After you have completely defined the playfield, you need to define the size of the display window, which is the actual size of the on-screen display. Adjustment of display window size affects the entire display area, including the border and the sprites , not just the playfield. you cannot display objects outside of the defined display window. Also, the size of the border around the playfield depends on the size of the display window. The basic playfield described in this section is the same size as the screen display area and also the same size as the display window. This is not always the case; often the display window is smaller than the actual "big picture" of the playfield as defined in memory (the raster). A display window that is smaller than the playfield allows you to displaysome segment of a large playfield or scroll the playfield through the window. You can also define display windows larger than the basic playfield. These larger playfields and different-sized display windows are described in the section below called bitplanes and display windows of all sizes . You define the size of the display window by specifying the vertical and horizontal positions at which the window starts and stops and writing these positions to the display window registers. The resolution of vertical start and stop is one scan line. The resolution of horizontal start and stop is one low resolution pixel. Each position on the screen defines the horizontal and vertical position of some pixel, and this position is specified by the x and y coordinates of the pixel. This document shows the x and y coordinates in this form: (x,y). Although the coordinates begin at (0,0) in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, the first horizontal position normally used is $81 and the first vertical position is $2C. The horizontal and vertical starting positions are the same both for NTSC and for PAL. The hardware allows you to specify a starting position before ($81,$2C), but part of the display may not be visible. The difference between the absolute starting position of (0,0) and the normal starting position of ($81,$2C) is the result of the way many video display monitors are designed. To overcome the distortion that can occur at the extreme edges of the screen, the scanning beam sweeps over a larger area than the front face of the screen can display. A starting position of ($81,$2C) centers a normal size display, leaving a border of eight low resolution pixels around the display window. Figure 3-9 shows the relationship between the normal display window, the visible screen area, and the area actually covered by the scanning beam. ($81,$2C) __ \ (0,0) __\ \\ \\ +\----------------------------+ |#\###########################| |##\##########################| |###+---------------------+###| |###| _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |###| __ visible screen |###| | | | |###| / boundaries |###| | |###|/ |###| |----- 320 -------| |###/ |###| | |##/| |###| | | | |#/#| |###| | |/##| |###| | | |###| |###| 200 |###| |###| | | |###| |###| | |###| |###| | | | |###| |###| | |###| |###| |_ _|_ _ _ _ _ _ _| |###| |###| \ / |###| |###+---\-------------/---+###| |########\###########/########| |#########\#########/#########| +----------\-------/----------+ \ / \ / display window starting and stopping positions Figure 3-9: Positioning the On-screen Display setting the display window starting position setting the display window stopping position