RIP Steve Jobs

[NickFitz]

That was caused by the vertical retrace IIRC.

There was some bit or other you could check for that.

Bit 3 of I/O register 03dah. Unlike real computers such as the BBC Micro, it didn't generate a VBI interrupt, so you had to poll it, then get all your display memory updates done as quickly as possible.

This wasn't helped by the fact that the CGA card lived on the 8-bit bus, so every display memory access incurred a shedload of wait states

And of course the display memory was interleaved: rows 0, 2, 4... came first, then 1, 3, 5... The easiest way to deal with that was to toggle the ES register between two values I can't now remember, and also toggle the row offset between 0 and 80, each row.

Sorting your sprites (or otherwise arranging them) by Y position so you drew the top of the screen first could also gain you some time, assuming the constraint that not all sprites are allowed to be close to the top of the screen.

Happy days...

[Churchill]

Bought myself a Dual Sparc Sun workstation at the weekend.

[DodgyAgent]

Bought myself a Dual Sparc Sun workstation at the weekend.

[Churchill]

What was that for you fat parasite?

[PAH]

Ah yes. The famous 3 inch diskettes that you could turn over to use the other side*.

*Snow joke, you really could turn the diskette over to use the other surface, unless the drive was double sided.

You could do the same with the older 5.25" floppies by punching a notch in the other side. I may still have one of the punching devices somewhere, seems they're now collectible items.


Floppy disks for Commodore and other vintage computers | The Silicon Underground

Could also double the capacity of the 3.5" not-so-floppy disks by adding a second hole.

[PAH]

Really?

Wouldn't the index hole be in the wrong place?

<Zeity wanders off to look at a 5.25" diskette>

I'm guessing index holes were not needed by the newer generation of floppy floppies, or were already punched into both sides.

[Zoiderman]

I don't even particularly like Apple products, but you're an ignoramus. These days, people buy iPhones/iPods because it's a huge brand. But the first iPod got to be the new word for Walkman based on being a bloody good product. Similar the first iPhone... and the MacBook Air... and the iPad.

The biggest electronics companies have spent $billions playing catch-up. Modern smartphones, music players, laptops and tablets are all influenced by Apple for the better.

I bought a 3GS, mate had a HTC. HTC much better. Agree with the Ipod to a degree; there were better players about, but the look of the iPod was good. Kinda proves my point, however. iPad is not even the best tablet around. Mac Air, 'hewn from one piece of aluminum', etc. Sorry, don't buy it. They really aren't that good, just good. I don't agree with most of what you've said, I am not going down the route of calling you names because we don't agree, don't see the point really mate.

[d000hg]

Apple re(invented) the tablet, certainly they created the modern imagining of it... others may have caught up as with the iPhone but they got there first and created a new market.

[DodgyAgent]

What was that for you fat parasite?

Conforming to stereotype Churchy

[Zoiderman]

Apple re(invented) the tablet, certainly they created the modern imagining of it... others may have caught up as with the iPhone but they got there first and created a new market.

Don't disagree with any of that, but baulk at the innovator tags, etc. Just making existing stuff look nice.

I hated my 3Gs after a while, but just bought an iPad which I am, currently, fairly impressed with.