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How we fit an NES game into 40 Kilobytes

Morphcat Games · talk · Watch on YouTube

Game history & retro gamingIndie game developmentDemoscene & retrocomputing

What it is

Morphcat Games explains how they fit Micro Mages, a full-featured NES game, into 40 kilobytes. It covers compression of sprites and level layouts and other space-saving tricks.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN points to it whenever discussion turns to how old games were so small, as a clear tour of 8-bit optimization and creative work under hardware limits.

  • 6 people recommended it
  • 6 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “I definitely recommend checking this out as they go over interesting compression methods and more general thought processes.”

    Morphcat explains compression methods and thought process behind a 40KB NES game

    splch, 2021-11 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: How were video games from the 90s so efficient?”

  2. “Here is my favorite video about 8-bit era optimisations. Makes you appreciate games from this era even more.”

    8-bit era optimisation tricks that deepen appreciation of old games

    arnaudsm, 2023-11 · Strong recommendation · in “Street Fighter II, subtile accurate animation (2021)”

  3. “take a look at a how a recently released NES game (Micro Mages) managed it.”

    How Micro Mages crammed a full NES game into 40KB

    MrFoof, 2019-10 · Recommendation · in “Super Mario Bros. game was just 31 Kilobytes. How's that possible?”

  4. “How we fit a NES game in 40KiB”

    Listed among best talks of 2019

    alecco, 2019-12 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: Best Talks of 2019?”

  5. “is an interesting illustration of just how small these games are.”

    Illustrates how small old games really are

    Timpy, 2020-10 · Recommendation · in “Top games from the JS13K 2020 competition”

  6. “there's a great video for this 40 kb nes game, micro mages”

    Video about the 40KB NES game Micro Mages

    throwawayk7h, 2024-08 · Recommendation · in “Crafting a 13KB Game: The Story of Space Huggers”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: nes, compression, retro games, micro mages, size optimization

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