2 ms·
Of course the game designers would have preferred the highest-resolution display available. Unfortunately, the hardware of the time could barely keep up with t
by joezydeco 10y ago
Of course the game designers would have preferred the highest-resolution display available.
Unfortunately, the hardware of the time could barely keep up with the graphics. If the hardware wasn't generating graphics on the fly (like the early Namco, Nintendo, and Midway systems), it needed a large chunk of DRAM for the framebuffer, which was even more expensive.
Some systems like the early Williams units economized by using a 4bpp buffer combined with palette hardware, but you were still taking nearly 48K of RAM, which was a sea of chips back then.
A VGA-sized buffer on this system would need 150K of RAM. That's triple the cost! HD 1280p? 10x the cost not to mention pixel clock speed, which the TTL chips of the time just couldn't do.