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Copper

The Copper was a coprocessor of the Amiga's chipset that could be used to change video settings while the cpu was busy doing more important stuff.

It was often used to change the color registers for different rows of an image, allowing the Amiga to show more colors on screen at once than it was actually capable.
Being independent of the cpu made it possible to have these effects practically for free (i.e. without using up precious cpu time)

Starray

Starray_atarist
Starray
Starray_atarist

The copper was used to switch the color registers between the logo and the rest of the image. Nearly all palette entries are changed, except the orange background colors which have to remain the same between both palettes so that the switch doesn't get noticed.

Interestingly the Amiga version of Starray had completely different and much more modern graphics than the steam punk styled Atari ST version, done by Pete Lyon.

BioChallenge

Bio Challenge uses the copper quite extensively to add subtle color shifts to nearly all images. The color palette is changed every 20 lines creating an image with nearly 70 colors from a bitmap with only 16 colors.

BioChallenge_Ending

BioChallenge_Intro1

BioChallenge_Intro2

BioChallenge_Intro3

BioChallenge_Loading1

Agony_Level1_Horizon

The backgrounds only consisted of two colors which were extended by using the copper to change color registers every couple of lines. The finer gradients were created by also switching between the colors 50 times per second.

Agony_Level2_Horizon

The backgrounds only consisted of two colors which were extended by using the copper to change color registers every couple of lines. The finer gradients were created by also switching between the colors 50 times per second.

Agony_Level3_Horizon

The backgrounds only consisted of two colors which were extended by using the copper to change color registers every couple of lines. The finer gradients were created by also switching between the colors 50 times per second.

Agony_Level4_Horizon

The backgrounds only consisted of two colors which were extended by using the copper to change color registers every couple of lines. The finer gradients were created by also switching between the colors 50 times per second.

The animation for this background wasn't used in the game.

Agony_Level5_Horizon

The backgrounds only consisted of two colors which were extended by using the copper to change color registers every couple of lines. The finer gradients were created by also switching between the colors 50 times per second.

This is the only background with animation that was actually used in the game.

Agony_Level6_Horizon

The backgrounds only consisted of two colors which were extended by using the copper to change color registers every couple of lines. The finer gradients were created by also switching between the colors 50 times per second.

The animation for this background wasn't used in the game.

Obliterator_GameOver

Obliterator_GameOver_atarist
Obliterator_GameOver
Obliterator_GameOver_atarist

Infestation_Cockpit

The cockpit is divided into three rows. The top and bottom row using all 16 colors for the cockpit image.
The middle part only uses four colors while the remaining 12 colors are reserved for the 3D content.

The upper 2/3 of the cockpit can be removed to conserve oxygene. Since this is a memory snapshot, it shows both parts separately. In game the top part snaps over the lower part, filling the gap between them.

TrapsNTreasures_Ending

ProjectX

Despite only having 16 colors in Hires Rico was able to add more colors by switching the blue colors to cyan halfway down the image, creating an image with a total of 23 colors.

Z-Out_Ending

This image is split into three segments with 16 colors each: The sky, the horizon and the water. This way the image has 38 colors but only uses 16 palette entries or 4 bitplanes, leaving the 5th bitplane for the ending titles.

CrazyCars2

WingsOfDeath

WingsOfDeath_atarist
WingsOfDeath
WingsOfDeath_atarist

This images uses some crazy amount of copper trickery to extend the 16 base colors to a total of over 120 colors.

But the Amiga version falls behind in comparison to the Atari ST version where over 150 colors are created, despite the Atari ST's lack of a copper chip.

WingsOfDeath_GameOver

Fighting more with the restrictions of the Atari ST the game over screen would have actually been possible without copper effects but this way the image was made to fit inside 16 colors by switching the palette between the green part of the snakes head and the fiery red mouth.