Pocketamp started out as an exercise in using the
REGION.TXT transparency capability of recent versions of Winamp. In time, graphics were
shifted and unnecessary elements were chopped off in order to give the skin as low a
screen footprint as possible while still displaying all pertinent information. Covering
only 75-85% the area of old regular skins, the name Pocketamp arose.
Enter Christmas break 1998-1999... I got really bored, and
took Pocketamp one giant step forward by taking advantage of the REGION.TXT like nobody
else before (at least to my own knowledge). No, I did not spend my vacation
guess-and-testing with REGION.TXT--instead, I spent about half an hour writing a quick
temporary program in Visual Basic to generate the bulk of the 'transparent' region code.
Another problem was the display font. With 6 pixels, either the top or bottom line would
be lost making most text unreadable. I solved that problem by compressing the text into 5
pixels. With the hard parts out of the way, it was just a matter of fine-tuning to make
the display look.. well "slick" :)
Pocketamp:Clear was released to the general public February
13, 1999. Instantly, the skin shot into the Winamp.com "best skins" collection--
the 9th skin of hundreds to be awarded the honor. Countless e-mails poured in expressing
appreciation and interest in more such skins.
In light of all the appreciation, there was a lot left to
be desired from Pocketamp:Clear... The playlist and equalizers were, for the most part,
just as plain as the original ones. Depending on the brightness of the computer screen,
you could easily pick out large imperfections in the skin; it looked 'just fine' at darker
brightness, however. So, I went back to work...
Pocketamp:Clear 2 addressed nearly every issue that was
brought in the first version. The overall skin color was finally pitch-black -- no more
annoying grays.. even at full-brightness! The equalizer skin was trimmed down and given a
smooth facelift. And the playlist skin...well, it was remade almost from the ground up.
About the only remnants of the old skin are the small playback-control buttons. Oh, and
I made changes to the windowshade.
The third time around I boosted the text brightness a
notch, leading to better visibility. Unfortunately, there's not that much I can do to
boost the actual legibility of the text. I smoothed out the interface of the main window and
replaced the little traces of text with icons. The equalizer was near totally
redone--better matching the color-scheme of the main player. The playlist also received a
nice refresh, also toning down the color scheme, and making the interface a little more
consistent with the rest of the skin.
In Pocketamp:Clear 4, I improved the
visibility of controls which were too dark in version 3. I also expanded the skin to
include the recently added mini-browser and volume-bar (whatever that's for). Enjoy!
