BillyHW Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 So I was just playing some Tutankham for ColecoVision for the HSC and I was reminded of how choppy scrolling can be on the Coleco. I was wondering, what sort of hardware was necessary back in the day to enable smooth scrolling and was it so expensive that some systems decided to go without? I'd also like to compile a list in this thread of the early systems (consoles *and* computers) that were incapable and capable of smooth scrolling. I'll start it off. If others who know could please add to (or correct) the list. Incapable: - ColecoVision/ADAM Capable: - NES - SMS - TG16/PC-Engine - Genesis - SNES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8th lutz Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 MSX didn't have the Hardware for horizonal Scrolling from what I gathered. It seemed like programmers did tricks se some tricks to make possible what seemed impossible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Smooth scrolling is possible on Colecovision, but it a lot of work. BC II had smooth scrolling. Up and down had 2 pixel vertical scrolling. Cosmic Avenger had 4 pixel horizontal scrolling. If these games had more memory, then they could have more tiles to help with smooth scrolling. Colecovision had no scroll register though. old PC I believe don't have scroll register. There's some trick involve with scrolling. I posted an example on Atariage blog with source code in C. Atari 2600 had smooth vertical scrolling playfield, and smooth horizontal scrolling if they use player/missile/and ball to help with that since the playfield is 40 pixel wide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osgeld Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 you listed systems a whole leap above the cv in terms of video hardware ie why cant a NES do mode 7 like a SNES?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted May 6, 2013 Author Share Posted May 6, 2013 you listed systems a whole leap above the cv in terms of video hardware ie why cant a NES do mode 7 like a SNES?? That's just because those were the systems I was sure about. Please fill in the contemporary systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted May 6, 2013 Author Share Posted May 6, 2013 As far as tricks go, I'm aware that some of the awesome programmers on here have been able to pull off some smooth scrolling on these old systems like ColecoVision, but that's not really what I'm interested in. I mean systems that could generally smooth scroll back in the day as a rule, rather than the exception, and without enormous programmer effort or compromises. Incapable: - ColecoVision/ADAM - MSX (1?) - SG-1000 Mixed: - 2600 (hardware vertical, tricks for horizontal) Capable: - NES - SMS - TG16/PC-Engine - Genesis - SNES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland p Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 I was wondering, what sort of hardware was necessary back in the day to enable smooth scrolling and was it so expensive that some systems decided to go without? I don't exactly know what hardware supported scrolling, but the TMS9918 based systems (colecovision, ti-99/4, msx, sg-1000 had the 9928, which seems to be the same) needed special tricks (changing characters on-the-fly) for scrolling. The sms had a 9918 based vdp, but with additional features (scroll capability, more colors?). In this wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia...._video_hardware, you can see which system supports hardware scrolling (column 'HW accel'). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uzumaki Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Going by AD&D Cloudy Mountain, Intellivision seems capable of multi-directional smooth scrolling. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 What you are trying to say is platforms with hardware-scrolling support, most appeared starting in 1985 (NES, SMS) All platforms could do smooth scrolling in some way or other, just that in some it took a little more effort and ingenuity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8th lutz Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 (edited) What you are trying to say is platforms with hardware-scrolling support, most appeared starting in 1985 (NES, SMS) All platforms could do smooth scrolling in some way or other, just that in some it took a little more effort and ingenuity. The Nes was released in 1983 in Japan as the Famicom. Edited May 6, 2013 by 8th lutz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youki Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 (edited) Here some machine with Hardware scroll not yet listed. C64 Atari 8 bits ( 400, 800, XL , XE , 5200 etc...) MSX 2+ Edited May 8, 2013 by youki Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 The Nes was released in 1983 in Japan as the Famicom. Yep, but I'm sure everyone in US only remember NES released in 1985 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.