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How "oldschool" graphics worked Part 1 - Commodore and Nintendo

The 8-Bit Guy · 5.7M views · 2015-08-17 · 7:08

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Overview

The 8-Bit Guy explains the color limitations of 1980s computers and consoles such as the NES and Commodore 64. It shows how sprites, attributes and palettes shaped the look of old games.

On Hacker News

Recommended as a clear, approachable explanation of how retro graphics hardware actually worked.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2015–2019

Topics

Demoscene & retrocomputingGame history & retro gamingComputer architecture & CPUs
Search by tags
nescommodore 64spritescolor limitations8-bit

What people said

dannypgh · 2019-09 · Recommendation

This is a nice companion to [VIDEO] which deals with more technical details of the implementation of NES and C64 graphics. This document reads like requirements to that video's design.

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valtism · 2019-03 · Recommendation

I believe that this is the same techniques that were covered in the excelent series "How oldschool graphics worked"[1] [1] [VIDEO]

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corysama · 2015-12 · Recommendation

You would like this: "How 'oldschool' graphics worked Part 1 - Commodore and Nintendo" [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by The 8-Bit Guy, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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