Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!amiga0!mykes From: mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: Games vs. OS Message-ID: Date: 31 Mar 91 23:31:33 GMT References: <1991Mar28.001944.7281@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu> <18e6c18b.ARN0c4c@swinjm.UUCP> <20212@cbmvax.commodore.com> Organization: Amiga makes it possible Lines: 39 In article <20212@cbmvax.commodore.com> jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup) writes: > Ah, the innocence of youth... :-) If A500's starting tomorrow >had 68020's, or 68030's, or 68040's, there would still be people like >Mike Schwartz or the guy flaming Mike Farren who would insist that in order >for their games to be fast enough, they had to take over the machine. (It >might take them a few months to figure out how to use up all the cycles, >though.) > Maybe, maybe not. When will Commodore start shipping A500's with 68030's? How much market penetration will it have and by when? These are the key factors in making me decide how to procede. People writing games for the PC have always had to program to the lowest common denominator: 4.77Mhz 8088, CGA, Tandy machines, etc. The PC market is at least changing. Those 4.77Mhz machines are losing market share to the point where game programmers are making EGA and UP games for 286 and up machines only now. But how long have those machines been around, and how many years has it taken to make the market share attractive enough to become the minimum supported machine? As far as using up all those clock cycles, it depends on what you want to do. If someone made a real time mandlebrot program, nobody would complain. If you used those cycles to do real-time raytracing to get better than TV quality 3d effects, it might be worth it. On the other hand, a scrolling shoot-em up wouldn't warrant it. We won't really know what people will do until we get there. >-- >Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering. >{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com BIX: rjesup >Thus spake the Master Ninjei: "To program a million-line operating system >is easy, to change a man's temperament is more difficult." >(From "The Zen of Programming") ;-) -- ******************************************************** * Appendix A of the Amiga Hardware Manual tells you * * everything you need to know to take full advantage * * of the power of the Amiga. And it is only 10 pages! * ********************************************************