Sprite
In one sentence
A sprite is a small picture the Game Boy can move independently of the background. Hardware sprites are 8 by 8 pixels, or 8 by 16. The machine allows 40 on screen and only 10 on a single horizontal line.
The detail
A person, a bullet, and a coin are sprites. A wide hero is several sprites standing next to each other, because one sprite is never wider than 8 pixels. The 10-per-line limit is why a row of enemies flickers: the hardware drops the ones past the tenth on that scanline.
The background is not made of sprites. It is made of tiles in a map. A game that tries to draw the whole level as sprites will run out of the 40. Retroable games that feel empty are often respecting that cap rather than forgetting the enemies.
Sprite pixels still use the four shades. A sprite can also be flipped and given a palette, and it can sit above or behind the background. It cannot be 32 pixels wide on its own.
Worth keeping
- One hardware sprite is 8 × 8 or 8 × 16 pixels
- 40 sprites on screen, and 10 on one row, is the hardware cap
- A large character is several sprites, not one wide picture
Questions
Why do enemies flicker when they line up?
More than 10 sprites wanted the same horizontal line, and the hardware only draws 10.
Can the background be a sprite?
It should not be. Backgrounds are a tile map. Sprites are the moving pieces.
How big can the player be?
As many 8-pixel-wide sprites as you can spare from the 40, without putting more than 10 of them on one row.
Related
Game Boy is a trademark of Nintendo. Retroable is independent and is not affiliated with Nintendo.