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

[alawther@spammenot.mac.com (Anthony Lawther)]

Immortal Nephi <Immortal_Nephi@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Super High Resolution on Apple IIgs is supposed to have 256 colors on
> 320x200 resolution for any games.  Only 16 colors can be used each
> horizontal line on any games.  Do you have idea why Apple Computer,
> Inc decided to design and limit 16 colors?  I wonder Apple IIgs do
> have enough memory to hold 256 possible colors each pixel instead of
> each horizontal line.  Please advise.

While they could have supported 320 x 200 with any of 256 colours for
each pixel, 640 x 200 in the same fashion would have overflowed one
bank, or would have reduced the number of colours per pixel to 16. The
Apple IIGS is capable of representing 4096 colours, with a maximum of
3200 colours on screen at any given time, with some software chicanery
(16 colours per palette x 200 scan lines) , or 256 colours on screen
without (16 colours per palette x 16 palettes).

The aim was to maximise the number of colours that could be displayed
while limiting the memory footprint used to hold it. With that in mind I
think it was rather successful.