Comment by ck2
20 days ago
Are there any articles on how vector graphics were developed for arcade games?
I vaguely remember there was also one home game console that attempted vector graphics but cannot remember the name
Was fascinated with it at the time but with only access to a TRS-80 such things were impossible to learn back then
Retro Game Mechanics Explained has a video about how the Asteroids vector generator worked and was coded for:
https://youtu.be/smStEPSRKBs?si=k_0u3NKCxCqZBc6w
Battlezone and later 3D games used different circuitry that generated vectors with analog circuitry and used a “math box” coprocessor based on Am2901 bit slice ALUs to help with the 3D math.
A really good start is Jed Margolin's website. He was a key engineer in Atari's vector hardware and software through the classic era.
https://www.jmargolin.com/
> home game console that attempted vector graphics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectrex
I had that vector based tank game for the early 90's pc