Glossary

Indicates the processor's data processing capacity. More bits = more data per cycle = more complex graphics and calculations.

Sega's marketing term for the Mega Drive. Not real technology, but the processor was indeed fast.

The physical game medium before CDs. Contained ROM chips with the game. More expensive than CD but with instant loading.

Cathode Ray Tube television. Retro games were designed for these screens and look different on modern TVs.

Hidden secret in a game. The first was in Adventure for Atari 2600 (1980), where the programmer hid his name.

First-Person Shooter, or Frames Per Second depending on context.

Japanese Role-Playing Game. Japanese-style RPG with turn-based combat, linear stories and anime characters.

Genre born from Metroid and Castlevania: non-linear exploration, power-ups opening new areas, backtracking.

Super Nintendo exclusive graphic effect that rotated and scaled backgrounds, creating a pseudo-3D effect.

The game included in the console box. Tetris for Game Boy and Super Mario World for SNES are the most famous.

Digital art created pixel by pixel. Technical necessity of the 8/16-bit era, today a deliberate aesthetic choice.

Genre with randomly generated levels and permanent death. Every run is different. From Rogue (1980).

Horizontal lines visible on CRT televisions. Today simulated as a retro aesthetic effect.

2D image representing a character or object in the game. Mario on NES was a 16x16 pixel sprite.

Technique enlarging/shrinking sprites to simulate 3D depth, used in games like Super Hang-On.