BigO Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambouis de l'Atari Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 (edited) Common behaviour you'll also notice in Space Invaders for example. Probably a technical constraint : ) Edited April 5, 2019 by Cambouis de l'Atari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoundGammon Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambouis de l'Atari Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 The score is made from playfield, not from players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dark-aleph Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambouis de l'Atari Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 No they don't flicker : ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dark-aleph Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 I'll never be able to un-notice this now. At least with Circus Atari, having things a little off-kilter seems appropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigO Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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