65024U wrote:
Heck no, NROM games (especially Mario) show that NROM is very flexible despite the size not being huge. I just really don't think that a mapper shouldn't really be used while your still learning so you can learn your way around other hardware first and make something playable within a small space, so then when you get the extra space, it's easier to cope with the fact you want from 16/32K to 256K and such.
tokumaru wrote:
Also, using a mapper doesn't mean you have to make a big game and fill up 512KB of ROM, you could very well make a 32KB MMC3 game just because you're interested in its scanline counter.
It seems you completely ignored my comments about space. Using a mapper isn't necessarily about getting more space... You might pick the MMC3 for its scanline counter, or UNROM so that you can use CHR-RAM in order to be able to animate your background tiles, and so on, but that doesn't mean you have to use more than 16/32KB. You are just allowed to, and that's a good thing.
Most absolute NES newbies do start with NROM programs, but like MottZilla said they never get released because they are not complete games, just tests used for learning. Also, just because a person just got started with the NES, that doesn't mean they are complete newbies to classic console programming. Some have already worked with other platforms, and already have a good understanding of bankswitching and other common aspects, they are just getting acquainted to the 6502 or the PPU, and there is no need for these people to hold back.
Another important point is that a smaller program is not always simpler than a large program. consider this: an uncompressed screen on the NES is 1KB large (32x32 tiles + 64 attribute bytes). If I'm a newbie and want to make a game with several (100 or so) screens, what would you say is easier: using UNROM to store all the uncompressed screens across the available banks or spending a lot of time understanding how compression works and coding compression and decompression algorithms? I'd say it's much easier to code a 3-line bankswitching function and use the uncompressed maps. I know this is a crude example, but it goes to show that smaller isn't always the same as simple.