Games That Push the Limits of the Super NES

The Super NES, Nintendo's souped up super successor to the NES. In this pushing the limits video I'm going searching through Nintendo's dustiest attics to haul down some lesser known games that push it to the limits. Just to add a bit of spice I'm leaving out the enhancement chips too, it's all running on the stock hardware.
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Game Sack - Games that Push Hardware Limits - Including SNES Mode 7
• Games that Push Hardwa...
00:00 Intro Waffle
00:49 Choujikuu Yousai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie
04:25 On The Ball
07:53 Tommy Moe's Winter Extreme
11:24 Jurassic Park
16:00 Rendering Ranger R2
21:00 Ending Waffle
Music Used
Chicago - Joe Bagale
Empire Seasons - Dan Henig
Far Apart - Causmic
In The Atomosphere - Bad Snacks
Space Navigator - Sarah The Instrumentalist
Color Of Your Face - NoMBe
Back To The Future - NOMBe

[@ElBloeTigre]

I came into this video blind expecting a few gratuitous shots some of famous SNES games but this is a really in-depth, considered, insightful and thoughtful video.

[@Sharopolis]

Thank you!

[@Larry]

If you ever do a follow up to this, Another World deserves a mention, A Super FX game designed to run on a 16 meg cart, which amazingly runs on an 8 meg cart without a Super FX chip thanks to an amazing programmer because the publisher was too tight to pay for additional hardware.

[@JesusSaves86AB]

Developers that demand the best product for minimal investment then blame staff for missing the target. I'd sooner buy a well done 8 or 16bit game than anything with modern graphics

[@Sharopolis]

That one I probably would have slipped in if I'd have known about it, I didn't realise there was a SNES port, next time definitely! Thanks Larry!

[@braschlosan]

This sounds like a juicy story with great technical accomplishments. I bet there's a couple more games with similar stories and it could be a video about programming successes despite the employers sabotaging the project.

[@StanislaoMoulinsky79]

For infos straight off the horse's mouth: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qprUYYKCbdetqdE

[@kylebennett4196]

Incredible game, even beyond just its era

[@AlbionVega]

Woooow, Scrambled Valkyrie, one of my favorite jp-only games. You sir are truly a scholar and a gentleman.

[@Sharopolis]

Thank you kindly!

[@andrewnorris5415]

I started coding a 3d SNES demo for a software company I worked for in the 90s. They were impressed and I ended up getting the first PS1 dev kit that came in. This was one of the very first kits in the UK. Had to get to grips with C after using assembly and BASIC for years! Was a fun time.

[@Jamie-yp7qz]

Oh nice! Do you still have the demo?

[@pavy415]

Where is the demo show it off plz

[@user-cc9pu2nv1y]

Kit snes no existe?

[@nastybedazzler]

That Rendering Ranger R2 game looked insane. Shame I didn't get to play that as a kid that would've blown my mind.

[@Rodzilla97]

and there is 0 slowdown whatsoever, even using game genie & filling the screen as much as you can(testing it for slowdown anywhere), it will never slowdown. level 7 is crazy at it's most busy moments

[@matrixman7706]

@@Rodzilla97 I think the SNES CPU, when programmed right, could easily rival the genesis CPU.

[@solarflare9078]

I just knew Rendering Ranger R2 would be in this video, and that's no big deal. It pushed a ton of action on the system (especially the shoot em up sections) with no hint of slowdown at all!

[@3xperiment8]

Same for Space Megaforce

[@miaouew]

Macross SV and Rendering Ranger2 really do make the SNES look like a 32 bit system.

[@user-cc9pu2nv1y]

Secret of mana 3.star ocean Tales of phantasy.treasure rundran

[@RDJ134]

Never heard of Rendering Ranger R2 . Definitly going to check the ROM's of them. Thank you for the tips. Also great video.

[@Sharopolis]

It's a great game if you like a challenge!

[@RDJ134]

@@Sharopolis Always up for a good challenge :)

[@mrhaftbar]

It's tough. Good luck

[@wfjhDUI]

0:33 The possibility of including enhancement chips is such an interesting feature that we've lost with the move away from cartridges.

[@bangerbangerbro]

Yes, but at the same time it's inefficient to have multiple of the same hardware for different games. It just hides it from the consumer (but not from the consumer's wallet).

[@retropolis1]

@@bangerbangerbro most enhancement chips did not alter the retail price. In Europe, for instance, Nintendo created three price classes that everybody had to stick to. One for Nintendo inhouse games, one for typical 3rd party games and one for games with a great amount of memory. Most games with enhancement chips were sold in category 2 or 3. Of course, some games were still sold for higher prices, but that was a decision of greedy retailers and had nothing to do with Nintendos price policy.

[@jSyndeoMusic]

I was wondering today why N64 games never used them (that I can recall at least). Was it due to the intended move to 64DD and the R&D involved there? (By contrast, Sony was the one doing most of the work on the SNES Play Station upgrade, not Nintendo, so maybe that’s why?)

[@inlovewithi]

I was really excited for the Switch and the possibility of enhancement chips, and the overall benefits of cartridges. Unfortunately the game cards are more akin to CDs. And you also can't have enhancement chips on games purchased for download.

[@jendorei]

@@jSyndeoMusic N64 did get the Memory Pak. I’m guessing that slot was designed to be used instead of expansion chips

[@youisiaint]

Super Turrican 2 and Yoshi's Island were some of the most graphically impressive 16 bit games ever

[@pentelegomenon1175]

Didn't Yoshi's Island have an FX chip?

[@CaptainGameSlayer]

@@pentelegomenon1175 yeah it did

[@stevegundaker]

This was more like a mini documentary. Thanks for all the content! Never even knew upgrades were possible for the SNES.

[@Sharopolis]

Thank you!

[@verficationaccount]

Great explanation of the effect in Jurassic Park!

[@Sharopolis]

Thanks!

[@JB_inks]

@@Sharopolis I'm not sure I fully understood it, I think I need to watch it again

[@PrsnllJebus]

That was my favorite snes game, I came to call it get your ass kicked park. Also it took me about 12 years to beat it >.> I kept falling into the walls in the raptor nest.

[@daftcruz]

Please do a part 2, this video is very good. Though there's a lot of games missing. Seiken Densetsu 3, Gundam Wing Endless Duel, Iron Commando, Front Mission Gun Hazard, Rockman & Forte...there's plenty of overlooked or underrated games that pushed the SNES/SFC to its limits.

[@Sharopolis]

Yep, I really enjoyed making this so there will be more to come, thanks for the tips!

[@Halbared]

@@Sharopolis excellente!

[@BokanoiD]

As a fan of the Turrican series, thanks for the heads-up on Rendering Ranger! Looks like my weekend sorted.

[@Sharopolis]

No everyone seem to like it, but if you're a Turrican fan you'll probably enjoy it. Have Fun!

[@sternpio]

Manfred Trenz a genius: pushed the c64 to its limits with *Turrican 2* pushed the SNES to its limits with *Rendering Ranger R2*

[@tomkrawec]

Seeing the broken Mode 7 on F-Zero at the end is oddly endearing.

[@Sharopolis]

Yeah it's a shame it's so unplayable!

[@CarlintVeld]

@@Sharopolis do you have a pointer to a website where I can learn more about hacking into snes games myself? Impressive you were able to switch off mode 7!

[@demgreens]

SNES9x used to have this feature up until the early 2000's. You could disable all HDMA which would break the perspective in F-Zero and other games that use the effect.

[@MrYazbo]

My mate Paul Robinson wrote Jurassic Park on the SNES - blew me away when I saw how good a job he did with the 3d sections. He went on to work at Neversoft on some of the Tony Hawks and Guitar Hero games.

[@waynecuff3140]

Scrambled Valkyrie, totally stunning. Love the Snes, my favourite console ever always will be. The way it manipulated sprites with mode 7 was a genius design. Still looks amazing today.

[@dreamcastfan]

I’ve always felt the lava boss in Axelay was one of the greatest spectacles the Super NES could produce. Amusingly, if I use the save states on my SD2SNES cart on one of Axelay’s Mode 7 levels it does deactivate the scaling and just has the background scrolling like a normal vertical shooter!

[@mariowario5945]

axelay isnt even pushing the limits of the snes. Its programmed in slowrom, so the cpu is far from being pushed at all.

[@MaxwelThuThu]

Also, the vertical stages in Axelay doesn't uses Mode 7, it's a HDMA trick by removing lines, making the background squish in size. But Mode 7 still being used in the game for another things, like the clouds in the opening cutscene, the level 2 boss with the rotating head and the ending cutscene.

[@maroon9273]

Looks like something off of a arcade or 32-bit system.

[@enemyofvirtue]

this was my first time being to rendering ranger, and i've never been in such awe of a snes game before. great video!

[@IanSlinger]

I just want to thank you for using the phrase "needs no introduction" and not immediately providing one anyway like most people do.

[@BatLB]

This Winter Sports Game looks amazing. Never seen it before - The Devs deserve kudos for using the SNES so gracefully!

[@AmariMarvelous]

It looks like an early PS1 game.

[@BatLB]

@@AmariMarvelous i would even claim the snowboarding in FF7 looked worse.

[@JulienBertozzi]

Thanks! I love that you go a bit into details about the tricks used

[@jackcullen69]

Loving the technical explanations. I don't have a technical background so the explanations helped me appreciate the main points better. Good stuff

[@7sshare]

This is a fantastic video, you do a really great job explaining the technical aspects of these games. These sorts of videos rarely get into the finer technical points as well as this one.

[@timpieper5492]

Very well done and informative. Glad to see only obscure titles and games w/o extra chips in the cartridges.

[@peterbudziszewski]

Really enjoying the increasing level of technical details that your limit pushing videos are including. I'm an old school demo coder so I know most of these tricks but I've still learnt a few things.

[@arcadely]

Great video: clearly I'm going to have to emulate some of these. Rendering Ranger R2, in particular, looks absolutely incredible.

[@shifty2755]

Greatest console of all time.

[@maroon9273]

I feel like it's underrated due to critics by to comparison to other 16-bit systems (genesis) and using special chips in their games. Even though is difficult to program than the genesis, pce x68k, amiga and ect. With the right developer you can pull off amazing games especially ones that look like 32-bit games. Snes and the GameCube are my favorite Nintendo consoles of all times. Including the portable console like gba, ds and switch.

[@Peter_Morris]

Holy cow that Scrambled Valkyrie looks awesome! Thanks, HG. I remember checking out Rendering Ranger when the SNES emulators first dropped and being blown away. We really missed out on that gem.

[@bangerbangerbro]

Especially weird considering it is done by a European.

[@samueljansen6372]

I found myself thinking about your channel when I was at work earlier and then I see this video up. It’s great how you provide such technical detail on how these games pull it off. Keep it up

[@Sharopolis]

Thank you! I'm trying my best to keep it coming!

[@TheRaven078]

I'll never forget Jurassic Park on the SNES, the night I rented it in 1993 my grandmother died.

[@ezehogan]

That sucks. My grandmother died 13 years ago. Still hands down the worst day of my life.

[@DB-bc1tg]

My grandpa died the day I rented Yoshi’s Island, and the pause screen remained on the TV the whole night as family streamed in to mourn.

[@matrixman7706]

A lot of these games run pretty fast, and there are lots of sprites on the screen with very little to no slow down. So this makes me believe that the Super NES had a very fast and capable CPU when programmed right.

[@willrobinson7599]

Brilliant how u went into how the effects were done. Very interesting and enjoyable video. Keep them coming

[@Sharopolis]

Thank you very much! More on it's way!

[@Raddland]

Very well researched and presented. Ace job!

[@Longlostpuss]

How dare they hide that Rendering Ranger R2 game from me for all these years, it looks absolutely stunning, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a 32-BIT platform shooter. Can't believe it's running without an additional chip and looking like that.

[@dan_loup]

The HDMA is quite simple to understand in details. Basically it runs a "task list" of sorts, like "write to scroll register in line 25, change the palette at line 60" and so forth. You just assemble the list, pass it to the HDMA hardware and it will do everything for you without directly bothering the program at all (but stealing a bit of time as you can't run the DMA and the CPU at the same time). I think the sega genesis also have a very similar DMA scheme, it's pretty darn cool.

[@chriskoschik391]

Awesome! Thank you for that!

[@SerBallister]

Sounds similar to the Amiga "copper list"

[@wishusknight3009]

@@SerBallister Except the amiga could run dma and cpu at the same time when you had fast ram.

[@bangerbangerbro]

So it's like the ANTIC display lists and the copper? I've never heard of the Megadrive having anything similar. It has a "DMA engine" but that's basically just a blitter afaik, though someone will tear me apart by saying that it can't do bit aligned copies and a blitter has to be able to or something like that. I hate things being called "DMA" blah blah blah because while it sounds cool, "Direct memory access" is a pretty generic term that often doesn't seem to have much to do with what is going on.

[@bangerbangerbro]

@@wishusknight3009 I thought the copper could run without interrupting anything even with just chip RAM?

[@fungo6631]

Somewhat ironically, if you want the most speed out of the SNES CPU, limiting yourself to the 8 bit mode wherever possible is the way to go. That's because it saves cycles, which you want to save to compete with the 68K, which is certainly possible, given how on the 6502 some instructions eat 2 cycles, while on the 68k they eat at least 4. That's if you don't perform operations on memory, in which case the cycle count can balloon pretty high.

[@RetroMoments]

Great list and you're good at delivering information. The Macross game is absolutely fantastic! I recently played it and also put it in my own list "10 amazing Super Famicom games you need to play!"

[@RetroMoments]

@Grizzly Poota Well I want to highlight that the game is that good, coming from another source. I want more people to know its worth checking out!

[@stewsretroreviews]

That 1st game is stunning, got to look for that one, also the ski game, class, excellent video and detail here mate, cheers

[@SomeGuy712x]

I'm definitely familiar with On the Ball, having rented it long in the past. Also, Cameltry is on Taito Collection 2 (which I have on the PS2), so that was certainly nice to see, immediately bringing back my memories of On the Ball.

[@bangerbangerbro]

I've only known cameltry from the Taito collections in PS2 and PSP. Consequently I have never heard of it being called "on the ball".

[@terraspent]

this really is a great little channel, i feel it is about time for it to expand. there certaily is quality of presentation and content. i wish you well you deserve to thrive and i for one shall share your vids with my retro game enthusiast friends.

[@Sharopolis]

Thanks for your support, I'm glad you've enjoyed my videos!

[@blueowl0708]

Nice video, very cool to see different games featured (compared to most showcases). Not sure if I could play On the Ball for very long, hurt my eyes just watching your footage!

[@TNX255]

Love your videos, sense of humor and in this one especially the game picks! I never knew Mr. Trenz had made a Japan-only shooter game of such awesomeness :O Perhaps I finally need to invest on that Everdrive I've been dreaming about...

[@PianoMan-hx3ev]

It’s not so much the size of the processor, but the magic in the coder.

[@gabrielandy9272]

yes and no limitations exist i mean we would not have ray tracing graphics or playstation 4 graphics on a snes tho... its just that the better the code the more it can use the hardware its codding but the limitations is still there..

[@PianoMan-hx3ev]

@Lucas. 💯

[@matrixman7706]

@Lucas OMG! Now this is a great post. I always thought the same thing, the SNES processor when programmed right is phenomenal.

[@LarryLopez91]

@Lucas It's because big companies like Capcom made the processor look bad. After seeing how games like Rendering Ranger or Space Megaforce run with a bunch of sprites onscreen without much sweat, there's absolutely no excuse for games like Demon's Crest to start chugging with only a handful of sprites onscreen. Even Hal Labs is guilty of sloppy performance in games like Kirby Superstar, especially since that game has the SA-1 chip in the cart!

[@MrBillgonzo]

Nice! I've been wanting someone to make a video like this.

[@ar_xiv]

lol is it even possible to stop BLASTING in rendering ranger?

[@sudicalwig]

Rendering Ranger R2 was insane!! Wow!

[@ClarkPotter]

Rendering Ranger looks amazing. Neo Geo-level quality. I love shmups and would have lost my mind for this game as a kid.

[@TriforceofShadows]

Great video, love all the technical stuff. You have a new subscriber.

[@Sharopolis]

Thank you!

[@DMMDestroyer]

16:00 was completely blown away that this was on stock hardware and never heard of it before. Whoever was harsh on the reviews, had no idea how incredible this game was made.

[@JohnZyski]

I still remember playing On The Ball on Christmas morning.

[@sonicsupreme777]

dope vid never heard of r2 until now

[@TrainerCTZ]

What an amazing an educating video, well done!

[@tohur]

Ah Jurassic Park one of my favorite snes games. I put hundreds if not thousands of hours into that game

[@maroon9273]

I wish toy story would've added 3D/Mode 7 driving stage as well. It would've been more competitive comparison against the genesis version.

[@mattwilson174]

Glad you covered Jurassic Park. I was super impressed by the 1st person sequences back then and even seeing it now I think they did an amazing job considering.

[@jeffdavis6657]

There is very little love for the TG16/PCengine, there wa a list of stuff that was said could not be done, parallax, sprite zoom and rotate,all was accomplished. There was not enough physical space in the HuCards to add additional hardware and the CD games had only the system. If you have ever played the system, the developers managed to do quite a bit with the limited hardware.

[@bangerbangerbro]

Are you sure there is very little love? I hear about it enough to have wanted one on several occasions.

[@jeffdavis6657]

@@bangerbangerbro Did you only hear about it because of the "mini" release? Every gamer KZbin channel seemed to do a bit about it, almost all admitted they did not have one and did not know anyone who did.

[@bangerbangerbro]

@@jeffdavis6657 Hear about what?

[@bangerbangerbro]

@@jeffdavis6657 Oh you mean the PC engine? Of course I have heard of it. For a while I thought you were suddenly talking about some obscure game. I suppose some people who have never drifted about the internet and managed to miss it at the time (in the US you should have at least heard of it as in France, and in Japan it was one of the main contenders. Anywhere other than those three places however it was probably easy to miss). But it is easy to come across on the internet in articles about other machines and even the Wii has games for it on virtual console. I would have thought a lot of the more affluent KZbinrs would have one? It's quite a nice machine I believe. The CD has a lot of RPGs in its library which aren't really my thing but a lot of shoot em ups too on both formats. Technically the machine is quite nice with lots of colours on screen at once without tricks, enough that you would say that it was held back by its master palette. The biggest problem when compared to its later competitors is the lack of parallax scrolling which is remedied by the supergrafx but that wasn't very successful. But I didn't think it was that obscure. There is an earlier video on it in this series too.

[@Hologhoul]

That skiing game is incredibly real for its time. I've snowboarded many times and watching this evoked feelings of being there, doing it! The FPS one is really impressive, and the one at the end - wow!

[@jaisonjay6527]

This Is Really a Good Content. Thank U

[@BinaryCounter]

Great Video! Love the technical explanations too! Breath of fresh air after watching so many of these list videos that just show off flashy effects (or just wrongly attribute everything to mode 7). Gives me a Lot of inspiration for my own SNES homebrew endeavours. I'd love to see a video about different expansion chips, their capabilities, and how they're used in game. Everybody knows the SuperFx, but almost nobody knows about the SA-1 and it's a BEAST. Basically it's another 65816 running at 10Mhz with some great DMA facilities on board. Most of these carts also come with 64/128 KByte extra RAM in the cart. Lately they've been a lot of romhacks that utilize this chip to remove slowdown from existing games. Subscribed!

[@Sharopolis]

Thanks! I love your Hello demo!

[@bangerbangerbro]

The SA-1 is probably talked about less because it's less interesting. Another of the main CPU. Still interesting to an extent though. I still don't really understand what the "DSP"s do.

[@FatNorthernBigot]

"On the Ball" looks like the bonus level on "Sonic the Hedgehog". Smoother, but I wouldn't pay full wack for it.

[@Prizrak-hv6qk]

That's what I thought too. Sonic is definitely more impressive though, simply because the Mega Drive doesn't do any kind of background (or sprite) rotation in hardware. It was quite a sight for its time!

[@schwarzerritter5724]

It is the same gameplay as the bonus levels from Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1. Super Nintendo did it first though.

[@granvillimus]

@@Prizrak-hv6qk There are also hacks that make the rotation even smoother (by disabling a single line of code IIRC), Sega intentionally capped the rotation framerate very low for some reason. In actuality, the crystal squares that make up the stage are a 16-frame animated sprite that are simply shifted around in patterns to simulate the appearance of rotation. So it's not really "rotating" in the way that mode7 and other similar effects work.

[@Gambit771]

@@granvillimus doesn't matter how it does it only that it did. People get so hung up on dedicated hardware when really it is all done through hardware and software on both machines. As if sprite rotation must have dedicated hardware.

[@bangerbangerbro]

@@Gambit771 Dedicated hardware helps a lot. But yeah, the images are rotating, just they are not necessarily rotated in real time is what he means.

[@neil12011]

This is an EXCELLENT video. Nerd stats are off the charts, thank you!

[@Sharopolis]

Thank you for watching, glad you enjoyed it!

[@stuartbrownlee3108]

Finally...you are on patreon. Your tech knowledge of these systems is amazing, and wow...a Manfred Trenz game I never had heard of...featuring some bloke who isn't exactly dressed up as as a proper "Turrrican" bloke...first time I ever played "Turrican" was on the c64. Interestingly enough, both Turrican 1 & 2 were a lot harder to play than they were on the Amiga. Also, Turrican 2 on the c64 had some amazing things going on with the spaceship levels...just seemed a lot more creative than what was in the Amiga version. Eh. Last thing, while on the subject of the c64, the Tim Follin "Ghouls & Ghosts" soundtrack...wow.......how did he do that? He made sounds come out of the sid chip that are beyond my understanding.

[@ostradiemgi5469]

The C64 got a very capable synth as a soundchip. If you put some effort and CPU cycles into it you can get some amazing sounds out. The intro is a very standout track on the SID. A synthesize masterclass.

[@user-zo9dc1lu3q]

Amazing video ! Can you do a similar video but dedicated to the Game Boy Advance ? The console is usually seen as a simple portable Snes. But some games like Street Racing Syndicate are proving the exact opposite. The GBA don't have any hardware capable to manage a true 3D graphics ... so it's all software generated. And this for me is REALLY impressive, if we consider that the Game Boy Advance is capable to generate 3D games that in some cases rasemble some of the early 3D games for the PS1. P S. The Game Boy Advance is actually a 32 bit console.

[@Sharopolis]

I've already done that exact thing, but for some reason it totally died and never got any views compared to some of my other stuff, so that's probably why you never saw it. Hmm wait a minute... I recognise that name! You should definitely watch this video! kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHO6Y2qanaqqqdE Watch it right to the end, including my stupid outro, you might hear a name you recognise...

[@user-zo9dc1lu3q]

​@@Sharopolis WOOOW that's FANTASTIC ! Thanks dude ! It's a joy to hear my name in that video 😄 P.S. Don't worry about your outro ... in my case i am so shy that is a miracle if one day or another i will ever do one in my videos 😆

[@ActuallySanFrancisco]

well, you've got a new subscriber (: also i totally had (and still have) tommy mo's winter extreme skiing and snowboarding growing up. thought it was awesome then, still do, and fantastic to finally see someone cover it! electrobrain made awesome games on the SNES in general and i feel like almost all of them are vastly under-appreciated.

[@Sharopolis]

Thanks for the sub! Electro Brain did a bunch of interesting stuff didn't they? I looked them up when making this vid.

[@Optimus6128]

13:47 I was thinking about how the draw pixels on wolfenstein3D for SNES from what I heard before, but the technique here was obvious and didn't come to mind then. Previously, it was mentioned for wolf3d on SNES that they also used the Mode 7 as a canvas to draw pixels easier, but what I assumed then (because it didn't occur to me and the videos usually don't go in detail) that Mode 7 was used because it's the only mode where the graphics of each tile are in chunky mode (8bpp, 1 byte = 1 pixel) while as I read some docs on SNES dev, most other modes have bitplanes graphics (each bit is in different byte in memory, a nightmare for software rendering just like the Amiga). But my initial thought (which might be not the case in retrospect) was, they setup a 16*16 tile screen for example with no scale (or only scale x2 to double the pixels) and still have to find which tile the pixel they have to draw belongs to (or write specialized column rendering algorithms that skips tiles) which is still a bit of overhead on the CPU but much better than bitplane tiles. But no, your video taught me the obvious I didn't think, you can simply define 8*8 tiles where each pixel of a single tile shares the same color, so if you display these tiles they are bland single colored boxes,. but use the Mode 7 to zoom out by 8x and you effectively map a full single color tile to a pixel. If 128*128 is small, you can zoom out by 4x to have a doubled pixel display. In that case, writing one byte in the linear tile map will be the fastest way to write individual pixels on the screen. Store 256 different colored tiles in your ROM and you have a short of 256 indexed palette for your canvas. So,. that's quite better than what I thought wolfenstein 3D did, and maybe wolf3d also does the same tricks as the jurassic park game (will need to run an emulator and go in some debug mode to verify this, but I am not familiar with SNES development). Thanks for clearing up, great video!

[@Eyedunno]

The original title of Rendering Ranger R2 was Targa, but the publisher insisted on Rendering Ranger R2 for the Japanese market. Targa did get a small-batch cartridge release years later for collectors, and I believe the ROM is available with Manfred Trenz's blessing. It does have a few small differences from Rendering Ranger R2, but this is mainly just the title screen and the head of the protagonist (he is not wearing a helmet and has a beard).

[@mode7scaling3]

19:00 and onward, HOLY GOODNESS...reminds me 100% of the transition parts of RADIANT SILVERGUN on the SEGA SATURN!!! these are unbelievable tricks done on the es nes (pronounced s nes)

[@MilesPrower1992]

On the ball? Cool. Let's see the next game. Winter Extreme? Alright, Let's watch. THAT'S ON THE SNES?

[@scottmartin8888]

That last shooter game, R2 looked crazy. Its really not that good?

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

It's a bit unpolished. Not bad, but some of the levels outstay their welcome. Also, if your weapons are underpowered, you'll feel it. Still, if you're willing to put in the time to master it?

[@Rodzilla97]

i'd give it a 9/10, it's really good. controls are great, levels aren't a crazy maze(contra style straight forward so you'll always know where to go) soundtrack is fantastic, and the graphics might be the best on the snes, especially level 7. it's not that crazy hard on the easiest setting, i beat it on that with only 1 password continue used and i suck at shmups

[@mariotaz]

Rendering Ranger R2 looks amazing!

[@inceptional]

Well now I'm even more impressed with those fps sections of Jurassic Park knowing that they were done using that single Mode 7 background. :-o Another cool touch in this game is the fact the normal in-game HUD is running is either pseudo high res mode or full high res mode (it's one of the two), which means it can created the illusion of being semi-transparent just by removing every second line of the images, but because this mode is running in high res, it's less obvious that it's fake transparency that if it was doing the same effect with full size pixels, as it usually is on the Genesis for example.

[@skins4thewin]

Oh it's absolutely true. The SNES CPU was quite unimpressive compared to it's excellent GPU setup, and why they went with such a low clock rate for the CPU is beyond me when they ended up putting SA-1 chips (Same chip as the SNES CPU) in game carts that ran at 20+MHz, yet the SNES CPU doesn't even hit 4MHz. The SNES CPU was merely a higher model of the same line of CPU that was used in the original NES. One other interesting tidbit is the CPU used in the PC Engine aka Turbografx-16 was also from this same family of CPU's, and is why there are some NES to PC Engine hacks out there that enable some NES games to run on a PC Engine without needing too much work done to make it happen. those who would argue otherwise about the CPU being weak have no clue what they're talking about & thus really shouldn't bother commenting on the subject when they know nothing about it

[@Stinger2578]

The Tommy Moe game brought to mind Super Off Road: The Baja which might use a similar technique for the tracks.

[@Sharopolis]

Yes I think it does and I nearly used that in the video, but Tommy Moe has a much better frame rate. Super Off Road seems to have more going on though.

[@ValisFan3]

I actually did get Moe's Skiiand and Snowboarding as a kid. I really did enjoy it, it was a fast and difficult game.

[@mrcynicallyred2007]

I still have Jurrassic Park - what a game!! Visuals and phenomenal sound effects and music.

[@TimBitten]

Yeah!! I remember that Tommy Moe skiing game. Liked it.

[@amylee9092]

Top Gear did the same trick as Tommy Moe's Winter Extreme Skiing and Snowboarding.

[@briantran3791]

Spot on . Thank you

[@philjohn2649]

Watched a few of your videos now. Well done bringing some info about how these games were brought to life to people who never got past 20 GOTO 10.

[@johneymute]

Winter extreme on the snes is a prime example of making good use of it, no boring flat serfaces but nice looking hills,i wisch nintendo did sich thing with mario kart by combining hills & flat serfaces together, that would,ve been really cool, trough.

[@goatintuxedo2206]

lol.. that last part with F-Zero. reminds me of when i was messing with Zelda: a link to the past and action replay codes.

[@fortnag]

Rendering Rangers is one of the pertiest 16 bit things I've ever seen.

[@karlhans6678]

Rendering Ranger looks like DoomGuy, and there's a map that looks like the city Blade Runner, I like the volley of scud missiles shooting up.

[@Halbared]

"Rooting through the jumble", not a phrase one hears so much anymore. :)

[@ChicagoRetroGamer]

Most definitely some of the early side-scrolling beat 'em ups caused some serious lag at times. Cheers!

[@BARONXAVIER]

Space Megaforce, súper turrican 2, AXELAY and phalanx put snes límits too

[@s7ai]

AXELAY! 👍

[@jamesduke2854]

Axelay is criminally underrated. I would love to see a updated version of that game

[@aloksinghbbk]

Also Castlevania 4 and biometal.

[@mariowario5945]

Space megaforce is slowrom though. They could have gotten more out of the system, so its not really pushing the limits as far as it can go

[@intron9]

6:55 Sprites can cover the whole screen, by using all big sprites without overlapping you can avoid crossing any limits and even have some spare ones, as shown partially at 5:55 , or in the intro of road runner's rally.

[@intron9]

I was wrong about the background at 5:55 , it uses hdma color 0 change, and way too few sprites. How clever.

[@danieldougan269]

I'm just now getting around to playing Super Metroid. It looks and sounds fantastic even if not limit-pushing. The thing that impresses me about it is just how big and complex the maps are. But the visual effects are also amazing for the SNES.

[@AmariMarvelous]

Another game I think is visually impressive and cinematic for its time on the SNES is Out of This World. To me Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 made me realize video games can be cinematic and movie like but Out Of This World started doing that but wasn't fully realized.

[@abymondesir23]

That mod7 especially with contra 3 alien wars I went crazy wen I 1st saw that very impressive and beautiful also adds in extra fun factor the game SNES all day baby!!!

[@nicwilson89]

14:57 That is genuinely brilliant, despite the frame rate. Properly brilliant.

[@BGizzle8098]

So, a whole game using Sonic 1 special stage? Bravo 👏

[@Halbared]

As a brit, funny to hear you keep saying S-N-E-S instead of snes. :D

[@OrfinMusik]

Rendering ranger looks amazing

[@tejonBiker]

Turrican reference, instant like!

[@andiarrohnds5163]

good lord, rendering ranger is HARDCORE AF ... NEVER SEEN IT UNTIL NOW

[@foundoasis7342]

Great vids and these games are actually good

[@robinbrowne5419]

Great review. Thank you. I think my favourite game on the SNES was Pilot Wings. And my kids too. Back in the early 90s, I remember many an evening that went like this. "Ok kids. Time for bed." "Not fair. We have to go to bed and you get to stay up all night and play Nintendo." Cheers from Canada :-)

[@giuseppelavecchia775]

Video fatto molto bene,fa vedere le grandi potenzialita' del SUPERNES,console superba!,complimenti

[@amylee9092]

I'd love Sharopolis to do a classic Game Autopsy on how Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest has smooth scrolling in the water levels. It actually looks like 3D scrolling.