Technique · engine

Jump table

A table of code addresses indexed by a number, which a game uses to run one of several routines without a chain of comparisons.

stubAlso: dispatch table, pointer table, jump engine, computed jump, JSR tableUpdated 2026-10-23

A jump table turns a number into a routine. The index is often a state machine’s state or an object’s type, so one table serves every case.

See also

Games

Every claim about this mechanic, by game (1)
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels 1986JumpEngine, InitializeNameTables, ReadJoypads and UpdateScreen are Super Mario Bros.'s, instruction for instruction: JumpEngine is byte for byte the same, and the other three differ only in the addresses of their calls, jumps and tables.Code