Synthpopalooza

Found a bug in the current G2F:

Select 32 byte ... font #0 only displays 3 rows when it should be 4. The other fonts show 4 rows each.

There is a command in Turbobasic which will display text in bitmap mode:

TEXT X,Y,"TEXT"

One thing to keep in mind: Characters will display as 8 pixels wide unless you precede the command with POKE 87,8. Doing this method, you can design a custom character set using 2x8 pixels and then write it to the Graphics 9 screen. You will have a 20 column wide character display.

Keep in mind you can also use Graphics 9 from text mode by doing POKE 623,64 while in GRAPHICS 0 and then using a custom character set.

This is excellent news on the support of Graphics 10 and 11. I have been doing experiments in using ICE modes for font pictures, and I believe I can now finally do pictures in the Super PCIN mode (Graphics 10 + 12, 36 colors) as well as other modes (Super 10/10+ at 81 colors, or the HIP 0 mode) thanks to this!

An idea for a future version: Support for Graphics 12.9, 12.10 and 12.11 ... that is, you can use GTIA settings in Antic 4/5. All 9 colors are useable in mode 10, while you only get support for 14 colors in modes 9 and 11. This would be helpful, as these settings are also used in my ICE modes.

Well there are several methods available to you, but each with it's own drawbacks and advantages.

1. Using Antic 4 character mode, and using PMG overlays on the bricks. This will give you 4 color by 5 level shading. You would also use missiles for your balls and a DLI on player 0 to create an extra paddle on the bottom.

2. Using Graphics 10 in char mode. With Graphics 10 you can get anywhere from 9 individual colors to 4 colors by 2 level shading. Disadvantages are lower horizontal resolution, and you can't use Player 0 as that is the background color.

3. Using Graphics 9 in char mode, and using PMG overlays on the bricks, combined maybe with color DLI's on the background. You get 16 level shading, plus with PMG overlays you can get 5 colors of bricks per line. I believe you can use priority blending on mode 9 to get the extra colors. Use a DLI again on player 0 to make your paddle on the bottom, Disadvantage is again lower resolution than Antic 4.

4. Using Super IRG ... you basically alter your character set every VBLANK to get 14 colors in ANTIC 4. The disadvantage here is it can get really flickery if you don't choose your colors right, but you can dither to reduce the flicker and create solid color fields. You could also do the character set change on every scanline rather than having to flip the character set on the whole screen.

All of these use Char mode. You can also adapt some of these methods to bitmap mode (Graphics 7, 9, 10, or 15) as well, with varying results.

The only way I can think of to do 160 pixels in mode 10 would be to set up what I call PCIN ... it's like CIN except you alternate mode 10 and mode 15, with no color changes. You also need to set HSCROL on the mode 15 lines so they line up properly. This gives you about 30 colors at 160 pixels.

Out of curiosity, what would be the effect of switching GTIA into mode 10 on an Antic E line, after one color clock? Would this accomplish the pixel shift?