Graphics (pictures) on the ATARI 2600

[Lord-Chaos]

Another question :

 

many games use all the players+missiles maybe for "bigger" title screens.

 

For example "Rampage" , vor the long vertical "Rampage" text.

 

The ATARI 800 can display 40*240 pixels (5 players * 8pixel , player 5 = the 4 missiles) with its players/missiles only , 4 players/4 missiles.

 

So the ATARI can display 8+8+2+2=20 pixels*2xx if you put all players/missiles together ?

 

On the ATARI 800 it´s possible to display each player/missile 2 times/line with a little flicker (if you choose the right colors , this is no problem ).

 

Is it possible to do this on the ATARI 2600 to increase "resolution" ?

 

Another possibility is to use one player only in odd and another in even lines , but this doesn´t look very good.I think they´ve used this technique in video chess , but for pictures it wouldn´t be good.

 

Another idea is to use some sort of interlacing,but interlacing means flicker.

 

I want to use "pictures" for a title screen only , not for moving objects.

 

This may be also interesting for some sort of game where no moving objects appear.

 

Thimo

[EricBall]

The 2600 has the following graphics available:

2*20 bit playfield (each bit is 4 pixels wide)

two 8 bit players (which may be 8,16 or 32 pixels wide or duplicated 2 or 3 times)

two 1 bit missiles (which may be 1,2,4 or 8 pixels wide)

one 1 bit ball (which may be 1,2,4 or 8 pixels wide)

 

playfield:

- fills the entire screen width, but low horizontal resolution

- same registers used for left & right halves

- code must update registers on the fly, very little time for anything else

 

players:

- max 48 bits wide (both players, three copies each)

- (for max width) code must update registers on the fly, very little time for anything else

- repositioning requires a blank line and causes black HMOVE line at left edge

 

missiles & ball:

- no real capabilities; might be used to fill-out playfield or add extra width to players

- difficult to squeeze enable/disable logic into tight playfield & player routines

 

The other problem with "high" resolution graphics is the size of the ROM lookup tables required. The easy way is for the kernel to simply copy data from the ROM to the playfield or player registers. However, this requires > 1K of data for full vertical resolution.

 

Note: Colour is an entirely separate problem. Changing colours also requires time. Each sprite is a single colour and it is very, very difficult to change colours on more than a line by line basis.

[Paul Slocum]

The Marble Craze title screen uses a combination of playfield and both player and missile graphics to draw a large hi-res logo.

 

http://www.atariage.com/screenshot_page.ht...areLabelID=2349

 

Mr. Roboto uses a 2 part flickering 48 pixel display (like Stella Sketch) to get a 96 pixel wide logo.

 

http://www.atariage.com/hack_page.html?Sys...ftwareHackID=59

 

-Paul

[mos6507]

Another approach is the "stipple" graphics or dithered look of Suicide Mission, which pretty much requires Starpath RAM to pull off, but has the advantage of spanning the entire width of the screen.

 

The late Jim Nitchals thought he could compress a few seconds of full motion video downconverted into 1-bit graphics using the Suicide Mission graphics method.