orc123
New member
Hi,
I am pretty amazed with the tech. specs of some arcade machines.
For sure, there were also some home technologies used in arcades - Playchoice, Megatech, etc.
Also, not all machines were oriented at state of art technology (some types of games did not need it at all, and some manufacturers used 8bit CPUs quite a long time), but some technologies were pretty amazing.
Lets say - state of art arcade tech.:
1 or even 2 68000 at 10-12 Mhz
dedicated Z80 sound CPU
some FM chip (Yamaha), DAC for sample playback
lots of colors and sprites/scalling/tile support:
15 bit or later 16 bit palette (based on subpalettes, but totally 32-65 tousand of colors)
512, 2048, 4096 upto approx. 6700 colors on screen at once
RAM had not to be too large, because everything was loaded "on the run" as necessary
Excellent home comp (85-90, but the 8bits were probably still the mainstream).
68000 at 7 Mhz, no dedicated sound CPU (Z80 at Megadrive)
16-32 colors at once (well Amiga had halfbright and HAM modes also, but not very comonly used, Megadrive 64 but with subpalettes)
512-4096 color palette
special modes to show whole palette (bwith limitations)
3-4 chanel sound chip - PAULA, AY, Megadrive FM
later (87, but popularised more later), PC VGA was close to arcade look (256 colors, 262000 colors - 18bit palette)
Generally - more colors (or at least - early - colors without strict attribute/colors per line limitations), more and bigger sprites, more details (mainly compared to cartridges - cartridge size/cost was probably limiting factor).
The question is - was the main motivation to offer better sounding and more colorful technology (and games) in arcades compared to the home computers (man can afford in that time)? When you could play just the same quality as at home, would you visit the arcade?
Thanks for your opinion.
I am pretty amazed with the tech. specs of some arcade machines.
For sure, there were also some home technologies used in arcades - Playchoice, Megatech, etc.
Also, not all machines were oriented at state of art technology (some types of games did not need it at all, and some manufacturers used 8bit CPUs quite a long time), but some technologies were pretty amazing.
Lets say - state of art arcade tech.:
1 or even 2 68000 at 10-12 Mhz
dedicated Z80 sound CPU
some FM chip (Yamaha), DAC for sample playback
lots of colors and sprites/scalling/tile support:
15 bit or later 16 bit palette (based on subpalettes, but totally 32-65 tousand of colors)
512, 2048, 4096 upto approx. 6700 colors on screen at once
RAM had not to be too large, because everything was loaded "on the run" as necessary
Excellent home comp (85-90, but the 8bits were probably still the mainstream).
68000 at 7 Mhz, no dedicated sound CPU (Z80 at Megadrive)
16-32 colors at once (well Amiga had halfbright and HAM modes also, but not very comonly used, Megadrive 64 but with subpalettes)
512-4096 color palette
special modes to show whole palette (bwith limitations)
3-4 chanel sound chip - PAULA, AY, Megadrive FM
later (87, but popularised more later), PC VGA was close to arcade look (256 colors, 262000 colors - 18bit palette)
Generally - more colors (or at least - early - colors without strict attribute/colors per line limitations), more and bigger sprites, more details (mainly compared to cartridges - cartridge size/cost was probably limiting factor).
The question is - was the main motivation to offer better sounding and more colorful technology (and games) in arcades compared to the home computers (man can afford in that time)? When you could play just the same quality as at home, would you visit the arcade?
Thanks for your opinion.
Last edited: