yeah i get you about the speed part, but about the whole black player background, a lot of ( if not all ) true 1-bit games ( like only 2 colors ) didn't really have a transparency ( the main reason for this is that in 1-bit games, there was only on or off for the colors, so transparency didn't exist ) , so none of the sprites in this game have any bit of transparency ( other than the hourglass ), to stay true to that style ( and a bit just to save time )