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It wouldn't surprise me if there were 8-bit computers that could. On the other hand, I would find it surprising if there were 8-bit computers that could. At lea
by II2II 2y ago
It wouldn't surprise me if there were 8-bit computers that could. On the other hand, I would find it surprising if there were 8-bit computers that could. At least for choosing 256 colours out of a larger palette.
Keep in mind that 8-bit computers were limited to 64 kB of memory unless they used tricks like banking. It looks like the CPC used about 16 kB for video memory. Bumping it up to 8-bit colour at the lowest resolution would require 32 kB for video memory. (Adding a palette to that would fit into the rounding error.) Even if that memory wasn't directly addressable by the processor, the cost of RAM was another reason why those 8-bit machines were memory constrained.
- rbanffy 2y ago> Keep in mind that 8-bit computers were limited to 64 kB of memory Video memory is not always mapped to the CPU's memory space. A lot of 8-bit computers had dedicated VPDs with their own memory (the TI-99 is a pathological case of that - where the CPU had almost no memory and BASIC programs ran from the VDP's memory). MSX2 computers can, AFAIK, display 256 colours out of a 512 colour space (and, unlike their 1.x predecessors, VRAM can be banked into the CPU memory space.