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Amiga Graphics Archive

amiga.lychesis.net

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Re: Amiga Graphics Archive

#21

Post by reaperducer »

lysace wrote: post #10

I missed out on the Amiga (introduced in 1985) at the time, being an early PC adopter. Went from CGA (1981) directly to VGA (1987). In terms of colors the most popular VGA modes (320x200 or 320x240, 256 color palette, 18 bit color depth) are superior to the most popular Amiga graphics modes (320×200 or 320x256, 32 color palette, 12 bit color depth). But somehow Amiga graphics is still often nicer .

You're comparing 1987 VGA to 1985 Amiga? Not a realistic comparison.

Technology advanced much more rapidly in those days. Similar to how hard drive capacity seemed to double every six months for a while, or how there's a new bleeding edge AI model every three months today.

Also, VGA had 256 colors. The Amiga had 4,096 simultaneously.

Re: Amiga Graphics Archive

#23

Post by lysace »

reaperducer wrote: post #21
lysace wrote: post #10

I missed out on the Amiga (introduced in 1985) at the time, being an early PC adopter. Went from CGA (1981) directly to VGA (1987). In terms of colors the most popular VGA modes (320x200 or 320x240, 256 color palette, 18 bit color depth) are superior to the most popular Amiga graphics modes (320×200 or 320x256, 32 color palette, 12 bit color depth). But somehow Amiga graphics is still often nicer .

You're comparing 1987 VGA to 1985 Amiga? Not a realistic comparison. Technology advanced much more rapidly in those days. Similar to how hard drive capacity seemed to double every six months for a while, or how there's a new bleeding edge AI model every three months today. Also, VGA had 256 colors. The Amiga had 4,096 simultaneously.

Also, VGA had 256 colors. The Amiga had 4,096 simultaneously.

That's the highly special hold-and-modify mode (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hold-And-Modify). I tried pretty hard to word my comment fairly, remembering the sometimes legendary tenacity of Amiga fans. (Which nowadays includes yours truly.)

Re: Amiga Graphics Archive

#24

Post by fredoralive »

reaperducer wrote: post #21
lysace wrote: post #10

I missed out on the Amiga (introduced in 1985) at the time, being an early PC adopter. Went from CGA (1981) directly to VGA (1987). In terms of colors the most popular VGA modes (320x200 or 320x240, 256 color palette, 18 bit color depth) are superior to the most popular Amiga graphics modes (320×200 or 320x256, 32 color palette, 12 bit color depth). But somehow Amiga graphics is still often nicer .

You're comparing 1987 VGA to 1985 Amiga? Not a realistic comparison. Technology advanced much more rapidly in those days. Similar to how hard drive capacity seemed to double every six months for a while, or how there's a new bleeding edge AI model every three months today. Also, VGA had 256 colors. The Amiga had 4,096 simultaneously.

Only using the party trick HAM mode though. 32 (plus 32 for the half-bright bit plane) is the mode that most software uses.

Of course in 1987 a Macintosh II with a fully expanded "Toby" framebuffer could not only do 256 colours, it could do it in 640x480 mode where as a PS/2's VGA could only do 16 colours at that resolution. And an Amiga could only do flickervision at that res.

Of course with technology improving all the time, not having a updated chipset circa 1987 that at least had a progressive scan 640x480(ish) is one of those things that really killed the chances of Amiga as a serious computer. They only got that circa 1990, and "Super VGA" was already just about becoming a thing in the PC world (and Microsoft had kinda got round to making a version of Windows that didn't suck by then). I'm not sure if the mythical Ranger had a progressive mode, but it's it does show how Commodore inability to keep the custom chips updated in a timely mannner slowly sunk the system...

Re: Amiga Graphics Archive

#25

Post by appstorelottery »

This is great stuff! As a side note, I wonder if anyone has created a HAM viewer that runs in the browser? I remember HAM flickering by necessity and being amazed by 4096 colors on-screen at once. There was a certain quality of HAM images on the Amiga that made them instantly identifiable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hold-And-Modify

Re: Amiga Graphics Archive

#26

Post by lysace »

ekianjo wrote: post #16
lysace wrote: post #10

I missed out on the Amiga (introduced in 1985) at the time, being an early PC adopter. Went from CGA (1981) directly to VGA (1987). In terms of colors the most popular VGA modes (320x200 or 320x240, 256 color palette, 18 bit color depth) are superior to the most popular Amiga graphics modes (320×200 or 320x256, 32 color palette, 12 bit color depth). But somehow Amiga graphics is still often nicer .

Amiga happened way before VGA was mainstream.

Amigas reached hobbyists in large numbers way earlier, yeah.

Re: Amiga Graphics Archive

#28

Post by [deleted] »

reaperducer wrote: post #21
lysace wrote: post #10

I missed out on the Amiga (introduced in 1985) at the time, being an early PC adopter. Went from CGA (1981) directly to VGA (1987). In terms of colors the most popular VGA modes (320x200 or 320x240, 256 color palette, 18 bit color depth) are superior to the most popular Amiga graphics modes (320×200 or 320x256, 32 color palette, 12 bit color depth). But somehow Amiga graphics is still often nicer .

You're comparing 1987 VGA to 1985 Amiga? Not a realistic comparison. Technology advanced much more rapidly in those days. Similar to how hard drive capacity seemed to double every six months for a while, or how there's a new bleeding edge AI model every three months today. Also, VGA had 256 colors. The Amiga had 4,096 simultaneously.

[deleted]

Re: Amiga Graphics Archive

#29

Post by vidarh »

appstorelottery wrote: post #25

This is great stuff! As a side note, I wonder if anyone has created a HAM viewer that runs in the browser? I remember HAM flickering by necessity and being amazed by 4096 colors on-screen at once. There was a certain quality of HAM images on the Amiga that made them instantly identifiable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hold-And-Modify

HAM doesn't flicker. The issue with HAM is that you're limited in terms of abrupt colour changes.

It's straightforward to convert HAM to PNG etc.

It would have sometimes been used together with interlaced mode to double the number of lines and that did flicker.

Re: Amiga Graphics Archive

#30

Post by vidarh »

lysace wrote: post #23
reaperducer wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're comparing 1987 VGA to 1985 Amiga? Not a realistic comparison. Technology advanced much more rapidly in those days. Similar to how hard drive capacity seemed to double every six months for a while, or how there's a new bleeding edge AI model every three months today. Also, VGA had 256 colors. The Amiga had 4,096 simultaneously.

Also, VGA had 256 colors. The Amiga had 4,096 simultaneously. That's the highly special hold-and-modify mode ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hold-And-Modify ). I tried pretty hard to word my comment fairly, remembering the sometimes legendary tenacity of Amiga fans. (Which nowadays includes yours truly.)

Or using the copper. Plenty of Amiga games played palette tricks despite not using HAM.
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