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Loadstar 128 38
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q38.d81
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t.lightning
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2022-08-28
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L I G H T N I N G
Program and Text by Brian L. Crosthwaite
What is Lightning? It is many things to many people. It is a lightning
rendering program; it is a mess maker; it is a storm for your computer on
Halloween night; it is entertainment. Whatever your tastes, you may find
some benefit to this program somewhere.
The program started on the Amiga 1200, made its way to the Atari ST,
Apple ][, clone, PX-8, and finally landed on the C-128D.
No special hardware is required other than a C-128. It supports drives
numbers 8 to 30 and can wind its way through your hard drive partitions and
subdirectories.
The program uses both the 80 column screen (menu) and the 40 column
screen (rendering screen). If you have two monitors just turn them both on.
If you only have one, simply switch modes to see the menu and its options
and back for the rendering. It is not recommended to run the program blind
as it can access things like hard drives and RAMLinks...
PROJECT
-------
About - redisplays title screen.
Load - To call a directory simply press L for load, but don't enter a
file name. When you do want to load (or save) the file extensions .PIC and
.COL are added by the program. There is a demo picture on the LOADSTAR 128
disk called "lightning.pic". Just enter "lightning" at the LOAD prompt to
see a masked, over-plotted, 160-seed lightning strike.
Save - To save a picture, just enter the name without an extension. Be
sure there are at least 42 blocks on the disk.
Logged Drive - To change drives, press the / key. Keep pressing it to
cycle through your active drives.
Send Drive Command - To change partitions or enter drive commands you
press @ to activate the option, but only enter the command -- cp2, cd//part
name, or what have you. It will handle up to 32 characters. If you make a
mistake just hit <DEL>.
NOTE: Grey, white, and yellow menu items can be selected at anytime, while
purple ones are only available when RENDER is grey. Grey menu items turn
white when selected and grey again when unselected. White means it is
active.
PLOT
----
Render - This is the command to start creating the lightning. You can
press R while either screen is on.
Mask - Mask is a nice feature that adds different characteristics to the
plot, such as extra colors. Turn it on and see.
SEED
----
The seed value determines the number of overall plots on the top line.
This value can be changed at any time, but it will only have an affect
while the top line is rendering. It can be used to change the density of
the plot as it crosses the top of the screen. 160 will make a solid line
across the top. RND will randomly select a number between 0 and 160. If it
is the same as one of the numbers listed, that number will become
highlighted.
CONTROL
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Clear Screen - Clears the 40-column screen. If you've got a picture you
like, be sure to save it before pressing C.
Reset Variables - Returns all parameters to their default values.
Exit Plot Mode - Stops the rendering immediately. You can't restart the
rendering; you must start over if you press X.
Thunder - Adds a nice sound effect.
Lightning Flash - Try it and see if you like it.
Over Plot and Under Plot - Over Plot will only plot on the part of the
screen that has light blue or white on it, while Under will only plot on
dark blue and black. These are to be experimented with to see the real
potential. Let's say you have a rendering you really like, but want to add
to it. Be sure it is saved. Then select Under Plot and it will add to what
is there. In most cases, if both Over and Under Plot are selected, nothing
will plot at all.
Turbo Plot - Press G and the screen will blank and the turbo will kick
in. This speeds rendering time up by one third.
FENDER'S POSTMUMBLE: On my 20-MHz C-128 it takes 45 seconds to render an
un-masked picture and around 3 minutes for a masked picture. At 2 MHz it
will probably take ten times as long.
\\\\\ R - Run RETURN - Menu \\\\\