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The Amiga 500 had high res graphics (or high color graphics … but not on the same scanline), multitasking, 15 bit sound (with a lot of work - the hardware had 4

by beagle3 10mo ago

The Amiga 500 had high res graphics (or high color graphics … but not on the same scanline), multitasking, 15 bit sound (with a lot of work - the hardware had 4 channels of 8 bit DACs but a 6-bit volume, so …) In 1985, and with 512K of RAM. It was very usable for work.

mrits 10mo ago
a 320x200 6bit color depth wasn't exactly a pleasure to use. I think the games could double the res in certain mode (was it called 13h?)
- krige 10mo ago
  For OCS/ECS hardware 2bit HiRes - 640x256 or 640x200 depending on region - was default resolution for OS, and you could add interlacing or up color depth to 3 and 4 bit at cost of response lag; starting with OS2.0 the resolution setting was basically limited by chip memory and what your output device could actually display. I got my 1200 to display crisp 1440x550 on my LCD by just sliding screen parameters to max on default display driver. Games used either 320h or 640h resolutions, 4 bit or fake 5 bit known as HalfBrite, because it was basically 4 bit with the other 16 colors being same but half brightness. The fabled 12-bit HAM mode was also used, even in some games, even for interactive content, but it wasn't too often.
- teamonkey 10mo ago
  You might be thinking of DOS mode 13h, which was VGA 320x200, 8 bits per pixel.
  - bananaboy 10mo ago
    And 6-bits per colour component.
    - oso2k 10mo ago
      VGA color palette was 18-bits/256K, but input into the palette was 8-bit per channel. (63,63,63) is visibly different from (255,255,255). http://qzx.com/pc-gpe/tut2.txt http://qzx.com/pc-gpe/tut2.txt http://qzx.com/pc-gpe/ http://qzx.com/pc-gpe/
      - bananaboy 10mo ago
        Sorry I'm not exactly sure what you're saying. I know very well how it works as I write a lot of demos and games (still today) for mode 13h (see https://www.pouet.net/groups.php?which=1217&order=release https://www.pouet.net/groups.php?which=1217&order=release) and I can program the VGA DAC palette in my sleep. Were you referring to the fact that you write 8-bits to the palette registers? That's true, you do, but only 6-bits is actually used so it effectively wraps around at 64. There are 6-bits per colour component which as you pointed out is 18-bits colour depth. Btw I was a teenager when those Denthor trainers came out and I read them all, I loved them! They taught me a lot!
  - globalnode 10mo ago
    i remember playing with mode 13h, writing little graphics programs with my turboc compiler. computers were so magical back then.
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]

by beagle3 10mo ago

mrits 10mo ago

a 320x200 6bit color depth wasn't exactly a pleasure to use. I think the games could double the res in certain mode (was it called 13h?)

krige 10mo ago
For OCS/ECS hardware 2bit HiRes - 640x256 or 640x200 depending on region - was default resolution for OS, and you could add interlacing or up color depth to 3 and 4 bit at cost of response lag; starting with OS2.0 the resolution setting was basically limited by chip memory and what your output device could actually display. I got my 1200 to display crisp 1440x550 on my LCD by just sliding screen parameters to max on default display driver. Games used either 320h or 640h resolutions, 4 bit or fake 5 bit known as HalfBrite, because it was basically 4 bit with the other 16 colors being same but half brightness. The fabled 12-bit HAM mode was also used, even in some games, even for interactive content, but it wasn't too often.
teamonkey 10mo ago
You might be thinking of DOS mode 13h, which was VGA 320x200, 8 bits per pixel.
- bananaboy 10mo ago
  And 6-bits per colour component.
  - oso2k 10mo ago
    VGA color palette was 18-bits/256K, but input into the palette was 8-bit per channel. (63,63,63) is visibly different from (255,255,255). http://qzx.com/pc-gpe/tut2.txt http://qzx.com/pc-gpe/tut2.txt http://qzx.com/pc-gpe/ http://qzx.com/pc-gpe/
    - bananaboy 10mo ago
      Sorry I'm not exactly sure what you're saying. I know very well how it works as I write a lot of demos and games (still today) for mode 13h (see https://www.pouet.net/groups.php?which=1217&order=release https://www.pouet.net/groups.php?which=1217&order=release) and I can program the VGA DAC palette in my sleep. Were you referring to the fact that you write 8-bits to the palette registers? That's true, you do, but only 6-bits is actually used so it effectively wraps around at 64. There are 6-bits per colour component which as you pointed out is 18-bits colour depth. Btw I was a teenager when those Denthor trainers came out and I read them all, I loved them! They taught me a lot!
- globalnode 10mo ago
  i remember playing with mode 13h, writing little graphics programs with my turboc compiler. computers were so magical back then.
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]