SMB 3 Blank Line on Screen Problem

[c_house]

It doesn't bother me that much, but if you ever played Super Mario Bros. 3 there is a blank line on the left side of the screen where the graphics stop. I bought the actual cart and I was wondering if there is any way to fix it.

 

[RupeeClock]

Nice hotlink.

Actually that's just how NES games are.

 

[Rydian]

Yeah, it's "eight pixel clipping" or whatever emulators want to call it. Some will give you the option to display that area or not, but some games know it's not displayed on an actual TV and use it to hold garbage graphical data.

 

[c_house]

Yeah, it's "eight pixel clipping" or whatever emulators want to call it. Some will give you the option to display that area or not, but some games know it's not displayed on an actual TV and use it to hold garbage graphical data.

I don't play it in an emulator, I play the actual cart on my NES. But like Rupee said, I guess thats what some games are like, I recall it happens in Kirby's Adventure too.

 

[Rydian]

I'm saying if you run it in an emulator and disable it you'll see why it's normally hidden.

 

[JonthanD]

Some TV's you could see it on and some TV's you could not see it, I had a nice 32 inch back then that I couldn't see it on.... I hated that TV because for some reason it clipped like the out side edges of games. Most TV programs it didn't matter, some games got me a little upset if text was right at the bottom of the screen....

But to answer the original question thats not a glitch, the NES did play it that way.

I always suspected it was something to do with the MMC in the cart but I do not know enough about the NES to say for sure.

 

[Rydian]

PPU Control register 2 (PPUCTRL1):
* Sets the disply to color or mono-tone
* Sets whether to clip the left 8 pixels of the background
* Sets whether to clip sprites within the left 8 pixels of the background
* Sets whether to display the screen or not
* Selects the screen background color (black, red, blue, green)