EXTRA COLOR EDITOR¢------------------¢¢The "Extra Color Editor" (ECE) is made to add one extra color to a .MIC picture.¢If a picture is loaded it will be directly converted to eight fonts. This is necessary if you want to use the fifth (extra) color.¢There's however an awful restriction, you can only change the third colour register within a character! This means that you can still have only four colours within a character (a character is a piece of screen of 8 pixels high and 4 pixels wide).¢¢You can save the changings on disk by selecting the 'Save colors' option (please use the extension 'COL'). So the picture will remain intact while having an extra (short) file for the extra color.¢¢There's also an option to save the picture. It won't save a normal format MIC picture but a COM file which contains the eight fonts to build the picture. The load address is set to $9000.¢¢A 'COL' file can be loaded with any picture. This file is exactly 125 bytes long, 5 bytes for the five color registers and 120 bytes to indicate which of the 120 possible characters in the picture should contain the extra color. 120 bytes? Yes, on screen there are 24 lines of 40 characters (24*40=960 bytes). Because the extra color can only be ON or OFF (0 or 1) we only use 1 bit for 1 character.¢960 bytes/8 bits = 120!!¢¢1. Load picture (.MIC)¢¢With this option you can load a micropaint (MIC) picture.¢¢2. Load fonts (.COM)¢¢Herewith you can load a 'COM' file which is saved earlier with this program.¢¢3. Save fonts (.COM)¢¢With this choice you can create a 'COM' file. The file contains eight fonts. The start address equals $9000 and the end adress is $AFFF.¢An artist won't have to use the load/save fonts option. He can always use the 'MIC' files and the 'COL' files.¢¢4. Load colours (.COL)¢¢The extra color file can be loaded with this option.¢Do this after you've load a picture, because loading a picture will clear the settings of the extra colour!¢¢5. Save colours (.COL)¢¢If you edited a picture with the extra color you should always use this option to save the changes.¢¢6. Edit picture¢¢If you select this option you will get into the edit mode were you can edit a loaded picture with the extra color.¢With help of the joystick you can move the cursor. Now you'll notice the restrictions of the extra color.¢By pressing the fire button (and releasing it) you can switch the extra color ON or OFF.¢Further you can use the keys 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to change the color registers. A spot in the upper half of the screen indicates which color is active. This active color can now be changed with help of the cursor keys. Cursor UP/DOWN is used to change the luminance and cursor LEFT/RIGHT can be pressed to change the actual color.¢By pressing one of the console keys (START,SELECT,OPTION) you will return to the mainmenu.¢¢7. Quit program¢¢Quit the program if you are done. The computer will ask you if you're sure.¢¢-Frankenstein-
