I won't pretend to have read all these posts. I don't really like discussions like this.

But

I've often heard the argument from atheists that religion is just a big cancer or something that wants to convert the whole world to its singular belief or something. What I don't get is why then, has every atheist I've encountered tried to convince me that God does not exist. I've never tried to "convert" anyone or convince them that my faith and way of life is the right way or the only way. Maybe that makes me a worse Christian for it, not spreading the word, (I'll explain my best if someone asks, but I'm not gonna go out of my way to be like "believe, mudda fukka!") but it doesn't explain why atheists (the ones I've met) argue that religion is just a way of controlling the masses or something, and then they go and try to convert me to their way of thinking. I mean, wtf? You're gonna say religion is bs and then try to convert me to nonreligion? I don't see the difference between a religious leader vehemently arguing against science and a scientist adamantly arguing against religion. They're both trying to convince people that their truth is truth, or at least truthier than the other's truth. So like, religion can be used as a vehicle for power but so then can science, really.

By the way, I'm not trying to say that religion and science can't live together harmoniously. I think that's nonsense. I'm just using science for lack of an opposite to religion.

But anyway. I agree with B.O.B. and others of you in that religions are an abstraction of a jackass personified when they're abused and whatnot. Like those mass suicides and stuff that're all like "world's gonna end lets kill ourselves!" I bet those dudes are totally disappointed right now. It's also annoying when people are all like uberpious and stuff and when they completely misinterpret things to the point of being the opposite of what their religion dictates they should ultimately be. Which, as far as I know, is usually kind, loving, understanding, but steadfast in certain areas. Like on that one wifeswap or whatever that show was, where the insane soulless "christian" woman totally flipped out and started calling the kids demons and stuff. She was crazy.

Uh what was I saying?

Anyway. Thing about religion is that it's usually just so easy to twist to ones own purposes. That's why it's often such a dick. I'm sure I'm guilty of such twisting. Still though. Yeah.

See, this is why I don't like these discussions. You guys are all using big words like pathologic and complicated terms like self-awareness and here I come with fucking "Um, like, yeah. And stuff."
But I know what I mean, and I know what I know, and I know what I believe, and I know what I'm unsure of. There may be some overlap in the areas, but I'm cool with that. I'll deal with it later. After I learn bigger words and smarter things.

Another way I've heard is drawing everything to a surface and upscaling the surface, though I've never actually tried this.

I just did this like five minutes ago for the first time. I'd tried it before but was way overcomplicating things so it didn't work out too well. I get a little more about surfaces now and get it better: you just have an object somewhere in the room that, in the step event, redraws the screen to a surface, and then in the draw event, draws the surface at 2x. It's alot simpler than it seems.

As for the graphics, they're looking great. I really love the way the cave is coming along.
One thing that bothered me since I first saw this thread though is how slow the explosion is. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's awesome, yeah. But seems like it lasts a bit too long, unless you intend on speeding it up in-game.

Yeah? I've been listening to them alot lately. I'd love to see them live.

Also listening to alot of Why?, who's awesome.

I see. Well, I quite like the look of this so far, but I don't like the way the grass just goes straight up to the base of the cliffs. It makes the cliffs that are over the grass look like they're floating or something, with such a huge gap in apparent saturation. Even a small transition would be nice. I sort of like the grass itself as is though. Nice and simple.
Also, the sandy color in your image doesn't seem to match any of the colors from the NES palette you've given...?