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> Look at this image of Pitfall, and notice how the tree canopy, tree trunks, ground, pit, and underground cave all show left-right symmetry. These are all buil
by corysama 4y ago
> Look at this image of Pitfall, and notice how the tree canopy, tree trunks, ground, pit, and underground cave all show left-right symmetry. These are all built from the playfield (plus additional tricks to be described later). The only sprites are Pitfall Harry, the vine he’s swinging from, the rolling log, and the scorpion.
I read in a similar article that the branches of the trees are too finely detailed to be drawn with the playfield layer. So, they are added on with sprites.
- Eleison23 4y ago[citation needed] for that assertion. Atari 2600 is extremely limited in the number of sprites available on-screen at the same time. If you've played Pac-Man then you know that 5 is too many, because all of the so-called "ghosts" are actually flickering. They're doing that not for a spooky effect, but because they can't be simultaneously displayed. That sort of sprite flicker doesn't happen in Pitfall!
- tom_ 4y agoThe sprites can be replicated by adjusting NUSIZn for the player of interest: https://archive.org/details/Atari_2600_TIA_Technical_Manual/page/n19/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/Atari_2600_TIA_Technical_Manual/... Looks like the tree branches could be two copies on the left, then two more on the right. Not much going on in that region so plenty of time. EDIT: presumably this bit: https://github.com/johnidm/asm-atari-2600/blob/8b613f3c4bc80d2dfec2c270395b0a97c992c9af/pitfall.asm#L484 https://github.com/johnidm/asm-atari-2600/blob/8b613f3c4bc80...
- corysama 4y agoYes, but the limitation is per-scanline, not per frame. Thus, “racing the beam”. The tree branches are above all the other sprites besides the swinging vine.