Ever wondered how devs measure performance on real a NES, which has...

2,507

1 year ago

Ever wondered how devs measure performance on real a NES, which has no dev kit? A common way is the change the "color emphasis" while an operation is executing, during rendering. This effectively draws colored bars representing how long something takes.

Here, Green represents the player update. At the start of the "player_update" function, which is running while the TV is drawing the previous frame from top to bottom & left to right, I tell the NES to tint everything Green. At the end of the function I stop tinting Green.

This tells me that to update the player, it takes *roughly* 15 scanlines of the video frame. I have about 260 scanlines to finish all the work for the next frame to maintain 60 frames per second, so this one function takes about 6% of my CPU budget for the frame.

The game in the video is a new, untitled, NES homebrew I am working on.

Follow for more updates on that game, and retro console development in general!

Game Dev

Game Dev Show & Tell

Nintendo ClipsNScreenshots

Pixel Art general

Sega Genesis/MegaDrive Community Random

Retro & Homebrew Games Home Brew Devs

Next up

@MattHughsonGames102

Here's something you don't see in every NES game:

A platformer with ZAPPER support! Super Sunny World allows a 2nd player to kill enemies with the Zapper Gun.

#nesdev

@MattHughsonGames28

Time is almost up on a new GAME BOY and NES title!⏲️

Only 2 week left to pick up a physical copy of "From Below Pocket" for the Game Boy, and "From Below" for the NES! 🦑

Both come complete in box with free global shipping! 📨

shop.matthughson.com

@MattHughsonGames49

🚨1 WEEK LEFT!🚨 🚨GAMEBOY PREORDER!🚨 Last chance to get a copy of this brand new Game Boy game, From Below Pocket, as well as the NES version!🦑 After this week, the game will be out of print, likely for YEARS. 📆 https://frombelowgame.com #gbdev #nesdev

@KniteBlargh435

Daaaang, brooooo! Yosh, how you holdin' that pose? That looks mad uncomfortable. Wii Fit Trainer would be proud.

: Clip Studio Paint

@MattHughsonGames45

MASSIVE Game Boy Homebrew GIVEAWAY! We're giving away physical copies of 4 new Gameboy games to 1 winner! From Below is on sale NOW: http://shop.matthughson.com 🚨 ENTER HERE: https://twitter.com/matthughson/status/1710641131590221843 🏁Giveaway ends Oct 11th 11:59PM PT