Black Bars

[Gregory DG]

What's with the black bars on the far left of certain 2600 games?

 

[CPUWIZ]

http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18045

 

[Bryan]

Greg, you don't know this one?

 

I'm reading the topic CPU listed... and it isn't so much a bug, but rather a "feature" the designers thought no one would see (because you'd never need more than 2 movable objects, right??).

 

I read that you can actually do an HMOVE and not get the lines, but you have to time it yourself (do it just prior to where WSYNC would put you).

 

-Bry

[Gregory DG]

Greg, you don't know this one?

Erm... No. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a 2600 programming genius. A genius with everything else, just not the 2600. :wink:

[Bryan]

Well, the short answer is that when you go reusing the Players multiple times per screen, you get those lines. TIA's designers planned for player movement to be done during off-screen time, so the lines would never appear.

 

At least there is a way to reuse the Players, or the 2600 would not have lasted as long as it did.

 

-Bry

[Great Hierophant]

Imagine if you couldn't reuse players, missiles or the ball. Games wouldn't get much more complex than Combat, Breakout and Pong.

[Ze_ro]

Well, that was Atari's original intention. They didn't think it would be a lasting thing, so two players, two missiles, and a ball seemed like plenty at the time. Sort of funny how people have found so many neat ways to get the system to do so much more than it was originally intended. I wonder what HSW, Bob Polaro and David Crane would think of the hoops Andrew Davie's managed to get the 2600 to jump through.

 

--Zero

[+Andrew Davie]

Well, that was Atari's original intention. They didn't think it would be a lasting thing, so two players, two missiles, and a ball seemed like plenty at the time. Sort of funny how people have found so many neat ways to get the system to do so much more than it was originally intended. I wonder what HSW, Bob Polaro and David Crane would think of the hoops Andrew Davie's managed to get the 2600 to jump through.

 

--Zero

800659[/snapback]

 

 

Just saw this reply. In actuality, I would seriously *love* to be able to show some demos to these guys and see what they think.

[+Random Terrain]

I always hated those stupid lines, especially when some games didn't have them. I wondered why some did and some didn't and if some games could get rid of them, why couldn't others?

[TheHoboInYourRoom]

However, it was very clever how the programmer of Circus Atari scrunched those black lines together to be the "jump-up portal" for the clowns to come out of. Cool idea right there.

[Nukey Shay]

I always hated those stupid lines, especially when some games didn't have them. I wondered why some did and some didn't and if some games could get rid of them, why couldn't others?

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Better display mean more complexity.  More complexity mean more development.  More development mean more money.  More money mean less profit.

[kisrael]

At least there is a way to reuse the Players, or the 2600 would not have lasted as long as it did.

800465[/snapback]

Very good point.

 

Coversely...a 2600 w/, say, 4 or 8 sets players and missiles...coulda been some AMAZING stuff.

 

Actually, even though I've programmed a game I only have a passing understanding of the black bars