Editing Sprite (computer graphics) (section)

==History==
===Arcade video games===
The use of sprites originated with [[arcade video game]]s. [[Nolan Bushnell]] came up with the original concept when he developed the first arcade video game, ''[[Computer Space]]'' (1971). Technical limitations made it difficult to adapt the [[early mainframe game]] ''[[Spacewar!]]'' (1962), which performed an entire [[Refresh rate|screen refresh]] for every little movement, so he came up with a solution to the problem: controlling each individual game element with a dedicated [[transistor]]. The [[rockets]] were essentially hardwired [[bitmaps]] that moved around the screen independently of the background, an important innovation for producing screen images more efficiently and providing the basis for sprite graphics.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Swalwell |first1=Melanie |last2=Wilson |first2=Jason |title=The Pleasures of Computer Gaming: Essays on Cultural History, Theory and Aesthetics |date=12 May 2015 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |isbn=978-0-7864-5120-3 |pages=109–10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BbW_DUV-pP4C&pg=PA110 |access-date=16 May 2021 |archive-date=16 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516025657/https://books.google.com/books?id=BbW_DUV-pP4C&pg=PA110 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The earliest video games to represent [[player characters]] as human player sprites were arcade [[sports video games]], beginning with [[Taito]]'s ''[[TV Basketball]]'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Colby |first1=Richard |last2=Johnson |first2=Matthew S. S. |last3=Colby |first3=Rebekah Shultz |title=The Ethics of Playing, Researching, and Teaching Games in the Writing Classroom |date=27 January 2021 |publisher=[[Springer Nature]] |isbn=978-3-030-63311-0 |page=130 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vZoXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA130 |access-date=3 May 2021 |archive-date=3 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503195104/https://books.google.com/books?id=vZoXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA130 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[http://allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/video-game-firsts.html Video Game Firsts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171105041440/http://allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/video-game-firsts.html |date=2017-11-05 }}, The Golden Age Arcade Historian (November 22, 2013)</ref><ref>[http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=wide-flyer&db=videodb&id=4036&image=2 ''Basketball'' Flyer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140708201534/http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=wide-flyer&db=videodb&id=4036&image=2 |date=2014-07-08 }} (1974), Arcade Flyer Museum</ref> released in April 1974 and licensed to [[Midway Manufacturing]] for release in North America.<ref name="Akagi">{{cite book |last1=Akagi |first1=Masumi |title=アーケードTVゲームリスト国内•海外編(1971-2005) |trans-title=Arcade TV Game List: Domestic • Overseas Edition (1971-2005) |date=13 October 2006 |publisher=Amusement News Agency |lang=ja |location=Japan |isbn=978-4990251215 |pages=40-1, 51, 129 |url=https://archive.org/details/ArcadeGameList1971-2005/page/n41/mode/2up}}</ref> Designed by [[Tomohiro Nishikado]], he wanted to move beyond simple ''[[Pong]]''-style rectangles to character graphics, by rearranging the rectangle shapes into objects that look like [[basketball]] players and [[basketball hoop]]s.<ref name="Smith">{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Alexander |title=They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry, Vol. I: 1971-1982 |date=19 November 2019 |publisher=[[CRC Press]] |isbn=978-0-429-75261-2 |pages=191–95 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cxy_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT191 |access-date=16 May 2021 |archive-date=2 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502064515/https://books.google.com/books?id=Cxy_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT191 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Nikkei">{{cite news |title=スペースインベーダー・今明かす開発秘話――開発者・西角友宏氏、タイトー・和田洋一社長対談 |trans-title=Space Invader, Development Secret Story Revealed Now―Interview With Developer Tomohiro Nishikado, Taito President Yoichi Wada |url=http://trendy.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/special/20080318/1008218/ |access-date=3 May 2021 |work=[[The Nikkei]] |date=March 21, 2008 |lang=ja |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080323064622/http://trendy.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/special/20080318/1008218/ |archive-date=March 23, 2008}}
*{{cite web |title=Space Invaders – 30th Anniversary Developer Interview |url=http://shmuplations.com/spaceinvaders/ |website=Shmuplations}}</ref> [[Ramtek (company)|Ramtek]] released another sports video game in October 1974, ''Baseball'',<ref name="Akagi"/> which similarly displayed human-like characters.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Thorpe |first1=Nick |title=The 70s: The Genesis of an Industry |magazine=[[Retro Gamer]] |date=March 2014 |issue=127 |pages=24–7 |url=https://archive.org/details/retro_gamer/RetroGamer_127/page/26/mode/2up}}</ref>

The [[Namco Galaxian]] [[arcade system board]], for the 1979 arcade game ''[[Galaxian]]'', displays animated, multi-colored sprites over a scrolling background.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVTNBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA59|title=The Golden Age of Video Games: The Birth of a Multibillion Dollar Industry|first=Roberto|last=Dillon|date=19 April 2016|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9781439873243|via=Google Books}}</ref> It became the basis for [[Nintendo]]'s ''[[Radar Scope]]'' and ''[[Donkey Kong (arcade game)|Donkey Kong]]'' arcade hardware and [[home console]]s such as the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120505103737/http://www.glitterberri.com/developer-interviews/how-the-famicom-was-born/making-the-famicom-a-reality/ Making the Famicom a Reality], ''Nikkei Electronics'' (September 12, 1994)</ref> According to Steve Golson from [[General Computer Corporation]], the term "stamp" was used instead of "sprite" at the time.<ref name=golson>{{cite AV media |people=Steve Golson |year=2016 |title=Classic Game Postmortem: 'Ms. Pac-Man' |medium=Conference |language=en |url=http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023366/Classic-Game-Postmortem-Ms-Pac |access-date=2017-01-26 |time=20:30 |publisher=[[Game Developers Conference]] |quote=[…] 6 moving characters, what you would call today "sprites" we called them "stamps" back then, […].}}</ref>

===Home systems===
[[Signetics]] devised the first chips capable of generating sprite graphics (referred to as ''objects'' by Signetics) for home systems. The Signetics 2636 video processors were first used in the 1978 [[1292 Advanced Programmable Video System]] and later in the 1979 [[Elektor TV Games Computer]].

The [[Atari VCS]], released in 1977, has a hardware sprite implementation where five graphical objects can be moved independently of the game playfield.  The term ''sprite'' was not in use at the time. The VCS's sprites are called ''movable objects'' in the programming manual, further identified as two ''players'', two ''missiles'', and one ''ball''.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Wright|first1=Steve|title=Stella Programmer's Guide|url=http://atarihq.com/danb/files/stella.pdf|date=December 3, 1979|access-date=April 14, 2016|archive-date=March 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160327103553/http://atarihq.com/danb/files/stella.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> These each consist of a single row of pixels that are displayed on a [[scan line]].  To produce a two-dimensional shape, the sprite's single-row bitmap is altered by software from one scan line to the next.

The 1979 [[Atari 8-bit computers|Atari 400 and 800]] home computers have similar, but more elaborate, circuitry capable of moving eight single-color objects per scan line: four 8-bit wide ''players'' and four 2-bit wide ''missiles''. Each is the full height of the display&mdash;a long, thin strip. [[Direct memory access|DMA]] from a table in memory automatically sets the graphics pattern registers for each scan line. Hardware registers control the horizontal position of each player and missile. Vertical motion is achieved by moving the bitmap data within a player or missile's strip. The feature was called ''player/missile graphics'' by Atari.

[[Texas Instruments]] developed the [[Texas Instruments TMS9918|TMS9918]] chip with sprite support for its 1979 TI-99/4 home computer. An updated version is used in the 1981 [[TI-99/4A]].

===In 2.5D and 3D games===
[[File:Anarch short gameplay.gif|thumb|Player interactions with sprites in a 2.5D game]]
Sprites remained popular with the rise of [[2.5D]] games (those which recreate a 3D game space from a 2D map) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A technique called [[billboarding]] allows 2.5D games to keep onscreen sprites rotated toward the player view at all times. Some 2.5D games, such as 1993's [[Doom (1993 video game)|''Doom'']], allow the same entity to be represented by different sprites depending on its rotation relative to the viewer, furthering the illusion of 3D.

Fully 3D games usually present world objects as [[3D modeling|3D models]], but sprites are supported in some 3D [[game engine]]s, such as [[GoldSrc]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://the303.org/tutorials/gold_sprite.htm |title=GoldSrc Sprite Tutorial  |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=the303.org |publisher= |access-date=September 26, 2024}}</ref> and [[Unreal Engine|Unreal]],<ref>    {{Cite web |url=https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/how-to-import-and-use-paper-2d-sprites-in-unreal-engine |title=How to import and use Paper 2D Sprites in Unreal Engine |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=<!--Not stated--> |website=epicgames.com |publisher=Epic Games |access-date=October 31, 2024 |quote=}}</ref> and may be billboarded or locked to fixed orientations. Sprites remain useful for small details, [[Particle system|particle effects]], and other applications where the lack of a third dimension is not a major detriment.