128 bytes and no framebuffer. They had to "race the beam" ... but the VCS was not as fast as the beam, which is why Atari 2600 games always have a horizontally

128 bytes and no framebuffer. They had to "race the beam" ... but the VCS was not as fast as the beam, which is why Atari 2600 games always have a horizontally stretched look to them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_the_Beam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_the_Beam "The book's title comes from the fact that the Atari 2600, initially branded the VCS (Video Computer System), did not have a video frame buffer, and required the programmers to write each line of video to the television, one line at a time. As there were only a limited number of machine cycles in which to do this, the programmers were literally racing a high speed electron beam across the screen."