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 ]
Amazon has begun notifying Comixology users that they’ll no longer be able to read comics on the app come December 4. Comixology is merging with the Kindle app, and users’ libraries will soon only be accessible via the latter. The move caps off the ruination of... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-11-15 21:39:11 UTC ]
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Libraries are sacred space within the unending, unrelenting madness, the profane that is Society, places where the predominant ideology is to inform. The Library of Alexandria was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; the Library of Congress is a wonderfully ( dis )organized... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-11-14 09:35:32 UTC ]
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I am, primarily, a guitarist. Dabbling in keys and synths has always felt a bit unnatural from a physical standpoint. A keyboard doesn’t respond the way a fretted instrument does. This isn’t surprising, nor is it a bad thing. It’s just not what I’m used to. The better... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-11-10 15:00:28 UTC ]
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Among the week's headlines: a good election night for libraries meant a bad one for book banners; a national teachers group met with Scholastic leaders over the company's abandoned program to segregate diverse books; and librarians fired for defending the freedom to read headed to the U.S. Equal... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The most commonly stolen books from high school libraries follow a pattern: they're usually mystery, poetry, or graphic novel titles. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-11-07 11:32:00 UTC ]
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Libraries across Europe appear to be facing attacks from cybercriminals. At Britain’s national library, an “incident” is sending scholars back to an analog age. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-11-03 17:15:37 UTC ]
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There is no such thing as the "best video game console," but figuring out which one is right for the gaming experience you want is more in reach. There are seven systems that you could reasonably call “current gen,” and others, such as Valve’s Steam Deck, further... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-10-27 14:00:06 UTC ]
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Latino authors across Los Angeles are taking advantage of the resources offered by local libraries to jump-start their careers. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-10-11 16:59:02 UTC ]
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Wine is not an emulator like Qemu or a virtualization environment like Virtualbox, but a runtime environment that aims to emulate the Windows API on Linux. This API mapping is not complete, but it is comprehensive enough for many Windows programs to run on the Linux desktop. Wine began... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2023-10-10 10:30:00 UTC ]
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No Book Left Behind, by Alice-Catherine Carls Essay [email protected] Mon, 10/09/2023 - 15:35 Photo by Alexander Grey / UnsplashWelcome news to those of us in the “Flyover Zone”: our reading habits are healthy and well served. The Jackson Madison... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-10-09 20:35:50 UTC ]
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Cable used to be the only game in town for wide entertainment. Sure, if you wanted to subscribe to a game like EverQuest or World of Warcraft, you could (and well, guess the rest of us were never seeing you again). But for variety, cable is what you had—and it wasn’t cheap. So when... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2023-10-04 14:10:27 UTC ]
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Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a dream for stealth kings. People who loved Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell or simply the old Assassin’s Creeds will have a tremendous fun in beautiful 9th century Baghdad, our recent hands-on with the game revealed. We throw coins, briefly distract a guard, dart... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2023-09-29 19:00:00 UTC ]
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It’s no coincidence that many programs using artificial intelligence techniques are open source and thus completely free. This is because the early approaches originated in academia, where free licences for software are common practice in order to promote collaboration and further... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2023-09-18 11:30:00 UTC ]
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Drag performers who read stories to children at libraries across Canada have faced an increase in protests calling the events destructive for kids, and in some cases, even threats of violence. But the king and queens say they won't let that stop them, because storytimes are about joy and literacy. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2023-09-16 08:00:00 UTC ]
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Among the week's headlines: a politically charged hearing on book bans in the U.S. Senate; Illinois libraries face another wave of bomb threats; an internal report reveals the strain library workers at the Oakland Public Library are feeling; and a brilliant essay explores how today's right wing... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple snuck in a significant change to iCloud data storage near the end of its “Wonderlust” iPhone 15 event. The company added two new iCloud+ storage tiers: 6TB ($30 / month) and 12TB ($60 / month).The 6TB and 12TB cloud storage tiers join the existing 50GB, 200GB and 2TB plans currently... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-09-12 19:48:53 UTC ]
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Get away from it all with a journey to the most magical libraries in fiction from the Library of Zosma to the Great Libraries of Austmeer. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-09-12 10:34:00 UTC ]
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At a glanceExpert's Rating ProsHefty performance for a 14-inch deviceCrisp oled displayTop-notch keyboard and mouse padSturdy, durable chassisConsCan get hot to play onSome fiddling with settingsOur VerdictIf you’re looking for serious power in a tiny package, the Asus Zenbook 14 Pro OLED... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2023-08-31 10:30:00 UTC ]
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BookmarkED claims to help schools and parents navigate book bans. But where and how the app gets is information is a secret. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-08-28 14:02:30 UTC ]
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If you’ve been feeling constrained by Microsoft Excel’s methods for manipulating data, you’re in luck—Python can now be used within your spreadsheets. The inclusion of the popular programming language went live earlier this week, with the feature available as a public preview. According... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2023-08-24 20:21:37 UTC ]
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