[wernsey]

LFSR is in my vocabulary because of these two articles:

* Fizzlefade by Fabien Sanglard [0] that explains the fade to red effect in Wolfenstein 3D

* How Pitfall Builds its World [1] that explains how the original Pitfall on the Atari 2600 managed to have 255 unique screens despite severe constraints on the storage space available (it used a maximal length 8-bit LFSR that was also invertible so that you can go back to previous screens).

[0]: https://fabiensanglard.net/fizzlefade/index.php

[1]: https://evoniuk.github.io/posts/pitfall.html

edit: formatting

[ElevenLathe]

Came here to say this about Pitfall. Very interesting imagining the author of Pitfall David Crane picking a seed/configuration that would give him the full 255 screens while also providing a gentle enough learning curve on the first few screens!

Another fun fact: a very young Jack Black appeared in the Pitfall television commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfLgSdAAHMA

[djmips]

The use in fades goes back at least to early Apple II games where I probably learned about it by reverse engineering a game or reading about it in Nibble Magazine.