>> Yeah. BTW, why real sprites are so scarcely used on and beyond MSX2?
>> If Spectrum users were given a single sprite...
>
>Some reasons:
>1) They're 'only' 16x16 pixels max
>2) Only one color per pixel line
>3) max 8 sprites (4 on MSX1, if I recall correctly) per horizontal line
Luxury.
These are pretty standard sprite limitations, not much different from a 1st
gen Amiga.
The Atari 2600 VCS had the most limited sprite machinery on earth: just a
couple of "players" (aka dull bars) and a couple of "missiles" (aka square
balls). It even has NO FRAME BUFFER, so you are actually FRAMEFORMING the
TV picture by poking the video DACs as the electron beam sweeps the screen,
wasting 80% of the CPU bandwidth (!!!).
Despite that, many big colorful SMOOTH sprites and backdrops were featured
in some games.
It's just a matter of clever programming. Trust me, it's not that difficult.
>Which means that you're _very_ much limited in the use of many beautiful
>large colorful 'sprites' on screen.
Very much limited if you have a dull programming style.
>> but there're means to overcome them (at least to some extent, look Shadow
>> of the Beast and Turrican on Amiga)
>
>Never seen them ...
That somewhat explains your point of view. You should have a dekko at them.
Big colorful SMOOTH sprites by clever using of the limited sprite
resources. I even got a *whole separated playfield* on an Amiga by clever
reusing of these resources by the display coprocessor. Something similar
could be made on MSX by using chained display interrupts.
>> but I keep coming across bitmap-only *JERKY* moving objects which give
>> games an early 90s PC-wise look & feel.
>
>Which is IMHO still better than the 'fluent' moving, lacking color
>halfway 80-s look & feel you'll get using real sprites :-)
So what's the point of having an MSX? PC games are like that, and also can
emulate an out-of-sync MSX 8;)
Will jerky movement also list as a FEATURE together with 100% SPRITE-FREE GAME?
Now's when a hilarious sentence like "jerky movements are more NATURAL, we
don't move pixel by pixel in real life" appears 8;)
Kiss you lot.
--
Madonna Mark Two
"Martin Galway means to me what Elvis meant to Sigue Sigue Sputnik"
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