GRAPHICS OVERVIEW

All of the graphics abilities of the Commodore 64 come from the 6567 Video Interface Chip (also known as the VIC-II chip). This chip gives a variety of graphics modes, including a 40 column by 25 line text display, a 320 by 200 dot high resolution display, and SPRITES, small movable objects which make writing games simple. And if this weren't enough, many of the graphics modes can be mixed on the same screen. It is possible, for example, to define the top half of the screen to be in high resolution mode, while the bottom half is in text mode. And SPRITES will combine with anything! More on sprites later. First the other graphics modes.

The VIC-II chip has the following graphics display modes:

1. CHARACTER DISPLAY MODES

   1. Standard Character Mode
      1. ROM characters
      2. RAM programmable characters
   2. Multi-Color Character Mode
      1. ROM characters
      2. RAM programmable characters
   3. Extended Background Color Mode
      1. ROM characters
      2. RAM programmable characters

2. BIT MAP MODES

   1. Standard Bit Map Mode
   2. Multi-Color Bit Map Mode

3. SPRITES

   1. Standard Sprites
   2. Multi-Color Sprites