Loadstar 128 35/q35.d81/t.control80-c v3

Text File | 2022-08-28 | 19KB | 396 lines

                        C O N T R O L 8 0 - C   V 3

                      Original Program by Jon Mattson

             Modifications and Additional Text by Bob Markland


    CONTROL80-C is a specialized version of Jon Mattson's excellent BASIC
extension. Specifically, it contains all the tools necessary to easily
program a fast and professional looking card game.

    Fender and I have both published card games using the original
CONTROL80-C. However, as good as the program is, it left us wanting in two
respects: The cards lacked borders, and when fanned or overlapped, tended
to blend into one another. There was also no card back (you may have
noticed on earlier games that the joker was substituted).

     For his Sixpack O' Solitaires Fender used BASIC to apply borders to
the cards and I used a BASIC subroutine to display card backs on 128
Cribbage. However, both of these approaches added extra code and caused
noticeable slow-downs. And, while Jon Mattson would be the logical person
to upgrade CONTROL80, unfortunately he has moved on to other things.

     The solution required generating a new source code, modifying the CARD
function, and altering the built-in font; though very little has changed
for CONTROL80-C users. For your convenience, I am including the entire text
from the original CONTROL80-C. For those who have used the earlier versions
there are only four major differences:

 (1)  When you use FCOPY to move the built-in font to the VDC chip, the
      syntax is now FCOPY 7168,0,1.

 (2)  Because card games are not text intensive, fewer text characters
      are available in the built-in font. Uppercase A-Z (in place of
      the lowercase characters), 1-0, and most of the symbols such as !,
      #, $, %, etc. remain in the Upper/Lowercase Font. However, we
      recommend that you FCOPY a custom font of your own into the
      Uppercase/Graphics font for your text, boxes, and effects.

 (3)  The cards from Ace of Clubs through King of Diamonds are
      specified in the CARD command as 0-51, as before. You are
      limited to 4 different Jokers, numbered 52-55 (in reality, if you
      are using your own routines to shuffle, 56-65 will also display
      Jokers, but the SHUF command will only handle four, 52-55).

 (4)  Now, use 66 to display a card back.

    CONTROL80-C does not support the following original Control80 commands:
DUMP, HOME, LCLEAR, VSAVE and MINE. On the other hand, Jon added three new
commands -- CARD, DICE and SHUF, and FILL was improved.

    I've put a small "demo" program on the issue as a Run It for
CONTROL80-C V3. It shows you how fast the CARD command is, then returns to
to LOADSTAR 128.

    First, a quick overview is in order for those who have no idea what
Control80 and its close cousin, C80-C, are all about. Control80 is an
extension of the BASIC 7.0 which adds many new keywords to the language.
These new functions and commands are specifically designed to make using
the 80-column screen easier. Those who have tried to work with 80-columns
in BASIC 7.0 will realize just what a boon this is: you can't even PEEK or
POKE to the VDC with normal BASIC! Control80 solves that problem and many
others, as well.

     Using C80-C is simple. First, set aside a section of memory to hold it
by opening up the area normally used for hires graphics. GRAPHIC1,1 will
accomplish this, although it should be followed by GRAPHIC0,1 to get out of
hires mode and GRAPHIC5 to return the screen editor controls to the 80-
column screen. Then, just BLOAD C80-C into memory and SYS 4864, either in
direct mode or early on in your program. Generally a simple BLOAD will
suffice, but, if you have been playing around with BANKs and the like, you
might want to use the full syntax. To summarize:

     GRAPHIC1,1:GRAPHIC0,1:GRAPHIC5:BLOAD"C80-C.V3",B0,P4864:SYS4864

     Unlike Control80, C80-C comes with a built-in, card-oriented font,
which can be moved to VDC memory with a simple FCOPY 7168,0,1. (Note this
address change from the earlier versions.) This command will cause the new
font to replace the existing alternate (upper/lower case) font, so that you
can use the CARD command. Once the font is in place, you can freely
overwrite the area it previously occupied and even 'collapse' the graphic
area with GRAPHICCLR to free up more program space if you wish, since C80-
C, itself, resides below this area. As an aside, this is why you must open
a graphics area for C80-C, whereas you do not need to do so with Control80.
For obvious reasons, the FCOPY should come very shortly after the set-up
commands previously mentioned; however, it should not be on the same line
as those commands. The reason for this is that the computer deciphers
keywords a line at a time, and, until the SYS 4864 has actually been acted
upon, the FCOPY command will be translated as gibberish, resulting in a
syntax error when that point in the line is reached.

     Once C80-C is installed, the new keywords can be used just like any
other BASIC commands. You can even abbreviate them by shifting the second
letter, as usual. Remember that C80-C must be active (not just resident)
while you type in a program using its keywords, or they will not be
tokenized correctly. Note, also, that C80-C uses memory from 4864 to 7167
(once the font has been moved), so avoid POKEing around this area.

 FENDER'S NOTE: Since many, if not most, card solitaire games are easier to
play with a mouse than with keyboard, Maurice Randall's MOUSE80 (from LS
128 #24) is recommended along with CONTROL80-C V3. The version you need is
"mouse80.2400" which uses $2400 (or 9216) as its load address. Bob has
supplied the file "mouse80.2400", as well as the two routines merged
together in the file "c80c.v3-mou.2400".

     Hitting the beloved STOP/RESTORE combination will not deactivate
C80-C. The QUIT command (previously unimplemented on the 128) will turn it
off, although SYS 4864 will bring it back to life. Resetting the computer
will also turn it off; however, due to its location, C80-C will still be
resident for later use, as long as you haven't POKEd over its memory space.
In this case, however, the font will likely be lost.

     Now let's look at your new resources. Certain conventions have been
followed in this listing. Memory addresses are 0-65535, as usual, to allow
use with both 16K and 64K VDCs. Note, however, that addresses above 16383
wrap around on the 16K chip, i.e. 16384 = 0. Remember that the basic 8563
chip is set up as follows:

     $0000 - 07FF        0 - 2047     Screen
     $0800 - 0FFF     2048 - 4095     Attributes
     $1000 - 1FFF     4096 - 8191     Unused
     $2000 - 2FFF     8192 - 12287    Upper Case/Graphic (normal) Font
     $3000 - 3FFF    12288 - 16383    Upper/Lower Case (alternate) Font

      VDC register numbers (reg# below) range from 0-36. It is not within
the scope of this article to explain the use of every register, but a
complete description can be found in the C-128 Programmer's Reference
Guide. When in doubt, experiment with the WVD command, but be sure that you
check the register's normal value first with the RVD function to return
things to normal!


                            ***  FUNCTIONS  ***

 PEER (VDC address)
 ------------------

     This function allows you to check the contents of VDC memory. It
operates just like BASIC's PEEK. For example, to find the character in the
top left corner of the screen, PRINT PEER(0). Note that PEER is the
counterpart of POST, below.


 RVD (reg#)
 ----------

     This function (Read ViDeo register) allows you to check the contents
of any of the 37 VDC registers. For example, A=RVD(12) would put the
contents of register 12 into the variable A. Note that RVD is the
counterpart of WVD, below.


                             ***  COMMANDS  ***

 BLOCK VDC address, number, value
 --------------------------------

     This command allows you to fill any small section of VDC memory with a
single value. "Address" indicates the starting position of the fill, and
"number" (2-255) indicates how many consecutive locations to fill with the
specified "value" (0-255), from that point on. One of the best uses of
BLOCK