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t.amiga ball
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2022-08-26
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T H E A M I G A B A L L
Program by The Force
Sent in by Richard Derocher
Text by Dave Moorman
Just when I had paid about a year
on the high interest consumer loan for
the C-128, the Amiga hit the streets.
I had become accustomed to that sad
sinking feeling one gets about a year
after purchasing a computer. I bought
a TRS-80 Model I in 1979. By 1980, the
Model III was out -- slicker, faster,
lower AND upper case text characters,
built-in disk drive.
But this was worse. The C-128 and
its 64 mode was a tremendous graphics
computer. (Still is!) But the Amiga
had graphics capabilities far beyond
anything on the market. In fact, the
whole PC world is only now beginning
to really compete.
The store demo for the Amiga
needed to show that LARGE objects
could be moved and manipulated easily.
So the Amiga Ball bounced into being.
To paraphrase a song from [Annie]
[Get Your Gun]: "Anything they can do,
we can do also. We have been doing it
longer than them!"
And so it was with the big Amiga
Ball. I saw a similar demo from
Computer! Gazette in the late 80's
that bounced the prodiguous red and
white ball around the screen. This
demo goes a step further -- solid or
wire-frame, and a nice shadow effect.
Back then, we asked, "How did they
[do] that?" You don't hear that
question anymore. Seems kids just
expect dramatic 3-D effects, blazing
sound, and slick quality. In short,
they expect to be entertained and
titillated -- and have no thought of
creating their own effects.
Are there any programmers left?
Are there any young hackers who get an
idea and diligently work out the
logical necessities? Our commercial
consumer economy hopes not. But every
now and then, a clever person or two
will slip through the cracks in the
formica -- like the Derocher boys and
Johnny Harris or Lee Novak before
them. They come to the C-64 because
here anyone can TRY anything.
Sometimes, it even works!
DMM