Mode 7 is a graphics mode on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console that allows a background layer to be rotated and scaled on a scanline-by-scanline basis to create many different effects. The most famous of these effects is the application of a perspective effect on a background layer by scaling and rotating the background layer in this manner. This transforms the background layer into a two-dimensional horizontal texture-mapped plane that trades height for depth. Thus, an impression of three-dimensional graphics is achieved. Mode 7 was one of Nintendo's prominent selling points for the Super NES platform in publications such as Nintendo Power and Super NES Player's Guide. Similar faux 3D techniques have been presented on a few 2D systems other than the Super NES, in select peripherals and games. Function The Super NES console has eight graphics modes, numbered from 0 to 7, for displaying background layers. The last one (background mode 7) has a single layer that can be scaled and rotated. This graphical method is suited to racing games, and is 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 toward the horizon. A particular utilization technique with Mode 7 allows pixels of the background layer to be in front of sprites. Examples include the second and fifth stage of Contra III: The Alien Wars, the second and fifth stage of Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3-D, the introduction screen of Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose, when a player falls off the stage in Super Mario Kart, some cinematics in Super Metroid, and in some boss battles in Super Mario World. Formula Mode 7 graphics are generated for each pixel by mapping screen coordinate to background coordinate using an affine transformation and sampling the corresponding background color. The 2D affine transformation is specified for each scanline by 6 parameters; , , , and define the matrix , while and define the vector locates the origin of the matrix transformation and is related to a translation vector. Specifically, screen coordinate is translated to the origin coordinate system, the matrix is applied, and the result is translated back to the original coordinate system to obtain . In 2D matrix notation, this is written as . All arithmetic is carried out on 16-bit signed