A sprite's screen position is defined as a set of X,Y coordinates. Position (0,0), where X = 0 and Y = 0, is the upper left-hand corner of the display. You define a sprite's location by specifying the coordinates of its upper left-hand pixel. Sprite position is always defined as though the display modes were low resolution and non-interlaced. The X,Y coordinate system and definition of a sprite's position are graphically represented in Figure 4-1. Notice that because of display overscan, position (0,0) (that is, X = 0, Y = 0) is not normally in a viewable region of the screen. (0,0) __ \ \ +-----------------------------+ |###############|#############| |###############|#############| |###+-----------|---------+###| |###| |###| __ visible screen |###| Y axis |###| / boundaries |###| |###|/ |###| | |###/ |###| | |##/| |###| | |#/#| |----- X axis --+---+ |/##| |###| |/*\| |###| |###| |***| |###| |###| |\*/| |###| |###| +---+ |###| |###| |###| |###| |###| |###| |###| |###| |###| |###+---------------------+###| |#############################| |#############################| +-----------------------------+ Figure 4-1: Defining Sprite On-screen Position The amount of viewable area is also affected by the size of the playfield display window (defined by the values in ddfstrt , ddfstop , diwstrt , diwstop , etc.). see the "playfield hardware" chapter for more information about overscan and display windows . horizontal position vertical position clipped sprites