Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!spcc386!stefan
From: stefan@spcc386.UUCP (Stefan Posthuma)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: STe
Message-ID: <272@spcc386.UUCP>
Date: 8 Sep 89 09:25:21 GMT
References: <72.25024EC8@metnet.FIDONET.ORG>
Reply-To: stefan@spcc386.UUCP (Stefan Posthuma)
Organization: SPC Company, Heeswijk-Dinther, the Netherlands
Lines: 34

William Blair writes:
>Did Atari hand out any data sheets on the STe during the show?  If so,
>could someone please provide an english translation.  We are desparate
>for information over here.  For instance, does the STe support more
>simultaneous colors per screen than the current ST (without software
>tricks like those used in the program Spectrum)?

I have been to Dusseldorf and picked up one of those sheets. I don't have it
here, but this is what I know for sure:

The color palette has been increased to 4096, but UNFORTUNATELY, you are
still restricted to 16 colors at the same time.
The machine has a standard 68000, a blitter, 4 channel digi-synth music,
6 joystick ports, a mouse, hardware smooth scrolling and 1Mb of memory.
I think only those who work with graphics, music or games will find the
machine more attractive.
Personally, I think it is very interesting for computer games because of
the bigger palette, the scrolling, the blitter, the music and the six (!)
joysticks, but that's as far as it goes.

Talking about hardware scrolling, the latest trick amongst the ST wizards
is something called 'sync scrolling' which comes down to hardware scrolling.
It is terribly difficult to achieve, but I have seen it working and it is
truly amazing. The Carebears from Sweden use it in their latest demo
(The Cuddly Demos) and Thalion Software from Germany is planning to use it
in a new game. I know roughly how it works and it is based on fooling the 
MMU and the Shifter by changing sync frequency bewteen 70-60-50 Hz on
crucial points of the screen. In this way, you can set the screen address
byte-wyse and shift the screen left and right pixel wise.
-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  "Oh my God, it is the attack of the Half-Crazed Mutant Teenage Alien Computer
Junkies!!"                                 +------------------------------------
  "Relax! It are just some SPCC employees" | uunet!mcvax!spcc386!stefan