Sprites

CHIPcade supports up to 255 hardware-accelerated sprites. You can access them via:

    sprite[0].scale = 0.5
    s[1].imageGroup = "Bullet"
    sprite[R2].layerIndex = 1

Just like layers and registers, sprite indices can be hardcoded or dynamically computed.

Sprites can also represent text via the text function.

Default Behavior

  • Sprites are inactive by default — you must set active = true to make them visible
  • By default, sprites are not assigned to any layer and are rendered on top of all layers
  • Sprites can be animated, moved, rotated, and participate in collisions

Sprite Properties

Basic

  • x, y Position of the sprite on screen (in pixels)

  • width, height Size of the sprite (Read-only inferred from the image)

  • active Boolean — must be true for the sprite to be visible or updated

  • imageGroup, imageIndex Set the sprite’s image by group and index

  • layerIndex If set, the sprite is drawn as part of that layer instead of floating above

  • radius Sets the collision radius for the sprite. CHIPcade uses circular collision detection, and this property defines the effective radius for that sprite. The default value is 0.5, meaning the radius is half the size of the sprite (relative to its width/height). Adjust this per sprite to fine-tune when collisions are detected.

Animation

  • animationFrom, animationTo Range of frames to animate through

  • fps Frames per second for the animation

  • wrapping When true, wraps the sprite around the layer edges — perfect for Asteroids-style gameplay

  • rotationOffset Offset in degrees to apply during rotation. CHIPcade assumes that sprite images point upward by default (0° = up). If your sprite artwork points to the right, set rotationOffset = -90 to align it properly when rotating.

  • stop Stops the current animation on the last frame in the range

Transform & Appearance

  • scale Uniform scale (1.0 = default)

  • rotation Rotation in degrees

  • alpha Transparency (1.0 = fully visible, 0.0 = fully transparent)

  • priority Controls render order relative to other sprites (higher = drawn later)

Movement

  • speed Sets or reads the constant movement speed of the sprite in its rotation direction

  • maxSpeed Maximum allowed speed

  • friction Gradual reduction of speed over time

  • halt Immediately stops all sprite movement and acceleration

Sprite Functions

In addition to properties, sprites support a few built-in functions:

  • s[N].accelerate(value) Applies an acceleration impulse in the direction of the sprite’s current rotation.

  • s[N].collisionWith(group) Returns true if the sprite has collided with the given collision group. Use this inside your update loop to trigger events on contact. Use notifyCollision for a notification based collision detection.

Example

sprite[0].imageGroup = "Ship"
sprite[0].animationFrom = 0
sprite[0].animationTo = 3
sprite[0].fps = 12
sprite[0].wrapping = true
sprite[0].x = 100
sprite[0].y = 50
sprite[0].active = true

sprite[0].accelerate(0.5)

if sprite[0].collisionWith(2)
    notify("HandleCollision", 0.0)

Text

Sprites can also be used to render dynamic text using the text() function.

This function associates a sprite with a string, a font, a font size, and a palette index (for color). Once set, the text behaves just like any other sprite — it can be positioned, animated, rotated, and layered as needed.

Syntax

sprite[N].text(content, fontName, fontSize, paletteIndex)
  • content — The string to display. You can concatenate strings and values.
  • fontName — The name of the font (e.g. "Squada One"). Can be any system font, or one of the built-in CHIPcade fonts: "Nova Square" and "Squada One".
  • fontSize — Font size in pixels (as a float)
  • paletteIndex — Which color to use from the global palette

Example

sprite[5].text("SCORE: " + Data[5], "Squada One", 16.0, 3)

This will display the current score stored in Data[5] using the specified font and color, all controlled through sprite 5. You can move and scale it like any other sprite.

Sprites are fast, flexible, and central to most CHIPcade games — from bullets to bosses.