lowercase letters with INTYBasic

[+atari2600land]

Can I use lowercase letters with Mode 1? I tried to type them in but it showed a bunch of gibberish instead. Uppercase letters work just fine, however.

Edited July 2, 2015 by atari2600land

[intvnut]

Only the first 64 GROM characters are available in Foreground / Background mode. (I believe that's what Mode 1 is.)

 

In places where I've needed lowercase in that mode, I've copied tiles from GROM to GRAM to make it work. That has its own issues, of course, because now you're displaying GRAM tiles and so you have to ask for them when lower case is needed.

[+atari2600land]

OK, then to switch to mode 0, I need to know what the four numbers following the Mode 0 command stand for. It does not explain in the manual.

EDIT: I tried switching to mode 0, but it messed my title screen image up. Guess I"ll have to use uppercase.

Edited July 2, 2015 by atari2600land

[+Tarzilla]

Mode 0 is Color Stack mode:

 

From the manual

MODE 0,color1,color2,color3,color4
 
    Allows to select the video mode (Color Stack mode or Foreground/Background mode)
    this happens in the next video frame (WAIT)
    
   
    In Color Stack mode you can choose the four background colors available in range
    0-15.

[+atari2600land]

Is there a picture of what the first 64 GROM characters look like anywhere?

[+Tarzilla]

Is there a picture of what the first 64 GROM characters look like anywhere?

I would encourage people to read thru threads in the Intellivision Programming sub forum. There aren't very many questions that haven't been discussed before. This thread has everything regarding visualizing GROM cards

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/234920-grom-images-in-modern-format/

[freewheel]

If you want just a few lower case letters, just make them as GRAM cards yourself. If you're going to use a lot, then yeah, you need color stack mode. Which changes around all of your BACKTAB settings and is a bit less intuitive in terms of how to use color. You basically get a choice of 4 background colors that you cycle through by setting a specific bit to change to the next color. And you can cycle through these colors as much as you want, but only those 4 colors and in that sequence only.

 

It's a trade-off. Some people love it because it gives you crazy numbers of GROM cards to work with. Some people hate it because it's not necessarily intuitive if you like setting FG and BG colors for a card explicitly and independently. It requires a very different way of thinking, and sometimes a lot more work, but I think the overall consensus is that you can make more detailed screens in color stack mode. Plus easy access to lower case letters, of course.

 

I've used both myself. They each have their advantages.

[intvnut]

I've used both myself. They each have their advantages.

 

Ditto. In fact, in Space Patrol, most of the game is in Color Stack, but the "MISSION MENU" that displays vignettes of the levels is actually in FG/BG. I had to do some jiggery-pokery to get the same graphics to display in both modes.

[+DZ-Jay]

Christmas Carol uses Color Stack all the way, including the rather colourful title screen. Like freewheel said, it requires a different way of thinking, and handling the colour boundaries is a mixture of art, science, wizardry, and bacon.

 

In my opinion, the biggest creative constraint of the Intellivision, in terms of graphics, is the limited 64 GRAM cards. That's why I feel it is absolutely worth it to go through the pains of figuring out how to colour a scene in Color Stack mode, in order to take advantage of the over 200 built-in GROM cards to which it gives you access.

 

-dZ.

Edited July 4, 2015 by DZ-Jay