14 May 2013, 13:23 | #1 |
Zone Friend
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Amiga questions you've always been too embarrassed to ask
Did you ever have an Amiga related question that seemed too simplistic, something you should normally know the answer to and are therefore too ashamed to ask? I thought it would be nice to have a thread for such questions. Thread rule: nobody is allowed to laugh, no matter how stupid the question is.
Here's mine: What does Game & Mini Mag mean? If nobody else posts a question in a week, I will kill myself |
14 May 2013, 13:33 | #2 |
The Original Domainiac
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Age: 47
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14 May 2013, 15:00 | #3 |
HOL/FTP busy bee
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Germany
Age: 46
Posts: 32,416
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"Game & Mini Mag" refers to a kind of 'magazin' that basically only had one or more games on a disk and 1 or 2 pages of printed instructions I'm not sure about other coutries, but they were quite popular here (most popular Amiga one was 'Amiga Fun'). The games on them varied from shareware to 'close-to-commercial' quality.
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14 May 2013, 15:28 | #4 |
Zap´em
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Germany
Posts: 642
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What does paralax-scrolling mean? Pretended to know what it is when others talked about it but never really understood.
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14 May 2013, 15:40 | #5 |
HOL/FTP busy bee
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Germany
Age: 46
Posts: 32,416
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You have multiple layers of your 'playfield' and once you move they scroll at different speeds (to create some kind of depth). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_scrolling#Example
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14 May 2013, 15:41 | #6 |
Unregistered User
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Location: Copenhagen / DK
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Parallax scrolling is a way to create a depth feeling using only 2D planes. Consider cutting out some shapes in cardboard. In the back you put the background, then you might add some trees in the next layer, then some grass etc. When you move sideways, you move the front layers faster and the back ones slowest relative to their distance, thus creating a sense of depth, South Park style. This is used in most platform games.
Edit: I was slow |
14 May 2013, 15:46 | #7 |
Registered User
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Play Shadow of the Beast and watch the background as you move around, parallax scrolling at its best.
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14 May 2013, 16:11 | #8 |
TinkerTailorContentMaker
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Bedfordshire
Age: 46
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Regarding parallax. Without using more technical terminology..Next time you sit in a moving train, look out of the window, you will notice objects closer to you are moving faster than objects that are further away. This is what programmers hope to achieve when they use parallax scrolling.
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14 May 2013, 20:49 | #9 |
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Slovenia
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How is an A4000 different from an A1200? I mean from a software point of view - I heard many times that some software or game works on A1200 but not on A4000. Isn't the AGA chipset exactly the same as on A1200, the only difference being Budgie / Buster?
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14 May 2013, 20:59 | #10 |
TinkerTailorContentMaker
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Bedfordshire
Age: 46
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@Chaos. AFAIK the only real difference is the processor. The A1200 houses the "68020" and the A4000 it's the "68040". One is faster than the other with subtle differences in how they operate, these differences are enough to cause incompatibility problems..I'm not 100% on this so I'm sure someone can better explain.
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14 May 2013, 21:58 | #11 | |
ex. demoscener "Bigmama"
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Fyn / Denmark
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Quote:
budgie, buster and gary/gayle differences rarely cause issues for games/demos.. |
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14 May 2013, 22:08 | #12 |
Puttymoon inhabitant
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Why the Amiga diskdrives periodically click? There are tools that reduce that clicking and the drives recognise floppy insertion and load it, so why the drives from A1000 thru the whole range up to A4000T do click?
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14 May 2013, 22:47 | #13 |
Zap´em
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Germany
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I understand Parallax-scrolling now, thanks.
[ Show youtube player ] |
14 May 2013, 22:47 | #14 | |
Registered User
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Location: Germany
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Quote:
The programs which switch off the clicking make the head move from track 0 towards track -1 (which does not exist and thus the head is not really moved). Some drives however try to really move the head this way and will damage the head. That said, the big question is: why does the drive not need to click when a disk is in the drive? |
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14 May 2013, 23:05 | #15 |
Glastonbridge Software
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Edinburgh/Scotland
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pretty sure it will also detect if a plastic dummy disk is inserted. or those drive head cleaners. there is a physical switch in there somewhere that detects the disk but for some reason the drive doesn't sent the status until it receives a command.
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14 May 2013, 23:38 | #16 |
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I've always wondered what made the weight of the power unit on A500 and on A1200 so different, with the former being a brick and the other being so light: since I burned a couple of the A500 ones, in very little time, with them being so expensive, I was kind of let down when I got the A1200, because its power unit seemed so cheap.
But I don't remember if the A1200's one never broke down: if it has not, then it is the same I bought in 1994, still working now. |
14 May 2013, 23:46 | #17 |
Zap´em
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Germany
Posts: 642
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My A1200 has the same power brick as the A500. Hmm. They really look the same and have the same connectors.
As far as the disk drive is concerned, there is a small black pin or switch in the drive to notice if there is a disk in it, so I always wondered about the clicking, too. |
15 May 2013, 00:04 | #18 | |
License to Bubble
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Amiga questions you've always been too embarrassed to ask
Quote:
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15 May 2013, 00:17 | #19 |
Into the Wonderful
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: England
Age: 49
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Amiga questions you've always been too embarrassed to ask
What's an "Amiga"?
There, I've said it. |
15 May 2013, 00:19 | #20 |
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