[cromwellian]

Yup, constraint = hack/freedom is one of the paradoxes as long as there are hidden degrees of freedom that can break the constraints.

Here’s some old c64 intros I did, including a trick of bank switching to fake z ordering of fonts and sprite scs rasters, as well as using FLD to stabilize rasters in the presence of moving sprites in both PAL/NTSC modes.

https://youtu.be/aViXXbUg_yU

[digi_owl]

I think it may be less "constraint" and more "fixed platform".

Meaning that every C64 was like very other C64, so you knew what you had to work with on the hardware side.

You could see this with consoles as well, as the games steadily improved as developers learned how to push that fixed hardware around (though the cartridge ones often allowed in-cart chips to assist).

I guess we have gotten so incredibly used to either being able upgrade piecemeal, or simply replace wholesale every few years, that having a steady set of hardware to explore and learn has become "foreign" in a way.

Compare and contrast the C64 and say the RPi. the former was more or less steady for 24 years, while the latter have been releasing beefier variants every 2 years or so.

[vardump]

> Meaning that every C64 was like very other C64, so you knew what you had to work with on the hardware side.

Well, other than:

1) PAL vs NTSC systems. True compatibility breaker.

2) Two different versions of SID sound chips (and every SID being more or less unique)

3) Different VIC-II versions (or at least some chips where VSP (variable screen positioning, a fast method for horizontal scrolling) works and some where it doesn't)).