C64 Boulder Dash should've blown away the Atari 8-Bit original

[Foebane]

So Boulder Dash on Atari is limited to five colours on-screen max, although they can be any one of 128 colours each from the palette, right? But the C64 is unlimited in its graphical scope and that in lo-res and hi-res mixed, all 16 colours can be prominently featured, with the only limitation being a max of three colours (and transparency) in each 4x8 lo-res character, right?

In that case, I wonder why, when they converted the game to C64, didn't they just assign different colours to the boulders, diamonds, fireflies, butterflies, brick walls, Rockford, etc? It would've looked amazingly colourful and versatile and made the Atari version look like utter crap.

Did they leave it for compatibility's sake? Or does the extra colour information eat up too much memory? I didn't think the latter mattered.

Or has this been done already? I haven't seen anything, but then I wouldn't know what to search for.

[britelite]

Originally Posted by Foebane

But the C64 is unlimited in its graphical scope and that in lo-res and hi-res mixed, all 16 colours can be prominently featured, with the only limitation being a max of three colours (and transparency) in each 4x8 lo-res character, right?

To mix hires and lores (without any special tricks) you have to use the character mode, which is more limited in how the colors can be used. You have one background color shared by all characters, one unique color for both hires and lores characters (with the limitation that it has to be one of the 8 first colors in the palette, as the highest bit is used for setting lores/hires for that character). And finally all lores-characters have two additional colors that are shared between all of the characters.

So, effectively you have three colors shared for the whole screen, with only only one unique color per character.

[saimon69]

hmm, thought you can change individually the background color too - at least with some assembly trick (might be too slow for gaming, hence is mostly used on display of pictures)

[britelite]

Originally Posted by saimon69

hmm, thought you can change individually the background color too - at least with some assembly trick (might be too slow for gaming, hence is mostly used on display of pictures)

Yes, all the shared colors can be changed with raster tricks, but I thought I'd keep the explanation simple

[d4rk3lf]

Originally Posted by saimon69

hmm, thought you can change individually the background color too

hah.... just had a flashback...
poke 53281,x
in Basic

Funny how I forgot phone numbers, but I remember this from 25 years a go.

[Hewitson]

More colours doesnt necessarily equal better looking graphics.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by britelite

To mix hires and lores (without any special tricks) you have to use the character mode, which is more limited in how the colors can be used. You have one background color shared by all characters, one unique color for both hires and lores characters (with the limitation that it has to be one of the 8 first colors in the palette, as the highest bit is used for setting lores/hires for that character). And finally all lores-characters have two additional colors that are shared between all of the characters.

So, effectively you have three colors shared for the whole screen, with only only one unique color per character.

What if it's lo-res only? The idea I had was to keep the graphical bitmaps intact, sorry I didn't make that clear before.

[britelite]

Originally Posted by Foebane

What if it's lo-res only? The idea I had was to keep the graphical bitmaps intact, sorry I didn't make that clear before.

Same limitations apply if the game runs in character mode (which it most likely does), even if it's only in lores. When using bitmap mode, the usual shared background + three unique colors per character block apply.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

More colours doesnt necessarily equal better looking graphics.

Agreed. The genius of Marc Coleman for the early Bitmap Brothers stuff in 16 colours still boggles my bloody mind today.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by britelite

Same limitations apply if the game runs in character mode (which it most likely does), even if it's only in lores. When using bitmap mode, the usual shared background + three unique colors per character block apply.

Interesting.