Sep-Nov '12 Game Book Discussion Group:"The Future Was Here"

[Key-Glyph]

I just got my copy through the library network and am a handful of pages in. I anticipate jumping into the conversation by this weekend at the latest!

(I feel obligated to announce I'm not a lost cause here. Just behind a little.)

[Key-Glyph]

I was going to make a quick post to have people double check an error I thought I found in the text, but after writing it all out I'm positive it's there. I just want to share in case anyone else got stuck on it.

In my copy of the book (The MIT Press, © 2012 edition) it describes how the Amiga generated its color display using the layered planar method on pages 23-24.

We're working with the following five bitplanes: 11101000, 11000001, 00011101, 01011110, 00011010. The example at the bottom of page 23 says to take the first bit from each plane, starting with bitplane 5. If you work it out it gives you 00011, or decimal 3, which matches the conclusion in the text. But the next part of the example on the following page, in which we take the second bit from each plane, says that we end up with 11010. This is a mistake. It should be the reverse, 01011.

So we're dealing with a simple typo really, but the unfortunate thing is that the text then goes on to refer to the written "11010" as decimal 11, which it isn't (it's decimal 26) -- but had the binary number been written properly as 01011, that calculation would have been correct. So one typo resulted in two errors.

I don't mean to be a jerk for pointing this out. I'm loving this book so far. I just got really stuck on this, wondering if I was messing up my binary calculations somehow, and wanted to make sure the error was known in case anyone else gave up on it and figured they just didn't know what they were doing. I'm really trying to learn this stuff as I go along, so the issue there threw me for a loop.

[dsheinem]

I was going to make a quick post to have people double check an error I thought I found in the text, but after writing it all out I'm positive it's there. I just want to share in case anyone else got stuck on it.

In my copy of the book (The MIT Press, © 2012 edition) it describes how the Amiga generated its color display using the layered planar method on pages 23-24.

We're working with the following five bitplanes: 11101000, 11000001, 00011101, 01011110, 00011010. The example at the bottom of page 23 says to take the first bit from each plane, starting with bitplane 5. If you work it out it gives you 00011, or decimal 3, which matches the conclusion in the text. But the next part of the example on the following page, in which we take the second bit from each plane, says that we end up with 11010. This is a mistake. It should be the reverse, 01011.

So we're dealing with a simple typo really, but the unfortunate thing is that the text then goes on to refer to the written "11010" as decimal 11, which it isn't (it's decimal 26) -- but had the binary number been written properly as 01011, that calculation would have been correct. So one typo resulted in two errors.

I don't mean to be a jerk for pointing this out. I'm loving this book so far. I just got really stuck on this, wondering if I was messing up my binary calculations somehow, and wanted to make sure the error was known in case anyone else gave up on it and figured they just didn't know what they were doing. I'm really trying to learn this stuff as I go along, so the issue there threw me for a loop.

Interesting! I read through that section basically hoping to follow close enough to get by since thinking in binary code is something I've not had to do before, so I can't comment on whether that's right or not. I got the gist of some of the trickery that was going on to enable the demo, but the specific details like that were lost on me (though to be fair, I didn't spend too much time trying to understand it fully).

We're on tap for an online chat session next week, so everyone should try to get through the end of chapter 3 by then!

[noiseredux]

Interesting! I read through that section basically hoping to follow close enough to get by since thinking in binary code is something I've not had to do before, so I can't comment on whether that's right or not.

Really? I read through it just hoping I wouldn't feel like a fucking idiot at the end of the passage.

I got the gist of some of the trickery that was going on to enable the demo, but the specific details like that were lost on me (though to be fair, I didn't spend too much time trying to understand it fully).

Same. But I just felt good understanding the gist. I definitely find this book a bit tougher to follow than Racing The Beam was. Not that I dislike it. It's just a bit more work. RTB I could read with beer. Not so much with this one.

We're on tap for an online chat session next week, so everyone should try to get through the end of chapter 3 by then!

I doubt I'll be around for the chat, but I'm about 30 pages away from finishing Ch.3 so I'm on target.

[dsheinem]

I doubt I'll be around for the chat, but I'm about 30 pages away from finishing Ch.3 so I'm on target.

http://www.andchat.net/

[Key-Glyph]

(courtesy of toothpastefordinner.com)

[Ivo]

I don't mean to be a jerk for pointing this out. I'm loving this book so far. I just got really stuck on this, wondering if I was messing up my binary calculations somehow, and wanted to make sure the error was known in case anyone else gave up on it and figured they just didn't know what they were doing. I'm really trying to learn this stuff as I go along, so the issue there threw me for a loop.

Not a jerk at all for pointing it out.


If you find any more mistakes that are not in the errata I'm sure the author would like you to notify him!

For this one though, as the old man in the Master of Magic intro says, "You have come too late"
It was already listed in the errata when this thread started, I remember reading that one there.
Another good opportunity to mention the companion site:

http://amiga.filfre.net/?page_id=229

Page 24: The second pixel in the example playfield is described as “binary 11010, or decimal 11.” A quick check of Table 2.1 will show this to be incorrect; 11010 is decimal 26. The binary number is in fact flipped. It should be 01011.

Ivo.

[retrosportsgamer]

I doubt I'll be around for the chat, but I'm about 30 pages away from finishing Ch.3 so I'm on target.

http://www.andchat.net/

What time on Sunday? I'll be there.

[Erik_Twice]

Hey, I got my book a couple days ago and I read up to chapter 4 in a rush, it's really fun!

Concerning the questions:

1) I was a Windows 95 kid, I thought Multimedia was a given, a fancy marketing word for Encarta, Myst or anything with sound and grainy videos that came in a CD. I was never in the know so I didn't really have anything to compare it with.

2) I have to say, I didn't know anything about the Amiga until I started reading the book and from comparisons between ports of many old games, ports that were always better on it than on IBM or compatible machines and even thought it was already pretty dated by that time, I have always regarded the Amiga as a very powerful computer.

I'm liking this book a lot so I think I'll order Racing the Beam so as to not read this one by tomorrow morning.


How are we going to gather to chat, btw?

[dsheinem]

How are we going to gather to chat, btw?

We'll probably just take over the RB IRC channel unless I figure out something else/better.

Glad to hear so many people are digging the book - it helps validate the decision to do this in the first place