to handle camera movement and entering caves/towns. Going from the overworld into a battle, it could put away "the overworld book" to open "the battle book" with instructions to process battles and display monsters.

  • @flameofthephoenix8395

    @flameofthephoenix8395

    3 ай бұрын

    @@mathchessdnd Towards the end of the video he did mention this.

  • @Mobik_
    @Mobik_3 ай бұрын

    Scott the Woz?! Is that you at the end?!

  • @cdkw2
    @cdkw2Ай бұрын

    3:56 I wouldn't be surprised if they were morse code lol

  • @DerKlemm-Crafter
    @DerKlemm-Crafter3 ай бұрын

    You are one of the best programmers I have ever seen, though I don't understand much😅

  • @hirschlord341
    @hirschlord3413 ай бұрын

    Pls can you review the megaman 2 ,3 and ducktales architecture ?

  • @user-fu1dp3xl9t
    @user-fu1dp3xl9t2 ай бұрын

    would you be willing to do a video with an in depth explanation of mappers? I've been digging around on nes games that are over 40kb, but I'm having trouble grasping the concept

  • @InkboxSoftware

    @InkboxSoftware

    2 ай бұрын

    I've mentioned mappers in this video here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/fpplzMeraNycgMY.html Basically a mapper facilitates bank switching, where a section of memory can be switched out for another portion of memory from the cartridge.

  • @tomyyoung2624
    @tomyyoung26243 ай бұрын

    Yes internet!

  • @fredharding5087
    @fredharding50873 ай бұрын

    I had very little understanding of anything in this video but enjoyed it all the same

  • @mwk1
    @mwk13 ай бұрын

    Szanuję! 😎

  • @FordTransitvan
    @FordTransitvan3 ай бұрын

    Very interesting but also too complicated for me, love it though

  • @chobies5383
    @chobies53833 ай бұрын

    SCOOT THE WOZ OUTRO MUSIC?

  • @minirop
    @miniropАй бұрын

    golf on mars has been demaked on the NES? 😲

  • @MarkRayers
    @MarkRayersАй бұрын

    Super mario bros was made in assembly and most of the prg rom isnt full because compiled assembly code isnt that big and they moved the compiled assembly to the rom and they made sure it didnt go to the blank prg area so that is how super mario bros was made in 40k (a lot of the rom is 0s) Thank you for reading.

  • @PanoptesDreams
    @PanoptesDreams2 ай бұрын

    Restrictions birth creativity

  • @lafcursiax
    @lafcursiax3 ай бұрын

    What a great idea for a homebrew NES game! It would have been cool if a game like this had been built into the NES so we could have played something even without a cartridge inserted. I wonder how feasible it would be for someone to hack that feature into an NES...

  • @jonsena1373
    @jonsena1373Ай бұрын

    are you still working on the 8 bit minecraft project?

  • @SendFoodz
    @SendFoodz3 ай бұрын

    I feel like that open license ending music is unwritten-rule copyrighted lol

  • @chrisray9653
    @chrisray96533 ай бұрын

    Before the libraries of 50k lines of code that put a dialogue screen up.

  • @nunyabeeznutz5286
    @nunyabeeznutz52863 ай бұрын

    Fun fact you know what is also 40 KB? the maximum allowed size for metadata for images. Hmm makes you think...

  • @maxasaurus3008
    @maxasaurus30082 ай бұрын

    When I saw the no internet screen I was certain it was a segue to a vpn commercial

  • @LettersAndNumbers300
    @LettersAndNumbers3003 ай бұрын

    What about a game like Shadowgate? How did they fit that?

  • @potatogameryt
    @potatogameryt2 ай бұрын

    Wait is it actually 60 frames per second for a CRT? I thought it was 24?

  • @flamshiz
    @flamshiz3 ай бұрын

    but how did they fit all the data into 4k??

  • @enderben2805
    @enderben28052 ай бұрын

    eyyyy I love this topic

  • @deltapi8859
    @deltapi88593 ай бұрын

    what language is the source code shown? never seen if and endif in assembly.

  • @enderbo
    @enderbo3 ай бұрын

    why is the audio very compressed

  • @heterodoxagnostic8070
    @heterodoxagnostic80703 ай бұрын

    nice

  • @chrishuta7027
    @chrishuta70273 ай бұрын

    What happened to the audio quality?

  • @Birb64
    @Birb643 ай бұрын

    That sine jump idea makes so much since now. I used to wonder how jumps looked the way they do, I'm gonna figure out which takes less time to process for most hardware.

  • @thespinningcube

    @thespinningcube

    3 ай бұрын

    It would be more physically accurate for the jump to follow a parabolic path rather than a sinusoidal one, and that’s actually not terribly hard to do on a computer, especially for a character’s physics. Just track the character’s vertical velocity, use the velocity to move the character vertically by adding it to the current vertical position every frame, and subtract a constant amount from the velocity every frame to simulate acceleration due to gravity. This last part is what makes the character slow down on the way up and speed up on the way down.

  • @98ahni
    @98ahni3 ай бұрын

    What happened with the mic quality?

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