A 6502 instruction that performs a bitwise AND between A and a number but discards the result except to set the Z flag. It also sets S and V to bits 7 and 6 of the number.
  • Function: !(A & N) => Z; N >> 7 => S; N >> 6 => V
  • Updates flags: S V . . . . Z .
  • Opcode numbers:
    dp    $24
    abs   $2C
    

Super Mario Brothers's code often uses BIT to skip an instruction by fooling the processor into treating an instruction as an address, using code similar to this:

close1:
  ldx #$10
  .dcb $2c    ;skip next two-byte instruction
close2:
  ldx #$20
closex:
  lda #12
  sta iccom,x

See also: 6502 instructions | 6502 addressing modes