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Play movies on your OG Atari 2600

Kdad

Member

Don't bother asking why. The more interesting question is how! Lodef Mode built a cartridge that enables you to play full movies using a vintage Atari 2600 console attached to your TV. Demo below! It's called the MovieCart and you can buy one or make your own with the info on GitHub.

"This started as simpler project in 2017 to see how far I could push the concept of full motion graphics on a nearly 50 year old machine never intended to show full motion graphics," Lodef Mode explains.

 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Video quality reminds me of the stills of those Sega CD FMV games I’d see in mags.
Definitely a “But why?” project, but hey, people get Doom running on pregnancy tests.
 

Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
Well it's not using the Atari's resolution as that is capped at 160 x 192 pixels. Carts are capped at 64kb. This movie is wayyy more than 160x192
 

Kdad

Member
Well it's not using the Atari's resolution as that is capped at 160 x 192 pixels. Carts are capped at 64kb. This movie is wayyy more than 160x192
Two fields are alternated at 60 frames per second. Each field consists of a checkerboard pattern of 10 x 262 cells. Each cell contains one of 128 colours and is 8 pixels wide by 1 pixel deep. This produces an effective resolution of 80 x 262 @ 30 frames per second, with 10 colors per line.

Sound is 4 bit mono produced at 15.720 KHz.

That if from Github...though it might be a mistype and should be 10x192 and effective 80x192 as elswhere it states: Boasting an impressive 80 x 192 resolution, 7 bit color and 4 bit monaural audio, begin building your full length feature film library today
 
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Rudius

Member
Two fields are alternated at 60 frames per second. Each field consists of a checkerboard pattern of 10 x 262 cells. Each cell contains one of 128 colours and is 8 pixels wide by 1 pixel deep. This produces an effective resolution of 80 x 262 @ 30 frames per second, with 10 colors per line.

Sound is 4 bit mono produced at 15.720 KHz.

That if from Github...though it might be a mistype and should be 10x192 and effective 80x192 as elswhere it states: Boasting an impressive 80 x 192 resolution, 7 bit color and 4 bit monaural audio, begin building your full length feature film library today
It would have been better than nothing at the late 70's
 

Deerock71

Member

Don't bother asking why.
Ryan Reynolds Reaction GIF
 

DaGwaphics

Member
:messenger_tears_of_joy:

If they had figured this out back in the day, Atari would have sold it as a feature. Reminds me of some of those crazy video playback and camera toys they used to sell with ridiculous quality.
 
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