NESdev Wiki, “PPU OAM”

Cite as: NESdev Wiki, “PPU OAM”
Original: https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/PPU_OAM
sha256: 1bd5744873c37353f8cb9ec870478dcf6cb9ba83c40729cb65bd36c6d9389d6d
Version: oldid 23161
Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261005213338/https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/PPU_OAM
Accessed: 2026-10-21
Licence: none stated on the page
Credit: NESdev Wiki editors (nesdev.org); see the page history.
Notes: Read from the Wayback capture of 2026-10-05 (revision 23161). Used for the 64-sprite display list, secondary OAM's 8 sprites per scanline, and sprite 0 hit.

Cited on

The PPU's object attribute memory (OAM) holds a display list of up to 64 sprites, 4 bytes each, and sprite 0 is the one at OAM bytes `$00`-`$03`.	`leadSprite 0 hits`	Wiki
On each scanline the PPU copies the sprites in range, searching OAM in order, into a secondary OAM that holds 8, so a scanline shows at most 8 sprites and the later ones in OAM order drop out.	`Internal operationInternal operation`	Wiki
A sprite 0 hit happens when an opaque pixel of sprite 0 overlaps an opaque background pixel; it sets bit 6 of `PPUSTATUS` (`$2002`), which stays set until the pre-render line, so a frame reports only its first hit.	`Sprite 0 hitsSprite 0 hits`	Wiki