26 Jan
2010
26 Jan
'10
2:24 p.m.
Well, the GTIA/CTIA is actually the Player Missile Generator, it is also
the converter to take the digital data from an Antic and generate video
signals, it also handles collisions and produces keyboard key clicks --
those are its basic functions.
You need the ANTIC is the companion to the CTIA/GTIA, in fact the
functions original were meant to be combined, but the cost of going past
a 40 pin package were too expensive at the time, so the functions were
separated. ANTIC is a DMA controller besides handling graphics
displays and text modes as well as one of Atari's most power features,
its Display List.
Pokey was meant to handle analog controllers and keyboard input. It
also was the systems sound processor.
Digital control was handled by a standard 6532 PIA (Parallel Interface
Adapter)
Curt
Cameron Kaiser wrote:
I should add here that I have intentionally conflated ANTIC and GTIA. I
know that GTIA generates P/Ms, but I don't think I've seen any application
of ANTIC *without* GTIA/CTIA. (Curt would know, of course.)
When I was a kid, I had an Atari 800, and my best
friend Rob had a
Commodore 64. We'd fight back and forth all the time, but we both
loved showing off our systems to each other. He was always in awe of
the Atari's graphics, and I was always in awe of his C64's audio.
Mind you, I like ANTIC and POKEY, though ANTIC more than POKEY. I have
issues with player/missile graphics, but the palette and graphics modes
more than make up for those, and so do display lists.