5 ms·
There was an excellent article by Benj Edwards about Computer Space and Dabney's contribution to video game history, including the invention of the "slipping co
by sehugg 8y ago
There was an excellent article by Benj Edwards about Computer Space and Dabney's contribution to video game history, including the invention of the "slipping counter" circuit that moved onscren objects on this game and Pong: https://www.technologizer.com/2011/12/11/computer-space-and-the-dawn-of-the-arcade-video-game/ https://www.technologizer.com/2011/12/11/computer-space-and-...
“Nolan came to me one time and he said, ‘On a TV set, when you turn the vertical hold on the TV, the picture will go up, and if you turn it the other way, it goes down. Why does it do that?’ I explained it to him. It was the difference between the sync and the picture timing. He said, ‘Could we do that with some control?’ I said, ‘Yeah, we probably can, but we’d have to do it digitally, because analog would not be linear.'”
- sehugg 8y agoThe Atari 2600 has this same kind of circuit for its two 8x1 sprites and two 1x1 missiles, at least for the horizontal motion part (HMOVE). To save silicon, it uses a polynomial counter / LFSR instead of 4-bit counter ICs.