Chapter 8: Bitmap Graphics

Introduction

There was a time when games had no graphics (ahh yes, the glory days of text adventures). The graphics were the best of all-images conjured up in your imagination. Well, at least that was the theory.

Today, graphics are seemingly the overriding factor in a game's quality. With BREW, this is no exception. From drawing bitmap images to simple geometric shapes, BREW has quite the array of functionality for providing your game with impressive imagery. However, the meager computing power and memory restrictions on most BREW handsets do present a formidable obstacle in the quest for good visuals. Not all is lost. This just means that you will have to use some inventive optimization tricks explained later in the book.

Regardless, BREW has adequate facilities for the display of both bitmap and geometric graphics. This chapter will focus on bitmaps, with geometric graphic primitives the focus of the next chapter.

Figure 8-1: In a distant time known as the early 1980s, many games had no graphics at all. This is a screen shot from one of my old favorites, Infocom's Zork II.