GameHut Reveals Graphics Tricks Used in Genesis Adventures of Batman & Robin

It’s been quite a while since GameHut, a Youtube channel run by Jon Burton, 29-year director of Traveler’s Tales and an old maven of Genesis/Mega Drive effects, posted a video. I’m not sure Burton himself worked on this game in this one, but he does a fine job of explaining (14 minutes) how the developers used the Genesis’ catalog of technical tricks to make one of the most visually striking games on that platform, The Adventures of Batman & Robin, pulling off realtime effects that might seem impossible on a system with no hardware scaling. The primary trick used is the old raster interrupt on HBLANK, manipulating graphics registers while the beam is part of the way down the screen, abetted by the Genesis/Mega Drive’s speedy, for its time, Motorola 68000 processor and 7.87 mHz clock speed. Change horizontal scroll registers midway down and shear the background. Swap palettes on vertical stripes and create a checkerboard pattern. It’s not the only trick used, but its versatility sure…