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How do "Mode 7" 3D-like graphics work? Well, it's all a clever trick using affine transformations that update each scanline to render one slice of the background at a time, creating the illusion of a projective plane in 3D space.

On the left is what the rendered output looks like when the last matrix parameters are left intact, updating each scanline. On the right is what the ACTUAL Mode7 affine transformation looks like during that scanline!

Pretty neat stuff! The SNES cant generate projective transformations without special hardware, so this is how the Psuedo-3D projective plane is generated for #SuperMarioKart

What's interesting about this is that Mode7 isn't actually what's responsible for the projective effect, HDMA is! You could technically do a *similar* effect with other BG modes, and actually Yoshi's Island uses a similar technique for its "3D" objects as well (that's also a super cool method I want to talk about later)