Mode 7 - Function

Function

The Super NES console has eight modes, numbered from 0 to 7, for displaying background layers, the last one (background mode 7) having a single layer that can be scaled and rotated. The Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS 2D graphics hardware have scaling and rotation for traditional tiled backgrounds in its modes 1 and 2 and scaling and rotation for bitmaps in modes 3 through 5 (used less often on the GBA because of technical limitations). On each machine supporting this effect, it is possible to change the scaling/rotation values during the horizontal blanking period of each scanline to draw a flat plane in a perspective projection; this became thought of as the characteristic "Mode 7" effect. More complex effects such as fuzz are possible by using other equations for the position, scaling, and rotation of each line. This graphical method is not only suited to racing games; it is also used extensively for the overworld sections of role-playing games such as Square's popular 1994 game Final Fantasy VI. The effect enables developers to create the impression of sprawling worlds that continue forever into the distance.

On the Super NES, a variation of Mode 7 allows pixels of the background layer to be in front of sprites. Examples are Contra III: The Alien Wars (stage 2) and the introduction screen of Tiny Toon Adventures and when a player falls off the stage in Super Mario Kart. The GBA can make the same effect by using mode 2, which provides two "Mode 7" layers, and putting the sprites between the layers.

Many PC games, most notably Wacky Wheels and Skunny Kart, mimic Mode 7 by performing the technique entirely in software. There is also a "Mode 7" extension for the software-authoring program Multimedia Fusion that allows creators to make software using a similar technique.

During the days of the Super NES, Mode 7 was one of Nintendo's favorite selling points (Nintendo Power, SNES Player's Guide). For example, when the game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time was ported from the arcade to the SNES, a level was changed from side-scrolling to Mode 7.