[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: NES - Apple Sprite card
Yves McDonald wrote:
Right on, I have the sprite card at home but never tried it. It was
designed by Steve Ciarcia and introduced in the late Byte magazine.
Resolution was inferior to Apple's high res mode (256 horizontal pixels
vs 280) but it definitely had more colors (up to 16). All you could
program were sprites of 8x8 or 16x16 pixel resolution. To build an
image such as game backdrop, you have to 'tile' sprites.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "tile".
The 9918/28 VDP had 32 different "layers" that were "stacked" one on top
of another. A single sprite only could be on a layer. The result was you
could "paint" a scene on the lowest "layer" and various sprites moving
about so that you had a 3D effect (a sprite shaped like a plane would
move "behind" a sprite shaped like a cloud, or in front of another "cloud"
There were supposed to be games that would use the sprite board, but
I've never seen one. I think there were also varieties that had the Echo
"card", or some other sound "card", mounted on the same card as the
sprite board. One slot used with superior color and graphics (but fewer
pixels) as well as enhanced sound capabilites.
Again, if someone had the skill and interest, I don't doubt they could
use the video and sound chips from an NES and have them run on the II.
But it would be a real bootstrap operation.
God bless you, I'd buy one.
Roy
I haven't found any use for it yet. It's a unique collector item :)
Cheers!
Yves
Once upon a time, there was a video board sold for the Apple II that
had a video processor that worked something like the PPU, it was the
9918a/28 from TI that was used in the TI 99/4a and the Coleco ADAM
(among other computers.)
It MIGHT be possible to design a video card with the PPU pulled from
NESs, however, there would be no software to support it (there was so
little for 9918 card that it never really sold well, except for an
excellent Logo.)
Roy
-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 80,000 Newsgroups - 16 Different Servers! =-----