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» Amiga.org » Amiga computer related discussion » General chat about Amiga topics » MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.

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Old 04-24-2012, 02:07 PM   #16
billt
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
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Hmmm, my Amazon order says it is being packaged or something. Trying to cancel as it says they will charge me nearly $10 shipping but the item description says it qualifies for free shipping. Don't get that... If They send it anyway, oh well, if my cancel request is honored then I'll reorder with the free shipping.
I received the package today, and amazon were cool enough to refund the shipping fee! Neat! They list it as a $29.something original price and discount it to less than that, i'm not sure if the discount was listed when i preordered or not back in february. it might or might not have met the $25 line when i ordered and then they changed it. dunno
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Old 04-26-2012, 08:53 AM   #17
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
I just got the Book. It looks really interesting so far.

I skimmed through the section on how the Boing Ball works.

Very interesting for me as I have coded my own boing balls for android and amiga classic. I had no idea the original used color cycling...
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Old 04-26-2012, 10:36 AM   #18
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
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Very interesting for me as I have coded my own boing balls for android and amiga classic. I had no idea the original used color cycling...
It's not a secret that it uses color cycling. I don't know how you missed it.

You should be able to do the entire boing ball demo with a copper list and no blitter at all.

The ball in the even bitplanes and the background in the odd bitplanes would allow you to scroll them independently. With the shaddow generated using EHB.
If you need more colours for the ball then you'd need to preshift the background grid, but as it's pretty uniform then you'd only need one line of each and duplicate it with a copper list too.

A boing ball in ham would be interesting as you'd be cycling the base colours, but the modify ones would stay the same.
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Old 04-26-2012, 12:01 PM   #19
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
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It's not a secret that it uses color cycling. I don't know how you missed it.
I never really looked at it that closely. Other than moving the ViewPort around, I knew it was using some kind of trick as it does not use much CPU at all. I'm sure if I would have captured the screen i would have figured it out pretty quickly.
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Old 04-26-2012, 04:06 PM   #20
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
I too received my copy and it looks nice.

I wish the pictures were in color in the book. I also wish they had more pictures. :-)

It looks interesting...Will have to report back when I've read of it.


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Old 04-26-2012, 05:02 PM   #21
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
I got my copy here in Canada (ordered from Amazon.ca) today, Thursday, April 26th. I was surprised by this because the Canadian Amazon site said it was still a pre-order when I ordered it only a few days ago (I was also pleased by the very fast shipping).
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Old 04-26-2012, 05:24 PM   #22
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
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I wish the pictures were in color in the book. I also wish they had more pictures. :-)
would you also like it slightly larger than a book?

Maybe you are looking for a magazine
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Old 04-26-2012, 05:31 PM   #23
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
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would you also like it slightly larger than a book?

Maybe you are looking for a magazine
Well, he has a point. There is one page that has a comparison between a 24-bit image and DPaints 256-colour rendering of the same image. Since the images are black and white and small, you really can't see any meaningful difference. The caption under the images even says you should visit the books website to view the colour versions of the images.
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Old 04-29-2012, 08:09 AM   #24
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
I just bought this as an ebook from Google and am really enjoying it. It's much, much better written than "Racing the Beam", but obviously aimed at a similar geek demographic. The descriptions of the Amiga's hardware quirks and the ways in which they were exploited by talented programmers are first rate. Maher doesn't just regurgitate material from the Internet either. To give an example of his attention to detail, the section on hardware-banging game programming techniques is backed up by his own reconstruction of DMA's Menace engine, with full C source code provided on his website. One of the best things about the book is its objectivity. Although Maher's appreciation for Amiga's design shines through, he is refreshingly candid about its shortcomings too. Like the Concorde, the Amiga was a brilliant but flawed harbinger of a future that never was.
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Old 04-29-2012, 09:22 AM   #25
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
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I just bought this as an ebook from Google...
What? It does look like it's on Google as an e-book already.
Not yet for Amazon..
And it appears to cost less too.. (well, only pennies.. thought it was more..)

Haven't bought an e-book from Google before.. Have to do some checking..

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Old 04-29-2012, 11:01 AM   #26
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
My copy arrived the other day and I quickly burned it!!!

How dare the author try to get the truth out, how dare the author challenge the mass media when they say that Apple and Microsoft invented modern multi-media computing?!?!

If you want to know how it all really happened, watch Pirates of Silicon Valley, there is nothing to learn from this book, move along, move along!

I'm off to order more copies and burn them too, the world must be left in the dark!!!
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Old 04-29-2012, 11:10 AM   #27
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
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I'm off to order more copies and burn them too, the world must be left in the dark!!!
Make sure you delete all the ebooks too!

I'm pretty upset about the Google thing. I want it for my Kindle, but that's still two weeks off and Kindle won't read Google ebooks.

Google's preview is even way longer than the Amazon preview.

Based on the preview, I haven't seen anything I wasn't aware of already, but it was an interesting read. I'm going to buy it somewhere, that's for sure.
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Old 04-29-2012, 11:13 AM   #28
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
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Make sure you delete all the ebooks too!

I'm pretty upset about the Google thing. I want it for my Kindle, but that's still two weeks off and Kindle won't read Google ebooks.
Alright, mail me your ebook readers and I'll take care of that!
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Old 04-29-2012, 02:04 PM   #29
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
Got my copy yesterday, loving it so far
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Old 04-30-2012, 08:56 AM   #30
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Default Re: MIT Press' book on the Amiga slated for release in 2012.
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Got my copy yesterday, loving it so far
Thanks everyone for letting us know this was available.

Got mine Friday!

I'm interesting in reading it. I liked Racing the Beam despite some editing problems......
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