Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

his month's programs were sent by BL
Gaunt - I wish people would send their
first names, it's much more personal.
Actually. they ate called procedures or PROCs, as
that's what they are, and is such they can be
bolted onto any program The PROCs are
Shadowtext and Typewriter. the latter being a
better version of the program included with Amos
Pro. Both programs work in Arnos Pro and AMOS
1.3.
To start off well look at the Typewriter PROC.
The code is good because it makes a noise if there
is a letter to type, and if there is a space It remains
silent, The sample provided is the sound of a
typewriter key, which could, of course be
replaced by the sound of a computer keyboard if
you want to be a bit more modem The font
could also be changed to make It a useful special
effect for science fiction films. The proper usage of
the PROC
where XI' equals the location on the screen, S is
the speed the text is typed at, and TS is a string of
text to be typed.
First off the initialise screen line is:
1111
6.
and then a sample tol
S
-
c r
e
4
e n Illoor
O1
. 1 1 . 1 1 1 . 8 Dint 3
pThis
refers to the sample of a typewriter key being
ehit,
which you must load into bank 3 by hand
n before you start coding - it will then be saved
1
with
,
the program. Finatty, before we get into the
e
routine
4
you turn off all the screen Junk:
2 3
6 .
1 .
ese Oil: Paper 1 : Curs Oil: Kid.: cts 411
1 1
r e
s
Stioalooksiot by S
.L
i9 li
-
14
19
W
e
e r
,
'
y
o
u
r
d
r
e
give you a nice has relief effect.
a
m
c
a
m
'
, like this that you come up with.
k
r
.
o
e
•
Remake,
remodel
This now means we are starting with a clean
sheet of paper.
The text to be typed is fed into the
procedure. as are the other attributes•
_tTPINIITEIC10,10,1,1o0 Typewriter effect
aces. to sore eked to ale 8 due thicket.
1
km
TIPSWIITEIC1,12,1,
Key : Welt Key : idle
. -
The
ith tou
clear
w
and
e
wart are included to make sure
the
s s
finished
e e s
text can be seen before the
oprogram
t o ends
u hThe procedure e Itself Is very simple
n e- o l
Procedatt
d l
t
oFirstly,
set up the length Of the text in your
oMing
in characters using the LEN function
.
-P
i l l
IF
O P
Then usirig the RightS lure nun grail trie firSt
t i -
character in the string:
O
T
o t
Lh Check
i
for spaces tn me text, and if any are
o i ( i
found you don't play the sound
S t )
I TISTOiscatftiteS,1)) , .
t If USW? Teee Sas PIey
T
1
O
1
Next use Locate and print string to the
. green:
1
1
1
1
1
III/1/1 1 Locate Led I I,T : Primt toftS01,1) 1
Ming me Inc command to move along to the
next letter Finally. insert a small wait command
to delay the characters as they type onto the
screen:
Lurking in the shadows
This Is an interesting routine, nicely coded and you could expand on it in a number of
ways. For example, create a white drop shadow with no letters la very trendy text
effect' by making the colour of the letters the same as your background, and making
the colour of the shadow white or at least a lighter tone of the same colour. Another
Idea would be to make two shadows, one brighter and one darker than the text, and
make the text the same colour as the background. Then offset the lighter coksur up
and left of the text, and the darker colour to the right and below the text. This will
Text effects are cheap in processing time and easy to create, as long as you are
creative with the way you display them. You can also animate the effects with a bit of
judkious coding - for example, you could fade up the has relief effect to make it look
as though the text is emerging from the surface. Id be interested to see any effects
Wait P
Nit I
And that's it Quick and easy, and a rather good
effect If I was using it for a film effect Id add a
random element to the pauses between frames.
just a little, to simulate the way people type
Now ro move on to Shadowtese. This creates
drop shadows on the text on screen. and its a nice
routine which adds a little bit of pizzazz to game
programs and any sort of mulurnecka The proper
usage of the PROC is
where xy Text position, SC Shadow colour. IC
Text colour, and of course IS.Your text suing.
Firstly, round up the usual suspects:
Screen Opep 0,320,256,4,Lowrel
Flask Off
Curs Off : Hide On : Cts 0 : Oaf:
111111
111111
to set up the screen. Then we can feed 11the
data to
the PROC:
.514OOSTM(75,100,1,2,1kedowtest by 1.1.61
! SMAINVICIIC10,130,1,2,4MOS-P10 veer, your
;Imes cos. true.1
their Key : Waft Key : lilt
This is the same ending as before, with a clear and
wait so you can see the effect. Now we define the
PROC
11111
1
The first thing we do in the PROC is to enable JAM
Pr
mode via the Gr Writing command
oc
ed
ur
6r iritiog 0 M I R O -
e
Next we set op a loop
j e
l l
For An To 1
O
Ink St
O
S T
If 1181
EBy Ichanging
the vaiues of X and Y you can increase
Tthe Cdepth
and direction of the shadow:
W ,
SI
M
C ,
I l a 0 t 3 : Te r-1 : I nk TC
1The Cendlif
and the Text command end the loop and
,
IP
print T the text to the screen
1 . ]
led If
test 3,7,11
lest i
Ind hoc
and it returrri for more, if there rs more. Knot it
ends the PROC, returning you to the main program
Amiga Computing
MAY 1995
Phil South
turns his
atention to a
[ontribution
sent in IN an
add Amos Ian
Write
stuff
If you have an Amos
question, or a routine
you'd like to share I
with the work', then
please write to Phil
South, Amos Column,
Amiga Computing.
Media House,
Adhngton Park,
Macclesfield SKR/ 4NP
Please send routines
on an Amiga disk with
notes on how the
program works on
paper. Make the
routines short (use
these routines as a
guide] and reasonably
independent of any
graphics and sound
support files. although
I will make provision
for these if necessary
•
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