Super Screen

fgasking · Post by **fgasking** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 10:12 am

Hi there,

Has "Super Screen" by Kingsoft / Audiogenic been backed up at all? ... I have it here and can TAP it up and scan inlays etc if there is a place for it.

Basically it increases the Vic 20 to 40 columns.

Frank

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 1:16 pm

I don't think was dumped.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:30 am

Here are a few 40 column programs, but perhaps neither of them is Super Screen. I don't know if it has other features than the others.

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 2:02 am

Do you know if any of these programs can be used to play text adventures in 40 columns mode? Or you necessarily have to plug a 20/40 cartridge?

Thanks.

fgasking · Post by **fgasking** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 3:31 am

Not sure exactly if this will apply to text adventures, but I guess it's worth a try.

I'm just finishing off a working PC build to start producing TAP images... i'll put this first on the list to port.

Just trying to remember now if I finished porting all my old backup tapes for Matt...

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:08 am

carlsson wrote:Here are a few 40 column programs, but perhaps neither of them is Super Screen. I don't know if it has other features than the others.

Fat40 is very interesting, indeed. Try to load and run it, then load"fat40 demo",8 (NOT ,8,1 because it messes things up).
The demo is impressive, with both 40 column text and hi-res graphics on the screen at the same time.

Loading text adventures for expanded VIC (such as Brendan Jones') works great, but VICE hangs with fat40 and Scott Adams ROMs and pokes from Zimmers.

I don't know if it would work with the real cartridges, like:
plug the cart in -> turn on VIC -> load fat40 from disk and run it -> sys32592
... but I doubt it, as a memory conflict is more than probable.

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 11:20 am

fgasking wrote:I'm just finishing off a working PC build to start producing TAP images... i'll put this first on the list to port.

Thank you! I'm a little obsessed with 40 and 80 column programs and hardware for the VIC-20 so I really appreciate your effort.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 5:04 am

Orion: These software 40 column programs generate a display out of custom characters and their own line editor, I believe. Probably you already figured out that. Text adventures like Scott Adams' seem to assume the screen is located at 7680. I don't know if they are hard coded for 22 columns or can adjust themselves. For the same reason, I don't know if a hardware 40 column expansion would work much better, unless it can map itself into VIC-I workspace.

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 5:27 am

Thanks. That would explain why only adventures written in BASIC work in 40 columns mode.

Anyway, I will try with Pirate Cove cartridge and fat40 ROM one of these days, who knows...

Post by **Jeff-20** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 11:55 am

gklinger wrote:I'm a little obsessed with 40 and 80 column programs and hardware for the VIC-20 so I really appreciate your effort.

I want to see some good screenshots of a VIC in 40/80 modes.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 12:45 pm

Are there really any software 80 column emulators for the VIC? I have a hardware 80 column card.....and I've seen the software 40 column screen, but does the VIC have enough pixels to even do 80 columns readably?

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 1:22 pm

Jeff-20 wrote:I want to see some good screenshots of a VIC in 40/80 modes.

Here's the result with Fat40 and a BASIC text adventure:

(what the f**k did that couple do last night?

)

Post by **Jeff-20** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 7:02 pm

Is that a real game?!

The text looks exactly like the intro screen from Omega Race.

Victragic · Post by **Victragic** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 10:34 pm

I guess with 3 horizontal pixels to work with, there's only so many variations on a letter someone can come up with...

... I saw a demo where 56 columns were displayed in 8x8 pixels by fast switching screens.. VIMM2? or Vini-Vidi-Vici?

It strikes me that 6x8 characters would work very well on the VIC as well - with 24 columns, you could get 32 simulated columns, more or less like a Spectrum or ZX81 in appearance..

-but, the kernal output routines are all spaghetti code to me, trying to figure them out to rewrite them is nigh on impossible for me..

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:22 am

I think it was one of Aleksi Eeben's productions, or it might have been Dekadence or PWP. I remember one vertical text scroller that uses fast switching screens, but not sure about the horizontal one.

If we use a 25 column wide screen and overcome the Kernal output routines, in theory it would be possible to create a software 40 column screen using 4+1 pixel wide characters.

When Marko Mäkelä et. al. measured the VIC chip, they came to the conclusion the NTSC 6560 outputs 201 pixels per row (25.1 columns) and the PAL 6561 does 229 pixels (28.6 columns). I'm not sure if that is the whole truth, but without an interlace mode as described above, even 60 columns would be theoretically impossible to reach. Interlace is cool in a demo, but one would probably not want to use it for more than few seconds.

http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/ ... /VIC-I.txt