*******************
*Sprite Editor 1.2*
*******************
I. Introduction
***************
Sprite Editor (SE) is a little tool
for making animated sprites with some
new features. Main of them are: 26
positions, independent colors for
each position, integrated editor &
animator, nice design :) and
(hopefuly) easy manipulation. You can
quess why did I do it... Hm, why.
Some months ago (october 2000) I
became an idea to make a cool game
for our little Atari, but I needed
some tool just for making animated
sprites. I found only one: Sprite
I_don't_know_what :) by
Lufa/Satantronic which was ...uhm...
very primitive (sorry ;-) So I
started with coding THIS :) SE is
ofcoz freeware!
II. Function overview
*********************
Editor:
1,2,3,4 - Set sprite
--------------------
No comment :)
5,6,7,8 - Set color
-------------------
UP/DOWN - select shade of sprite
LEFT/RIGHT - select the color of
sprite
RETURN - confirm colors
Arrows - Move cursor
--------------------
No comment :)
CONTROL+Arrows - Move sprite
----------------------------
Hold CONTROL and move cursor - you
will move (rotate) the whole sprite
SHIFT+Arrows - (Un)draw line
----------------------------
Hold SHIFT and move the cursor - you
will draw a line
SPACE - (Un)draw point
----------------------
No comment :)
H - Horizontal mirror
---------------------
Mirrors the actual sprite by X-Axis.
It's depend on 'Big Windows' settings
(look at 'B' key)
V - Vertical mirror
-------------------
Mirrors the actual sprite by Y-Axis
I - Invert
----------
Inverts the actual sprite - $10 or
$20 bytes long (look at 'B' key)
INSERT - Copy
-------------
Copy the complete position ($20
bytes) incl. colors to the another
one
DEL - Erase sprite
------------------
Erase the actual sprite - $10 or $20
bytes (look at 'B' key)
CLEAR - Erase position
----------------------
Erase the complete position ($20
bytes). The colors will be preserved
SHIFT+CLEAR - Erase all
-----------------------
Erase all positions and set the
color of actual sprite to all
positions
P - Position select
-------------------
You can enter A-Z, 26 positions at
all...
B - Big windows toggle
----------------------
You can change the actual size of
sprite - $10 (16) or $20 (32) bytes.
So you can edit bigger sprites than
can be on the screen (using
CONTROL+UP/DOWN)
W - 2 windows toggle
--------------------
Here you can set 2 windows - it's
useful when you need wider sprite
than 8 bits. Of course you can have
max. of 2 sprites in one window
TAB - Next window
-----------------
Works only if 2 windows are active.
In the 1st window you can use sprite
1 or 2, in 2nd window sprite 3 or 4
M - Animator
------------
Exit to the Animator (the data &
flags will be not changed... of
course :)
ESC - Quit to DOS
-----------------
No comment :)
CTRL+D - Change actual device
-----------------------------
You can type whole name of device
(e.g. D1) or just first letter and
press RETURN if number is OK
CTRL+L - Load
-------------
SE looks for PM.DAT and COL.DAT files
in actual directory and loads them
CTRL+S - Save
-------------
Saves actual players and colors. In
fact it's simple memory dump from
$3800 to $44ff (PM.DAT) and from
$3400 to $3467 (COL.DAT)
Note: sometimes, bcoz of bad
synchronisation may be fonts and DLI
after i/o operations corrupted.
Simply go to Animator and back to
Editor (M key) and nice design is
back :-) I'm very sorry for this, but
it's harder to fix it as you could
think :-)
Animator:
Animator is 2nd part of my work. It's
simplier than Editor, because it was
coded during 3-4 days. Very nice
feature is 'parallel' running - you
can change speed, size, definition,
etc during playing animation! I was
very suprised when I found it ;-)
D - Define animation
--------------------
Now you can enter letters which
represent the position. Maximum is
80, you can use DELETE. After typing
press RETURN
R - Run animation
-----------------
Pressing 'R' you stop/run playing the
animation. If you have set 2 windows,
it will be detected and sprites 1/2
will be played next to 3/4
S - Speed option
----------------
1 = positions are changed each
Vertical Blank
2 = positions are changed each second
Vertical Blank
3 = positions are changed each fourth
Vertical Blank
4 = positions are changed each eighth
Vertical Blank
Z - Size of sprites
-------------------
It can be normal, double or quad
C - Size correction
-------------------
ON = corrects the shape of pixels (to
be squares)
OFF = classic Atari representation: 1
pixel is 1 scan line wide
O - Collisions
--------------
ON = result of collision of sprite 1
and 2 or sprite 3 and 4 is 3rd color
OFF = no collisions, sprite 1 has got
the highest priority, sprite 4 the
lowest
M - Editor
----------
Exit to the Editor, animation is
stopped
ESC - Quit to DOS
-----------------
No comment :)
III. Hardware requirements
**************************
Nothing special - each 8-bit Atari
(PAL/NTSC) with 48 kB of memory.
Tested also under Atari800Win
emulator...
IV. Sprites & colors in the memory
**********************************
$3800: sprite 1, position A
$3820: sprite 2, position A
$3840: sprite 3, position A
$3860: sprite 4, position A
$3880: sprite 1, position B ... etc
to $44FF
$3400: color of sprite 1, position A
$3401: color of sprite 2, position A
$3402: color of sprite 3, position A
$3403: color of sprite 4, position A
$3404: color of sprite 1, position B
... etc to $3467
It's very simple to make any routine
for replaying... if you have any
problems, contact me, OK?
V. Future plans
***************
Game for Atari XE/F030 - with IMO
very original idea, but it will be
very hard to code... Probably for 320
kB and probably after Falcon
version...
Demo/intro/anything_for_the_scene for
Atari XE/F030, especially Falcon !!!
VI. Contact
***********
Bug reports, improvements, ideas,
money :) send to:
Smail: Miro Kropacek
Budatinska 23
Bratislava
851 05
Slovakia
Europe ;-)
Email: mk20432@decef.elf.stuba.sk or
mikro@atlantis.sk (only in
emergency :)
VII. Greetings
**************
Big hello goes to:
XI, Dodo, Lufa, Jookie of Satantronic
Jiri Bernasek aka BEWESOFT
Zdenek Burian of FLOP
Radek Sterba aka RASTER
Tiger of New Generation
BLB of Cobra
Lewis of Aids
Vasco of Tristesse
Dely of Atari Area
Mad Butcher of F2
and all others who keep our Atari
scene alive...
VIII. History
*************
v1.0 [07/2001] - first official
release
v1.1 [3.8.2001] - sprite animator
fixed; options like size or
correction are now unchanged after
switching to editor
v1.2 [6.8.2002] - added save/load
function. I was too lazy, but Raster
and Mad Butcher kicked me to do it:-)
Btw look at release date - 1 year
after 1.1 version (in fact I didn't
do ANYTHING on little XE... well,
Falcon rulez more than XE :-)
I hope, you'll enjoy this little tool
and wait for my next productions !
MiKRO, 6.8.2002, Bratislava/Slovakia