Micro Mages
Promotional box-art and manual preview
Developer(s)Morphcat Games
Publisher(s)Morphcat Games
Designer(s)
  • Julius Riecke
  • Nicolas Bétoux
Programmer(s)Julius Riecke
Artist(s)Nicolas Bétoux
Composer(s)Julius Riecke
Platform(s)Nintendo Entertainment System
ReleaseApril 30, 2019[1]
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Micro Mages is a platform game for the Nintendo Entertainment System[2] that was published on April 30, 2019 by Morphcat Games. The game raised over 150,000 Euros on Kickstarter.[3] The game was published as a physical cartridge for the NES, and later as a digital download, bundled with an emulator, on Steam and Itch.io.[1]

Development

The game was developed to fit within 40 kilobytes, the size that all games published when the NES was released, such as Super Mario Bros., had to fit into (later development techniques allowed larger games, such as Super Mario Bros. 3). The game was written in 6502 assembly language. 8 kilobytes of cartridge space was reserved for graphics, while the remaining 32 kilobytes were used for game code. Graphics were reused across levels and animations to save space.[4] The game was written with the goal of creating an expansive multi-player game with the same limitations that the first NES developers experienced.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b "Micro Mages Press Kit". Morphcat Games. November 6, 2020. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
  2. ^ Herkewitz, William (May 3, 2020). "Cracking the Chip: How Hacking the NES Made It Even Better". Popular Mechanics. Archived from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
  3. ^ Winkie, Luke (November 28, 2019). "The NES console was discontinued in 1995. These developers are still making games for it". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 28, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
  4. ^ Kidwell, Emma (November 15, 2018). "Optimization techniques for developing new NES games in the modern age". Gamesutra. Informa PLC. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
  5. ^ "How we fit an NES game into 40 Kilobytes". Morphcat Games. September 5, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2020 – via YouTube.

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