Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ogicse!blake!ridges
From: ridges@blake.acs.washington.edu (ryan ridges)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Lack of games for the GS
Message-ID: <5873@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Date: 22 Feb 90 00:03:14 GMT
References: <1580@crash.cts.com> <8776@wpi.wpi.edu>
Reply-To: ridges@blake.acs.washington.edu (ryan ridges)
Organization: Taito Software
Lines: 27

More colors would be swell for static pictures, but if they don't come with a 
"proportional" speed increase the GS'll come out just another fuel-starved 
economy machine that doesn't live up to its dangerous name.  More colors 
means more bits/pixel, which means animation programs (read "games") will 
have to work harder to move the same on-screen square footage.  

The shocking truth: a single store instruction can put down 7 standard-hires 
pixels on an 8-bit apple 2.  On the GS, with its 16 colors, the same 
instruction puts down only 4 pixels -- even though the GS has 16 bits under 
the hood.   Since the GS runs about twice as fast as an 8-bit apple we're 
roughly breaking even in raw animation capability.  That's a seriously 
simplified argument, but it hits the basic problem.  If they add colors 
without enough speed I'm afraid they'll nuke GS games back to the stone age 
of tiny, featureless, cave-dwelling characters.  

All this assumes they're not cooking up other hardware help -- blitters
and the like.  I'm not holding my breath yet.

Another problem is the lack of a second super hires display buffer on a 
"stock" GS.  "Page flipping" let 8-bit apple programs run at variable frame 
rates and remain flicker-free without having to keep one eye on the monitor's 
vertical blanking status.  The GS can be sorely strapped to keep up with it's 
own display in any but minimal animation situations.

If I can't have both, you can put me down for speed.

Ryan Ridges