Loadstar 212/212.d81/t.ls scroller

Text File | 2002-01-01 | 8.2 KB | 305 lines

u
      LOADSTAR CREDITS SCROLLER
      Program by Terry L. Flynn
        Text by Fender Tucker


    Back on LS #61 we published a very
nice program called VIDEO PRO-TITLER
that allowed you to make
smooth-scrolling credits for your home
video tapes. The only problem was that
it was full of sophisticated features
and was rather complicated to use.

    Terry Flynn's LS CREDITS SCROLLER
is more straightforward and is better
suited for the 90s. It's menu-driven
with instructions built-in and will
work on any drive system.

    What you will be creating with
this program is a short program that
will give you a "Star Wars" type
scrolling effect of whatever you want
displayed at the beginning (or end) of
your home tapes. Years down the road
when you watch these old tapes you'll
appreciate having a descriptive set of
"credits" actually on the tape. It's
better than trying to write down on a
slip of paper what's on a tape. Those
things get lost too easily.


 RECORDING WITH A VCR
 --------------------

    The C-64 was made to be quite
compatible with VCRs. Just unplug your
monitor cable from your monitor and
connect the two RCA plugs at the end
of the cable to the "line in" jack of
your VCR. Set the VCR to "Line Input"
(or whatever your VCR calls it) and
your TV will now act as a monitor for
your computer.

    You may have more than two plugs
at the end of your monitor cable. If
so, you will have to experiment around
to find which plugs give you the best
picture. One of the plugs will be for
audio and you can leave this
disconnected. All you need is the best
video signal you can get.

    Once you have the VCR connected,
recording from the C-64 is exactly the
same as recording from cable.


 THE MAIN MENU
 -------------

    From here you can read an overview
of the Main Menu and quit to LOADSTAR
or BASIC. The main option is SCROLLER
EDIT MENU, where all of the work is
done. You can also set the device
number from the Main Menu, if you want
to use a drive other than the one you
booted SCROLLER up on.


 THE EDIT MENU
 -------------

    Here you can create, edit, load
and save your credits. You may use any
typical C-64 font and any color
combination you want. When you save a
file, all of the color information
(called "parameters") are saved with
the file.

    There are separate instructions
for this menu which you can read from
the program. In a nutshell, each file
consists of up to 25 "entries", each
of which will scroll up the screen
from the bottom. As soon as one entry
is scrolled off the top of the screen,
the next entry starts scrolling up
from the bottom.

    Every option is explained in the
instructions. You use the first
option, "Edit Entries", to enter in
the credits, then use "View Scroller"
to see how it looks. You'll probably
want to edit, then view, edit some
more then view some more, and so on.
From time to time you should save your
work. If you know what you want your
credits to say, it shouldn't take more
than a few minutes to create a
well-done file.


 SET PARAMETERS
 --------------

    This option takes you to another
menu with five "parameters". The
current (or default) parameter is
shown on the menu. The first three
parameters are for colors and will
take you to another menu where you can
select which of the sixteen colors to
use for your scroller. The next two
parameters ("speed" and "size") are
toggles. Press RETURN on "speed" and
the setting will switch between "slow"
and "fast". Press RETURN on "size" and
the setting will toggle between
"normal size" and "double height".

    Once you have the parameters set
as you want them, go back to the EDIT
MENU where you can create a credits
sequence and view it. Come back to the
PARAMETERS MENU if you don't like the
colors, size or speed.

NOTE: When you load a scroller it will
load its parameters, too. However, you
can then go to the SET PARAMETERS area
and change them.


 LOAD CUSTOM FONT
 ----------------

    Any typical 9-block font can be
used. LOADSTAR has published dozens of
fonts over the years and we'd be
flattered if you use any of them.
We've supplied ten fonts on the disk.
The only one that's REQUIRED by the
program is "f.ls cset".

    When you load a font, everything
on the screen is seen with that font.
For that reason I recommend you stick
with fonts that aren't too crazy,
otherwise you may have trouble reading
the menus.

     Reversed characters aren't
allowed or used by the program.
Indeed, Terry's input routine only
allows the upper and lowercase
alphabet, the numbers and certain
punctuation marks. Since these all
occur in the first 3/8ths of a font,
the font file only needs to be three
or four blocks long. If you're not
worried about load time or disk space,
you may as well use regular 9-block
fonts. If you want smaller files, use
a monitor and chop off the reversed
characters. If you don't know how to
do this, don't do it.


 VIEW SCROLLER
 -------------

    Once you've created or loaded a
scroller you'll want to see how it
looks. You'll be asked for how many
entries. This is mainly a convenience
because sometimes you may not want to
see all of the entries. To check the
colors, font, speed or size of a
scroller you may just need to see a
couple of the entries.

    There's also another reason for
the program's asking for the number of
entries. You may find that you want
the first one or two entries to be
blank. This way, when you have your
VCR set to record (on pause) and start
VIEWing the scroller, you will have
several seconds of blank screen before
the first real entry shows.

NOTE: If you do decide to have the
first couple of entries blank, the
program will not count the number of
entries correctly. You can still enter
any number you want at the "number of
entries to view" prompt, so this is
just a minor inconvenience.

    Likewise, you may want to add a
couple of blank entries to the end of
the scroller so you'll have time to
turn off the VCR's recording before
the EDIT MENU's screen pops up. For
example, if you have eight items you
want to scroll by, leave 1 and 2 blank
and have the eight entries be 3
through 10. Then, when you are ready
to record and you select VIEW
SCROLLER, enter 12 as the number of
entries. This will give you about 10
seconds of a blank screen before the
menu pops back up after the last real
entry.


 EDIT ENTRIES
 ------------

    This first item on the EDIT MENU
takes you to another screen and menu.
The top option is ENTER/EDIT TEXT
which gives you a free-form cursor on
the two lines in the entry box at the
top. Experiment around to see which
characters besides the upper- and
lowercase letters are accepted. These
are the characters in your font you
may want to redefine for special
effects.

    The rest of the menu is pretty
obvious. You can go to a specific
entry, move to the next entry or move
to the previous entry. You can also
clear all of the entries. There's no
reviving the entries if you choose
CLEAR except by reloading a scroller
(if you've saved it).

    Each entry consists of two
24-character lines so you have to plan
your credits accordingly.


 THAT'S IT
 ---------

    If you don't know anything about
VCRs or fonts, you will undoubtedly
run into snags but stay with it and
you'll soon come up with some nifty
looking sequences for your video
tapes. There are nine fonts on the
disk for you to use. If you see a file
on any LOADSTAR with the word "font"
in its name, it's probably a font and
can be used by simply copying it onto
the disk with the SCROLLER program and
renaming it with an "f." prefix.

    If the picture on your TV doesn't
look as good as on your monitor,
that's because TVs aren't as good as
monitors when showing computer
screens, especially if the TV is old.
I've been through this program many
times and I can vouch for its code,
but no one here at LOADSTAR is an
expert on VCRs, monitor cables or TVs.


 FUTURE UPGRADES
 ---------------

    It seems to me that with a little
more code this program could allow
some extra features such as:

 (1) parameter change between entries

 (2) more than one entry on the
     screen at a time

 (3) more allowable characters,
     including font graphics

 (4) special effects (mists,
     flashing, etc.)

    Try this program out and see if
you can think of something you'd like
added. Write it down and send it to me
and I'll pass it on to Terry Flynn.

 FT