You know I don't think I realised just how expensive X and Y sprite expansion was to the multiplexor. It's used twice (that I can remember), the reverse control radio transmitter, and the giant grab claws, and while its nice every sprite in the multiplexor has to store and process these bits! If I remove this feature the copy section of the sort is reduced by another 6 scanlines - SIX!!! Now that means each sprite pays around 1/3 a scanline for it in the copy which isn't much, but the more you have the more you pay.
On top of that we also have the display IRQ's which again has to pay the cost for only a couple of sprites in the whole game! Now I'm wondering if its worth the expense, or should I just drop those baddies altogether? Actually... only the CrabClaws need to be dropped (or reworked) since the tower would only require 1 extra sprite which is hardly expensive!
Anyway, I know when I was coding them I thought it was cool to allow expansion in a multiplexor as no one else did, and it allowed for HUGE baddies (oh..come to think of it, the level2 BOSS used it as well), but is it really worth the lost CPU time?
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