Picture Ripper¢--------------¢¢Written by John E. (TEBSF)¢¢Based on 'Graphics DOS v2' by Nir Darey¢¢'Graphics DOS', for all those that don't know, is an excellent little program by Nir Darey that, in a nutshell, allows you to search disks for piccies and after loaded they can be manipulated and saved back to disk.¢ Unfortunately there are a few problems with this program and the main one is that it is protected (but free!). Also it works only with Turbo BASIC, a big downfall in my opinion.¢ So, I decided to write my own little picture ripper that would do most of what 'Graphics DOS' would but be written entirely in good-old Atari BASIC.¢ When loaded the program will display a menu of options. I'll go through each option one at a time.¢*¢1 - GRAPHICS MODE¢¢Default is mode 15 as this is what most picture files are stored as. You can change it to mode 7 or 8 if you wish.¢*¢2 - BYTES PER SECTOR¢¢Single or Enhanced density disks allow 128 bytes per sector but if you're using DOS then there are only 125 bytes per sector, the other 3 are used for file management. This option allows you to switch between 128 or 125 bytes per sector and thus allow you to rip pictures from DOS disks with hidden directories.¢ Default for this option is 128.¢*¢3 - LOAD FORMAT¢¢You can choose between three options on how to load the picture: Sectors, Koala or Micropainter.¢ Sectors is raw data from the disk, Koala is a picture saved to DOS using the Koala compression technique and Micropainter is the standard 62 sector DOS file.¢*¢4 - SAVE FORMAT¢¢This is the option to choose how to save the picture after it has been loaded and manipulated. You can save the picture by sectors or in Micropainter format.¢*¢5 - LOAD START SECTOR/FILENAME¢¢The option available will depend on what input option you are using. If you're loading by sector then you must enter the start sector using this option. If you are loading a Koala or Micropainter file then you must enter the filename here. The defaults are sector 1 and filename PICTURE.PIC respectively.¢*¢6 - SAVE START SECTOR/FILENAME¢¢Again the option available will depend on what you've chosen to save the picture as. Same rules as option 5 apply. Be sure to input all the data necessary before you start loading a picture because you cannot return to the picture once you have exited it.¢*¢7 - DISK DIRECTORY¢¢Gives you a directory of the disk in drive 1.¢*¢NOTES¢¢When entering a filename you must not use the 'D:'. Just the filename and extender are required.¢ When entering a start sector for saving and loading, you must enter it between 1-1040 or it will not be accepted.¢ All errors are reported. Look them up in your Atari manual and continue when you have figured out what went wrong.¢*¢When the picture has loaded you can use the following keys.¢ Press ESC to quit to the menu, but if you do you cannot return to the picture!¢ Press keys 1-4 to increase the colour registers. Holding SHIFT and 1-4 will decrease the colour register.¢ If you find that the picture isn't centred then pressing the keys '+' (left arrow) and '*' (right arrow) will move the picture left or right. When using this a piece of the picture in the centre may disappear, don't worry as it will be there once saved.¢ To save the picture press 'S'. You will hear a beep which will warn you to enter the destination disk for the picture. Press any key (or ESC to quit) and the picture will be saved.¢*¢That's all for this program. If anyone has any ideas for updates or wishes something to be included that isn't then please let me know and I'll do my best to include it if a 'Picture Ripper II' ever appears!¢
