Circus Score Display

[BigO]

After umpteen years playing this game, tonight I finally noticed that characters in the score display are vertically offset from one another by a scanline.

[Cambouis de l'Atari]

Common behaviour you'll also notice in Space Invaders for example. Probably a technical constraint : )

Edited April 5, 2019 by Cambouis de l'Atari

[SoundGammon]

It's the venetian blind effect, first used in Video Chess.

 

Bob Whitehead created it to be able to get past the limit of 4 objects on the same scan line.

 

By off setting each piece in chess, he was able to get all 8 pieces on the screen row together, 4 on every other scan line!

[Cambouis de l'Atari]

The score is made from playfield, not from players.

[dark-aleph]

Huh. I'm genuinely surprised I've never noticed it either - in Circus Atari or other games.

 

Does the vertical separation oscillate? Are the middle two digits up on one draw cycle and then down on the next, and the end digits vice versa?

 

This would give the illusion of horizontal alignment, and also make the crossbars on the digits look closer in thickness to the verticals. Is this why I've never noticed it?

[Cambouis de l'Atari]

No they don't flicker : )

[dark-aleph]

I'll never be able to un-notice this now. At least with Circus Atari, having things a little off-kilter seems appropriate.

[BigO]

Once I saw it, I realized it must be a way around technical constraints and the Venetian Blinds effect did come to mind but I never really understood what it meant nor did I realize it was a "back in the day" thing.

Now I know. And, yeah, I'll never be able to un-notice either. Probably will never be able to wrap the score again due to the distraction of the score display.