Editing Blitter (section)

==Other approaches==
{{main|Sprite (computer graphics)}}

Hardware sprites are small bitmaps which can be positioned independently and are composited together with the background on-the-fly by the video chip. The frame buffer is not modified.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hague |first1=James |title=Why Do Dedicated Game Consoles Exist? |url=https://prog21.dadgum.com/181.html |website=Programming in the 21st Century |access-date=2019-09-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423173142/http://prog21.dadgum.com/181.html |archive-date=2018-04-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The downside of sprites is a limit of moving graphics per scanline, which can range from three ([[Atari 2600]]) to eight ([[Commodore 64]] and [[Atari 8-bit computers]]) to significantly higher for 16-bit consoles and arcade hardware (the [[Neo Geo]] can display 96 sprites per line. The inability to update a permanent bitmap makes them unsuitable for general desktop GUI acceleration.