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I love reading about all things Commodore, so I was thrilled to see this article references a long series from Ars Technica on the history of the Amiga: http://

by the_af 5y ago

I love reading about all things Commodore, so I was thrilled to see this article references a long series from Ars Technica on the history of the Amiga: http://arstechnica.com/series/history-of-the-amiga/ http://arstechnica.com/series/history-of-the-amiga/ They claim it's more interesting than Gates' and Jobs' early computing stories, and that it's filled with dreams, intrigue and backstabbing. Count me in! I owned a C64, not an Amiga, but at least this bit they claim is true: everyone who owned an Amiga became a fan of it. It's like a cult, in a way like Apple's...

antiterra 5y ago
In the US there was definitely a sense of embattlement having something that wasn’t the standard PC. I paid through the nose for a second disk drive and a laptop hard drive that fit under the keyboard. So for that effort it needed to be worth it. I do remember smugly bragging to someone about it having 4096 colors, and he responded that his Mac Quadra had 16 million.
- the_af 5y ago
  Was that 4096 simultaneous colors? If so, it would have given VGA a run for its money -- only 256 colors for the active palette (though of course many more to pick from).
  - antiterra 5y ago
    Yes and no, there were tricks to displaying nearly all the colors and each row of pixels could have its own palette, but in general use it was 32 colors + 32 half brights.
  - billyjobob 5y ago
    In HAM mode it could do 4096 simultaneously but that was mostly limited to static images. For games it was 32 or 64 colors. But this was in 1985. VGA didn’t exist until 1987 and didn’t become ubiquitous until 1990. And was much more expensive. If Commodore had been properly run they would have had their next gen chipset out by then. But they weren’t, so it wasn’t until 1992 they came out with AGA which was a only little better than VGA and by then it was too late anyway.
    - vidarh 5y ago
      A lot of games used more than 32/64 colours using the copper too though. E.g. things like background fades. Interestingly quite a few of the games with the most colours did not use the 5 bitplane 32 colour mode or the 64 bitplane Extra HalfBrite mode, but a combination of "dirty tricks" with sprites + copper. E.g. Shadow of the Beast used 120+ colours, but used dual playfields, which gives only 8 colours per playfield without anything else. But then it overlays sprites, and uses the copper to change palette repeatedly: https://codetapper.com/amiga/sprite-tricks/shadow-of-the-beast/ https://codetapper.com/amiga/sprite-tricks/shadow-of-the-bea...
JeremyReimer 5y ago
I'm happy to hear that more people are discovering this article series. It was my (very) long-running dream to write this, and I'm happy that Ars Technica supported me during the entire journey. Plenty of Amiga people back in the day ended up having fascinating careers in video, television, and movies, and I'm in touch with (and even working with) some of them today.
- the_af 5y ago
  Hey Jeremy, I just started reading it and it looks very promising (in fact, I'm trying hard to resist the temptation to read one page more instead of working). Thanks for writing it!
vidarh 5y ago
If you really want to read about all things Commodore, pick up Brian Bagnall's books [1]. They're not really for those with a casual interest (though you have the option of the 500+ page single volume first version or the second version which ballooned to a trilogy of 500+ pages each, plus the upcoming Commodore: The Early Years covering Commodore's pre-computing history), and there's plenty of dreams, intrigue and backstabbing (the always fraught relationship between Jack Tramiel and his staff and Irving Gould features heavily alongside a lot of in-depth descriptions of the tech. [1] Beware, the Amazon listings are a confusing mess; the first edition is "The Story of Commodore: A Company on the Edge"; the second edition is a massively expanded three volume set, starting with "Commodore: A Company on the Edge" (ignore what Amazon says; it's not book #2), followed by "Commodore: The Amiga Years" and "Commodore: The Final Years". They're all 500+ pages.
- the_af 5y ago
  Thanks for the recommendation! I've read enough of your comments to instantly pattern-match your username with "this person really knows about Commodore" ;)
sys_64738 5y ago
The early history of computing has been rewritten by those who survived: Apple and Microsoft. But in reality it was driven by Commodore.
- mixmastamyk 5y ago
  There are others like Bell Labs, DEC, and Atari as well. IBM is sort of implied but worth mentioning.
- bitwize 5y ago
  Don't forget Tandy and Texas Instruments!

by the_af 5y ago

antiterra 5y ago

In the US there was definitely a sense of embattlement having something that wasn’t the standard PC. I paid through the nose for a second disk drive and a laptop hard drive that fit under the keyboard. So for that effort it needed to be worth it. I do remember smugly bragging to someone about it having 4096 colors, and he responded that his Mac Quadra had 16 million.

the_af 5y ago
Was that 4096 simultaneous colors? If so, it would have given VGA a run for its money -- only 256 colors for the active palette (though of course many more to pick from).
- antiterra 5y ago
  Yes and no, there were tricks to displaying nearly all the colors and each row of pixels could have its own palette, but in general use it was 32 colors + 32 half brights.
- billyjobob 5y ago
  In HAM mode it could do 4096 simultaneously but that was mostly limited to static images. For games it was 32 or 64 colors. But this was in 1985. VGA didn’t exist until 1987 and didn’t become ubiquitous until 1990. And was much more expensive. If Commodore had been properly run they would have had their next gen chipset out by then. But they weren’t, so it wasn’t until 1992 they came out with AGA which was a only little better than VGA and by then it was too late anyway.
  - vidarh 5y ago
    A lot of games used more than 32/64 colours using the copper too though. E.g. things like background fades. Interestingly quite a few of the games with the most colours did not use the 5 bitplane 32 colour mode or the 64 bitplane Extra HalfBrite mode, but a combination of "dirty tricks" with sprites + copper. E.g. Shadow of the Beast used 120+ colours, but used dual playfields, which gives only 8 colours per playfield without anything else. But then it overlays sprites, and uses the copper to change palette repeatedly: https://codetapper.com/amiga/sprite-tricks/shadow-of-the-beast/ https://codetapper.com/amiga/sprite-tricks/shadow-of-the-bea...

JeremyReimer 5y ago

I'm happy to hear that more people are discovering this article series. It was my (very) long-running dream to write this, and I'm happy that Ars Technica supported me during the entire journey. Plenty of Amiga people back in the day ended up having fascinating careers in video, television, and movies, and I'm in touch with (and even working with) some of them today.

the_af 5y ago
Hey Jeremy, I just started reading it and it looks very promising (in fact, I'm trying hard to resist the temptation to read one page more instead of working). Thanks for writing it!

vidarh 5y ago

If you really want to read about all things Commodore, pick up Brian Bagnall's books [1]. They're not really for those with a casual interest (though you have the option of the 500+ page single volume first version or the second version which ballooned to a trilogy of 500+ pages each, plus the upcoming Commodore: The Early Years covering Commodore's pre-computing history), and there's plenty of dreams, intrigue and backstabbing (the always fraught relationship between Jack Tramiel and his staff and Irving Gould features heavily alongside a lot of in-depth descriptions of the tech. [1] Beware, the Amazon listings are a confusing mess; the first edition is "The Story of Commodore: A Company on the Edge"; the second edition is a massively expanded three volume set, starting with "Commodore: A Company on the Edge" (ignore what Amazon says; it's not book #2), followed by "Commodore: The Amiga Years" and "Commodore: The Final Years". They're all 500+ pages.

the_af 5y ago
Thanks for the recommendation! I've read enough of your comments to instantly pattern-match your username with "this person really knows about Commodore" ;)

sys_64738 5y ago

The early history of computing has been rewritten by those who survived: Apple and Microsoft. But in reality it was driven by Commodore.

mixmastamyk 5y ago
There are others like Bell Labs, DEC, and Atari as well. IBM is sort of implied but worth mentioning.
bitwize 5y ago
Don't forget Tandy and Texas Instruments!