Loadstar 128 29/q29.d81/t.kraken

Text File | 2022-08-28 | 4KB | 82 lines

                                K R A K E N

                       Program and Text by Tim George


    The Kraken of legend was a terrible giant serpent that ruled the
Northern seas, smashing ships to kindling, laying siege to bays and harbor
towns for months at a time, churning up the ocean depths, causing
whirlpools and tidal waves...

    Fortunately, this Kraken is just some simple math that scribbles on
your screen, making patterns and shapes that look like anything from sea
urchins to supernova to old coat hangers.

    When run, KRAKEN will load some support files and then present its main
screen.  From this screen you can press:

  ESC to quit to LOADSTAR on any drive or exit to BASIC

  1 or 2 to start.

    Choose 2 if you have 64K of VDC RAM.  This is how KRAKEN was written to
run.  If you only have 16K choose 1.  The program will function in 16K but
you'll have no animation at all; no page flipping, no "morphing", and no
perceivable rotation.  Worst of all, you won't even know what you're
missing.

NOTE: The latest SSI catalog still has the 64K upgrade listed.  This is a
worthwhile investment as many other applications, aside from graphics
software, use this extra RAM.  There are even some C-64 mode disk and file
copiers (like Maverick) that use it.  Call Software Support International
at 1-800-356-1179 to order (only), or 1-360-695-9648 to ask for a catalog.

    If you've got a 128D, then you have 64K of video RAM.  If you have a
flat C-128, then you only have 64K if it's been installed in the computer
by you or a former owner.

    At the bottom of the screen is a coordinates display.  You can come
back to this, if you find a pattern you might want to return to later, and
write down its X/Y location.  This is a little inconvenient, having to go
to another screen, but what this program is trying to do is well beyond the
limits of the 128.  Any routine to draw the numbers on the graphics screen
would have slowed everything down too much.  To make it easier, you can
change the coordinates from the main screen using the CRSR keys.

    While on the graphic screen, use the CRSR keys, a joystick in Port #2,
or a mouse in Port #1 to move the Kraken.  The horizontal range is 1-640
and the vertical range is 1-180.  In general, the higher the X number the
more iterations, and the lower the Y number the more steps around the
circumference.  Try setting X to 500 or 600 and Y to a number less than
10.

 NOTE: You'll find that to change the coordinate on the left, you use the
CRSR LEFT/RIGHT key.  To change the second coordinate, use the CRSR UP/DOWN
key.

    The stick FIREBUTTON, the left mouse button, or the X key will toggle
the OR/ExclusiveOR option.  This is normally set to OR, and lines draw over
each other just like on paper.  When XOR is on, each dot in a line is drawn
by being toggled from its previous state.  In other words, if one line is
drawn, then another line crosses it, the dot they share is turned off.  If
a third line crosses the same point the dot will be turned back on, etc.
On certain patterns this can give a strange pseudo-moire or liquidy 'Peter
Max' type effect, but sometimes it just makes a mess.

    The C and B keys will cycle through the Character (foreground) and
Background colors.  About 5% of the time the colors will glitch.  This is a
hardware quirk.  If it happens just press either key again.

    RETURN will return to the main screen and display the current
coordinates.

    I hope this program and others like it show how interesting math can
be.  With computer graphics it's not just rows and columns of numbers any
more.  The field of mathematics is truly infinite and there is much more
yet to be discovered, both in general and on our 64/128s.

                \\\\\ RETURN - Menu    R - Run \\\\\