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From: db@cs.ed.ac.uk (Dave Berry)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: not good news
Message-ID: <703@skye.cs.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 18 Oct 90 17:15:20 GMT
References: <33589@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <11393@life.ai.mit.edu> <28856@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
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Reply-To: db@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Dave Berry)
Organization: Laboratory for the Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh U
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In article <11393@life.ai.mit.edu> rjc@wookumz.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) wrote:
>>Whether a computer can display 256 colors out of 16million or not, does
>>not determine its success.

Then why is almost every PC now available in the UK sold with a super-VGA
board as standard?  Quite possibly the people who buy the machines don't
need that capability, but they do seem to like it.

In article <28856@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> navas@cory.Berkeley.EDU replied:
>Woah, now.  It is also not completely irrelevant.  It *will* determine the
>success of a computer within certain niches.

An example niche:  Games.  It would be really ironic if better games
became a reason for buying a PC instead of an Amiga.

Obviously many games benefit from the Amiga's animation facilities.
But adventure-style games show still pictures.  I've seen some quite
impressive 256 colour super VGA pictures in games.  There are even some
flight simulators that claim to use 256 colour VGA, although I
haven't seen them and I suspect that this claim is bogus.

In the short term, it seems to me that the low-end amigas need
revamping with the ECS, including the de-interlacer and a multi-sync
socket.  Games that use 640x512 resolution would keep the Amiga
ahead in that field, even with only 16 colours.  It sounds like
Commodore are working on longer term solutions, which is good.

Obviously the Amiga is the machine of choice for video and animation,
and for a general cheap programming environment.  But it would be
nice if it held its own in other fields as well.

I don't intend offence to anyone by the above.  Please correct my
mistakes.

Dave.

--
 Dave Berry, LFCS, Edinburgh Uni.      db%lfcs.ed.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk

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