Loadstar 243

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u M R. M I C K Mr. Mouse Image Construction Kit Program and Text by Dave Moorman With comments by Fender Tucker and Jeff Jones IMPORTANT NOTE: Mr.MICK may not work correctly from the LOADSTAR Presenter menu. Copy Mr.Mick to your Utilities disk -- and all should be hunky-dory. MR.MICK is a text screen designer, similar to Screen Dazzler by Brian Eddy, published on LOADSTAR #90. The difference here is that MR.MICK is mouse-driven, includes a font editor, and the ability to save and load screens in a format which includes the font. Text screens are not like DOODLE or KOALA screens. Text screens are made using Commodore graphics, more appropriately called "font graphics," pieced together with font characters. For instance, the LOADSTAR at the top of our main menu is not a DOODLE, but a font graphic that's been typed or printed to the regular text screen. How artistic can a graphic screen be with only text? Well, check out any of Phil Sampson's "Black Knight" pictures and you'll see what can be done with only the graphics characters supplied by the C-64 default character set. With a custom set (which LOADSTAR practically requires) you can really get fancy. It's easy to make text screens, even artsy ones, but you're limited by the font, which only has 256 unique characters. If you want to type text on the screen, you'll have to alter characters other than text characters in the font. The trade is usually the C= key characters, most of which are rarely used. Of course if you have an eye like Phil Sampson, you don't need no stinking font. MR.MICK has multiple file formats, two based on the .TBS format. [Note from Jeff:] TBS stands for Toolbox Stash Format. I didn't know when I designed my screen stash subroutine that I was designing an official, usable file "format," worthy of a file extension. All I can say is that today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. This screen editor sports a built-in font tool that does nearly everything a font editor does -- but all right on the screen where you can see the interaction of custom characters. In short, Mr.MICK has everything you need for dramatic text screen design. You will need an intelligent mouse in port 1, or a joystick in port 2. On boot-up, you will see a Menu Bar and pointer on a black screen. This is [MOUSE MODE] -- and every function is available on the three pull-down menus. You can call the menus with a point and click, or press: CONTROL-F for File CONTROL-E for Edit CONTROL-C for Control. Note that the functions on the Control Menu have hot keys listed. The F-keys are easier than slogging through the menu: F1 - Toggle Menu Bar On/Off F3 - Toggle Window On/Off F5 - Switch Font/Color Windows UP ARROW - Window to Top/Bottom The Menu Bar and Window are non- destructive, giving you access to the whole screen. Press F3 and F5 until you have the Font Window visible on the screen. In FontMouse Mode, you can pick up any visible character with a point and click, then move it to any place on the screen and place it with another click. You can only pick up characters from the Font display. Press the right mouse button or F7 to drop a character without placing it on the screen. At the right of the Font display is the character editor. Point and click a cell to toggle the pixel. The cursor keys move the box cursor on the display to select the current character. While the font is visible, pressing F6 (or Font Edit Control from the Control Menu) will display a menu of ten useful character manipulators. The pointer is trapped in the Font Control Menu until you press the right mouse button or F7. The first nine controls are obvious and immediate. To Copy one character to another, first choose the character to be copied using the cursor keys. Then click on [Copy]. The pointer will jump to the Font display (and is trapped there). Point to the character to receive the copy and click. (To cancel, point at the character in the box cursor.) [COLORMOUSE MODE] [{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}] Press F5 to switch to the Color Window. The pointer becomes a "Paint Bucket." Point and click one for the colors on the palette to set the current color. Then simply hold down the left mouse button (or fire) and move around to point the characters on the screen. To the left of the palette is the border/background box. Move the "Bucket" to the far left edge of the Color Window and click to paint the border. Point to the center of the box and click to paint the background. If the background and Menu Bar are the same color, press F4 to cycle through menu colors. All menus and dialog boxes will be in the Menu Bar color. MR.MICK lets you work in any C-64 color mode. With the Color Window visible, press F2 (or use the Control Menu <F2 To .... Mode>). You will cycle through each color mode. In Extended Background, the background colors are displayed in four quadrants. In Multi-Color, the three background colors are displayed in three rows. [Note:] If the border color is 0-7, you will not see the extra multi- colors. Choose colors 8 - 15 and click the border rim of the color box to see the two other background colors in the center of the box. The three rows WILL respond correctly to painting even if they do not display the colors. Just chalk it up to the nature of our favorite beast! We have just three other Control Menu functions left. F8 is a QuikSave, which you can perform once an image has been named. The BACK ARROW cycles you through fonts: Custom to Default Upper Case to Default Lower Case. [TEXT MODE] [{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}] Point and click are nice -- but the keyboard is better for straight typing. Use the Control Menu <Shift- RET: To Text Mode>, or press Shift- RETURN. The menus are not available in Text Mode, and the only Function key functioning is F1. To exit Text Mode, press Shift-RETURN or F1. [Clue:] Remember F1! In a stroke or two, F1 will get the Menu Bar back on the screen. In Text Mode, the keyboard works almost exactly like the native C-64 screen editor. I have excluded the irritating line links and bottom scrolling. Insert and Delete only affect the cursor row. Set colors and Reverse On/Off in the normal way. CLR clears the screen. However, if you press CLR again, the screen will be restored to the point where you entered Text Mode. F1 or Shift-RETURN returns you to Mouse Mode. [THE MENUS] [{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}] [File Menu] New -- clears work in progress. Load -- MR.MICK will load: ToolBoxStash (.TBS) FontToolStash (.FTS) SuperToolStash (.STS) Font ( F. ) Screen (from 1024) Color (from 55296) The FontToolStash (.FTS) loads a font followed by .TBS format data. This is an excellent way to link a specialized font to its image. (Check out "fancyscreen.fts" included on this disk.) SuperToolStash is a group of one to four .TBS images in one file -- particularly handy for bringing several images into a program with a single bload. The .STS file fits nicely at page 160 or 224 under ROM. Screen and Color files have been included to bring data in from less sophisticated programs. [SAVE] Choose the file-type: F. Font .TBS ToolBoxStash .FTS FontToolStash .STS SuperToolStash Next input the filename and confirm. See below in Put/Get Image about saving .STS files. [QUIKSAVE] Once a .TBS or .FTS file is saved, the filename is embedded in the data. QuikSave saves the .TBS file to the same filename with auto- replace. F8 will do a QuikSave in one keystroke. [PUT/GET IMAGE] MR.MICK has four buffers to hold .TBS images, which can be saved together as an .STS file. If the image has no name, Put will ask you for one. The image names are listed on the Buffer Menu -- making swapping between images extremely easy. When you save the .STS buffer, you are asked which images to save. The file will contain images down to the one you choose. Only the images saved will load. For instance, if you saved images 1 and 2, you can later load them on top of 1, 2, 3, and 4, replacing only the first two images. This way, you can easily shuffle around between images. [PUT/GET FONT BUFFER] Have you ever wished you could copy portions of a great font to another font file? MR.MICK allows you to Put 32 characters in one font display row into a buffer, then Get the buffer into any 32 character row. When you choose Put Font Buffer, the Font Window appears, with the box cursor at the beginning of a row. Use the Up/Down cursor key to choose the row to Put in the buffer. Press RETURN to select. Shift-RETURN exits. Get Font Buffer works the same way. Up/Down cursor and RETURN to choose the row to which the buffer will be copied. I have included a dialog window just to be safe. [PRINT SCREEN] Thanks to Bob Markland, MR.MICK can produce a neat hard copy of your images. The print module uses the Universal Printer Driver Code file (from LS #154) which you can edit to work with your particular printer. [EXIT MR.MICK] This is the only proper way to get out of MR.MICK. [EDIT MENU] [{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}{SHIFT-*}] [Undo] Returns you to the point of the last F1, F3, F5, or Shift-RETURN key press (or associated Control Menu selection. [BOX] The rest of the functions in the Edit Menu will not work until you have put a Box on the screen. (This is indicated by a dot before the menu items). Choose Box, then place the square pointer at the location of the upper left corner of the area you want to box, and click. The four corners "come apart" and you can mark any area of the screen. Click again, and you return to the Edit Menu. Copy, Cut, and the three Fill functions are now enabled. Copy puts the screen and color within the box into the copy buffer. Cut copies, then fills the box area with spaces. R-Cut copies, then fills the box area with screen code 160. Color Fill paints the box area with the current paint color. Be sure to select the color first. Text Fill fills the box area with the current character in the current paint color. Be sure to select character and color first. Text Tile fills the box area by alternating the current character with the next screen code. Again, choose character and color first. Paste -- After you have copied the box area, you can paste the buffer anywhere on the screen. Simply move the box and click. No part of the box can leave the screen. [YOUR IMAGINATION] Besides "fancyscreen.fts", I have included "fancyscreen.tbs", a multi- color version to be loaded after the .FTS file. Also, MR.MICK boots up with four images in the .STS buffer to give an idea how versatile MR.MICK is. In a matter of minutes, the screen is blocked out and shaped to provide the best interface or game space. [TECHNO-KUDOS] I have used IMAGE MAKER for years (LS #106, by C.E. "Spock" Prince). But using IM screens means either including Image Writer in my programs, or converting the results to ToolBoxStash format. I happen to like ToolBoxStash. This is really just a function found on nearly every toolbox module -- the ability to stash screen/color info in some safe memory location, and restore it at will. A .TBS file bloads to memory, then can be called with the restore command. Jeff Jones has included cursor location and border/background color information in his more advanced tool boxes. I have maintained compatibility with his format -- and added to it. All images created with MR.MICK have border and all four background colors embedded in the memory below the screen but above the sprite pointers. One nybble even indicates in which color mode the image should be displayed. To access and use this information in your own program, use the following Basic: SYS <Restore>,<Page> POKE 53280,PEEK(2024) POKE 53281,PEEK(2025) POKE 53282,PEEK(2024)/16 POKE 53283,PEEK(2025)/16 POKE 53284,PEEK(2039) A=PEEK(2039)AND192 IFA=0THENPOKE53265,27:POKE53270,200 IFA=64THENPOKE53265,91 POKE53270,200 IFA=128THENPOKE53265,27: POKE53270,216 The filename to which you saved the image in MR.MICK is also embedded in this free memory area, beginning with a 255 at 2026: 2026 255 2027 "F" 2028 "I" 2029 "L" 2030 "E" 2031 255 Note the 255 that marks the end of the filename. MR.MICK would be impossible without MR. MOUSE. Besides true proportional mouse/dynamic joystick control, MM has a fair toolbox packed in its 4 K of memory. Functions not in MR. MOUSE -- such as copymem, swappymem, and print center -- were available from Smart Boot. During the boot, I copied the relocatable code up to safe memory where I could find it once MR.MICK was running. And the Print function was completely impossible when I began MR.MICK. As usual, Fender had that one-more-nifty-idea. Bob Markland's tiny module worked like a charm from the first attempt. Adapting the UPDCodes file for my NX-10C printer took only a few minutes. However, I have included the Epson standard code file here. You can make it work for your own printer with the editor on LOADSTAR #154. Egads! The C-64 is exploding with new life! Even if you are a purist or a pauper, and chug along with nothing but an ugly brown-round keyboard and unenhanced 1541, the power and possibilities are expanding exponentially. For goodness' sake, at least get an FD drive -- if for no other reason than that metal flap protects the disk so much better! Even without JiffyDOS, the FD is quicker than a clunky 1541. And LOADSTAR is a really joyful experience without the swap 'n' flip! [Note from Jeff:] It is my belief that the 1541 is the weak link in the C-64 chain. As these devices become less reliable and harder to use, people throw up their hands in frustration and go PC. There is nothing wrong with going PC. I just don't understand how some can resist buying a $150 FD drive yet spend thousands on a new PC. Get both if you're going to do that. Jeff out. A correspondent tells me he got an FD and JiffyDOS, only to find out that the chip in his C-64 was soldered down tight. Rather than de-soldering damage to the mother board, he invested in a SuperCPU. He was a bit irked that he had to also get a new power supply to handle the extra load. On the other hand, he now enjoys the quick disk speed. For about $250, he now HAS 20 MHz, a proper disk medium for the times, and much more. [FENDER'S POSTMUMBLE:] I hadn't realized that Commodore had gotten so unfriendly as to use unsocketed DOS chips in their later models, but here's another way around it. Instead of getting a SuperCPU to provide JiffyDOS to the computer, how about a RAMLink? I think that for the average user, a superfast drive (which is what RAMLink basically is) is more useful than the 20 MHz processing speed. They both give you JiffyDOS without your having to open up your computer. As for MR.MICK, I agree 100% with Dave that this is the best time to be programming the C-64/128. His program is a big, many-featured utility that probably wouldn't have been written if MR.MOUSE hadn't bowled Dave over. On the other hand, my GEOS FONT SHOW on this issue is a simple, almost Q&D program that would not have been nearly as good without MR. MOUSE. Mouse support has traditionally been the main thing that separated us from the big wheels. Now we have it. Let's roll.