ZX Spectrum Next Sprites Explained

Today we're going to be looking at the sprite system. We'll be covering...

• What the sprite system can do (and what it can't do)
• How get images into the Next in a format it can use
• How to put them on the screen
• Then we'll see different ways the sprites can be manipulated

All from the comfort of your C compiler!

This will be pretty in depth and detailed so use the chapter marks to jump around the video as you need to. There is an accompanying written explanation on my website and sample code on my github.

The sprite system of the Spectrum Next isn't really covered in the manual and the Wiki does contain a lot of information but there's nothing that really gathers it together in coherent explanation. This video is my attempt at giving an overview of how to program the Sprite System on a Spectrum Next using Z88DK and C.

Github repo - https://github.com/ncot-technology/specnext-sprites-example Website - https://ncot.uk/spectrum-next/devlog-03-hardware-sprites/

-- Credits -- Photos by Mike Cadwallader, 2020 Original code by Stefan Bylund - https://github.com/stefanbylund/zxnext_sprite Screenshots from the Spectrum Next wiki - https://wiki.specnext.dev/

-- Chapters -- 00:00 Intro 01:09 Overview of sprite system capability 02:23 Credits 02:39 Theory of operation 03:18 Loading an image 04:56 Sprite Tools 05:41 Getting a sprite onscreen 07:25 Sprite attributes 09:20 Sprite status slot register 0x303B 11:28 Sprite attribute slots 15:57 Multiple sprites 17:00 Animation 20:15 Limitations of the hardware sprites 22:20 Sprite manipulation 24:06 Scaling sprites 25:39 Composite sprites 31:02 Managing many sprites 34:34 Conclusion ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCCo13UezHI