Not sure how it worked on the Vectrex, but I am familiar with Atari vector arcade games (used to own a Tempest and Asteroids machine). In them, they used a display controller that utilized a display list of coordinates, colors, etc and IIRC it even had the ability to do jumps, etc.... probably similar in concept to how the CTIA/GTIA would work on the Atari home computers with their display lists. Certainly a lot less data to write than a framebuffer or pattern-generated display. In the case of the Asteroids game, it's resolution was around 1024x800ish, pretty high res for the day.
I can imagine that they employed a similar vector generator on the Vectrex. On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at 1:47 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk < [email protected]> wrote: > On 03/24/2017 08:34 AM, Alexandre Souza via cctalk wrote: > > Well...there is some description in english, google translate is a > > very useful tool and the post has a pertinent video. I cannot view it > > as spam. Anyway...sorry for bothering :) > > I rather enjoyed the Vectrex story--and yes, Google translate works > pretty well. > > I remember when the Vectrex came out--and I wondered how well an MPU of > the day could keep up with drawing relatively complex game displays, > since, unlike a raster display, the vector display has to be > continuously regenerated. It clearly worked. > > Thanks for the narrative, > Chuck > >
