Graphics In 256-Colour Modes In 1981

Here is a little piece of history about computers like the BBC Micro.

Just as the first BBC Micro home computers were being carted off to retail stores, homes and schools throughout Europe and USA, Nintendo already implemented a graphics mode with 256 colours for its smash-hit commercial video arcade game, Donkey Kong, in 1981. It had 224 × 256 resolution. The screen mode would be similar to the MODE 13 on one of the later BBC Micros and successors like the Archimedes.

Meh. Radar Scope was released two years earlier and it had 521 colours. Actually the Donkey Kong games were often repurposed Radar Scope units, as jumping barrels was more fun.

That said, how much do you imagine a full size arcade machine cost? That’s why they manage hundreds of colours while contemporary home computers did eight.
Meanwhile, IBM introduced the MDA graphics adapter in 1981. An enormous monster based upon the same Motorola 6845 as numerous home computers. Only MDA offered no pixel level graphics, only text. And the M means monochrome. WTF? Thankfully CGA came quickly.

521 colors? According to Wikipedia, that’s 768 colors, Rick.

Yes, Rick, as I confirmed when reading on Wikipedia, the first of the BBC Micro computers only displayed 8 colors. But before long the number of colors doubled to 16. BBC Micros left the USA market after about a couple of years after debut due to the Big Video Game Crash in 1983. In 1985 Nintendo conjured up a new graphics chip set like the VDG from the BBC Micro’s previous design guise, the Atom, but it upgraded the colour palette to 32 colors while retaining the 256 × 192 resolution. The sound generation chip went from 1 channel to 5 voice channels. That new sound chip was similar to Commodore’s SID 6581. Then it created three home consoles; the Family Computer, or FAMICOM, the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System,) and the NAVS (Nintendo Advanced Video System.) The last was sort of like a heavily upgraded BBC Micro computer, though with just 8 function keys instead of 10. The first two consoles sold on a regular basis. The last one was apparently rendered stillborn. The failure of the Atari 7800, aimed at the Commodore 64GS and the XEGS, aimed at the Commodore 64C, meant that Nintendo felt the NAVS wouldn’t sell any better despite having superior specifications. The FAMICOM only sold in Japan. But the Raspberry Pi itself cut down the jobs with electronics circuit boards we would have been stuck with since the 1980s to just breadboards but making custom circuit boards is still feasible and renewed, thanks to new 3D printing technology. The GPIO ports on the Raspberry Pi makes it into very much a complete combination of home computer and electronics project lab! So instead of an Elenco 500-in-1 Project Lab, the Raspberry Pi is like an “infinity”-In-1 Project Lab! One of the more interesting challenges to use the GPIO ports is to create gaming joystick switching and pushbutton arrays for video game cabinets. I couldn’t get the Ultimarc USB-port joystick module to work on the Raspberry Pi with RISC OS, so perhaps the tinkering with the GPIO pins can help to create a joystick and pushbutton control panel for gaming. I need a copy of the set of SWI calls for working with the GPIO ports.

According to Wikipedia, that’s 768 colors, Rick.

Used? Available? Possible in hardware? After all, the Archimedes has 4096 colours…

BBC Micros left the USA market after about a couple of years after debut due to the Big Video Game Crash in 1983.

Your timing is off. The BBC Micro debut in America was Autumn 1984. It probably didn’t do well because over there they had the very popular Apple II, which I’ve seen turn up in various movies and TV programmes set back then, but I’ve never seen or heard of anybody in the UK with one.
Here, the Beeb. There, the Apple II.

over there they had the very popular Apple II, which I’ve seen turn up in various movies and TV programmes set back then, but I’ve never seen or heard of anybody in the UK with one.

Interesting. Growing up in NZ it was common to find the various Apple II models in schools. But unlike in the US, I had at least heard of Acorn even though I didn’t actually see one until later.