"The TMS9918 - The First Sprite Chip" (opens in new tab)

I really liked that talk. In 1981 I decided to build a computer with two coworkers using the Z80 processor, the 9918 video chip and the 5220 voice synthesis chip. We called it Einstein, which by coincidence was what Tatung called their Z80/9918 computer. We had the chips but the only documentation we had for the 9918 was Steve Ciarcia’s article in the August 1982 issue of Byte magazine where he used it for a video card for the Apple II. Before that I had tried writing to Texas Instruments a f...