I guess it was easy to put in something like an optional shift right by three to compose scan line number and column number when fetching attributes, hence to allow Mode 1 and 2, but would have been harder to have alternative attribute interpretation logic? I'm unsure why they decided to go bright + flash in the Spectrum, to be honest. Was flashing a must have feature of the 1982 computer market?
I think I'm right to say the American Timex machines have the equivalent of Mode 2? A pretend 64x96 mode could allow for some neat effects. I'll wager you could do Wolfenstein in it, based on the CPC seemingly being to cope in its 64-bytes-for-128-pixels mode, per YouTube. Following that line of logic through, anything on the CPC that isn't using a hardware scroll should be an option. 2012/4/24 James R Curry <8...@itdoesntsuck.com>: > The strangest decision regarding Mode 2 is keeping the BRIGHT and FLASH > attributes. Without those, the Ink and Paper colours could each be any of > the sixteen colours. As it is, the select colours have to both be in the > range 0-7 or 8-15, not one in each range. > > Incidentally, has anyone thought about clever use of Mode 2 and attributes > to create a game that runs at a super low resolution, like 64 x 96 (using > 4x2 pixel blocks)? > > It could run at a high frame rate... it might be an interesting experiment