Pac-Man/Alien question

[mbd30]

Why do all the Pac-Man games for the Atari 2600 use dashes instead of dots throughout the maze?

 

Alien for the Atari 2600 has little dots, so it seems possible to use them. However, the rows of dots aren't straight. I don't know if that is because of hardware limitations or if it is a design choice. If the Atari 2600 can't do straight rows of dots then that might be why.

 

Edited November 1, 2014 by mbd30

[Rybags]

Most use the playfield to do both the dots and maze, so the resolution is only 40 pixels horizontal.

 

That alien game fairly obviously uses other objects (maybe ball + missiles) for the dots, by offsetting them vertically means it can be done without flicker.

Alternatively such a game could use replicated players + missiles & ball to represent a decent number of dots in a line at finer resolution but that would mean player/alien objects would need players too which would inevitably lead to flickering.

[mbd30]

Interesting. Thanks.

[+save2600]

Those aren't dots in Alien... they're eggs!

[timdu]

Don't forget we must add

 

Lochjaw / Shark Attack

 

and

 

Cat Trax

 

 

to the list.