NES Elite had a bank of RAM mapped into CHR ROM, which the game could draw into like a framebuffer before the PPU displayed it like it would any other tile map.

NES Elite had a bank of RAM mapped into CHR ROM, which the game could draw into like a framebuffer before the PPU displayed it like it would any other tile map. So from a graphical standpoint, the wizardry was fairly straightforward but still exhibited a little outside-the-box thinking, which the NES supported with its extensive on-cart mapper and extension chip support.