(1) — a.. - Commodore Is Awesome

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„have come out of the North
West - Lowry, Boddington's
a
Bitter, Chips and Gravy, Pea Wet
l
(ask our Deputy Ed) and Amiga
i
Computing. But what most will associate
ewith
the area is a TV studio that has crea-
hted
some of the most popular dramas,
esoap
operas and quiz shows we know
rtoday.
Called Granada, it produces such
e hits as Cracker, Coronation Street and the
aKrypton
Factor.
r But these programmes also have anot-
e her factor in common, and it may come as
ma
surprise to learn that this is the Amiga.
aOkay,
it would be an exaggeration to sug-
ngest
that the Amiga has a starring role in
y these first two, but it does have a signifi-
gcant
walk-on part. Watch Cracker, for
oexample,
and you will see Fitz (Robbie
oColtrane)
tapping away on none other than
d an Amiga. Or Coronation Street where
tCurly
Watts once had a bit of trouble with
hthe
BettaBuys store computer, played by
ian
Amiga. Prime Suspect's police station
nsets
have also benefited from the Amiga.
g However, in some cases the Amiga.
s unfortunately. has to undergo a dramatic
tcostume
change in the wardrobe depart-
h
ment and appear as a PC. A PC box sits on
a
the desk whilst the Amiga sits on the floor
t
feeding the PCs monitor (thanks to the 31
KHz flicker-fixed output from the A3000).
Eagle-eyed viewers will spot the give-away
clue of a PC with an Amiga keyboard!
The Amigos success in this specialised
field is due to its native 50111 video frame
rate (exactly twice the speed of a TV film
camera) coupled with its genlock ability
which allows multiple computers to be
synchronised together. This eliminates the .alo
moving 'roll bar' which normally results
when computer screens — ,a_re Hulot
But the Amiga s user-friendliness
appealetjaalltarhn Kay who programmed
many of the oe-screen computer systems
versatile programming environMe
ideal for something like this.
- how Hsometimes e e the actors don't like having
to type and act at the same time. 1
RIF il
ia
Tho Amiga pro
ve d , i n v a l u a
b l e
l o t
t h
E
Away
often end up off-screen, typing
on the Amiga keyboard whilst
the actor mimes the action
in vision on a dummy
keyboard."
Realism is important
in dramas like Cracker
and Prime Suspect, so
the Amiga programs
which Martin writes
have to appear like
those o n other
machines (e.g. the
dreaded Ks).With much
of the action involving •
police computer systems,
Martin was invited to one of
the Manchester Police computer
rooms to see the Holmes
Investigation system and was provided
with authentic screen layouts to
recreate on the Amiga.
SCREEN
11
1WST
n The conte a ta nts a nswe re d
questions a l the touchscre a ns
The BBC's Sunday Shcais also aided by an system acting as a still-store with all the
Amiga which plays the Sharklisti animation displays which the cstga
used as a transition throughout the show. itheir
louchscreen nib
The Amiga runs the animation olif • PAR , lLato--eatw
-
lbq u
system, started by a GPI trigger via the joy- g
stick port, with an ARexx script providing i
automatic re-cueing at the end of each .
run. As a result, one press of a button on t
the main vision mixing console triggers the r
animation, fires off a sound effect, and
a
changes shot - a combination which
p
would otherwise require a dedicated
r
Betacam player and operator,
o
But what perhaps is the mostinteresting
g
use of the Amiga at Granada is in the quiz
r
show, The Krypton FactoeThe Amiga
a
proved invaluable in providing the scorin
m
gand control system used for some of th
,
erounds. Martin was, again, the man behind
w
it all. or the Mental Agility and
Observation rounds, the contestants sat at
r
creen terminals whilst they
i
answlmo) multiple-choice questions as
t
m y at possible.
t
In control of all this was an Amiga 3000 e
oam* the contestaisf
n A
copy of questions to ensure that the com-
cbres f a iatnod m
puter stayed hi sync witVordon Berns
cv aot ina r- e
asking the questioiRAmiga display
nwas covezield e onto-CU output via a
GNU gtrnkick to provideolemposite
quelltibni a nswerlscortanbri Writ rest
of the production
On top of this the Amiga was controifing
lights on the contestant? desks which
briefly illuminated the first to correctly
answer each question, plus generating a
und effect to cue the question master to
k the next question. This made for quite
complicated system in which the Amiga's
multi-tasking abilities were exploited to
the full.
The touchscreens work more on the
principle of a touch 'platform*. As Martin
explained: "The louchmate' system looks
like a set of bathroom scales, but with a
fitted with an A2232 multiserial card to n
handle the touchscreen inputs, with a PAR ,
i
o
set of precision sensors at each corner
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