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3 years 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.

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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.

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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!

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"Ghost Piece" is now available in From Below Pocket via a "patch/hack" for anyone interested! It comes with the game when purchased on itch.io! Warning: It's very untested, and probably has perf issues. 😅 https://mhughson.itch.io/from-below-pocket/devlog/617249/ghost-p…

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! 📨

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Sale ends 11:59PM PT!

If you know folks who love Game Boy, Tetris, NES, or Homebrew... LET THEM KNOW!

If you're on Reddit, Discord, social media... anything: Every share makes a HUGE difference!

An NES crossover!

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Super Sunny World is a new pixel platformer, and a love letter to the original Super Mario Bros.🍄

WISHLIST!

@Patata1236 is a Jolter to Watch who makes games and art for fun! Follow @Patata1236 before the quest ends on November 18 and you'll get Coins!

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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

Happy #WIPWednesday! Are you working on a game? Making some art? Practicing a song? Something else? Tell us in the comments!

🚨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