3 ms·
:) The 2600 is a bit different than the 8-bit computer lines (400, 800, etc.). On the computers you have an ANTIC chip that drives the CTIA/GTIA using instruct
by tenebrisalietum 6y ago
:) The 2600 is a bit different than the 8-bit computer lines (400, 800, etc.). On the computers you have an ANTIC chip that drives the CTIA/GTIA using instructions in display lists. On the 2600 the CPU has to program the TIA directly and basically in realtime.
- karmakaze 6y agoYes, the 2600 doesn't have enough memory for anything else. Did some scanline timed programming on the 400 as well. In one job had a similar case of less memory than output area with a laser printer engine. It had a short memory buffer where the laser would wrap around many times while printing a page. The trick was to split up all the input commands into output object slices that were short enough to fit into a band of the buffer, order them, and paint them just-in-time, wrapping around the bottom of the short buffer to the top. The lower-end HP LaserJets had a similar implementation that would get the dreaded 'print overrun' error.