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I was expecting typical youtube "you won't believe THIS!" but it was actually really informative, as someone without knowledge of how they stored levels in SMB1.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think so. Those are the only generation of games that can be analyzed this thoroughly. Plus, computer geeks in the future will still be interested in the fundamentals of computing. And console games are really the only piece of mainstream software whose assembly would be interesting to look at. Granted, this is already niche content, and it will continue to be going forward. But I bet a lot of people watching…
SNES, N64, and even Gamecube (though less so) games get this level of scrutiny as well. Some examples are Mario 64 and Super Smash Bros Melee as some of the most popular examples on later platforms receiving assembly-level scrutiny.
I love how deep analysis finds stuff like this even nearly 40 years after a game's release. I hope we in the Guitar Hero II/Rock Band scene can reach that point someday.
GH/RockBand scene?? ...links? =]
https://milo.ipg.pw/index.php/Main_Page
The whole GH/RB scene is of course bigger than this, but this is the part I'm involved with that focuses on modding more than anything. There's also a smaller contingent elsewhere that still pokes at the later GH games. Clone Hero is the currently dominant meta.
For those who can't watch the video or just want a text summary: The underground 1-2 level is supposed to stop scrolling as soon as the mundane return-to-surface pipe comes onto the right edge of the screen. (Unless you're walking on the ceiling.) But because of a programming error, it keeps scrolling, revealing that the warp zone room is there. It was originally intended to be a much more hidden secret than it turne…
Thank you, I'm so tired of 15 minute videos for something that can explained in text and images that can be read in one minute.
I wonder if this kind of obsessive analysis of popular NES-era games will end in a couple decades, as the people who grew up in the console's heyday grow too old; or if they'll continue because interest in these particular games transcended a particular generation (and they're simple enough for people to really take them apart).
Hell, the most recent winner of the Classic Tetris World Championship (which plays NES Tetris) was only 14 when he won the 2021 competition. The speedrunning community for NES games also contains a lot of people much younger then the games they're playing.
Given that, I think I can say with confidence that NES games will transcend a particular generation because they already have. And there's no sign of that slowing down anytime soon.
TIL these games were written in assembly.
Yes, it was the only way to do the weird optimizations and tricks needed to make a cutting edge real time game like Mario. Even in the '90s developers embedded assembly in the performance critical areas of C code.
For those who can't watch the video or just want a text summary: The underground 1-2 level is supposed to stop scrolling as soon as the mundane return-to-surface pipe comes onto the right edge of the screen. (Unless you're walking on the ceiling.) But because of a programming error, it keeps scrolling, revealing that the warp zone room is there. It was originally intended to be a much more hidden secret than it turne…
Thank you, I'm so tired of 15 minute videos for something that can explained in text and images that can be read in one minute.
I wonder if this kind of obsessive analysis of popular NES-era games will end in a couple decades, as the people who grew up in the console's heyday grow too old; or if they'll continue because interest in these particular games transcended a particular generation (and they're simple enough for people to really take them apart).
I'm vaguely sure that many of the hackers picking apart 8-bit games are in their twenties, if not teens. Meanwhile, even people who grew up with SNES and Genesis would now be in the late thirties.
video games aren't just for young people : )