For this particular project, I was initially inspired by the way Gauntlet II draws huge fields of enemies, using the trick of placing them on the background lay

For this particular project, I was initially inspired by the way Gauntlet II draws huge fields of enemies, using the trick of placing them on the background layer. I wondered if CotN's mechanics could be imitated using that technique, and then I realized that the nature of the rhythm tracking meant I'd have more than a single hardware frame to process updates. That made the project possible at all. Separately, I enjoy the process of writing 6502 assembly and working with hardware restrictions. It's nice that I can hand someone a real cartridge, to plug into their almost 40-year old game console, and it just works. There's a certain nostalgic magic there that's thrilling in its own unique way, that a modern fantasy console just doesn't deliver on. (The Pico-8 is delightful in its own way, of course. It's a great little toolkit.)