4 ms·
I've heard somewhere that the CPU didn't have multiplication built-in, so in calculating how much level bonus to add would require a loop of additions. This was
by pronoiac 5y ago
I've heard somewhere that the CPU didn't have multiplication built-in, so in calculating how much level bonus to add would require a loop of additions. This was also an era where timing between frames was delicate, and if the housekeeping part of scorekeeping takes too long, weird things happen, it drops the ball on something else, and it seizes up.
- kevincox 5y agoI guessed that it was a math loop causing the slowdown, but I wonder what actually killed it. Naively I would have thought that you just missed a frame like many other games on the NES (see SMB1). It is surprising that a missed frame actually kills the game.