Hi
@chinnyhill10 !
I don´t understand what your rant's about, but for me, the CPC clearly has hardware scrolling, as the CRTC chip does hardware scrolling.
Limited, yes. Not so easy to use, yes. But definitely there. MSX1 has also jerky character scrolling. And I bet that most C64 users didn't know or care about the hardware scroll capabilities as most just used to play with it and not to code complex stuff. And the C64 and MSX are know also for the wild hacks they do.
Also, all hardware scrolls come with tradeoffs. In that sense the CPC is not different.
I get that the hardware scroll capabilities where not in the mind of the CPC designers, but again, the CRTC allows for it.
I'd like to point out that the problem of different revisions of chips is not Amstrad exclusive. Atari had several revisions of the CTIA and GTIA chips on the same computer models, so programmers had to check for them too.
On the PCW side of things, ironically, the CPC has a more text-oriented display as the PCW. On the CPC, the video memory is organized in character block rows, while on the PCW it is linear bitmapped, so actually it's easier to write a game on the PCW. Not to mention the roller ram which in conjunction with the massive amount of memory, allows for nice scrolls. As with the CPC, most probably this is an unintended consequence of the design.
Finally, on why this wonderful developments where not possible at the time, there are several factors. One is the commercial release schedule. Come on! Two weeks to port R-Type? That gives time for nothing. Take away that pressure and you see what could have been done.
Another one is documentation access. Now you only have to type 6845 Datasheet on Google to get it, while I don't know how I would have obtained that back in the days.
I cannot see the intensive use of the CRTC as a hack. People know the chip much more in detail than in the 80´s and take advantage of what can do.
There's no magic to it, only hard work, dedication and inspiration.
Edit:
As regards Pinball Dreams, why I am trying to say is "The laws of aerodynamics say the bumblebee cannot fly, but it can."
Turns out, the Bumblebee is not breaking any physics law, it's just people didn't understand what was happening there...
Edit 2:
One last thing. It's impossible to fill the whole screen using software, because of the size of the video memory and the speed of execution. Without hardware scrolling Pinball Dreams would not work. That is the demonstration that the CPC has indeed hardware scrolling. It's not Amiga/Megadrive hardware scroll, but it is definitely hardware scroll.
