Super Mario has lessons to teach you might not expect about graphics and the concepts behind them.
These are sometimes called sprites, which in context of video games, is another name for bitmap image.
Compared to modern game consoles, the NES is pitifully low resolution.
Resolution can be defined as the total number of pixels available for display.
More pixels is always more opportunity to create a better image.
However, the difference is pretty clear—Mario is considerably more high resolution than he used to be.
Newer Mario, sculpted in a three dimensional space with polygons, is less limited than older Mario.
However, unlike bitmaps, they don’t have resolution.
What miracle had been pulled off to make this work?
As it turns out, Nintendo and partner RARE sort of pulled a fast one on their audience.
The word raster itself is often used as a synonym for “bitmap.”
(At least, according to Nintendo.)
Let’s take a quick look at what those 8 and 16-bits really meant.
But when you’re talking about images, 8-bit means something entirely different.
An 8-Bit image has 28colors available, or a total of 256 colors.
So the NES actually had 26colors available, while the SNES had 215but could only display 28.
The third is a 24 bit JPG, with a total of 224colors.
All images of Mario copyright Nintendo, assumed fair use.
