With modern consoles offering gamers graphics so photorealistic that they blur the line between CGI and reality, it's easy forget just how cartoonishly blocky they were in the 8-bit era. In his new book, Creating Q*Bert and Other Classic Arcade Games, legendary game designer and programmer Warren Davis recalls his halcyon days imagining and designing some of the biggest hits to ever grace an arcade. In the excerpt below, Davis explains how the industry made its technological leap from 8- to 12-bit graphics. Santa Monica Press©2021 Santa Monica PressBack at my regular day job, I became particularly fascinated with a new product that came out for the Amiga computer: a video digitizer made by a company called A-Squared. Let’s unpack all that slowly.The Amiga was a recently released home computer capable of unprecedented graphics and sound: 4,096 colors! Eight-bit stereo sound! There were image manipulation programs for it that could do things no other computer, including the IBM PC, could do. We had one at Williams not only because of its capabilities, but also because our own Jack Haeger, an immensely talented artist who’d worked on Sinistar at Williams a few years earlier, was also the art director for the Amiga design team.Video digitization is the process of grabbing a video image from some video source, like a camera or a videotape, and converting it into pixel data that a computer system (or video game) could use. A full-color photograph might contain millions of... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2021-12-25 16:30:11 UTC ]
The anxiety that libraries can sometimes give me is of a cosmic nature, for something ineffable affects my sense of self when I realize that the majority of human interaction, expression, and creativity shall forever be unavailable to me. The post A Fraternity of Dreamers appeared first on The... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2020-10-09 10:00:48 UTC ]
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In the wake of the pandemic, can publishers and libraries finally hash out their differences? Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-10-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
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This librarian has seen some truly creative ideas for how libraries hype books virtually, and she's here to share the wealth. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-10-05 10:30:00 UTC ]
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Libraries Week kicks off today (5th October), featuring behind the scenes looks at authors' bookshelves, a nationwide live reading of The Midnight Library by author Matt Haig (Canongate) and the launch of a Bonnier book club. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-05 05:45:33 UTC ]
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Syncing with Google Drive is one of the easiest ways to safeguard your data. And you can even specify how much of your internet connection’s bandwidth to use. As our digital libraries get larger and larger, we’re fortunate to be living in a time when cloud-based storage keeps getting cheaper and... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2020-10-01 00:00:11 UTC ]
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A new monthly book club and greater outreach to public and school libraries are among the World Book Day plans for 2021, the charity’s c.e.o. has revealed at this year’s Bookseller Children’s Conference. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-28 19:52:05 UTC ]
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With a shift to online resources well underway, “the most trusted civic institutions” are in a good position to deal with the changing future. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-09-24 09:00:14 UTC ]
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One reader on finding solace and sanctuary in college libraries as a transfer student. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-09-17 10:39:00 UTC ]
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A reader on saying goodbye not only to the books she can't bring on the next phase of her journey, but to her roomie, her sister. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-09-15 10:35:00 UTC ]
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A new partnership with Poisoned Pen Press brings the prolific and popular author’s horror novels to bookstores and libraries everywhere. (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-09-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Where did you come from? It’s a question many people never consider, but some are curious and the best answer to that, aside from lots of time in archives, historical societies, libraries and cemeteries, is a DNA test. You have multiple options, but the leader is Ancestry.com and it is always... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2020-09-13 08:36:25 UTC ]
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Eight moms on how they're building personal libraries for their children and building their interest in reading. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-09-11 10:37:00 UTC ]
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Pigs They are born in a flood of magma. They claw their way to the center of the earth. They don’t know what a blouse is, and they don’t care. There are seventeen constellations named for their kin. They coordinate all the Monday briefings. When they read the wrong books, they return them to... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-31 11:00:00 UTC ]
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A look back in history to how YA librarians and libraries helped create the young adult category of books for teens. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-08-31 10:30:00 UTC ]
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Software development today usually involves the use of third-party APIs, libraries or frameworks that are complex, rapidly evolving, and sometimes poorly documented. Security testing solutions company GrammaTech is launching its new Swap Detector, an open-source checker that detects application... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2020-08-26 14:39:21 UTC ]
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What could be better than a book about a library, or featuring a librarian as its main character? Find a book for every library lover. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-08-24 10:30:00 UTC ]
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Libraries Connected has announced that author Lesley Pearse will launch its new series of virtual events. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-23 22:19:04 UTC ]
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With most bookstores and libraries still closed, some are turning to the neighborhood boxes, others avoiding the risk. Jay Duplass is on the fence. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-08-20 14:00:35 UTC ]
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The 25th Bodley’s Librarian, Richard Ovenden, makes the case for libraries as vital arbiters of history and guardians of rights in his stirring first book Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-20 11:45:56 UTC ]
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Nvidia’s long-awaited GeForce Now arrived on Chromebooks Tuesday morning, giving gamers the ability to play their game libraries on Google’s laptops.Plans for GeForce Now streamed gaming on Chrome OS have been in the works since 2017. The service, already popular on Windows and MacOS, lets... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2020-08-18 16:54:00 UTC ]
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