GRASS (programming language): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:39, 4 July 2021

Revision as of 13:07, 22 October 2021

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===ZGrass and UV-1===

In 1977 DeFanti was introduced to Jeff Frederiksen, a chip designer working at [[Dave Nutting Associates]]. Nutting had been contracted by Midway, the videogame division of Bally, to create a standardized [[graphicsvideo processingdisplay unit|graphics driver chip]]. They intended to use it in most of their future arcade games, as well as a [[video game console]] they were working on which would later turn into the [[Astrocade]]. Midway was quite interested in seeing the GRASS language running on their system, and contracted DeFanti to port it to the platform. A number of people at the Habitat, as well as some from Nutting, worked on the project, which they referred to as the '''Z Box'''. GRASS3 running on it became '''Zgrass'''.{{sfn|DeFanti|1980}}

The Z-Box was a [[raster graphics]] machine, unlike the original GRASS systems, so while most of the GRASS3 style was maintained in Zgrass, it added a number of commands dedicated to raster images. This included an extensive set of [[bit blit|bit block transfer]] commands in order to simulate [[sprite (computer science)|sprite]]s, something the hardware didn't include.{{sfn|DeFanti|1980}} The work would never be released by Midway, but the Circle would produce machines based on it as the [[Datamax UV-1]].