CV Gus

When I bought Tower Toppler back in 1988, I too was amazed. So was the video game magazine that reviewed it. But of course the Tramiels didn't keep up the momentum.

Absolutely MAGNIFICENT!!!!!!!!!!!! Opcode, all involved- you've outdone yourselves. And the inclusion of Pac-Man Plus- which I haven't played since 1983!- just makes it even better. I esp. like the way you handled the mazes in Ms. Pac-Man. Of all the versions I have of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, these look to be the best. Even the NES version of the former pales next to this one. And all one one cartridge! What a bargain!

What didn't beat the 2600 Pac-Man? I'll need some screenshots, I'm afraid- that emulator will not run here. But a Channel F homebrew? Hell, I remember playing that console in the old Stereo magic in a nearby mall in the mid-1970s! Congratulations to the programmer- this was needed!

Common practice. I just got Need for Speed: ProStreet on the Wii. The graphics on the case sure aren't the Wii version. Guess some things never change. Pity it's always the bad things. Arcade game was similar if I recall. Didn't really like it on either. As a game, it's good, and a decent arcade translation. But for a fourth generation game, well... Different games. Enough with your Colecovision agenda already. It's the best comparison to make. Third generation system matching a fourth? Not good. For me, the sound and also the missing level (common problem in DKC conversions) One wonders why. Funny thing is, I can't find anyone else who has played the complete NES version. Yet, it does exist. Also bloody hard to land. Could never do it.Same guys who did DD, which is why I found DD disappointing. Though DD was one of their better games, I thought. The game fell far short of B-17 Bomber for the Intellivision, come to think of it. "ThAAAt wuz NOT a TARgit!" In your personal subjective opinion! In Apshai, the enemies were different in a number of ways- esp. ones like the Ghost, Living Statue, and Blink Bat- there were all sorts of power-ups, traps, 792 mazes...had the graphics and a few rough spots been cleared up, it would've actually equalled Gauntlet. Even if Dark Chambers' five monsters had been different- e.g. Wizards could shoot, Ghosts might go through obstacles, etc.- it would have been much, much better. In the defense of the 7800- Xevious, Food Fight, Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position 2, Desert Falcon, Dig Dug, and Asteroids- were all quite good. So was Robotron: 2084, but where was the border?

Double Dragon and Rampage. What was the big idea, putting Tandy screens on the ad in that stupid Atarian magazine? Hat Trick. Not bad, but choppy motion? Galaga. Better graphics on CV Galaxian, and the gameplay felt wrong. Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. F-18 Tomcat. Repetitous and dull. Dark Chambers. It's not good, when the flawed, rushed-out Gateway to Apshai on the CV is better. The biggest problem was the fact that the enemies were essentially the same, all FIVE of them. It's a pity, because the graphics were so great. Again, several of the 7800 games weren't really better than the 5200 versions, overall. Centipede, Ms. Pac-Man, Robotron: 2084 are examples.

Astro Invader looks very much like the arcade version. Maybe I'll get it next- I remember the arcade version, and I did like it. Nice going, Scott! Long live the CV, the undisputed King of the Obscure Arcade Games.

Oh, one more thing- Probably everyone here already knows this, but if not- the use of "Meg" was twisted during the 1990s. When someone said "THIS CART HAS TEN MEGS!!!!!!" what he meant was "128K." This was because "Meg" was short for MegaBIT, not MegaBYTE, which was 8X more. Thus, a 32K CV cart was 1/4 Meg. It was a marketing ploy, because it sounded more impressive. For CrazyAce- could the green hills in Matt Patrol have been "reshaped" to look like the lunar city from Moon Patrol? With a different-colored interior, as long as the "2-colors/8 horizontal pixels" rule was not broken?

I think I see what the problem some people are having with this thread is: this is 2008, so why a comparison between two such 1980s systems? I suppose it's because I've been around since PONG first hit the arcades. Thus, nothing has happened in the world of video gaming that I haven't seen. In 1984, the whole works collapsed. The typical answer is "the glut," but if that was true then there should have been another during the mid-1990s at latest, because a video gaming magazine I still have compared roughly ONE DOZEN systems- and this does not take into account people who stuck with earlier systems. In other words, the crash was a case of suicide. One sure-fire way of committing suicide here is to abandon a system in favor of one that really doesn't offer more. The reason the CV caused so much excitement- again, you have to consider the era- was that arcade games were advancing at a fantastic rate. Within a few years we went from Space Invaders in black and white to Zaxxon. Thus, the good `ol 2600 just couldn't keep up. When we saw the photos of Ladybug and Cosmic Avenger on the CV, well! The 5200 was supposed to have done the same. And while it never equalled the CV overall, for games like Qix, Defender, Centipede, Berzerk, and Ms. Pac-Man...not to mention Robotron: 2084- it too handled games like the 2600 couldn't. The 7800's trouble started from day one. Now there were TWO systems before it from Atari, one not yet two years old! And what did it offer? Ms. Pac-Man. Robotron: 2084. Centipede. Games that, while not ancient in 1984, had been there, done that. But as a CV owner, I couldn't help but wonder what the big deal was. Sure, the 7800 games looked better (usually), but even then- I did program on Commodore computers- I knew that the CV's abilities were often not used. Mr. Do!, Victory, Space Fury, Q*Bert, Frogger...if the 7800 looked more impressive, was it because the 7800 was better, or because the CV was held back? In other words, look at it like this- assume the 7800 and CV were from the same line (you can figure the 5200, if you'd like, instead of the CV for what follows here). The decision would be: stick with the CV, or "move up" to the 7800? But what if a third possibility was offered: rather than dumping the CV for the 7800 for better-looking versions of the same games, overall, what if we program a line of games for the CV that are improved versions of what came before? I own DKJ. for the CV. It has 3 screens. I also own the FOUR-screen version. It's rough around the edges, true, but that could've been cleared up. Thus, on the COLECOVISION you have a complete 4-screen version. Since- as pointed out by Opcode- the cost of extra memory was going down, these 'super games" would not have been so pricey. Hell, maybe you could put two on a cartridge. Cheaper than two cartridges. Look at Q*Bert. O.K., now look at Q*Bert's Qubes. Likewise Mr.Do!, and Mr. Do!'s Castle. If people are willing to purchase a whole new system for the same (improved) games, would they not be willing to simply purchase improved versions for the original system? This would have the advantage of retaining ALL of the games- if not, tell me of the 7800 version of Berzerk, or Qix. The only way the 7800 would work is if it was not so much better able to handle existing games (e.g. Ms. Pac-Man)- which it wasn't, really- but if it could handle FUTURE games. So that's why I wanted to know what was what between the 7800 and CV. I've had the CV since 1982, and the 7800 since 1988. I still play them (the CV more often, of course!). And to be honest, I'm just not really so sure that the CV would've done much worse, toe-to-toe, with the NES than the 7800. Last night, I played Sky Jaguar (thanks, Opcode! ). Granted, the scrolling is choppy, as this was a direct translation of the MSX version. But we know that the CV COULD HAVE done much smoother scrolling. And the scenery is splendid. But more to the point is the sheer, unbelievable amount of on-screen action. Balas, Hammers everywhere, while the screen is filled with shots from everywhere, it seems, during the two Boss stages. It would seem as though a CV version of Xevious would have been pretty good. Isn't Zanac like that? Matt Patrol shows that a motion-intensive side-scroller could be done nicely, too. As do those Gradius-games mentioned above (YES! Many of these computers FINALLY play YouTube!!!). This: Was the 7800 so much better than the CV that it was worth it? Now that Opcode is here, we shall know for sure!

So the one on the left- the 160-mode- is what you can do with the built-in scrolling? Does that mean that one CAN do the 320-mode, but it would take more effort? There are two things I'm wondering about here: 1) Every other scene in Matt Patrol shows "the cityscape." Would it have been possible to reshape the green hills to resemble the structures in the arcade version? 2) If every line in a space can show two colors for a CV, then would it be possible to have multi-colored hills- as you did in your images- as long as the extra colors are not within 8 pixels of a hill or mountain's edge? Thanks.

How is the scrolling in Cosmo Fighter 3? Is the game like Sky Jaguar?

Sadly, Crazyace, I cannot play the emulator. Any screenshots? I'll assume the scrolling is smooth. To DracIsBack: That's sort of the problem- I don't know how that would be. Sure, the 7800 can show more colors, as can the 5200- but at what price? Atari always bragged about the 5200 having a 25% greater resolution and more colors, but in fact you couldn't have both. I just don't know the full limits of either. At AGH, they have a comparison about how much better the 5200 was than the CV, but why then did CV games overall, and even Atarisoft games like Galaxian, Joust, and Pac-Man come out better on the CV? The only way to know is for someone who has Opcode-level knowledge of both systems (or more than one who can put it all together) to list comparisons. For example, Vigo said that EVERYTHING to a 7800 is an "object." (or something like that). Would that give the CV an advantage in certain areas? A disadvantage in others- such is obvious in Asteroids, which I doubt the CV could do like the 7800? Anyone? This ain't comparing apples and oranges- more like apples to seafood.

So far: Kevtris. Cosmo Fighter 2. Space Invasion. Star Fortress. Dac Man 1.3V. Amazing Snake. Bejeweled. Spectar. Space Invaders Collection. Sky Jaguar. Indirectly, I suppose "rediscovered" games can be thought of as Homebrew, since the companies behind them are effectively gone. Lord of the Dungeon. Steamroller.

So far, the initial tests look promising. I think that it might just work! You know, an interesting option presents itself with this thing: The reason I am building it is to slow down the rate of fire. For each individual button (normal two), it's adjustable. You can also switch the module on and off for each button; the two circuits only share the same battery and Blue Wire. By slowing down the rate of fire, this will make games like Mr. Do!'s Castle, Looping, Tarzan, Burgertime, and Spectar much more difficult. But the other day this occurred to me: in any game in which the fire buttons do the same thing (as in Burgertime and Mr. Do!'s Castle), you can adjust the rate of fire in two different ways. So in Mr. Do!'s Castle, for example, the left fire button can swing the hammer only once every, say, 2 or 3 seconds. But what's stopping you from adjusting the RIGHT fire button so you can swing the hammer with that button once every, say, 10 or 12 seconds? This way, you CAN swing quickly twice in a row...but only once every 12 seconds. So you'd save it for when you turn the Unicorns into Alphamonsters. Likewise Burgertime?

Oh, by the by- I DO remember the Keating Five. And the Savings and Loans fiasco that cost us taxpayers (actually, the post- Baby Boomers) over ONE TRILLION DOLLARS in bailout. So much for the evils of big government. Privatize the profits; Socialize the losses. As for pictures: I wish. The only reason the plans for my 5200 controller were posted was thanks to regular mail and Big O.

I was asked about this earlier, I promised a reply...well, here it is. This was probably my first true hardware project that actually worked- worked well enough that I've done it three times! Essentially, what it does is to convert a regular CV controller into one with "4 buttons," as a Super Action Controller. This is good for games like Rocky Boxing and Front Line. The first thing you should know is that a SAC cheats. There are no "extra buttons," in the usual sense. All that is happening when you do this is that you are, in effect, pushing 2 keypad buttons for each extra fire button. Try this yourself: plug in Front Line or any 4-button game. Then, when playing, press keypad buttons 3 and 2 at once. Do the same with 1 and 0. Just like having those 2 buttons. Now, if you take apart a CV controller and look at the underside, where the keypad ribbon plugs in to the circuit board, you'll see 13 solder points. All 12 keypad buttons share a common "ground," if you will- connecting the leftmost one with any of the other 12 will activate one of the buttons. What my design does is to take advantage of this. Since all 12 share one contact, connecting any of the 2 other than the common means that pressing either button will also press the other. This is what you do: You'll need a DPDT switch. I use Radio Shack DPDT Submini 0.3/125VAC sliding switch (275-407). You'll also need some Rather Thin Wire; 4 lengths. Not too long. and some short bolts, tiny washers, and nuts. I normally cut a hole about an inch diagonal down and left from the joystick itself for the switch. Be careful. You should test this, esp. if you are left-handed. Looking at the 13 solder points- remember that you are looking at the underside, so the right fire button should be on the left- and count them. You need to know where (going from the left) 2, 6, 9, and 11 are. Solder wires to points 6 and 2. Do the same for 9 and 11. Now, you should drill a hole in the circuit board for the four wires. Obviously, make sure you do not damage any circuitry. The hole should be close to where the switch will be. On the underside of the switch you'll see 3 contact points on each side. Connect the wires like this ("X" is a contact point on the switch): 6 2 X X X X X X (the rightmost contact points are left alone). 9 11 Now, when you slide the switch towards the "6/9" side, it will act like a four-button controller. Keypad buttons 1 and 3 will act like the 2 extra buttons, because you are now pressing TWO keypad buttons at once. Note that normal keypad functions will not work. Slide the switch towards the "nothing" side, and the keypad works normally again. I have it set up so left is normal, right is "4 button." Unlike my other efforts, this one has some leeway for each person. I like the switch the way it is. You may want it on the right. Or somewhere else, even. Also, you may want to use a mini-plug set up for the four wires, so the controller can be completely taken apart. My way, the wires prevent this.

No luck. Any screenshots?

Actually, I'm trying to figure out if the 7800 really had a chance. Unlike the move from 2600 to CV, the move from CV to 7800- or even 5200 to 7800- just doesn't strike me as all that big a deal. One problem with not relying on specs is that, rarely, is a system's full abilities used. Look at the scrolling in CV Front Line and Sky Jaguar- then look at Bump `N Jump. And even that is not the best, but it sure is better. 5200 Pac-Man is another example. Could not the ghosts have been at least 2-colored each? If so, would the motion have been choppier, as in Ms. Pac-Man? Thanks to that programmer, I now have a good idea of a CV's abilities. But a 7800? Hard to say. Was Sirius the BEST side-scrolling it could do? Could Ms. Pac-Man have been better- look at the ghosts from Opcode's CV version. The 7800 version of Joust was better than the 5200- but not much more so than the CV version. But, was this because the 5200 had reached its limit there, or could the visuals have been better? This is what I'm trying to figure out- used to their fullest abilities, how would a CV and a 7800 compare, overall- sound aside, in which almost every other system short of an RCA Studio 2 could beat a 7800? What I was hoping for here was a comparison along the lines of the 5200 vs. CV one at AGH.

Since I contacted that programmer not long after starting this thread, and he explained the various graphics modes of the CV, along with limitations, scrolling, sprites, etc., and even comparing Z-80 to 6502 processors (roughly), I have a pretty good idea of what the CV is about. Sort of. My thanks to him, again. But, again, he admitted to not knowing enough about the 7800 to compare it to the CV. Could someone here give a detailed listing of 7800 specs? That way, I can try to compare the two.

It is vital to put a variable resistor ("potentiometer") in each circuit so you can adjust it. My 5200 digital controller has these; I use Missile Command to make adjustments. Luckily, I had a few of those Japanese-made 5200 potentiometers, and they still work very, very well indeed! I've noticed that what works for some games doesn't quite work for others. You can see where you should put them here; scroll down to the bottom of this thread: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=119395

This looks like a companion game to Fortune Builder. This is what I like about homebrew games: their effort to expand the KINDS of games the home consoles have. This game really looks fascinating.

Actually, Vigo, you just cannot expalin things properly, and you are just too arrogant to admit when you do not know something. You can babble all you want, but you just don't know. And judging how quickly you gave up on 7800 programming, you'll never know. I read your threads, and gave up trying to sort useful info from drivel. Note how that programmer I contacted not only knows more than you do, but how to expalin it. So he has you beat on two counts right there. Note that I had the good taste not to send that pregrammer cyber-copies of your posts. Maybe I should have- he could no doubt use a good laugh. A comparison of specs- along with a brief explanation of what's what- would give one a decent idea of what each can do. For example, in the case of the 5200, it could show 200(V)X320(H) and 256 colors- but it would have to be mentioned that it cannot do both at the same time. For example, what resolution can it show at least 16 colors?

Since, Vigo, we have established- indirectly because of that person I contacted- that you do not know as much as you would have us believe (just why didn't you mention the 2-color limit?), and Supercat's reply from the other thread would seem to reinforce this, can WE NOW GET BACK TO COMPARING THE CV TO THE 7800? We've established- no thanks to you- that the CV can do smooth scrolling, but not up to the level of the 7800 in games like Tower Toppler, but definitely yes in games like Galaxian and Defender, probably Galaga, too. And since the 7800 has notoriously bad sound, the CV has it beat there, too. Now, folks, what about Static Displays? Color and Resolution? On-screen movement in the varying areas? Memory, in applications? Thanks!

I hate to say this, Vigo, but- since you brought me into it- I will reply. The only reason I "unnerved" you is because I asked a question you were clearly either incapable of understanding, or of answering. But you are too arrogant a technonerd to admit it, so you wasted massive amounts of this thread's space dancing around it. You kept going back and back to "the CV cannot do smooth scrolling." Big deal- anyone who even casually goes over a tech sheet would know that. But since the CV HAS- as in PAST TENSE- done smooth scrolling, then obviously this, in itself, does not matter. The CV can do a smooth scroll. My question- and you are too ignorant of CV abilities to answer it- was this: what are the limitations? When I contacted that individual who DOES know the CV and asked him, notice how the first thing he explained was that two-color limit. That, and that alone, is the single biggest problem with certain kinds of scrolling displays. If you knew half as much as you like to think you do, you would've mentioned that right off. But, you didn't. In effect, on the question of scrolling, the answer- and read this carefully, so from now on YOU know- is this: 1) The CV can do smooth scrolling, due to its ability to handle large amounts of movement and change. 2) The fact that it does not have built-in scrolling does matter in the amount of programming memory and effort (obviously), and possibly if massive amounts of other on-screen movement is required- not a problem in Matt Patrol, clearly- but any system has limitations, which is why I see slowdown in a number of NES games. 3) The key limitation to a CV scroll is the 2-color/space-line. If you look closely at the background in Matt Patrol, you will see that it is designed so never more than 2 colors are ever on such a space-line (8 dots wide). 4) Anything you can draw on a CV screen can likely be smoothly scrolled VERTICALLY, since whatever colors are used for a given line (in a space) never changes. So again, if programming a game like Lifeforce, other considerations aside, the vertically-scrolling levels could be more colorful than the horizontal ones. When you posted that bit about 7800 Sirius, I noticed that you did not say whether or not that was THE BEST the 7800 could do (and if so, then WHY? Processing power? Colors? Slowdown?). The CV has Cosmic Avenger, but that was not the best it could do. That person I contacted also admitted to not knowing enough about the 7800 to answer more than a few things about this post. Try it some time.

Out of curiosity I dug into Matt Patrol to see how they did it. I build a special version of MESS with the sprites disabled to see what was sprites and what was character maps. I was surprised at how much was characters. Not surprisingly both sets of mountains and the ground are characters, but the moon buggy with the exception of the wheels is also character graphics. The rocks are characters as well as the holes with the exception of the detail around the edges which must be a sprite. Dan ********* I was told that the programmer used an intriguing trick for that game: The shots (horizontal) you fire, are not sprites- they are black, an unusual color. He said that he thinks that the programmer actually "LEAVES OUT" (actually, color chooses) dots to "expose the black background*," creating the illusion of shots. 2-color limitation again. It works (obviously), and it shows what a skilled programmer can do. The CV has sufficient "raw processing power" to handle considerable amounts of on-screen movement, so you can get away with this. Judging by that 2-color limit, the rims are likely sprites- otherwise, it would be green, yellow, and black on an 8-dot line. *He tried to explain it in a way a C-64 programmer can visualize. The green hills move "in front of" the blue mountains. If it was like two brick walls, perfectly even, then colors would not be such a problem: the brick wall being where the green hills are could be red and white, while the one "above" (the blue mountains) could be green and purple. In fact, the top of the lower wall could be gray, and the top of the upper one could be yellow. This is because in this case never more than two colors would ever appear on a horizontal line, ever. But with Matt Patrol, the hills are not nice and level- they are irregular in shape. Some parts of the green hills are low, while others are higher. Since they are "moving in front of" the blue mountains, you will have blue and green on a horizontal line. Since two colors is the limit here, you must keep the green hills from ever reaching above the blue mountains, otherwise you will end up with THREE colors (blue, green, and black) trying to occupy a single line. http://www.oldgames.nu/Matt_Patrol_1984_At...rototype/28313/ It really is a pity that this game, along with Dig Dug and Joust, was not 100% completed and released back then. Oh, man, I'd've bought them in A MINUTE! In Nova Blast, you'll notice that the stalagmites, cities and power stations, and mountains all scroll by on completely different levels. One never moves "in front of" another. Therefore, that 2-color problem with Matt Patrol does not exist here, and thus you have a more colorful mountain. Note the white tops, too. With vertical scrolling, the CV COULD smoothly scroll what you could draw "static." When you draw a playfield on the CV, you are bound by that two-color limit. Each line of 8 dots in a space has two colors, tops. When you move up or down, what is happening? That line simply "moves" up or down; you are still in the same column. In other words, Bump `N Jump, with its colorful playfields, COULD smoothly scroll vertically, but NOT horizontally. Thus, if you wanted to program a smoothly-scrolling Lifeforce on the CV, the horizontally-scrolling parts would be less colorful than the vertically-scrolling parts. But parts of it- the beginning part, the disintegrating playfield at the end of level one- could be closely matched by a CV. Vigo, you could take a few lessons from this guy on how to explain things. He cleared all of this up with one reply. Now- what about static images, overall memory (practical, in different situations), etc.?

Most systems that have hardware support for smooth scrolling can smoothly scroll most or all types of screens that they can display statically. Almost any system can smooth-scroll some type of display. Even the original PET, which had no bitmap or hardware scrolling facilities, could have scrolled a 46x25 pseudo-bitmap (using blocks of 7x8 hardware pixels) on increments of one hardware pixel. The Colecovision can be made to produce displays that smoothly scroll horizontally or vertically, but the display content must be severely restricted. By contrast, the NES can probably scroll smoothly anything it can display in the first place. Sheesh, a pity this was not posted earlier...I recently contacted someone who explained quite a bit about this sort of thing. As posted earlier, the CV can normally show 2 colors (including the background color- you have to count it) on any 8-pixel line. In other words, in a given space, of 8X8 dots, 8 rows of 8, each row can have 2 colors. I noticed that this was the first thing he mentioned, BECAUSE IT IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL WHEN EXPLAINING THIS. It does not matter that the CV does not have built-in scrolling, as far as simply asking "can it do smooth scrolling?" goes. It also does not matter for arcade games like Defender. However, to scroll the CV way, you have to "shift" dots and colors, a bit like what you learn on a C-64 and bit mapping- you are in effect changing custom characters. Remember the 8X8 space "window" on an unexpanded Vic-20? What was that but changing arranged characters with mathematical formulas? In the case of Matt Patrol, while the scrolling is perfectly smooth, he pointed out that if you look closely- and I did- you'll see that the green hills do move in front of the blue mountains. Since the green hill undulates, it is not a case of sliding images below another, which is what I think they do (I'll have to check this, shoot, should've done it yesterday...) with 7800 Tower Toppler, and CV Nova Blast. What he then said was that, since the CV can pretty much only show TWO colors per 8-pixel line in a given space, the only way to smooth scroll is to make sure that only 2 colors end up in such a line at any one time. Of course, you COULD show more than 2 across the screen, but only if the extra colors are not near the edges of the hills. So, if you wanted to put white snowy edges on the left side of the blue mountains, you can't do it, since you'd end up with 3 colors on a line (white, blue, and black). However, if you had wanted to put white tips on the blue mountains, you could do that. With vertical scrolling, it is a bit more generous. Just as you can "stack" one sprite on top of another for multi-colored characters without more flickering (Mr. Hot Dog from Burgertime and the red and green enemies from Space Panic), but not if you wanted to turn them 90 degrees, so it is with vertical scrolling. You have the same 2-color limitation for a given line/space, but it's easier to put more than 2 colors on a vertical line than a horizontal one in this case. Overhead scrolling could look more colorful than horizontal scrolling. He actually mentioned what Supercat mentioned above. So if you wanted to do those intermission screens from Tower Toppler on a CV, right off the bat you'd have to remember that you'd have that 2-color limitation. And 16 colors only. Here you'd need someone good at designing graphics to pull it off, but no way would you get anything up to the 7800 version. It's not so much directly the lack of hardware-based scrolling in this case, or the lack of processing power, but that 2-color limitation. If the CV had a mode that worked like the C-64 multi-color mode, then you'd have a horizontal resolution of 128, but you could show up to 4 colors/line, even if one is the background, and 2 are "shared" with the other spaces (you cannot have black, red, blue, and green in one space while the next one has yellow, brown, purple, and white). I appreciated that. He cleared up much, because he knew the answers, and how to explain it all. He also admitted to not knowing enough about the 7800 to say how it was better or worse overall, beyond moving things around in games like Asteroids, and certain kinds of scrolling (e.g. Tower Toppler). That part is up to you here, such as what about static displays?