Source: https://youtu.be/TPbroUDHG0s

8-bit game development is fun. 8-bit game development is very hard at the same time. You mostly find yourself optimizing assembly instructions just to save 1 Byte or a clock cycle. But exactly that byte and clock cycle make the difference on systems with clock rates around 1MHz and RAM of 64kB or even less. 

There are platformers with more than 30 individual levels, sprites, music and gameplay logic, that fit into under 64kB. In case of the NES the available space for a cartridge game is even less. 

Kevin Zurawel spoke about exactly that at the last Strange Loop Conference. 

And this talk is more than just interesting. Using mostly the beloved Super Mario Bros. as an example, Kevin speaks about all the nifty tricks that developers applied back in the days and still today.

My gravatar needs more space than these games. Interested? Hop over to the video. Plenty to learn here.