the most exciting bank switching story since SVB got shut down

March 20, 2023 8:19 AM

How did the graphics on NES' Punch Out work? It's a little complicated!
posted by cortex (12 comments total)

Mod note: Hey, we've let the OP know the linked text doesn't go anywhere, we're reaching out to them to provide the correct link, so there's no need to flag the post at the moment, we'll update when it's all fixed, thanks!

How could you cortex?!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 8:35 AM on March 20, 2023 [9 favorites]

goddammit
posted by cortex at 8:40 AM on March 20, 2023 [16 favorites]

(nothing is more apropos for bank-switching than making a link that goes to the wrong place)
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 8:52 AM on March 20, 2023 [11 favorites]

Punch-Out!! is a very weird program by NES standards. Behind the Code also did a video lately on the engine that drives the boxers, which is basically a scripting language.

If that's too technical, there's this video on how many punches are required to beat the game.
posted by JHarris at 8:58 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

One thing about the engine video I linked is, it reveals all the instances where the crowd provides tells for what the boxers will do, as when a few years ago it was revealed a specific person in the crowd flashes their camera at the moment you're supposed to punch Bald Bull in the gut to shut down his bull charge. It turns out that's not the only time something like that happens!
posted by JHarris at 9:12 AM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]

Any clues in the Punch-Out code about how to activate the Ultimate Warpzone?

Asking for an eight-year-old friend.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 9:38 AM on March 20, 2023 [4 favorites]

thought this was going to be a credit suisse thread
posted by ryanrs at 9:46 AM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]

I enjoyed this video and several others on that same channel. One interesting thing is that this technique was so specific to the game design of Punch Out that the MMC2 chip was never used for any other game. A similar but more advanced chip the MMC4 was used on some Japanese-exclusive games like Fire Emblem and Famicom Wars but not for any games released in the US.
posted by JZig at 10:01 AM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]

Getting access to the bank switcher hardware after developing standard NES games must have felt like a new playground for the developers. As a programmer who started in 2009, my only comparable experience is suddenly getting easy access to the GPU from libraries like PyTorch.
posted by scose at 10:22 AM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

Displaced Gamers is a great place to learn about how consoles work. If you find this sort of content interesting I can also recommend Gamehut's "Coding Secrets" series on YouTube. I thought this one was particularly interesting.
posted by signsofrain at 10:46 AM on March 20, 2023 [2 favorites]

If you just want to be entertained by people playing this game, you can watch these videos about people who beat this game as quickly as possible ("speedrunning") while blindfolded:

• The history of blind-folded Punch Out by Summoning Salt
• A recording of the world-record (18m 03s) also by Summoning Salt
• Two people sharing one controller - and still blindfolded - beating the game at a live fundraiser by sinster1 and zallard1 at Awesome Games Done Quick 2020

posted by ElKevbo at 10:49 AM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]

I love posts like this, thanks for making it cortex!
posted by JHarris at 6:00 PM on March 20, 2023