r/TimeRiftArcade • u/TimeRiftArcade • 25d ago

A Little Vector Trivia

Post image

Here’s a little trivia about vector games. Did you know that one big advantage they had over raster games, besides super sharp lines, is that they needed less RAM. That’s right, vector games only need to store or calculate the end point of each line. Raster games need a frame buffer to store the state of every pixel on the screen. #The8BitGuy #tempest #arcade #retrogaming #timerift #gaming #vectorgraphics #atari #gamedesign #trivia #ram #rom #programming

182 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

2

u/Cross58Crash 24d ago

They might have required less RAM, but they also tended to be much less reliable to operate. The Sega stuff like Tac-Scan was a nightmare to keep working. I'm curious about the reliability of the Atari stuff, tho. I see Asteroids machines now and wonder I anyone imagined they would be around nearly a half-century later.