Re: The Amiga Lives!

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Post #190,634

by SpiceWare

1/18/05 5:16:00 PM

Re: The Amiga Lives!

One feature of the original custom Amiga graphics chips was that you could "pull" down screens with the mouse to see screens that were behind them. This feature, called "draggable screens," was never duplicated by any graphics card manufacturer since, so sadly it is not available on the AmigaOne.

If it can't do this, it's not an Amiga.

Darrell Spice, Jr.                      [link|http://spiceware.org/gallery/ArtisticOverpass|Artistic Overpass]\n[link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore

Post #190,641

by inthane-chan

1/18/05 5:47:37 PM

???

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the feature, but I can do that on my Linux and Windows boxen right now...

"Here at Ortillery Command we have at our disposal hundred megawatt laser beams, mach 20 titanium rods and guided thermonuclear bombs. Some people say we think that we're God. We're not God. We just borrowed his 'SMITE' button for our fire control system."

Post #190,644

by SpiceWare

1/18/05 6:04:47 PM

viewable at the same time

On the Amiga, like other systems, you can have multiple screens, each at different resolutions and color depths.

One thing that differentiated the Amiga from other systems was that you could grab a screen's title bar and drag it down, revealing other screens behind it. ie - the top 1/4 of your display could be a screen 320x200, the next 1/4 be at 640x400 and the bottom half at 320x400.

Darrell Spice, Jr.                      [link|http://spiceware.org/gallery/ArtisticOverpass|Artistic Overpass]\n[link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore

Post #190,646

by altmann

1/18/05 6:11:21 PM

Enlightenment

Though it didn't do the multiresoultion thing, the Enlightenment window manager at one point had a sliding desktop feature like you describe.

--
Chris Altmann

Post #190,652

by inthane-chan

1/18/05 6:29:08 PM

Wakarimasu! Domo arigatou gozaimasu!

Post #190,663

by jake123

1/18/05 6:57:26 PM

Woah

that's a pretty sweet feature. I wonder how they did that.

--\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton                            jake at consultron.ca *\n* [link|http://consultron.ca|http://consultron.ca]                   [link|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] *\n* Kingston Ontario Canada               [link|news://news.consultron.ca|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------

Post #190,668

by SpiceWare

1/18/05 7:08:17 PM

custom chips

Specifically the copper(short for co processor) for this bit. The copper ran it's own program, in parallel to the 68K. It could wait for a specific scan line and change any of the settings of the graphic chipset.

Darrell Spice, Jr.                      [link|http://spiceware.org/gallery/ArtisticOverpass|Artistic Overpass]\n[link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore

Post #190,670

by static

1/18/05 7:08:33 PM

I can take a guess.

I'm guessing it probably had a type of display-list interface. It meant as well as a set of divider numbers that drove the clock counter and memory fetch, it had a set of instructions for modifying them as the display generator worked its way down the frame. Instructions that could be like "read this block of memory as 8-bit mono at this speed" which might give you 16 rows of lines at 640 pixels a row. If the next instruction is then "read that block of memory as an 8-bit colour via the lookup table over there at this other speed" you have mode-switching mid-frame. If you add a pre-instruction like "repeat the next line x times", then the Amiga's pull-down trick would have been very easy.

Atari's ANTIC chip worked like that, too.

Wade.

Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed

Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please

-- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne.

The Amiga Lives! - (inthane-chan) - (9) - Jan. 18, 2005, 10:55:07 AM EST

Many false rises from the ashes - (lister) - Jan. 18, 2005, 05:01:11 PM EST

Re: The Amiga Lives! - (SpiceWare) - (7) - Jan. 18, 2005, 05:16:00 PM EST

??? - (inthane-chan) - (6) - Jan. 18, 2005, 05:47:37 PM EST

viewable at the same time - (SpiceWare) - (5) - Jan. 18, 2005, 06:04:47 PM EST

Enlightenment - (altmann) - Jan. 18, 2005, 06:11:21 PM EST

Wakarimasu! Domo arigatou gozaimasu! -NT - (inthane-chan) - Jan. 18, 2005, 06:29:08 PM EST

Woah - (jake123) - (2) - Jan. 18, 2005, 06:57:26 PM EST

custom chips - (SpiceWare) - Jan. 18, 2005, 07:08:17 PM EST

I can take a guess. - (static) - Jan. 18, 2005, 07:08:33 PM EST

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