Remix.run Logo
somat 14 hours ago

I do want to point out that the 2600 was at it's heart a slightly generalized pong machine, to the degree that I don't find it surprising that you can make pong in 6 lines of 2600 basic.

The 2600 graphics were centered around 5 sprites dedicated to two players, two missiles, and a ball. Completely understandable, they were trying to make a toy computer affordable enough for everyone in 1975. but their design process was basically "what is the bare minimum video hardware required to make the games "combat" and "pong". Every single game found on the 2600 that is not a combat or pong clone is probably a masterwork example of making the hardware do something it was not intended for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_Interface_Adaptor

Footnote: yes I know it was released in 1977, but it was designed in 1975.