Re: [stella] applications

Subject: Re: [stella] applications
From: Rob <kudla@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 22:54:15 -0500
At 05:14 PM 1/6/01 -0800, Glenn Saunders wrote:
>sequences using Suicide Mission graphics.  He was convinced he could store 
>a meaningful chunk of compressed dithered 1-bit video into a 6K 
>Supercharger load.

I think you could do meaningful FMV, maybe a couple seconds' worth, in
40x50 playfield graphics.  The resolution wouldn't be much worse than those
kiddie camcorders that came out a couple of years ago, and the smoothness
might fool the eye into thinking the resolution's better.  That way it's a
page per frame and you could probably get a simple kernel and 24-28 frames
of video into a 4K image...  but the Suicide Mission method, while
requiring RAM, would probably look better (though the alternating scanlines
might be distracting, and you're intrinsically limited to 15fps.)

>I think a WAP viewer might be doable...

Oh, I have no doubt it is, on the display side.  I'd certainly rather look
at a 2600's output than, say, my cell phone.  

The reason I left it to the hardware hackers is the interface for getting
the data to the 2600 in the first place.  I'm envisioning a FIFO like on
any PC serial card, mapped to some RAM on the cartridge, which comes out to
like 4 bytes per kilobit of bandwidth assuming the program can clear the
buffer once a frame.  (I'm not at all sure that's possible given the
relative complexity of WAP compared to plain text, but at least it was
meant for cheap embedded devices to be able to parse it.)  But I've made
more second-degree burns than successful solders in my life, so that part
of the project's not for me.

Rob

kudla@xxxxxxxxx ... http://kudla.org/raindog ... Rob


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