I have made some research about hardware and graphics capabilities of the 8-bit generation consoles, and several interesting things came out.
This thread will be focused on hardware/graphics capabilities of those older console.
But first, if you missed the other parts, you can check generation comparisons here:
- Part 2: 16-bit Generation
- Part 3: 32/64-bit Generation
I have searched the web for data, mostly wikipedia, specialized sites, dev forums, old articles and lost in time interviews, but some data may be inaccurate or not. I have some skills in programming and OpenGL (mostly the fixed graphics pipeline) but I'm not an engineer or AAA developer so, if you, tech specialist guys of the forum, have better knowledge and better quality data feel free to post corrections and report errors!
Many of you probably already know about it, but let's take a look again just for fun :)
Group-1: Gameboy vs NES vs Master System vs PC Engine
| Gameboy | NES | Master System | PC Engine | |
|
Producer |
Nintendo |
Nintendo |
Sega |
NEC |
|
Year |
1989 |
1983 |
1985 |
1987 |
|
Lifespan |
1989-2003 |
1983-2003 |
1985-1991 |
1987-1994 |
|
Media |
ROM Cartridge | 64 KB ~ 1 MB |
ROM Cartridge | 8 KB ~ 1 MB |
ROM Cartridge | 128 KB ~ 4 MB or Sega Card | 8 KB ~ 32 KB |
ROM Cartridge | up to 2.5 MB |
|
Bit-Generation |
8-bit |
8-bit |
8-bit |
8/16-bit |
|
CPU |
Sharp LR35902 | 8-bit | 1.05 MHz | 0.62 MIPS |
Ricoh 2A03 | 8-bit | 1.79 MHz | 0.78 MIPS |
Zilog Z80A | 8-bit | 3.59 MHz | 0.53 MIPS |
Hudson HuC6280 | 8-bit | 7.16 MHz | 3.1 MIPS |
|
RAM |
8 KB onboard |
2 KB onboard + 8 KB on Cartridge + 1 KB (exp. chips MMC*) |
8 KB onboard |
8 KB onboard |
|
GPU |
Embedded PPU | 8-bit | 2.10 MHz |
Ricoh RP2C02 PPU | 8-bit | 5.37 MHz |
Sega VDP 315-5124 | 16-bit | 10.73 MHz |
Hudson VDC HuC6270A | 16-bit | 7.16 MHz |
|
GPU Co-Processor |
- |
- |
- |
Hudson VCE HuC6260 | 16-bit | 7.16 MHz |
|
VRAM |
8 KB |
2 KB + 256 bytes + 32 bytes |
16 KB |
64 KB |
|
Color Palette |
4 colors (black-green) |
48 colors + 6 grays |
64 colors |
512 colors |
|
Max Colors on Screen |
4 shades of green |
25 |
32 |
482 |
|
Max Sprites on Screen |
40 |
64 |
64 |
64 |
|
Max Sprite Size |
8x8 or 8x16 |
8x8 or 8x16 |
8x8 or 8x16 |
32x32 or 32x64 |
|
Max Resolution |
160x144 |
256x240 |
256x192 |
512x224 |
|
Parallax Scrolling |
1 Fixed Layer, scrolling layers simulated by default using line scrolling |
1 Fixed Layer, scrolling layers simulated by using line scrolling via expansion chips |
1 Fixed Layer, scrolling layers simulated by default using line scrolling |
1 Fixed Layer, scrolling layers simulated by default using line scrolling and dynamic tiles |
|
Special FX |
Color Cycling and Swapping, Tile Animation, Sprite Flip, Wobble Fx |
Color Cycling and Swapping, Tile Animation, Sprite Flip |
Color Cycling and Swapping, Tile Animation, Tile Flip, Fixed Sprite Scaling 2x |
Color Cycling and Swapping, Tile Animation, Sprite Flip, Shearing Fx, Wobble Fx, Mosaic Fx (software), Sprite Scaling (software) |
|
Expansion Chips on Cartridge |
none |
Nintendo AOROM/CNROM/UNROM/FDS/MMC1~MMC6 | Konami VRC1~VRC7 | Sunsoft 5B/FME-7 | Namco 163 |
none |
none |
|
Gamepad |
DPAD + 2 Buttons (A, B) + 2 Service Buttons (START, SELECT) |
DPAD + 2 Buttons (A, B) + 2 Service Buttons (START, SELECT) |
DPAD + 2 Buttons (1, 2) |
DPAD + 2 Buttons (I, II) + 2 Service Buttons (RUN, SELECT) |
|
Max Players |
1 Player |
2 Players |
2 Players |
2 Players |
[GAMEBOY]: Although it had a slower CPU/GPU than the NES, thanks to its bigger video RAM and fewer colors on screen it seems quite often on par with it, especially on sprite and background details. Look at Link's Awakening, it resemble more of A Link to the Past on SNES than The Legend of Zelda on the NES! Despite on the NES, parallax scrolling was tricky and demanding to implement, so it wasn't much used.
[NES]: One of the oldest 8-bit console on this list, and despite of this, thanks to the many chips on cartridge it managed to stay relevant (graphically speaking), introducing simulated parallax scrolling, better tile animations but also sound enhancements.
[MASTER SYSTEM]: One of the fastest console on this list, known for its smooth and colorful graphics, hosted several arcade ports such as Outrun, Hang On and Space Harrier. It couldn't flip sprites but at least it could create a 2x sized copy of sprites thanks to an hardware feature.
[PC ENGINE]: Often considered the first 16-bit console on the market, thanks to its fast cpu it could execute (software side) many advanced effects, such as sprite scaling and famous SNES mosaic effect, however, being not supported by the hardware they were quite demanding and used sporadically.
Some examples of graphics output comparison:
| Gameboy | NES | Master System | PC Engine |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Which graphics / pixel art are the best of the generation?
| Gameboy | NES | Master System | PC Engine |
 |
 |
 |
 |
To be honest, we have some unfair comparison here: the Gameboy is an handheld console, it came out 6 years after the NES but is still an 8-bit machine. Also the PC Engine is an hybrid 8/16-bit system, but in some ways also the Master System is too (they both had a 16-bit graphic processing unit). We will fix this in a later topic, for the 16-bit generation wars.
Group-2: Atari 2600 vs 7800 vs Lynx vs Gameboy Color
| 2600 | 7800 | Lynx | Gameboy Color | |
|
Producer |
Atari |
Atari |
Atari |
Nintendo |
|
Year |
1977 |
1986 |
1989 |
1998 |
|
Lifespan |
1977-1992 |
1986-1992 |
1989-1995 |
1998-2003 |
|
Media |
ROM Cartridge | 4 KB ~ 64 KB (bank switching) |
ROM Cartridge | 48 KB |
ROM Cartridge | 128 KB ~ 512 KB, 1 MB (bank switching) |
ROM Cartridge | 128 KB ~ 8 MB |
|
Bit-Generation |
8-bit |
8-bit |
8-bit |
8-bit |
|
CPU |
MOS 6507 | 8-bit | 1.19 MHz | 0.51 MIPS |
Atari SALLY (MOS 6502) | 8-bit | 1.79 MHz | 0.76 MIPS |
Atari Mikey 65SC02 | 8-bit | 3.6 MHz | 1.54 MIPS |
Sharp LR35902 | 8-bit | 2.10 MHz or 1.05 MHz | 1.2 MIPS |
|
RAM |
128 Bytes onboard + 128/256 Bytes optional on Cartridge |
4 KB onboard |
64 KB onboard |
32 KB onboard + 8 KB on Cartridge |
|
GPU |
Atari TIA-1A | 8-bit | 3.58 MHz |
Atari MARIA | 8-bit | 7.15 MHz |
Atari Suzy (CMOS) | 16-bit | 16 MHz |
Embedded PPU | 8-bit | 4.20 MHz or 2.10 MHz |
|
GPU Co-Processor |
- |
Atari TIA-1A | 8-bit | 3.58 MHz |
Suzy Math-Engine | 16-bit |
- |
|
VRAM |
none |
none |
none |
16 KB |
|
Color Palette |
128 colors |
256 colors |
4096 colors |
32’768 colors |
|
Max Colors on Screen |
4 |
25 |
16 |
10, 32 or 56 |
|
Max Sprites on Screen |
5 |
100 |
Variable* (approx. 128) |
40 |
|
Max Sprite Size |
8x192 |
160x16 |
508xVariable* (approx. 508x102) |
8x8 or 8x16 |
|
Max Resolution |
160x192 |
160x240 or 320x240 |
160x102 |
160x144 |
|
Parallax Scrolling |
1 Fixed Layer, no scrolling possible |
1 Fixed Layer, scrolling layers simulated by default using line scrolling |
1 Scrolling Layer implemented in hardware (vertical), additional scrolling layers simulated using line scrolling (vertical and horizontal) |
1 Fixed Layer, scrolling layers simulated by default using line scrolling |
|
Special FX |
Color Cycling, Additional Colors on Screen (with tricks like flickering) |
Color Cycling and Swapping, Tile Animation, Sprite Flip |
Color Cycling and Swapping, Sprite Flip, Sprite Scaling (hardware), Sprite Distortion Fx, Sprite Tilting Fx, Clipping, Per-Pixel Collision Detection (hardware), Basic Pseudo-3D Graphics (by distorting Sprites) |
Color Cycling and Swapping, Tile Animation, Sprite Flip, Wobble Fx, Special Hi-Color Mode (limited use, up to 2000 colors on screen) |
|
Expansion Chips on Cartridge |
none |
none |
none |
none |
|
Gamepad |
STICK (8-directional) + 1 Button (FIRE) |
STICK (8-directional) + 2 Buttons (1, 2) |
DPAD + 2 Buttons (A, B) + 2 Service Buttons (OPTION-1, OPTION-2) |
DPAD + 2 Buttons (A, B) + 2 Service Buttons (START, SELECT) |
|
Max Players |
2 Players |
2 Players |
1 Player |
1 Player |
[2600]: The oldest console on the list, it used its TIA chip to also handle sound and controllers, while drawing on the display line by line on the fly. Interestingly, it wasn't hardware limited in drawing sprites vertically, so theoretically a 8x192 sprite was possible.
[7800]: Was the NES announced rival, planned for 1984 but released in 1986, quite on par with it with more capacity in some areas. The 2600's TIA chip handles sound processing (7800 mode) or handles video, sound and controllers (2600 compatibility mode). As its predecessor, it wasn't hardware limited in drawing sprites horizontally, so theoretically a 160x16 sprite was possible.
[LYNX]: Despite being an handheld console it was very advanced in 1989, featuring sprite scaling in hardware thanks to the Suzy Math-Engine that worked in parallel with the cpu, capable of vector, matrix and perspective calculations. Pseudo 3D graphics were also possible on this machine (see Hard' Driving), executed by distorting sprites. The Suzy chip was designed to not have fixed sprites limits in count and size on screen, so on paper they could be unlimited, but in practice they were limited by the amount of RAM available (quantity x size x color-depth) since they were defined and stored there (in a dedicated virtual space for graphics) prior to being displayed.
[GAMEBOY COLOR]: A faster Gameboy that could run in double speed mode for GB Color games and single speed mode for compatibility with original Gameboy games. It featured an Hi-Color mode for up to 2'000 colors on screen for displaying static images.
Some examples of graphics output comparison:
| 2600 | 7800 | Lynx | Gameboy Color |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
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So, in your opinion which was the best hardware of the 8-bit generation?
Which console had the most impressive pixel art and/or the most complex games for the time?
Let the 8-bit war begin (again)! 
