Atari 2600 High-Res Graphics

Spurred on by discussions in the Stella Atari 2600 Programming List on how to force the Atari 2600 to generate an interlaced display, programmer Billy Eno (Warring Worms) put together the first binary using this technique, giving double the normal vertical screen resolution on the 2600. This technique allows the Atari 2600 to achieve a resolution of 525 lines vs. 262 that all existing 2600 games have been limited to.

Credit for this achievement can be attributed to many participants in the Stella list, but Billy was the first one to demonstrate it on real hardware. A new version of the Atari 2600 emulator z26 has been released with support for two demos that have been written thus far. You can download Billy's demo here, and a demo from Glenn Saunders (along with source) here.

This development should allow the creation of games with double the vertical resolution previously allowed. It's even possible that older games can be modified to take advantage of this new technique. You can discuss this achievement with other AtariAge visitors in our Atari 2600 Forum.

Actual video capture of Glenn's demo running on an Atari 2600 (thanks to Glenn Saunders):

Screen capture taken in z26 (thanks to John Saeger):