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.