Mechanic · structure & scoring

Title card

A short screen before a level that names it and shows the lives or score, while the game sets up the level behind it.

stubAlso: stage intro, level intro screen, world screen, interstitial, stage title, REST screenUpdated 2026-10-23

A title card tells the player where they are going. It names the level or world, shows what is left, such as lives, and gives the game a still screen in which to build the level.

See also

Mentioned in

Games

Every claim about this mechanic, by game (1)
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels 1986The score numbers, the screen setup tasks, the status bar and the game's text (FloateyNumbersRoutine through ResetScreenTimer) are Super Mario Bros.'s with these changes: GetPlayerColors no longer picks a palette row by CurrentPlayer (Super Mario Bros.'s table has a row for Luigi); WriteBottomStatusLine goes through a new GetWorldNumForDisplay, which shows worlds A to D as letters; DisplayIntermediate blanks the screen after the world and lives screen in world 9, and DisplayTimeUp writes its text and resets the screen timer itself where Super Mario Bros. jumps into DisplayIntermediate; ClearBuffersDrawIcon's title-screen part moves to the title code; the screen task list gains DemoReset; GameText drops the two-player and Luigi texts and adds CONTINUE and RETRY to the game-over screen. InitScreen, SetupIntermediate, GetAreaPalette, GetAlternatePalette1, WriteTopStatusLine, AreaParserTaskControl and ResetScreenTimer keep every instruction, with only addresses changed.Code