SharpSprite

It's gonna be like 2013 all over again. . . ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US . . Next Gen doesn't begin until Sony says it does, and there's no weaker console holding PS5 back, Bwwwuahahahaha!

I realize how little I understand about the capabilities of MARIA, the main chip that powered the graphics of my very first game console. The Atari 7800 ProSystem, which I got for my birthday in early 1988 along with a number of 7800 and 2600 games. Off-hand, from what I can recall, MARIA and the Atari 7800 dates back to around 1983 or so, when the next console beyond the 5200 became a top priority within Atari.

While I cannot answer specifically, however I do remember reading in magazines (published somewhat later than this first article from EGM) that the Atari Panther was extremely powerful. I thought I recall reading some of the specs were, something like, Panther could handle 65,535 sprites on the screen at once. (vs the Mega Drive's 80, the Neo Geo's 380 and SNES's 128). Also that Panther's color palette was 262,144, with a maximum of 8192 colors on screen at once. Compared to the Neo Geo's palette of 65,536 colors and maximum of 4096 colors on screen at once. The CPU was something like 14 (or faster, maybe 16 MHz), but still 16-bit I believe. A 16 MHz 68000. But extremely fancy graphics hardware and some sound hardware with alot of channels I guess. Here are some articles I managed to find online. I'll keep posting anything else on Panther that I think might be interesting. EGM Game Players New Computer Express The Atari Book: 40th Anniversary Special http://www.ausretrogamer.com/atari-panther-the-extinct-cat/

Best advertising there was in 1989. Even better than the 1989/1990 official Sega Genesis commercials. It was on Nickelodeon. It's Greg Lee doing the most freaking hilarious shhkit - From a Nickelodeon show called Total Panic. Only one thing from 1989 tops that running impression of Ghouls 'N Ghosts. And it's an official TurboGrafx-16 commercial for Legendary Axe. But still, I'll never freaking forget seeing this on television as a 13 yo "Verily I have defeated you. Look! A key. Princess!, I'm coming." Bwuuuuhahahahahaha! Er...Uhohhhhhh "still hears dismay radiating from the breakfast table* "Ugggggggggggg WTF are you watching ????????!!! " HahahaHaHaha LOL. Ahem, sorry, I had to register and share this. Thanks for the welcomes in advance!