Re: Apple Computer, Inc made mistake to do SHR?

[Calibrator <calibrator@freenet.de>]

On 14 Jul., 02:50, Nick Westgate <nick.westg...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Imagine a stock Apple II(+/e/c) with 8-bit hires (280x192).
> It would only be capable of 2 frames per second of animation.

Animation of what? Whole screen?

> The GS can do better, but suffers from a similar problem:
> graphics memory must be accessed at 1MHz, so the pixel-pushing
> (i.e. CPU->graphics memory) bandwidth is severly limited.

And the video memory is four times as large (when using IIgs
graphics modes)...

> An accelerated CPU  helps, but not much. GS games often used
> only part of the SHR screen for this reason.

Same with the II/II+/IIe/IIc-games.

> Halving the bits/pixel means halving the needed bandwidth.
>
> So then the question becomes: Why did Apple impose this limitation on
> graphics bandwith? They certainly added some complexities in trying to
> compensate (e.g. fast fill mode),

I'm not sure the hardware fill mode has that many uses.
Yes, some games - viewed from yesterday's perspective - could
profit enormously, like flight simulators (there was no texturizing
back then) or perhaps a 3D billiard game but most games still
used rather small movable objects (regardless if you call them
shapes or sprites). When comparing hardware with the Amiga or
the Atari ST I'm not even sure a blitter would've helped,
considering the 1MHz limitation.
Hardware sprites on the other hand would've existed separatedly
from the video memory (and it's access cycles) and could've
helped enormously but Apple went the wrong way with the GS,
IMHO: They made a machine with (better) graphics and (much
better) sound - but they didn't went full circle and made the *best*
universal games computer for it's time - although that's exactly
what the original Apple II/+ _were_!
Until the 8-bit Ataris gained some foothold (also only for a short
moment), before they were superseded by the C64 in popularity,
of course.
Interestingly the C64 remained the most popular *games* machine
in most countries until the Amiga (500!) and ST followed suit.