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From: rubin@ganymede.cis.ohio-state.edu (daniel j rubin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.games,comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: Mac and Amiga (Games--Macintosh vs A500)
Message-ID: <90997@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 6 Mar 91 00:59:08 GMT
References: <27253@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <1991Mar3.223546.12173@rice.edu> <1991Mar4.022332.8904@csn.org> <27263@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
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Reply-To: daniel j rubin <rubin@cis.ohio-state.edu>
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There is no comparison between the Amiga and the Mac when it comes to games.
The graphics power on the Amiga is overwhelming.  I love the Mac for its user
friendliness and its ability to support super-simple menu and button type
screens so the user can relate to the computer.  The Mac is way to slow
to support any kind of serious fast-paced graphic programs, there is so much
overhead going on to support the idea that Apple has to make all future 
machines compatible with old ones ect.... For instance, there is no way to 
move the screen memory pointer on the Mac, the area in memory used for the
screen is fixed (ok, mabey earlier versions had two screen memory areas, but
that certainly was not too versital anyway).  You have to be able to do tricks
and do things that are not normal to create good graphics and hence good games.
I remember programming on the Atari 8-bits and using the screen memory pointers
to scroll at fast speeds even though the machine itself was not that fast, the
same thing goes with VBlank interrupts, altering the display list, being
able to turn off the screen and rotate colors by messing with memory registers.
All of this stuff made it possible to make hi-speed, relitivly good graphics
on a slooowwww computer.  The Mac, on the other hand, is a faster computer, but
not nearly fast enough to do all that without the graphics co-processor chips
and those neat little tricks that you need to be able to play on the computer
itself.  Apple does not want you to touch the computer guts without interfaces,
which is a great idea to support the purpose of the Mac.  If I was buying a
computer for graphics, games are just one little part of all the graphics
applications out there, I would most certainly buy a Amiga.

							- Dan Rubin