a E i - Commodore Is Awesome

2,3,4: Change colour registers.
F6: Jump to next frame.
F7: Toggle key repeat.
F8: Set entire frame to current cursor
colour.
Apart from these keys, there are
controls for drawing the picture:
Cursor keys, HOME and CLR act as
usual but only within the frame. Control
keys change cursor colours as
usual. Reverse field can be toggled as
usual, Press any key to place the relevant
character on the current cursor
position in the current cursor colour.
When you save a frame to RAM,
both the characters and the colour of
any frame are saved.
Animate Mode
This mode allows you to replay a
specified sequence of frames. The
menu shows the options:
FI: Set start frame
F3: Set finish frame
F5: Set delay between frames (I=fastest,
255=slowest)
1
-Data
Mode
7
7This
allows the manipulation of data
files. :
R The frames are saved in RAM as
sequential u blocks of data:
n
a
Characters Colours
n
i Frame
frame
m
a
t Fl allows you to save a block of
Frames i to disk or tape. Because the full
59 o frames occupy a lot of storage
space, n you can specify how many
frames s you save by setting the last
frame
e
in use.
q
F5 saves the block $3000 to
S3FFF. u This is used by the character
designer
e
to hold your redefined
characters.
n
F7 loads either pictures or
characters c to the correct address.
e
Character Designer
This module can be used independently
but you will need a machine code
monitor or similar to SAVE or LOAD
the characters. If you use it in this way,
you enter the program by SYS (i704.
The designer screen has a number
of features:
I) Along the top, the character set is
displayed. The current charcter
flashes.
C64 GRAPHICS
2) The bottom few lines show the key
options.
3) In the middle is the edit window.
This shows the shape of the current
character.
4) To the right of the edit window are
shown the colours currently in the
colour registers. These are shown as
numbers beside a representation ofthe
relevant bit pairs.
5) Below the colours is a second
window. On start-up, this is a single
character. This can be expanded to
give a six by six array of characters.
This allows the design of large designs.
The operative keys are:
CIRL-N: This switches on redefined
characters and down loads thc character
set. You must use this command
before you can start work on new
characters.
+: Move to the next character
—: move to the previous character
M: switch to multi-colour mode
N: switch to high-resolution mode
C: copy the character specified by the
next key pressed
G: move to the character specified by
the next key pressed
R: reverse the current character
: fl ip the current character, left to
right
S: rotate the current character
CTRL-R: switch on key repeat
Characters C o l o u r s etc
frame 2 frame
CIRL-0: switch of key repeat
F1: scroll current character
horizontally
F3: scroll current character vertically
X: expand window horizontally
Y: expand window vertically
CTRL-X: reduce window horizontally
: reduce window vertically
.W: Update window to start at current
character
*: set a point in the character and
move the cursor horizontally to next
point
Z: set a point in the character and
move the cursor vertically to next
point
SPACE: clear a point in the character
and move the cursor horizontally to
next point
CIRL-Z: clear a point in the
character and move the cursor
verticallt point
The cursor keys, HOME and
YOUR COMMODORE january 1187
CLEAR act as normal except that they
act on the edit window
1,2,3: change colour registers
(1=cursor)
I know that the range of ke
presses . is large but I'm sure that you'l
Find ! the program easy to use.
To help you through the system
here is a simple work session.
On running the program, you see
the main menu. Press F7 to enter Of
character editor. Press CTRL-N to
activate the defineable character set.
You should see the rubbish in the edit
area change to a giant "@" character.
OK? try some of the keys to change the
shape of the design. You will see that
each action is mirrored in the normal
flashing "@" at the top of the screen.
Move on to the next character ("A")
by pressing + and redesign that, Once
you've got a few redefined characters,
press RUN/STOP once to return to
the main menu.
Press Fl to enter edit mode. You
should see a cursor flashing in a rectangular
area of screen. The prompt
line should show you that you are set
up for screen I. Press F4. The edit area
should be filled with garbage. You've
just recalled screen I from RAM. Press
shift-CLR followed by F8. This clears
the edit area and sets it's colour to
white (the current colour), Press a few
keys. You should get the character
corresponding to the keys pressed.
Press F3 to enter scroll mode. You will
see a prompt line showing which keys
operate. Press a few and see what
happens. Press RUN/STOP to return
to the edit mode. Press F5 and have a
quick dabble with the colours and
graphics modes. When you've
designed screen I, press F2 to save it to
RAM. Always save the screen before
leaving edit mode or you'll lose the
design. Clear the screen and press F4.
You should see your design again.
Move onto the next frame by pressing
H. The edit screen content are retained
so that you don't have to
redraw it. Try drawing and saving a
few screens. Press RUN/STOP to
return to the main menu.
Press F3 to enter animate mode.
Set the start frame to your first frame
(FI) and the finish frame (F3) to your
last frame. Try playing the sequence at
different delay speeds. Press
RUN/STOP to exit to the main menu.
Press F5 to enter the data storage
mode. Try saving and reloading your
character set and animation sequence.
To exit from the program, press RUN/
STOP when at the main menu. I N