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art&graf.ix
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art-3484
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mandala
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mandala.txt
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Text File
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1985-11-19
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4KB
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82 lines
MANDALA
by Oliver Broadway
.----------------------------.
| WARNING! |
| This program is addictive. |
| USE WITH CARE! |
'----------------------------'
1. Instructions
Put some music on. Double-click on MANDALA.TOS. Sit back. Relax. Watch. Enjoy.
2. Further instructions (for advanced users)
To regain control of your ST, press the space bar. Rumour has it that pressing
the reset button or turning off the power will also work. Note that since, for
reasons of speed, the space bar is not checked during the main loop, there may
be a short pause before the program ends.
3. The Desk Accessory (only for the strong-willed)
If you place MANDALA.ACC in the root directory of your boot disk, Mandala will
be available from the Desk menu from within any GEM program. Make sure you
have a sufficiently strong will to actually do what you were intending to do,
rather than just sitting and watching Mandala all day. Alternatively, become
a musician and use a program like Cubase, which lets you watch Mandala whilst
recording a sequence.
4. The legal bit
This program is freeware. That means (for anyone who still doesn't know) that,
like PD software, you can spread it absolutely freely. Unlike PD software,
I retain the copyright, which means that (a) nobody else can copyright the
program and impose restrictions on its distribution (I've read that this can
happen, and I'm not sure whether to believe it, but it's better to be safe
than sorry), and (b) I can impose the following restriction: any distribution
of the program MUST include, unaltered, the following files:
MANDALA.TOS
MANDALA.ACC
MANDALA.TXT
5. Other bits
It all started with a program called Wallpaper, written by Peter Tilsley for
the BBC Microcomputer. Some years ago, when I finally got around to learning
to program in 68000. the first program I wrote was a direct copy of the
original Wallpaper program. Since then, it's got a lot faster, the symmetry
has changed from four-fold to six-fold, and some masking and bit-shifting has
been added to make the patterns more interesting, but the basic algorithm has
remained unchanged.
Apologies to those without a mono monitor; the original BBC version, and some
of the early ST versions, worked in colour, but the plot routine was slower
and more complicated, and the patterns were never as satisfactory as the
mono ones (the BBC version looked best on a green-screen monitor), so when I
converted the mono plot routine for hexagonal symmetry, I didn't bother with
the colour routine. I would recommend Sebra, an excellent PD mono emulator,
as being the only one in my experience with sufficient speed to make it
worthwhile running Mandala with it. (Mandala doesn't work at all with most
other mono emulators; I know why this is but can see no point in changing it,
because of the speed problem.)
I reckon this is the most interesting and entertaining program around of
its size; if you know otherwise, or if you want the source, or if you just
feel like writing a letter but can't think of anyone to send it to, I'd be
delighted to hear from you.
Oliver Broadway
Elk Towers
4 Cadogan Gardens
London
N3 2HN