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Amiga Screens: A Primer

140 points · 69 comments · msephton

  1. weinzierl · · focus · HN ↗
    How do different resolutions (pixel sizes) work? I get that everything memory related (including color mode and depth) could be switched on a raster line.

    In theory it should be possible to change the frequency of the video signal mid screen as well, but I have a hard time to imagine switching repeatedly every frame wouldn't have driven the monitors of the time crazy. Even multi-sync monitors needed probably a couple of frames to sync, right?

    1. noone_youknow · · focus · HN ↗
      In the context of the Amiga you didn’t need to change the signal frequency, the underlying video signal stayed the same.

      For wider pixels, the hardware just drew each pixel for longer, and for taller pixels each pixel spanned more lines.

      Pixels weren’t real in the CRT days :)

      1. fallat · · focus · HN ↗
        In a sense pixels arent even real today right? It's an abstraction
        1. layer8 · · focus · HN ↗
          LCD and OLED panels consist of a fixed, unchangeable matrix of native pixels. (Same for the discontinued Plasma TVs.) CRTs don’t have that.
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