The HD44780 Text LCDs are great for simple projects, but for anything more ambitious than status displays, they’re not particularly suited to the task. Enter their older sibling, the HD6464* series.
On the programmer’s end, it’s the same old interface, 4/8 bit 8080-style. However, there are some pretty awesome benefits.
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Support for Graphical LCDs up to 720x512 in resolution. (320x240 would be more manageable, though)
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Support for Character output too!
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Lots of fun and weird speed and placement controls, allowing for such things as smooth scrolling.
and much more!
If SF offered these, I wouldn’t have to trudge through eBay looking for LCDs that might be the right kind.