Atari BASIC questions

[+CharlieChaplin]

...and now in Assembler and with a nice sound and your small intro about "The Retro Scene" is

READY

 

 

[+MrFish]

9 hours ago, MrFish said:

So, 1/8th is 0.125, which equals one scaled pixel; then half of that would be 0.0625 (rather than 0.05). So, the adjusted value would be 4.5 - 0.0625 = 4.4375. Might not matter at this scaling, but at a higher scaling (where there's more precision in pixels) it could matter.

Something to add here. Since 1/2 of a 2x scaled pixel is just one pixel, the same adjustment can be made by simply subtracting a pixel from the SCRNX variable assignment.

 

So, the assignment would be.

SCRNX = 4.5 * ( 8 * SCALEX ) - 1

 

And here's the assignment method quoted. 

SCRNX = 4.4375 * ( 8 * SCALEX )

 

[IndyJones1023]

I have downloaded the latest and was able to modify it with new text and centered it. Once it draws all 6 lines on the screen, does it eventually color cycle? Or redraw with new colors? Or does it draw every line on screen and that's it? Just checking. Thanks again!

[_The Doctor__]

25 minutes ago, IndyJones1023 said:

I have downloaded the latest and was able to modify it with new text and centered it. Once it draws all 6 lines on the screen, does it eventually color cycle? Or redraw with new colors? Or does it draw every line on screen and that's it? Just checking. Thanks again!

You didn't download last nights older edit version by me. I haven't gotten to the latest to do edits, I will tonight. But we'd love to see your latest creation with the program.

but you can add

15 POKE 77,127

or

0 POKE 77,127

 

whichever line number is free, The Atari OS will start Rotating the Color independent of anything going on. (it's attract mode)

pressing a key like the help key etc will set the screen to normal, and after a decent period of time it will cycle again.

9 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

Turbo-BASICXL1.5NTSC-RetroScene.atr 130.02 kB · 6 downloads

Run "D1:RTROSCN.TTB"

Quick edits and using the OS for effects gets a good sense of what can be, you can also add a color rotation using SETCOLOR command pulling your favorite color scheme and rotate through them in the endless loop as mentioned earlier.

Edited yesterday at 05:40 PM by _The Doctor__

[IndyJones1023]

I am live streaming 80s vinyl right now with my retro gear. Your program is running in the background!

 

https://www.twitch.tv/djindyj/about

Edited yesterday at 06:09 PM by IndyJones1023

[IndyJones1023]

 

 

Thanks, all!

[+MrFish]

More resolution?

 

 

 

[+Stephen]

2 hours ago, MrFish said:

More resolution?

 

 

This is really shaping up nicely.  Keep it up, you'll have something that we could have used for broadcast back in the day.  My local cable station used Atari 8-bits on 2 of their channels to broadcast news snippets and some upcoming TV stuff.  We've discussed it here some time ago. 

 

You might as well now go full on, and add proportional font rendering

[Tillek]

4 minutes ago, Stephen said:

This is really shaping up nicely.  Keep it up, you'll have something that we could have used for broadcast back in the day.  My local cable station used Atari 8-bits on 2 of their channels to broadcast news snippets and some upcoming TV stuff.  We've discussed it here some time ago. 

 

You might as well now go full on, and add proportional font rendering

Seriously?  What channel?

I mean, my family didn't do cable back in the day... but... still curious since you know we're from the same planet in the solar system.

 

[+Stephen]

1 minute ago, Tillek said:

Seriously?  What channel?

I mean, my family didn't do cable back in the day... but... still curious since you know we're from the same planet in the solar system.

 

I had Marks Cable Vision.  Our neighbourhood didn't even get wired for cable until mid 1985.  I don't remember the exact position on the dial, but it was on the lower (sub 13).  Since I had my Atari 400 since 1982, I immediately recognized the font when I saw it running.  It was later confirmed when our school got to take a field trip to the cable broadcast facility.  They had 3 Atari 800s running.

 

I've digitized all of my VHS collection at this point, and was so sad to not find even a few seconds of footage.

[Tillek]

Damn... that would have been amazing... and I would have thrown it all in the face of my Apple/Commie "friends" at the time. 😆

[_The Doctor__]

Our local cable company used it for the community channel and the cable company information / weather channel.

[IndyJones1023]

This is all amazing work. But the frosting on top would be to have an "interface" wherein it asked what text you wanted displayed, rather than having to change the code. I'm not asking for more work. I am very much appreciative of what you all have done already!

[Kr0tki]

On 9/25/2024 at 10:12 PM, MrFish said:

The main font you used is actually the Namco standard font.

It is actually an Atari font, that first appeared in Kee Games' "Quiz Show" in 1976 and then in "Sprint 2" a few months later.

[+MrFish]

2 hours ago, Kr0tki said:

It is actually an Atari font, that first appeared in Kee Games' "Quiz Show" in 1976 and then in "Sprint 2" a few months later.

"The circle is now complete..."

 

Yeah, the uppercase, which is mostly what's used, is originally a Kee Games creation; I'm more familiar with it in Sprint 2.

 

Namco usurped it, and it's commonly attributed to them; I suppose that's due to the greater popularity of Namco games. The font I'm using includes lowercase. I'm not sure if Namco didn't usurp that too; but I don't see it used in any Kee games. I'm also having a hard time finding the lowercase in any Namco games, atm.

 

Quiz Show font

 

[+MrFish]

13 hours ago, Stephen said:

You might as well now go full on, and add proportional font rendering

I hadn't really thought of it, since the initial aim was some fat pixel, retro fanfare.

 

It wouldn't be too hard to bolt on some code I already have. Proportional fonts open up a whole other world. Memory requirements go way up, if larger-sized text uses higher point sizes instead of fat pixel zooms. I suppose both could be used. There are a lot of proportional font styles, as well as clip art type fonts.

 

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, MrFish said:

Proportional fonts open up a whole other world.

So, yeah... fonts like this would be possible, along with all the nice, standard-type fonts (Helvetica, Times, Courier, etc.).

 

I suppose I could even throw some of the icons I've created into fonts. I've got like 1,000, in 16x and 12x size. Most of them are geared towards the GUI interface, though. So, folders, files, apps, etc.; but I do have some other interesting images, like this whole set of Yahoo Emoticons that I converted. I was planning to use them for a GUI IRC/chat app.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+MrFish]

On 9/27/2024 at 3:36 PM, MrFish said:

I'll simplify the parameter editing part of the program, and maybe add some kind of interface, or at least some parameter input options.

6 hours ago, IndyJones1023 said:

But the frosting on top would be to have an "interface" wherein it asked what text you wanted displayed, rather than having to change the code.

So, yeah, I'm already thinking about doing something like this. A couple of things could be done, and maybe I would progress an interface along these lines: 

1. Linear input of each text item and parameters

2. Menu system, where items could be added, deleted, edited, and moved around, etc.

3. Screen designer, where the screen could be edited interactively

 

With an interface, interpreted mode isn't needed by the user anymore. So, a compiled, auto-booting version would be used to get the most speed out of things.

 

BTW, to run the current compiled version, you type BRUN "D:RUNTIME.EXE", then select <"L"> for LOAD, then type D:BIGTEXT.CTB.

 

[IndyJones1023]

Not that I need speed, but if I customize the text and save as a TTB file, how do I change it to a CTB file?

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, IndyJones1023 said:

Not that I need speed, but if I customize the text and save as a TTB file, how do I change it to a CTB file?

You run the compiler that's on the disk, with the command BRUN "D:COMPILER.EXE"

 

It then prompts you for a "Drive Number". Hit the <"1"> key.

 

Then it presents you with a list of files currently on your disk. Use the Atari arrow keys to move the selection to your saved TTB filename, and hit the <RETURN> key. Compilation proceeds, with info about line currently being compiled.

 

After compilation finishes, the program prompts you for a filename for your compiled CTB program to be saved as on disk. Type a name and hit <RETURN>. It saves the file, but doesn't provide any info during the save process; but once it's done, it will ask if you want another copy (something like a backup copy, or whatever). Just type <"N">.

 

Then it takes you back to the main screen of the program. From there, you can compile another program, reboot, or exit to DOS.

 

 

 

[IndyJones1023]

Sweet, thanks!