[HN Gopher] Amiga Pointer Archive
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       Amiga Pointer Archive
        
       Author : erickhill
       Score  : 27 points
       Date   : 2026-01-09 15:29 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (heckmeck.de)
 (TXT) w3m dump (heckmeck.de)
        
       | arexxbifs wrote:
       | Some real ingenuity and creativity on display. The Amiga only had
       | two pointer modes, the normal one and a "busy" pointer, and the
       | system preferences provided a nice little pixel painter
       | specifically for drawing pointers, so making your own was a low
       | threshold activity.
       | 
       | Applications could define their own as needed, of course (the
       | pointer was just a hardware sprite).
        
         | losso wrote:
         | "Low threshold activity" is a good point.
         | 
         | While editing the mouse pointer of a modern-day OS is pretty
         | much inaccessible, the "cursor" CSS feature in the major
         | browsers immediately felt low threshold, accessible and fun
         | again. Changing the "real" mouse pointer via CSS! Only on a
         | website, but cool nonetheless!
         | 
         | That little fun feature alone helped getting this project off
         | the ground. I tried to make my adaption of the pointer editor
         | low threshold, too! :)
        
       | ptek wrote:
       | Ahhh Devs:system-configuration or SYS:system-configuration at 232
       | bytes. I remember being 11 and trying to make my own compilation
       | disks and trying to figure out what file kept the system prefs on
       | my A500. Don't forget to copy the RAM: handler from L: if you
       | wanted to use RAM:                 I used Kindwords to make my
       | first compilation disks until I discovered Diskmaster 1.3 and
       | then later on Diskmaster 1.3 and shell commands.             This
       | is a nice pointer collection, I used to enjoy putting in
       | compilation disks and seeing the 4 system colours and the 4 mouse
       | sprite colours. I also remember the compilation disks that used
       | "rainbow" or "stripes" which changed the background or text
       | colour on each scanline.                 Bonus points for the
       | kiwi pointer (personal NZ bias).
        
       | abeyer wrote:
       | I find it a bit sad that contextual pointers aren't nearly as
       | common as they used to be.
       | 
       | They can certainly be overdone or done poorly, but done well they
       | give a really nice indicator that can account for some
       | combination of context of what's under the pointer to be operated
       | on, any modifiers active, and any ambient state.
        
         | Narishma wrote:
         | Like with most things related to UI regressions, I blame
         | smartphones.
        
       | reactordev wrote:
       | I miss the customizations such as custom pointers, window blinds,
       | folder icons, etc that you used to be able to do with your PC.
       | 
       | We had some great designs back then. And some eye sores too.
       | 
       | Can we bring back the ability to skin our windows again?
       | Customize the look and feel of our OS to our liking or am I just
       | going to get the obligatory "Switch to Linux"?
        
       | ForOldHack wrote:
       | The Amiga Pointer Archive is missing one: We went to get a Fast
       | Ram upgrade for a A1000, and we looked at his work, and it was
       | cross between a jeweler and sim-city. We had the work done, and
       | he put his boot disk into test it. He had the most interesting
       | pointer... the boot disk was called Romeo, and the pointer was
       | just a 3x3 square diamond, with a single line of pixels, to a 2x2
       | square diamond of pixels with a hole on the center... so you
       | could literally see a single pixel through it. I had never seen
       | anything like it, so I copied on my Macintosh, ( System 6.0.8,
       | and system 7.0.1 ), and later to windows 3.1 onward to Windows
       | XP, later screens became too large to need anything close to a
       | single pixel pointer.
       | 
       | I wish I had the disk, that we got it from... just a single 3.5"
       | Floppy labeled "Romeo" and we all knew what it was.
        
         | msephton wrote:
         | Are you quoting this from somewhere?
        
       | nxobject wrote:
       | I think I'm a little sleep-deprived: I briefly thought that this
       | was going to be about pointers to peek/poke to. And then I
       | remembered that AmigaOS relies heavily on handles/jump tables...
        
       | amiga386 wrote:
       | https://www.aminet.net/package/util/mouse/EgoMouse
       | 
       | Anyone still using an Amiga should try EgoMouse; it makes your
       | mouse pointer rotate to face to the direction of movement; yes,
       | this makes it ridiculously difficult to "drive", but it's fun
        
       | kbelder wrote:
       | Wow. You're going to want to turn on "color thumbnails".
       | Beautiful.
        
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       (page generated 2026-01-09 23:00 UTC)