I’ve wanted to do a video on the lag of Metroid since I first started Behind the Code, and that day (or period of about three months) has finally arrived.
If you’ve played NES Metroid, you know there are many instances of unexplainable lag. No enemies on the screen, and it stutters. Why?
We get into the main game loop of Metroid to see how the frame-to-frame work was organized, see what all the major subroutines are (and break them using Game Genie codes, of course), build a performance analysis tool specifically for Metroid, and discover why the game lags so often just from moving.
Also note that there will be a Part 2 where we use the new performance tool to check lag in various areas of Metroid. Leave a comment on the video to let me know what areas you want analyzed, and they may appear in Part 2.
Enjoy!
