Comment by EvanAnderson
8 hours ago
You might be thinking of another system (like the NES, perhaps), because the C64 has 160x100 and 320x200 bitmap modes.
8 hours ago
You might be thinking of another system (like the NES, perhaps), because the C64 has 160x100 and 320x200 bitmap modes.
Even on NES a lot of games use CHR-RAM so arbitrary bitmaps are at least possible, though only a small part of the screen is unique without some rarely used mapper hardware. Zelda and Metroid mostly just use this to compress the graphics in ROM, Qix is a simple example with line drawing, Elite is an extreme one.
I made a demo of the Mystify screensaver using the typical 8KB CHR-RAM. Even with a lot of compromises it has pretty large borders to avoid running out of unique tiles. https://youtube.com/watch?v=1_MymcLeew8
Elite is my go-to example for madness in a tile-based grapgics system. Watching the CHR-RAM in an emulator while Elite is running is mesmerizing.