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 ]
Safely lending books is just the beginning. Libraries are figuring out everything from how to remain welcoming spaces to how to respond to changing reader behavior. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-06-11 09:00:22 UTC ]
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Museums are a lot like libraries and bookstores: quiet, contemplative spaces filled with wondrous objects that can light up your imagination and transport you to a different time and place. Now, like so many other cultural institutions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, most are shuttered for the time... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-06-09 11:00:00 UTC ]
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We're talking to library staff about how libraries are working to plan for summer reading programs despite the limitations caused by a global pandemic. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-06-08 10:33:48 UTC ]
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The UK's Save Our Libraries campaign, spearheaded by librarians and authors, began nearly 10 years ago - but has it achieved its goal of stopping closures? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-06-08 10:31:39 UTC ]
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Suzanne Tonini, collection development supervisor for Denver Public Schools, shares how her the city’s public schools and libraries are continuing to meet students’ educational needs amid the pandemic. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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As states push to reopen, many libraries are having to figure out their own way forward. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Facing closures and budget shortfalls, libraries look for new ways to support graphic novels amid the ongoing pandemic. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Even with their physical locations shuttered, libraries have been an invaluable resource to everyone stuck at home and desperate for new reading material. According to Time Out New York, the NYPL has seen a 864% increase in digital library card sign-ups since March. Still, the loss of the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-06-04 15:02:50 UTC ]
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When libraries around the US began closing their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Internet Archive (IA) responded by creating a “National Emergency Library,” a collection of 1.4 million books from its free e-book repository Open Library. Pu... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2020-06-01 19:33:58 UTC ]
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We may not be able to escape to bookish destinations right now, but we can be transported by these books about libraries and bookstores. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-05-28 10:39:03 UTC ]
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Even before the pandemic, Finnish libraries were usually more versatile than most libraries around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed hundreds of millions of people’s lives in countless ways since it went global in February of this year. Working from home quickly became a norm, online... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2020-05-27 07:20:21 UTC ]
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Spotify has announced that it is lifting the content cap that previously limited the number of songs, albums and podcasts that could be added to a library. Until today is was only high-profile Spotify Rockstars who were able to store more than 10,000 items in their Spotify libraries, but now... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2020-05-26 14:59:04 UTC ]
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Find out how some libraries are shifting summer reading programs into digital spaces, maintaining their communities, and learning from the process. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-05-26 10:33:13 UTC ]
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Italy, the first Western country to be ravaged by coronavirus, has further eased its two-month-long lockdown, allowing everything from museums and libraries to sit-down dining and hairdressers to reopen leaving businesses to grapple with radical... Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2020-05-25 08:00:00 UTC ]
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BookExpo Online's first full day of programming begins with a panel featureing five library leaders who will take stock of how libraries are handling the coronavirus pandemic thus far and how the public library might change in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
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New research from application security specialist Veracode finds seven in 10 applications have a security flaw in an open source library on initial scan, highlighting how use of open source can introduce flaws, increase risk, and add to security debt. The study analyzed the component open source... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2020-05-19 09:57:36 UTC ]
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Shelter in place orders throughout the country haven’t just brought the economy to a grinding halt, but frozen civic infrastructure as well. Sure, water still flows from our taps, police and firefighters are still on the job, but your local library l... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2020-05-11 15:00:59 UTC ]
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From hip hop to Yiddish works to sourdough starter, explore some of the most niche libraries and collections found on the globe and online. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-05-11 10:32:24 UTC ]
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These were the most popular books in libraries to kick off 2020. What have you read? Missed? Want to pick up from your library or bookstore next? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-05-08 10:32:36 UTC ]
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If the combined libraries of Steam, Xbox Game Pass, Stadia (now with wireless controller support on PC) and all the rest just aren’t enough for you, Dan Cooper has a recommendation: spreadsheets. His latest obsession is a browser-based version of the... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2020-05-06 11:33:37 UTC ]
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