From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npoiv!npois!cbosgd!mark
Newsgroups: net.games.video
Title: Re: Atari 2600 games in general
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.2986
Posted: Friday, 14-Jan-83 14:06:16 EST
Received: Sun Jan 16 05:25:08 1983
References: <413@rocheste.UUCP>

The problem with the graphics on the 2600 is that the horizontal
resolution is only 40 pixels, each about 1/2 inch wide.  And as
if that isn't bad enough, you are restricted in that the right
hand 20 pixels are either a copy of the left 20 or their mirror
image!

As far as I know, the only exceptions to this are the sprites,
of which there are 5.  (Player 1, Player 2, Missile 1, Missile 2,
and the ball.  These have a reasonable resolution, but other
severe restrictions.  They do have a hack for 2 or 3 copies and
extra width, which explains why so many things come in threes.

The cleverest 2600 games use the sprites for different things on
different scan lines - for instance, Frogger uses the same sprite
for different logs/trucks/turtles on different rows.  With only
4K of ROM and 256 bytes of RAM to work with, you can't expect much.
However, I am at a loss to explain how Star Raiders managed to get
the stars to move so well across the background.