MEMORY MAP
Locations zero to 255 ($0 to $FF) are called "page zero" and have
special importance for assembly language programmers since these
locations are accessed faster and easier by the machine.
Locations zero to 127 ($0 to $7F) are reserved as the OS page zero,
while 128 to 255 ($80 to $FF) are the BASIC and the user zero page
RAM. Locations zero to 1792 ($0 to $700) are all used as the OS and (if
the cartridge is present) 8K BASIC RAM (except page six). Locations
zero to 8191 ($0 to $1FFF) are the minimum required for operation
(8K).
Locations two through seven are not cleared on any start operation.
DECIMAL HEX LABEL
0,1 0,1 LINZBS
- LINBUG RAM, replaced by the monitor RAM See the OS
Listing, page 31. It seems to be used to store the VBLANK timer
value. One user application I've seen for location zero is in a
metronome program in De Re Atari. Also used in cross-
assembling the Atari OS.
2,3 2,3 CASINI
- Cassette initialization vector: JSR through here if the cassette
boot was successful. This address is extracted from the first six
bytes of a cassette boot file. The first byte is ignored. The second
contains the number of records, the third and fourth contain the
low and high bytes of the load address, and the fifth and sixth
contain the low and high bytes of the initialization address.
Control upon loading jumps to the load address plus six for a
multi-stage load and through CASINI for initialization. JSR
through DOSVEC (10 and 11; $A,$B) to transfer control to the
application.
4,5 4,5 RAMLO
- RAM pointer for the memory test used on powerup. Also used to
store the disk boot address--normally 1798 ($706)--for the
boot continuation routine.
6 6 TRAMSZ
- Temporary Register for RAM size; used during powerup
sequence to test RAM availability. This value is then moved to
RAMTOP, location 106 ($6A). Reads one when the BASIC or the
A (left) cartridge is plugged in.
7 7 TSTDAT
- RAM test data register. Reads one when the B or the right
cartridge is inserted.
RAMLO, TRAMSZ and TSTDAT are all used in testing the RAM
size on powerup. On DOS boot, RAMLO and TRAMSZ also act as
temporary storage for the boot continuation address. TRAMSZ
and TSTDAT are used later to flag whether or not the A (left)
and/or B (right) cartridges, respectively, are plugged in (non-
zero equals cartridge plugged in) and whether the disk is to be
hooted.
Locations eight through 15 ($8-$F) are cleared on coldstart only.
8 8 WARMST
- Warmstart flag. If the location reads zero, then it is in the middle
of powerup; 255 is the normal RESET status. Warmstart is similar
to pressing RESET, so should not wipe out memory, variables, or
programs. WARMST is initialized to zero and will not change
values unless POKEd or until the first time the RESET button is
pressed. It will then read 255 ($FF).
Warmstart normally vectors to location 58484 ($E474). WARMST
is checked by the NMI status register at 54287 ($D40F) when
RESET is pressed to see whether or not to re-initialize the
software or to re-boot the disk.
9 9 BOOT?
- Boot flag success indicator. A value of 255 in this location will
cause the system to lockup if RESET is pressed. If BOOT? reads
one, then the disk boot was successful; if it reads two, then the
cassette boot was successful. If it reads zero, then neither
peripheral was booted.
If it is set to two, then the cassette vector at locations two and
three will be used on RESET. Set to one, it will use the DOS
vector at 10 and 11 ($A and $B). Coldstart attempts both a
cassette and a disk boot and flags this location with the success or
failure of the boots. BOOT? is checked during both disk and
cassette boot.
10,11 A,B DOSVEC
- Start vector for disk (or non-cartridge) software. This is the
address BASIC jumps to when you call up DOS. Can be set by
user to point to your own routine, but RESET will return DOSVEC
to the original address. To prevent this, POKE 5446 with the LSB
and 5450 with the MSB of your vector address and re-save DOS
using the WRITE DOS FILES option in the menu. Locations 10
and 11 are usually loaded with 159 and 23 ($9F and $17),
respectively. This allows the DUPSYS section of DOS to be
loaded when called. It is initially set to blackboard mode vector
(58481; $E471--called by typing "BYE" or "B." from BASIC); it
will also vector to the cassette run address if no DOS vector is
loaded in. If you create an AUTORUN.SYS file that doesn't end
with an RTS instruction, you should set BOOT? to one and 580
($244) to zero.
12,13 C,D DOSINI
- Initialization address for the disk boot. Also used to store the
cassette-boot RUN address, which is then moved to CASINI (2,
3). When you powerup without either the disk or an autoboot
cassette tape, DOSINI will read zero in both locations.
14,15 E,F APPMHI
- Applications memory high limit and pointer to the end of your
BASIC program, used by both the OS and BASIC. It contains the
lowest address you can use to set up a screen and Display List
(which is also the highest address usable for programs and data
below which the display RAM may not be placed). The screen
handler will not OPEN the "S:" device if it would extend the
screen RAM or the Display List below this address; memory
above this address may be used for the screen display and other
data (PM graphics, etc.).
If an attempted screen mode change would extend the screen
memory below APPMHI, then the screen is set up for GRAPHICS
mode zero; MEMTOP (locations 741, 742; $2E5, $2E6) is updated
and an error is returned to the user. Otherwise, the memory is not
too small for the screen editor; the mode change will take effect
and MEMTOP will be updated. This is one of five locations used
by the OS to keep track of the user and display memory.
Initialized to zero by the OS at powerup. Remember, you cannot
set up a screen display below the location specified here.
If you use the area below the Display List for your character sets,
PM graphics or whatever, be sure to set APPMHI above the last
address used so that the screen or the DL data will not descend
and destroy your own data. See RAMTOP location 106 ($6A),
MEMTOP at 741, 742 ($2E5, $2E6), PMBASE at 54279 ($D407)
and CHBASE at 54281 ($D409) for more information.
Locations 16 through 127 ($10-$7F) are cleared on either cold- or
warmstart.
16 10 POKMSK
- POKEY interrupts: the IRQ service uses and alters this location.
Shadow for 53774 ($D20E). POKE with 112 ($70; also POKE this
same value into 53774) to disable the BREAK key. If the following
bits are set (to one), then these interrupts are enabled (bit
decimal values are in parentheses):
BIT DECIMAL FUNCTION
7 128 The BREAK key is enabled.
6 64 The "other key" interrupt is enabled.
5 32 The serial input data ready interrupt is
enabled.
4 16 The serial output data required interrupt is
enabled.
3 8 The serial out transmission finished
interrupt is enabled.
2 4 The POKEY timer four interrupt is enabled
(only in the "B" or later versions of the OS
ROMs).
1 2 The POKEY timer two interrupt is enabled.
0 1 The POKEY timer one interrupt is enabled.
Timer interrupt enable means the associated AUDF registers are
used as timers and will generate an interrupt request when they
have counted down to zero. See locations 528 to 535 ($210 to
$217) and the POKEY chip from locations 53760 ($D200) on, for a
full explanation. 192 ($C0) is the default on powerup.
You can also disable the BREAK key by POKEing here with 64
($40; or any number less than 128; $80) and also in location
53774. The problem with simple POKEs is that the BREAK key is
re-enabled when RESET is pressed and by the first PRINT
statement that displays to the screen, or any OPEN statement that
addresses the screen (S: or E:), or the first PRINT statement after
such an OPEN and any GRAPHICS command. In order to
continually disable the BREAK key if such commands are being
used, it's best to use a subroutine that checks the enable bits
frequently during input and output operations, and POKEs a
value less than 128 into the proper locations, such as:
1000 BREAK = PEEK(16) - 128: IF BREA
K < 0 THEN RETURN
1010 POKE 16, BREAK: POKE 53774, BRE
AK: RETURN
The new OS "B" version ROMs have a vector for the BREAK key
interrupt, which allows users to write their own routines to
process the interrupt in the desired manner. It is located at 566,
567 ($236, $237).
17 11 BRKKEY
- Zero means the BREAK key is pressed; any other number means
it's not. A BREAK during I/O returns 128 ($80). Monitored by
both keyboard, display, cassette and screen handlers. See
location 16 ($A) for hints on disabling the BREAK key. The latest
editions of OS provide for a proper vector for BREAK interrupts.
The BREAK key abort status code is stored in STATUS (48; $30).
It is also checked during all I/O and scroll/draw routines. During
the keyboard handler routine, the status code is stored in DSTAT
(76; $4C). BRKKEY is turned off at powerup. BREAK key abort
status is flagged by setting BIT 7 of 53774 ($D20E). See the note
on the BREAK key vector, above.
18,19,20 12,13,14 RTCLOK
- Internal realtime clock. Location 20 increments every stage one
VBLANK interrupt (1/60 second = one jiffy) until it reaches 255
($FF); then location 19 is incremented by one and 20 is reset to
zero (every 4.27 seconds). When location 19 reaches 255, it and
20 are reset to zero and location 18 is incremented by one (every
18.2 minutes or 65536 TV frames). To use these locations as a
timer of seconds, try:
TIME = INT((PEEK(18) * 65536 + PEEK(19) * 256 +
PEEK(20) )/60)
To see the count in jiffies, eliminate the "/60" at the end. To see
the count in minutes, change "/60" to "/360." The maximum
value of the RT clock is 16,777,215. When it reaches this value, it
will be reset to zero on the next VBLANK increment. This value is
the result of cubing 256 (i.e., 256 * 256 * 256), the maximum
number of increments in each clock register. The RT clock is
always updated every VBLANK regardless of the time-critical
nature of the code being processed.
A jiffy is actually a long time to the computer. It can perform
upwards of 8000 machine cycles in that time. Think of what can
be done in the VBLANK interval (one jiffy). In human terms, a
jiffy can be upwards of 20 minutes, as witnessed in the phrase "I'll
be ready in a jiffy." Compare this to the oft-quoted phrase, "I'll
be there in a minute," used by intent programmers to describe a
time frame upwards of one hour.
Users can POKE these clock registers with suitable values for
their own use. The realtime clock is always updated during the
VBLANK interval. Some of the other timer registers (locations
536 to 544; $218 to $220) are not always updated when the OS is
executing time critical code.
Here's one way to use the realtime clock for a delay timer:
10 GOSUB 100
.
.
.
100 POKE 20,0: POKE 19,0
110 IF NOT PEEK(19) THEN 110
120 RETURN
Line 110 waits to see if location 19 returns to zero and, when it
does, passes control to the RETURN statement.
See COMPUTE!, August 1982, for a useful program to create a
small realtime clock that will continue to display during your
BASIC programming. See also De Re Atari for another realtime
clock application.
21,22 15,16 BUFADR
- Indirect buffer address register (page zero). Temporary pointer
to the current disk buffer.
23 17 ICCOMT
- Command for CIO vector. Stores the CIO command; used to find
the offset in the command table for the correct vector to the
handler routine.
24,25 18,19 DSKFMS
- Disk file manager pointer. Called JMPTBL by DOS; used as
vector to FMS.
26,27 1A,1B DSKUTL
- The disk utilities pointer. Called BUFADR by DOS, it points to
the area saved for a buffer for the utilities package (data buffer;
DBUF) or for the program area (MEMLO; 743, 744; $2E7, $2E8).
28 1C PTIMOT
- Printer timeout, called every printer status request. Initialized to
30, which represents 32 seconds (the value is 64 seconds per 60
increments in this register); typical timeout for the Atari 825
printer is five seconds. The value is set by your printer handler
software. It is updated after each printer status request operation.
It gets the specific timeout status from location 748 ($2EC), which
is loaded there by SIO.
The new "B" type OS ROMs have apparently solved the problem
of timeout that haunted the "A" ROMs; you saw it when the
printer or the disk drive periodically went to sleep (timed out) for
a few seconds, causing severe anxiety attacks in the owners who
thought their Ataris had just mysteriously died. This is
compounded when one removes a disk from the drive, believing
the I/O process to be finished--only to have the drive start up
again after the timeout and trying to write to or read from a
nonexistent disk. Usually both the system and the user crash
simultaneously at this point. See the appendix for more
information on the new ROMs.
29 1D PBPNT
- Print buffer pointer; points to the current position (byte) in the
print buffer. Ranges from zero to the value in location 30.
30 1E PBUFSZ
- Print buffer size of printer record for current mode. Normal
buffer size and line size equals 40 bytes; double-width print
equals 20 bytes (most printers use their own control codes for
expanded print); sideways printing equals 29 bytes (Atari 820
printer only). Printer status request equals four. PBUFSZ is
initialized to 40. The printer handler checks to see if the same
value is in PBPNT and, if so, sends the contents of the buffer to
the printer.
31 1F PTEMP
- Temporary register used by the printer handler for the value of
the character being output to the printer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Locations 32 to 47 ($20 to $2F) are the ZIOCB: Page zero Input-Output
Control Block. They use the same structure as the IOCB's at locations
832 to 959 ($340 to $3BF). The ZIOCB is used to communicate I/O con-
trol data between CIO and the device handlers. When a CIO opera-
tion is initiated, the information stored in the IOCB channel is moved
here for use by the CIO routines. When the operation is finished, the
updated information is returned to the user area.
32 20 ICHIDZ
- Handler index number. Set by the OS as an index to the device
name table for the currently open file. If no file is open on this
IOCB (IOCB free), then this register is set to 255 ($FF).
33 21 ICDNOZ
- Device number or drive number Called MAXDEV by DOS to in-
dicate the maximum number of devices. Initialized to one.
34 22 ICCOMZ
- Command code byte set by the user to define how the rest of the
IOCB is formatted, and what I/O action is to be performed.
35 23 ICSTAZ
- Status of the last IOCB action returned by the device, set by the
OS. May or may not be the same status returned by the STATUS
command.
36,37 24,25 ICBALZ/HZ
- Buffer address for data transfer or the address of the file name for
commands such as OPEN, STATUS, etc.
38,39 26,27 ICPTLZ/HZ
- Put byte routine address set by the OS. It is the address minus
one byte of the device's "put one byte" routine. It points to CIO's
"IOCB not OPEN" on a CLOSE statement.
40,41 28,29 ICBLLZ/HZ
- Buffer length byte count used for PUT and GET operations;
decreased by one for each byte transferred.
42 2A ICAX1Z
- Auxiliary information first byte used in OPEN to specify the type
of file access needed.
43 2B ICAX2Z
- CIO working variables, also used by some serial port functions.
Auxiliary information second byte.
44,45 2C,2D ICAX3Z/4Z
- Used by BASIC NOTE and POINT commands for the transfer of
disk sector numbers. These next four bytes to location 47 are also
labelled as: ICSPRZ and are defined as spare bytes for local CIO
use.
46 2E ICAX5Z
- The byte being accessed within the sector noted in locations 44
and 45. It is also used for the IOCB Number multiplied by 16.
Each IOCB block is 16 bytes long. Other sources indicate that the
6502 X register also contains this information.
47 2F ICAX6Z
- Spare byte. Also labelled CIOCHR, it is the temporary storage
for the character byte in the current PUT operation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
48 30 STATUS
- Internal status storage. The SIO routines in ROM use this byte to
store the status of the current SIO operation. See page 166 of the
OS User's Manual for status values. STATUS uses location 793
($319) as temporary storage. STATUS is also used as a storage
register for the timeout, BREAK abort and error values during
SIO routines.
49 31 CHKSUM
- Data frame checksum used by SIO: single byte sum with carry to
the least significant bit. Checksum is the value of the number of
bytes transmitted (255; $FF). When the number of transmitted
bytes equals the checksum, a checksum sent flag is set at location
59 ($3B). Uses locations 53773 ($D20D) and 56 ($38) for com-
parison of values (bytes transmitted).
50,51 32,33 BUFRLO/HI
- Pointer to the data buffer, the contents of which are transmitted
during an I/O operation, used by SIO and the Device Control
Block (DCB); points to the byte to send or receive. Bytes are
transferred to the eight-bit parallel serial output holding register
or from the input holding register at 53773 ($D20D). This register
is a one-byte location used to hold the eight bits which will be
transmitted one bit at a time (serially) to or from the device. The
computer takes the eight bits for processing when the register is
full or replaces another byte in it when empty after a
transmission.
52,53 34,35 BFENLO/HI
- Next byte past the end of the SIO and DCB data buffer described
above.
54 36 CRETRY
- Number of command frame retries. Default is 13 ($0D). This is the
number of times a device will attempt to carry out a command
such as read a sector or format a disk.
55 37 DRETRY
- Number of device retries. The default is one.
56 38 BUFRFL
- Data buffer full flag (255; $FF equals full).
57 39 RECVDN
- Receive done flag (255; $FF equals done).
58 3A XMTDON
- Transmission done flag (255; $FF equals done).
59 3B CHKSNT
- Checksum sent flag (255; $FF equals sent).
60 3C NOCKSM
- Flag for "no checksum follows data." Not zero means no
checksum follows; zero equals checksum follows transmission
data.
61 3D BPTR
- Cassette buffer pointer: record data index into the portion of data
being read or written. Ranges from zero to the current value at
location 650 ($28A). When these values are equal, the buffer at
1021 ($3FD) is empty if reading or full if writing. Initialized to 128
($80).
62 3E FTYPE
- Inter-record gap type between cassette records, copied from
location 43 ($2B; ICAX2Z) in the ZIOCB, stored there from
DAUX2 (779; $30B) by the user. Normal gaps are a non-zero
positive number; continuous gaps are zero (negative number).
63 3F FEOF
- Cassette end of file flag. If the value is zero, an end of file (EOF)
has not been reached. Any other number means it has been
detected. An EOF record has been reached when the command
byte of a data record equals 254 ($FE). See location 1021 ($3FD).
64 40 FREQ
- Beep count retain register. Counts the number of beeps required
by the cassette handler during the OPEN command for play or
record operations; one beep for play, two for record.
65 41 SOUNDR
- Noisy I/O flag used by SIO to signal the beeping heard during
disk and cassette I/O. POKE here with zero for blessed silence
during these operations. Other numbers return the beep. In-
itialized to three. The hardware solution to this problem is to turn
your speaker volume down. This can also be used to silence the
digital track when playing synchronized voice/data tapes. See
location 54018.
66 42 CRITIC
- Critical I/O region flag; defines the current operation as a time-
critical section when the value here is non-zero. Checked at the
NMI process after the stage one VBLANK has been processed.
POKEing any number other than zero here will disable the repeat
action of the keys and change the sound of the CTRL-2 buzzer.
Zero is normal; setting CRITIC to a non-zero value suspends a
number of OS processes including system software timer coun-
ting (timers two, three, four and five; see locations 536 to 558;
$218 to $22E). It is suggested that you do not set CRITIC for any
length of time. When one timer is being set, CRITIC stops the
other timers to do so, causing a tiny amount of time to be "lost."
When CRITIC is zero, both stage one and stage two VBLANK
procedures will be executed. When non-zero, only the stage one
VBLANK will be processed.
67-73 43-49 FMZSPG
- Disk file manager system (FMS) page zero registers (seven
bytes).
67,68 43,44 ZBUFP
- Page zero buffer pointer to the user filename for disk I/O.
69,70 45,46 ZDRVA
- Page zero drive pointer. Copied to here from DBUFAL and
DBUFAH; 4905 and 4913 ($1329, $1331). Also used in FMS "free
sector," setup and "get sector" routines.
71,72 47,48 ZSBA
- Zero page sector buffer pointer.
73 49 ERRNO
- Disk I/O error number. Initialized to 159 ($9F) by FMS.
74 4A CKEY
- Cassette boot request flag on coldstart. Checks to see if the
START key is pressed and, if so, CKEY is set. Autoboot cassettes
are loaded by pressing the START console key while turning the
power on. In response to the beep, press the PLAY button on the
recorder.
75 4B CASSBT
- Cassette boot flag. The Atari attempts both a disk and a cassette
boot simultaneously. Zero here means no cassette boot was suc-
cessful. See location 9
76 4C DSTAT
- Display status and keyboard register used by the display handler.
Also used to indicate memory is too small for the screen mode,
cursor out of range error, and the BREAK abort status.
77 4D ATRACT
- Attract mode timer and flag. Attract mode rotates colors on your
screen at low luminance levels when the computer is on but no
keyboard input is read for a long time (seven to nine minutes).
This helps to save your TV screen from "burn-out" damage suf-
fered from being left on and not used. It is set to zero by IRQ
whenever a key is pressed, otherwise incremented every four
seconds by VBLANK (see locations 18 - 20; $12 - $14). When the
value in ATRACT reaches 127 ($7F), it is then set to 254 ($FE) un-
til attract mode is terminated. This sets the flag to reduce the
luminance and rotate the colors when the Atari is sitting idle.
POKE with 128 ($80) to see this effect immediately: it normally
takes seven to nine minutes to enable the attract mode. The OS
cannot "attract" color generated by DLI's, although your DLI
routine can, at a loss of time.
Joysticks alone will not reset location 77 to zero. You will have to
add a POKE 77,0 to your program periodically or frequently call
in a subroutine to prevent the Atari from entering attract mode if
you are not using any keyboard input.
78 4E DRKMSK
- Dark attract mask; set to 254 ($FE) for normal brightness when
the attract mode is inactive (see location 77). Set to 246 ($F6)
when the attract mode is active to guarantee screen color
luminance will not exceed 50% . Initialized to 254 ($FE).
79 4F COLRSH
- Color shift mask; attract color shifter; the color registers are
EORd with locations 78 and 79 at the stage two VBLANK (see
locations 18 - 20; $12 - $14). When set to zero and location 78
equals 246, color luminance is reduced 50%. COLRSH contains
the current value of location 19, therefore is given a new color
value every 4.27 seconds.
Bytes 80 to 122 ($50 to $7A) are used by the screen editor and display
handler.
80 50 TEMP
- Temporary register used by the display handler in moving data to
and from screen. Also called TMPCHR.
81 51 HOLD1
- Same as location 80. It is used also to hold the number of Display
List entries.
82 52 LMARGN
- Column of the left margin of text (GR.0 or text window only).
Zero is the value for the left edge of the screen; LMARGN is
initialized to two. You can POKE the margin locations to set them
to your specific program needs, such as POKE 82,10 to make the
left margin start ten locations from the edge of the screen.
83 53 RMARGN
- Right margin of the text screen initialized to 39 ($27). Both
locations 82 and 83 are user-alterable, but ignored in all
GRAPHICS modes except zero and the text window.
Margins work with the text window and blackboard mode and are
reset to their default values by pressing RESET. Margins have no
effect on scrolling or the printer. However, DELETE LINE and
INSERT LINE keys delete or insert 40 character lines (or delete
one program line), which always start at the left margin and wrap
around the screen edge back to the left margin again. The right
margin is ignored in the process. Also, logical lines are always
three physical lines no matter how long or short you make those
lines.
The beep you hear when you are coming to the end of the logical
line works by screen position independent of the margins. Try
setting your left margin at 25 (POKE 82,25) and typing a few lines
of characters. Although you have just a few characters beyond
60, the buzzer will still sound on the third line of text.
84 54 ROWCRS
- Current graphics or text screen cursor row, value ranging from
zero to 191 ($BF) depending on the current GRAPHICS mode
(maximum number of rows, minus one). This location, together
with location 85 below, defines the cursor location for the next
element to be read/written to the screen. Rows run horizontally,
left to right across the TV screen. Row zero is the topmost line;
row 192 is the maximum value for the bottom-most line.
85,86 55,56 COLCRS
- Current graphics or text mode cursor column; values range from
zero to 319 (high byte, for screen mode eight) depending on
current GRAPHICS mode (maximum numher of columns minus
one). Location 86 will always be zero in modes zero through
seven. Home position is 0,0 (upper left-hand corner). Columns
run vertically from the top to the bottom down the TV screen, the
leftmost column being number zero, the rightmost column the
maximum value in that mode. The cursor has a complete top to
bottom, left to right wraparound on the screen.
ROWCRS and COLCRS define the cursor location for the next
element to be read from or written to in the main screen segment
of the display. For the text window cursor, values in locations 656
to 667 ($290 to $29B) are exchanged with the current values in
locations 84 to 95 ($54 to $5F), and location 123 ($7B) is set to 255
($FF) to indicate the swap has taken place. ROWCRS and
COLCRS are also used in the DRAW and FILL functions to
contain the values of the endpoint of the line being drawn. The
color of the line is kept in location 763 ($2FB). These values are
loaded into locations 96 to 98 ($60 to $62) so that ROWCRS and
COLCRS may be altered during the operation.
BASIC's LOCATE statement not only examines the screen, but
also moves the cursor one position to the right at the next PRINT
or PUT statement. It does this by updating locations 84 and 85,
above. You can override the cursor advance by saving the
contents of the screen before the LOCATE command, then
restoring them after the LOCATE. Try:
100 REM: THE SCREEN MUST HAVE BEEN 0
PENED FOR READ OR READ/WRITE PREV
IOUSLY
110 LOOK = PEEK(84): SEE = PEEK(85)
120 LOCATE X,Y,THIS
130 POKE 84, LOOK: POKE 65, SEE
Note that CHR$(253) is a non-printing character---the bell--
and doesn't affect the cursor position.
See COMPUTE!, August 198l, for an example of using COLCRS
for dynamic data restore and updating with the screen editor and
the IOCBs.
87 57 DINDEX
- Display mode/current screen mode. Labelled CRMODE by (*M).
DINDEX contains the number obtained from the low order four
bits of most recent open AUX1 byte. It can be used to fool the OS
into thinking you are in a different GRAPHICS mode by
POKEing DINDEX with a number from zero to 11. POKE with
seven after you have entered GRAPHICS mode eight, and it will
give you a split screen with mode seven on top and mode eight
below. However, in order to use both halves of the screen, you
will have to modify location 89 (below) to point to the area of the
screen you wish to DRAW in. (See Your Atan 400/800, pp. 280 -
283.)
Watch for the cursor out-of-range errors (number 141) when
changing GRAPHICS modes in this manner and either PRINTing
or DRAWing to the new mode screen. POKE 87 with the BASIC
mode number, not the ANTIC mode number.
Did you know you can use PLOT and DRAWTO in GR.0? Try
this:
10 GR.0
20 PLOT 0,0: DRAWTO 10,10: DRAWTO 0
,10
30 DRAWTO 39,0: DRAWTO 20,23: DRAWT
O 0,20
40 GOTO 40
You can also set the text window for PRINT and PLOT modes by
POKEing 87 with the graphics mode for the window. Then you
must POKE the address of the top left corner of the text window
into 88 and 89 ($58, $59). The screen mode of the text window is
stored at location 659 ($293).
You may have already discovered that you cannot call up the
GTIA modes from a direct command. Like the + 16 GRAPHICS
modes, they can only be called up during a program, and the
screen display will be reset to GR.0 on the first INPUT or PRINT
(not PRINT#6) statement executed in these modes.
Since this location only takes BASIC modes, you can't POKE it
with the other ANTIC modes such as "E", the famous "seven-and-
a-half" mode which offers higher resolution than seven and a four
color display (used in Datasoft's Micropainter program). If you're
not drawing to the screen, simply using it for display purposes,
you can always go into the Display List and change the
instructions there. But if you try to draw to the screen, you risk an
out-of-bounds error (error number 141).
See Creative Computing, March 1982, for an excellent look at
mode 7.5. The short subroutine below can be used to change the
Display List to GR.7.5:
1000 GRAPHICS 8+16: DLIST = PEEK(560)
) + PEEK(561) * 256:POKE DLIST +
3,78
1010 FOR CHANGE = DLIST + 6 TO DLIST
+ 204: IF PEEK(CHANGE) = 15 THE
N POKE CHANGE,14
1020 IF PEEK (CHANGE) = 79 THEN POKE
CHANGE,78: NEXT CHANGE
1030 POKE 87,7:RETURN
DOWNLOAD MODE75.BAS
(Actually, 15 ($F) is the DL number for the maximum memory
mode; it also indicates modes eight through eleven. The DL's for
these modes are identical.) Fourteen is the ANTIC E mode;
GR.7.5 This program merely changes GR.8 to mode E in the
Display List. The value 79 is 64 + 15; mode eight screen with BIT
6 set for a Load Memory Scan (LMS) instruction (see the DL
information in locations 560, 561; $230, $231). It does not check
for other DL bits.
You can also POKE 87 with the GTIA values (nine to eleven). To
get a pseudo-text window in GTIA modes, POKE the mode
number here and then POKE 623 with 64 for mode nine, 128 for
mode ten, and 192 for mode eleven, then POKE 703 with four, in
program mode. (In command mode, you will be returned to
GR.0.) You won't be able to read the text in the window, but you
will be able to write to it. However, to get a true text window,
you'll need to use a Display List Interrupt (see COMPUTE!,
September 1982). If you don't have the GTIA chip, it is still
possible to simulate those GRAPHICS modes by using DINDEX
with changes to the Display List Interrupt. See COMPUTE!, July
1981, for an example of simulating GR.10.
88,89 58,59 SAVMSC
- The lowest address of the screen memory, corresponding to the
upper left corner of the screen (where the value at this address
will be displayed). The upper left corner of the text window is
stored at locations 660, 661 ($294, $295).
You can verify this for yourself by:
WINDOW = PEEK(88) + PEEK(89) * 256: POKE WINDOW,33
This will put the letter "A" in the upper left corner in GR.0, 1 and
2. In other GRAPHICS modes, it will print a colored block or
bar. To see this effect, try:
5 REM FIRST CLEAR SCREEN
10 GRAPHICS Z: IF Z > 59 THEN END
15 SCREEN = PEEK (88) + PEEK (89) *
256
20 FOR N = 0 TO 255: POKE SCREEN + N
,N
25 NEXT N: FOR N = 1 TO 300: NEXT N:
Z = Z + 1
30 GOTO 10
DOWNLOAD SAVEMSC1.BAS
You will notice that you get the Atari internal character code, not
the ATASCII code. See also locations 560, 561 ($230, $231) and
57344 ($E000).
How do you find the entire screen RAM? First, look at the chart
below and find your GRAPHICS mode. Then you multiply the
number of rows-per-screen type by the number of bytes-per-line.
This will tell you how many bytes each screen uses. Add this
value, minus one, to the address specified by SAVMSC.
However, if you subtract MEMTOP (locations 741, 742; $2E5,
$2E6) from RAMTOP (106; $6A * 256 for the number of bytes),
you will see that there is more memory reserved than just the
screen area. The extra is taken up by the display list or the text
window, or is simply not used (see the second chart below).
Mode 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9-12
Rows
Full 24 24 12 24 48 48 96 96 192 192
Split -- 20 10 20 40 40 80 80 160 --
Bytes per
Line 40 20 20 10 10 20 20 40 40 40
Columns
per Line 40 20 20 40 80 80 160 160 320 80
Memory (1) 993 513 261 273 537 1017 2025 3945 7900 7900
Memory (2)
Full 992 672 420 432 696 1176 2184 4200 8138 8138
Split -- 674 424 434 694 1174 2174 4190 8112 --
(1) According to the Atari BASIC Reference Manual, p.45; OS
User's Manual, p.172, and Your Atari 400/800, p.360.
(2) According to Your Atari 400/800, p.274, and Atari Microsoft
Basic Manual, p.69. This is also the value you get when you
subtract MEMTOP from RAMTOP (see above).
For example, to POKE the entire screen RAM in GR.4, you
would find the start address of the screen (PEEK(88) + PEEK(89)
* 256), then use a FOR-NEXT loop to POKE all the locations
specified above:
10 GRAPHICS 4: SCRN = PEEK(88) + PE
EK(89) * 256
20 FOR LOOP = SCRN to SCRN + 479: R
EM 48 ROWS * 10 BYTES - 1
30 POKE LOOP,35: NEXT LOOP
DOWNLOAD SAVEMSC2.BAS
Why the minus one in the calculation? The first byte of the screen
is the first byte in the loop. If we add the total size, we will go one
byte past the end of the soreen, so we subtract one from the total.
Here's how to arrive at the value for the total amount ot memory
located for screen use, display list and Text window:
Total memory allocation for the screen
Screen display Display List
-----------------------------------------------------------
Text unused bytes screen unused used
GR window always cond. use bytes bytes Total
-----------------------------------------------------------
0 ... none none 960 none 32 992
1 160 none 80 400 none 34 674
2 160 none 40 200 none 24 424
3 160 none 40 200 none 34 434
4 160 none 80 400 none 54 694
5 160 none 160 800 none 54 1174
6 160 none 320 1600 none 94 2174
7 160 none 640 3200 96 94 4190
8 160 16 1280 6400 80 176 8112
The number of bytes from RAMTOP (location 106; $6A) is counted
from the left text window column towards the total column.
MEMTOP (741, 742; $2E5, $2E6) points to one byte below
RAMTOP * 256 minus the number of bytes in the total column. If
16 is added to the GRAPHICS mode (no text window), then the
conditional unused bytes are added to the total. Then the bytes
normally added for the text window become unused, and the
Display List expands slightly. (See COMPUTE!, September 1981.)
When you normally PRINT CHR$(125) (clear screen), Atari sends
zeroes to the memory starting at locations 88 and 89. It continues to
do this until it reaches one byte less than the contents of RAMTQP
(location 106; $6A). Here is a potential source of conflict with your
program, however: CHR$(125)--CLEAR SCREEN--and any
GRAPHICS command actually continue to clear the first 64 ($40)
bytes above RAMTOP!
It would have no effect on BASIC since BASIC is a ROM
cartridge. The OS Source Listing seems to indicate that it ends at
RAMTOP, but Atari assumed that there would be nothing after
RAMTOP, so no checks were provided. Don't reserve any data
within 64 bytes of RAMTOP or else it will be eaten by the CLEAR
SCREEN routine, or avoid using a CLEAR SCREEN or a
GRAPHICS command. Scrolling the text window also clears 800
bytes of memory above RAMTOP.
You can use this to clear other areas of memory by POKEing the
LSB and MSB of the area to be cleared into these locations. Your
routine should always end on a $FF boundary (RAMTOP indicates
the number of pages). Remember to POKE back the proper screen
locations or use a GRAPHICS command immediately after doing
so to set the screen right. Try this:
10 BOTTOM = 30000: TOP = 36863: REM
LOWEST AND HIGHEST ADDRESS TO CLEA
R = $7530 & $8FFF
20 RAMTOP = PEEK(106): POKE 106, INT
(TOP + 1 / 256)
30 TEST = INT(BOTTOM / 256): POKE89,
TEST
40 POKE 88. BOTTOM - 256 * TEST
50 PRINT CHR$(125): POKE 106, RAMTOP
60 GRAPHICS 0
DOWNLOAD SAVEMSC3.BAS
This will clear the specified memory area and update the address
of screen memory. If you don't specify TOP, the CLEAR SCREEN
will continue merrily cleaning out memory and, most likely, will
cause your program to crash. Use it with caution.
Here's a means to SAVE your current GR.7 screen display to disk
using BASIC:
1000 SCREEN = PEEK(88) + PEEK(89) *
256
1010 OPEN #2,8,0,"D:picturename"
1020 MODE = PEEK(87): PUT #2, MODE:
REM SAVE GR. MODE
1030 FOR SCN = 0 TO 4: COL PEEK(70
8 + SCN): PUT #2,COL: NEXT SCN:
REM SAVE COLOR REGISTERS
1040 FOR TV = SCREEN TO SCREEN + 319
9:BYTE = PEEK(TV): PUT #2, BYTE:
NEXT TV: CLOSE #2
DOWNLOAD SAVEMSC4.BAS
To use this with other screen modes, you will have to change the
value of 3199 in line 1040 to suit your screen RAM (see the chart
above). For example, GR.7 + 16 would require 3839 bytes (3840
minus one). You can use the same routine with cassette by using
device C:. To retrieve your picture, you use GET#2 and POKE
commands. You will, however, find both routines very slow. Using
THE CIO routine at 58454 ($E456) and the IOCBs, try this machine
language save routine:
10 DIM ML$(10): B$(10): GR.8+16
20 B$ = "your picture name":Q = PEEK
(559)
30 FOR N = 1 TO 6: READ BYTE: ML$(N,
N) = CHR$(BYTE): NEXT N
35 DATA 104,162,16,76,86,228
36 REM PLA,LDX,$10,JMP $E456
40 OPEN #1,4,0,B$
50 POKE 849,1: POKE 850,7: POKE 852,
PEEK(88): POKE 853,PEEK(89): POKE
856,70: POKE 857,30: POKE 858,4
55 REM THESE POKES SET UP THE IOCB
60 POKE 559,0: REM TURN OFF THE SCRE
EN TO SPEED THINGS UP
70 X = USR(ADR(ML$)): CLOSE #1
80 POKE 559,Q: REM TURN IT BACK ON A
GAIN
DOWNLOAD SAVEMSC5.BAS
Note that there is no provision to SAVE the color registers in this
program, so I suggest you have them SAVEd after you have
SAVEd the picture. It will make it easier to retrieve them if they are
at the end of the file. You will have to make suitable adjustments
when SAVEing a picture in other than GR.8 + 16 -- such as
changing the total amount of screen memory to be SAVEd, POKEd
into 856 and 857. Also, you will need a line such as 1000 GOTO
1000 to keep a GTIA or + 16 mode screen intact. See the Atari
column in InfoAge Magazine, July 1982, for more on this idea. See
location 54277 ($D405) for some ideas on scrolling the screen
RAM.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A SHORT DIGRESSION
There are two techniques used in this hook for calling a machine
language program from BASIC with the USR command. One method
is to POKE the values into a specific address -- say, page six -- and
use the starting address for the USR call, such as X = USR(1536). For
an example of this technique, see location 632 ($278).
The other technique, used above, is to make a string (ML$) out of the
routine by assigning to the elements of the string the decimal
equivalents of the machine language code by using a FOR-NEXT and
READ-DATA loop. To call this routine, you would use X =
USR(ADR(ML$)). This tells the Atari to call the machine language
routine located at the address where ML$ is stored. This address will
change with program size and memory use. The string method won't
be overwritten by another routine or data since it floats around safely
in memory. The address of the string itself is stored by the string/array
table at location 140 ($8C).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
90 5A OLDROW
- Previous graphics cursor row. Updated from location 84 ($54)
before every operation. Used to determine the starting row for
the DRAWTO and XIO 18 (FILL command).
91,92 5B,5C OLDCOL
- Previous graphics cursor column. Updated from locations 85 and
86 ($55, $56) before every operation. These locations are used by
the DRAWTO and XIO 18 (FILL) commands to determine the
starting column of the DRAW or FILL
93 5D OLDCHR
- Retains the value of the character under the cursor used to
restore that character when the cursor moves
94,95 5E,5F OLDADR
- Retains the memory location of the current cursor location. Used
with location 93 (above) to restore the character under the cursor
when the cursor moves
96 60 NEWROW
- Point (row) to which DRAWTO and XIO 18 (FILL) will go.
97,98 61,62 NEWCOL
- Point (column) to which DRAWTO and XIO 18 (FILL) will go.
NEWROW and NEWCOL are initialized to the values in
ROWCRS and COLCRS (84 to 86; $54 to $56) above, which
represent the destination end point of the DRAW and FILL
functions. This is done so that ROWCRS and COLCRS can be
altered during these routines.
99 63 LOGCOL
- Position of the cursor at the column in a logical line. A logical
line can contain up to three physical lines, so LOGCOL can
range between zero and 119. Used by the display handler.
100,101 64,65 ADRESS
- Temporary storage used by the display handler for the Display
List address, line buffer (583 to 622; $247 to $26E), new MEMTOP
value after DL entry, row column address, DMASK value, data to
the right of cursor, scroll, delete, the clear screen routine and for
the screen address memory (locations 88, 89; $58, $59).
102,103 66,67 MLTTMP
- Also called OPNTMP and TOADR; first byte used in OPEN as
temporary storage. Also used by the display handler as
temporary storage.
104,105 68,69 SAVADR
- Also called FRMADR. Temporary storage, used with ADRESS
above for the data under the cursor and in moving line data on
the screen.
106 6A RAMTOP
- RAM size, defined by powerup as passed from TRAMSZ (location
6), given in the total number of available pages (one page equals
256 bytes, so PEEK(106) * 256 will tell you where the Atari thinks
the last usable address --byte-- of RAM is). MEMIOP (741,
742; $2E5. $2E6) may not extend below this value. In a 48K Atari,
RAMTOP is initialized to 160 ($A0), which points to location
40960 ($A000). The user's highest address will be one byte less
than this value.
This is initially the same value as in location 740. PEEK(740) / 4 or
PEEK(106) / 4 gives the number of 1K blocks. You can fool the
computer into thinking you have less memory than you actually
have, thus reserving a relatively safe area for data (for your new
character set or player/missile characters, for example) or
machine language subroutines by:
POKE(106), PEEK(106) - # of pages you want to reserve.
The value here is the number of memory pages (256-byte blocks)
present. This is useful to know when changing GR.7 and GR.8
screen RAM. If you are reserving memory for PM graphics,
POKE 54279, PEEK(106) - # of pages you are reserving before
you actually POKE 106 with that value. To test to see if you have
exceeded your memory by reserving too much memory space,
you can use:
10 SIZE = (PEEK(106) - # of pages)
* 256
20 IF SIZE < = PEEK(144) + PEEK(145
) * 256 THEN PRINT "TOO MUCH MEMOR
Y USED"
If you move RAMTOP to reserve memory, always issue a
GRAPHICS command (even issuing one to the same GRAPHICS
mode you are in will work) immediately so that the display list
and data are moved beneath the new RAMTOP.
You should note that a GRAPHICS command and a CLEAR
command (or PRINT CHR$(125)) actually clear the first 64 bytes
above RAMTOP (see location 88; $58 for further discussion).
Scrolling the text window of a GRAPHICS mode clears up to 800
($320) bytes above RAMTOP (the text window scroll actually
scrolls an entire GR.0 screen-worth of data, so the unseen 20
lines * 40 bytes equals 800 bytes). PM graphics may be safe
(unless you scroll the text window) since the first 384 or 768 bytes
(double or single line resolution, respectively) are unused.
However, you should take both of these effects into account when
writing your programs.
To discover the exact end of memory, use this routine (it's a tad
slow):
10 RAMTOP = 106: TOP = PEEK(RAMTOP)
20 BYTE = TOP * 256: TEST = 255 - PE
EK(BYTE): POKE BYTE,TEST
30 IF PEEK(BYTE) = TEST THEN TOP = T
OP +1: POKE BYTE, 255 - TEST
40 GOTO 20
50 PRINT "MEMORY ENDS AT "; BYTE
One caution: BASIC cannot always handle setting up a display
list and display memory for GRAPHICS 7 and GRAPHICS 8
when you modify this location by less than 4K (16 pages; 4096
bytes). Some bizarre results may occur if you use PEEK(106) - 8
in these modes, for example. Use a minimum of 4K (PEEK(106) -
16) to avoid trouble. This may explain why some people have
difficulties with player/missile graphics in the hi-res (high
resolution; GR.7 and GR.8) modes. See location 54279 ($D407).
Another alternative to reserving memory in high RAM is to save
an area below MEMLO, location 743 ($2E7: below your BASIC
program). See also MEMTOP, locations 741, 742 ($2E5, $2E6).
107 6B BUFCNT
- Buffer count: the screen editor current logical line size counter.
108,109 6C,6D BUFSTR
- Editor low byte (AM). Display editor GETCH routine pointer
(location 62867 for entry; $F593). Temporary storage; returns the
character pointed to by BUFCNT above.
110 6E BITMSK
- Bit mask used in bit mapping routines by the OS display handler
at locations 64235 to 64305 ($FAEB to $FB31). Also used as a
display handler temporary storage register.
111 6F SHFAMT
- Pixel justification: the amount to shift the right justified pixel data
on output or the amount to shift the input data to right justify it.
Prior to the justification process, this value is always the same as
that in 672 ($2A0).
112,113 70,71 ROWAC
- ROWAC and COLAC (below) are both working accumulators for
the control of row and column point plotting and the increment
and decrement functions.
114,115 72,73 COLAC
- Controls column point plotting.
116,117 74,75 ENDPT
- End point of the line to be drawn. Contains the larger value of
either DELTAR or DELTAC (locations 118 and 119, below) to be
used in conjunction with ROWAC/COLAC (locations 112 and
114, above) to control the plotting of line points.
118 76 DELTAR
- Delta row; contains the absolute value of NEWBOW (location 96;
$60) minus ROWCRS (location 84; $54).
119,120 77,78 DELTAC
- Delta column; contains the absolute value of NEWCOL (location
97; $61) minus the value in COLCRS (location 85; $55). These
delta register values, along with locations 121 and 122 below, are
used to define the slope of the line to be drawn.
121 79 ROWINC
- The row increment or decrement value (plus or minus one).
122 7A COLINC
- The column increment or decrement value (plus or minus one).
ROWINC and COLINC control the direction of the line drawing
routine. The values represent the signs derived from the value in
NEWROW (location 96; $60) minus the value in ROWCRS
(location 84; $54) and the value in NEWCOL (locations 97, 98;
$61, $62) minus the value in COLCRS (locations 85, 86; $55,
$56).
123 7B SWPFLG
- Split-screen cursor control. Equal to 255 ($FF) if the text window
RAM and regular RAM are swapped; otherwise, it is equal to
zero. In split-screen modes, the graphics cursor data and the text
window data are frequently swapped in order to get the values
associated with the area being accessed into the OS data base
locations 84 to 95 ($54 to $5F). SWPFLG helps to keep track of
which data set is in these locations.
124 7C HOLDCH
- A character value is moved here before the control and shift logic
are processed for it.
125 7D INSDAT
- Temporary storage byte used by the display handler for the
character under the cursor and end of line detection.
126,127 7E,7F COUNTR
- Starts out containing the larger value of either DELTAR (location
118; $76) or DELTAC (location 119; $77). This is the number of
iterations required to draw a line. As each point on a line is
drawn, this value is decremented. When the byte equals zero, the
line is complete (drawn).
---------------------------------------------------------------------
User and/or BASIC page zero RAM begins here. Locations 128 to 145
($80 to $91) are for BASIC program pointers; 146 to 202 ($92 to $CA)
are for miscellaneous BASIC RAM; 203 to 209 ($CB to $D1) are
unused by BASIC, and 210 to 255 ($D2 to $FF) are the floating point
routine work area. The Assembler Editor cartridge uses locations 128
to 176 ($80 to $B0) for its page zero RAM. Since the OS doesn't use this
area, you are free to use it in any non-BASIC or non-cartridge
environment. If you are using another language such as FORTH,
check that program's memory map to see if any conflict will occur.
See COMPUTE!'s First Book of Atari, pages 26 to 53, for a discussion
of Atari BASIC structure, especially that using locations 130 to 137
($82 to $89). Included in the tutorials are a memory analysis, a line
dump, and a renumber utility. See also De Re Atari, BYTE, February
1982, and the locations for the BASIC ROM 40960 to 49151 ($A000 to
$BFFF).
128,129 80,81 LOMEM
- Pointer to BASIC's low memory (at the high end of OS RAM
space). The first 256 bytes of the memory pointed to are the token
output buffer, which is used by BASIC to convert BASIC
statements into numeric representation (tokens; see locations
136, 137; $88, $89). This value is loaded from MEMLO (locations
743, 744; $2E7, $2E8) on initialization or the execution of a NEW
command (not on RESET!). Remember to update this value when
changing MEMLO to reserve space for drivers or buffers.
When a BASIC SAVE is made, two blocks of information are
written: the first block is the seven pointers from LOMEM to
STARP (128 to 141; $80 to $8D). The value of LOMEM is
subtracted from each of these two-byte pointers in the process, so
the first two bytes written will both be zero. The second block
contains the following: the variable name table, the variable
value table, the tokenized program, and the immediate mode
line.
When a BASIC LOAD is made, BASIC adds the value at MEMLO
(743, 744; $2E7, $2E8) to each of the two-byte pointers SAVEd as
above. The pointers are placed back in page zero, and the values
of RUNSTK (142, 143; $8E, $8F) and MEMTOP (144, 145; $90,
$91) are set to the value in STARP. Then 256 bytes are reserved
above the value in MEMLO for the token output buffer, and the
program is read in immediately following this buffer.
When you don't have DOS or any other application program
using low memory loaded, LOMEM points to 1792 ($700). When
DOS 2.0 is present, it points to 7420 ($1CFC). When you change
your drive and data buffer defaults (see 1801, 1802; $709, $70A),
you will raise or lower this figure by 128 bytes for each buffer
added or deleted, respectively. When you boot up the RS-232
handler, add another 1728 ($6C0) bytes used.
LOMEM is also called ARGOPS by BASIC when used in
expression evaluation. When BASIC encounters any kind of
expression, it puts the immediate results into a stack. ARGOPS
points to the same 256 byte area; for this operation it is reserved
for both the argument and operator stack. It is also called
OUTBUFF for another operation, pointing to the same 256 byte
buffer as ARGOPS points to. Used by BASIC when checking a
line for syntax and converting it to tokens. This buffer
temporarily stores the tokens before moving them to the
program.
130,131 82,83 VNTP
- Beginning address of the variable name table. Variable names
are stored in the order input into your program, in ATASCII
format. You can have up to 128 variable names. These are stored
as tokens representing the variable number in the tokenized
BASIC program, numbered from 128 to 255 ($80 to $FF).
The table continues to store variable names, even those no longer
used in your program and those used in direct mode entry. It is
not cleared by SAVEing your program. LOADing a new program
replaces the current VNT with the one it retrieves from the file.
You must LIST the program to tape or disk to save your program
without these unwanted variables from the table. LIST does not
SAVE the variable name or variable value tables with your
program. It stores the program in ATASCII, not tokenized form,
and requires an ENTER command to retrieve it. You would use a
NEW statement to clear the VNT in memory once you have
LISTed your program.
Each variable name is stored in the order it was entered, not the
ATASCII order. With numeric (scalar) variables, the MSB is set
on the last character in a name. With string variables, the last
character is a "$" with the MSB (BIT 7) set. With array variables,
the last character is a "(" with the MSB set. Setting the MSB turns
the character into its inverse representation so it can be easily
recognized.
You can use variable names for GOSUB and GOTO routines,
such as:
10 CALCULATE = 1000
.
.
100 GOSUB CALCULATE
This can save a lot of bytes for a frequently called routine. But
remember, each variable used for a GOSUB or GOTO address
uses one of the 128 possible variable names. A disadvantage of
using variable names for GOTO and GOSUB references is when
you try to use a line renumbering program. Line renumbering
programs will not change references to lines with variable
names, only to lines with numbered references.
Here's a small routine you can add to the start of your BASIC
program (or the end if you change the line numbers) to print out
the variable names used in your program. You call it up with a
GOTO statement in direct mode:
1 POKE 1664, PEEK(130): POKE 1665,
PEEK (131)
2 IF PEEK(1664) = PEEK(132) THEN IF
PEEK(1665) = PEEK(133) THEN STOP
3 PRINT CHR$(PEEK(PEEK(1664) + PEEK
(1665) * 256)));
4 IF PEEK(PEEK(1664) + PEEK(1665) *
256)) > 127 THEN PRINT"";
5 IF PEEK(1664) = 255 THEN POKE 166
4, 0: POKE 1665, PEEK(1665) + 1: GO
TO 2
6 POKE 1664, PEEK(1664) + 1: GOTO 2
DOWNLOAD VNTP.BAS
See COMPUTE!, October 1981.
132,133 84,85 VNTD
- Pointer to the ending address of the variable name table plus one
byte. When fewer than 128 variables are present, it points to a
dummy zero byte. When 128 variables are present, this points to
the last byte of the last variable name, plus one.
It is often useful to be able to list your program variables; using
locations 130 to 133, you can do that by:
10 VARI = PEEK(130) + PEEK(131) * 2
56 :REM This gives you the start o
f the table.
20 FOR VARI = VARI TO PEEK(132) + P
EEK(133) * 256 - 1: PRINT CHR$(PEE
K(VARI) - 128 * PEEK(VARI > 127));
CHR$(27 + 128 * PEEK(VARI) > 127)
);:NEXT VARI
25 REM this finds the end of the va
ri able name table (remember table
is end + 1). then PRINTs ASCII cha
racters < 128
30 NUM = 0: FOR VARI = PEEK(130) +
PEEK(313) * 256 TO PEEK(132) + PEE
K(131) * 256 - 1:NUM = NUM + (PEEK
(VARI) < 127):NEXT VARI: PRINT NU
M; "Variables in use"
DOWNLOAD VNTD1.BAS
Or try this, for a possibly less opaque example of the same
routine:
1000 NUM = 0: FOR LOOP = PEEK (130) +
PEEK(131) * 256 TO PEEK(132) +
PEEK(133) * 256 - 1
1010 IF PEEK(LOOP) < 128 THEN PRINT
CHR$(PEEK(LOOP));: GOTO 1030
1020 PRINT CHR$(PEEK(LOOP) - 128): N
UM - NUM + 1
1030 NEXT LOOP: PRINT; PRINT NUM; "
VARIABLES IN USE": END
DOWNLOAD VNTD2.BAS
134,135 86,87 VVTP
- Address for the variable value table. Eight bytes are allocated for
each variable in the name table as follows:
Byte 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Variable
--------------------------------------------------------------
Scalar 00 var # six byte BCD constant
Array;DIMed 65 var # offset first second
unDIMed 64 from DIM + 1 DIM + 1
STARP
String;DIMed 129 var # offset length DIM
unDIMed 128 from
STARP
In scalar (undimensioned numeric) variables, bytes three to eight
are the FP number; byte three is the exponent; byte four contains
the least significant two decimal digits, and byte eight contains
the most significant two decimal digits.
In array variables, bytes five and six contain the size plus one of
the first dimension of the array (DIM + 1; LSB/MSB), and bytes
seven and eight contain the size plus one of the second dimension
(the second DIM + 1; LSB/MSB).
In string variables, bytes five and six contain the current length
of the variable (LSB MSB), and bytes seven and eight contain the
actual dimension (up to 32767). There is an undocumented
BASIC statement, "COM," mentioned only in the BASIC
Reference Manual's index, which executes exactly the same as
the "DIM" statement (see Your Atari 400/800, p.346). Originally,
it was to be used to implement "common" variables.
In all cases, the first byte is always one of the number listed on the
chart above (you will seldom, if ever, see the undimensioned
values in a program). This number defines what type of variable
information will follow. The next byte, var # (variable number), is
in the range from zero to 127. Offset is the number of bytes from
the beginning of STARP at locations 140 and 141 ($8C, $8D).
Since each variable is assigned eight bytes, you could find the
values for each variable by:
1000 VVTP = PEEK(134) + PEEK(135) *
256: INPUT VAR: REM VARIABLE NUM
BER
1010 FOR LOOP = 0 TO 7: PRINT PEEK(V
VTP + LOOP + 8 * VAR): NEXT LOOP
where VAR is the variable number from zero to 127.
If you wish to assign the same value to every element in a DIMed
string variable use this simple technique:
10 DIM TEST$(100)
20 TEST$ = "*": REM or use TEST$(1)
30 TEST$(100) = TEST$
40 TEST$(2) = TEST$: PRINT TEST$
By assigning the first, last and second variables in the array in
that order, your Atari will then assign the same value to the rest of
the array. Make sure you make the second and last elements
equal to the string, not the character value (i.e don't use
TEXT$(2) = "*").
See De Re Atari for an example of SAVEing the six-byte BCD
numbers to a disk file -- very useful when dealing with fixed
record lengths.
136,137 88,89 STMTAB
- The address of the statement table (which is the beginning of the
user's BASIC program), containing all the tokenized lines of
code plus the immediate mode lines entered by the user. Line
numbers are stored as two-byte integers, and immediate mode
lines are given the default value of line 32768 ($8000). The first
two bytes of a tokenized line are the line number, and the next is
a dummy byte reserved for the byte count (or offset) from the start
of this line to the start of the next line.
Following that is another count byte for the start of this line to the
start of the next statement. These count values are set only when
tokenization for the line and statement are complete.
Tokenization takes place in a 256 byte ($100) buffer that resides at
the end of the reserved OS RAM (pointed to by locations 128,
129; $80, $81).
To see the starting address of your BASIC line numbers use this
routine:
10 STMTAB = PEEK(136) + PEEK(137)*2
56
20 NUM = PEEK(STMTAB) + PEEK (STMTAB
+1)*256
30 IF NUM = 32768 THEN END
40 PRINT"LINE NUMBER: ";NUM;" ADDRE
SS: ";STMTAB
50 STMTAB = STMTAB + PEEK(STMTAB+2)
60 GOTO 20
The August 1982 issue of ANTIC provided a useful program to
delete a range of BASIC line numbers. The routine can be
appended to your program and even be used to delete itself.
138,139 8A,8B STMCUR
- Current BASIC statement pointer, used to access the tokens
being currently processed within a line of the statement table.
When BASIC is awaiting input, this pointer is set to the
beginning of the immediate mode (line 32768).
Using the address of the variable name table, the length, and the
current statement (locations 130 to 133, 138, 139), here is a way to
protect your programs from being LISTed or LOADed: they can
only be RUN! Remember, that restricts you too, so make sure you
have SAVEd an unchanqed version before you do this:
32000 FOR VARI = PEEK(130) + PEEK(1
31) * 256 TO PEEK(132) + PEEK(1
33) * 256:POKE VARI,155:NEXT VA
RI
32100 POKE PEEK(138) + PEEK(139) *
256 + 2,0: SAVE "D:filename": N
EW
This will cause all variable names to be replaced with a RETURN
character. Other characters may be used: simply change 155 for
the appropriate ATASCII code for the character desired. Make
sure that these are the last two lines of your program and that
NEW is the last statement. CLOAD will not work, but a filename
with C: will.
140,141 8C,8D STARP
- The address for the string and array table and a pointer to the end
of your BASIC program. Arrays are stored as six-byte binary
coded decimal numbers (BCD) while string characters use one
bye each. The address of the strings in the table are the same as
those returned by the BASIC ADR function. Always use this
function under program control, since the addresses in the table
change according to your program size. Try:
10 DIM A$(10),B$(10)
20 A$ = "*": A$(10) = A$: A$(2) = A
$
30 B$ = "&": B$(10) = B$: B$(2) = B
$
40 PRINT ADR(A$), ADR(B$)
50 PRINT PEEK(140) + PEEK(141) * 25
6: REM ADDRESS OF A$
60 PRINT PEEK(140) + PEEK(141) * 25
6 + 10: REM ADRESS OF A$ + 10 BYTE
S = ADDRESS OF B$
This table is expanded as each dimension is processed by
BASIC, reducing available memory. A ten-element numeric
array will require 60 bytes for storage. An array variable such as
DIM A(100) will cost the program 600 bytes (100 * six per
dimensioned number equals 600). On the other hand, a string
array such as DIM A$(100) will only cost 100 bytes! It would save
a lot of memory to write your arrays as strings and retrieve the
array values using the VAL statement. For example:
10 DIM A$(10): A$ = "1234567890"
20 PRINT VAL(A$)
30 PRINT VAL(A$(4,4))
40 PRINT VAL(A$(3,3))+VAL(A$(8,9))
See COMPUTE!, June 1982, for a discussion of STARP and
VVTP. See De Re Atari for a means to SAVE the string/array area
with your program.
142,143 8E,8F RUNSTK
- Address of the runtime stack which holds the GOSUB entries
(four bytes each) and the FOR-NEXT entries (16 bytes each). The
POP command in BASIC affects this stack, pulling entries off it
one at a time for each POP executed. The stack expands and
contracts as necessary while the program is running.
Each GOSUB entry consists of four bytes in this order: a zero to
indicate a GOSUB, a two-byte integer line number on which the
call occurred, and an offset into that line so the RETURN can
come back and execute the next statement.
Each FOR-NEXT entry contains 16 bytes in this order: first, the
limit the counter variable can reach; second, the step or counter
increment. These two are allocated six bytes each in BCD format
(12 bytes total). The 13th byte is the counter variable number with
the MSB set; the 14th and 15th are the line number and the 16th is
the line offset to the FOR statement.
RUNSTK is also called ENDSTAR; it is used by BASIC to point to
the end of the string/array space pointed to by STARR above.
144,145 90,91 MEMTOP
- Pointer to the top of BASIC memory, the end of the space the
program takes up. There may still be space between this address
and the display list, the size of which may be retrieved by the
FRE(0) command (which actually subtracts the MEMTOP value
that is at locations 741 and 742; $2E5, $2E6). Not to be confused
with locations 741 and 742, which have the same name but are an
OS variable. MEMTOP is also called TOPSTK; it points to the top
of the stack space pointed to by RUNSTK above.
When reserving memory using location 106 ($6A) and MEMTOP,
here's a short error-trapping routine you can add:
10 SIZE = (PEEK(106) - # of pages yo
u are reserving) * 256
20 IF SIZE < = PEEK(144) + PEEK(145
) * 256 THEN PRINT " PROGRAM TOO L
ARGE": END
Locations 146 to 202 ($92 to $CA) are reserved for use by the 8K
BASIC ROM.
Locations 176 to 207 ($B0 to $CF) are reserved by the Assembler
Editor cartridge for the user's page zero use. The Assembler debug
routine also reserves 30 bytes in page zero, scattered from location 164
($A4) to 255 ($FF), but they cannot be used outside the debug process.
(See De Re Atari, Rev. 1, Appendix A for a list of these available
bytes.)
186,187 BA,BB STOPLN
- The line where a program was stopped either due to an error or
the use of the BREAK key, or a STOP or a TRAP statement
occurred. You can use PEEK (186) + PEEK (187) * 256 in a
GOTO or GOSUB statement.
195 C3 ERRSAVE
- The number of the error code that caused the stop or the TRAP.
You can use this location in a program in a line such as:
10 IF PEEK(195) <> 144 THEN 100
201 C9 PTABW
- This location specifies the number of columns between TAB
stops. The first tab will beat PEEK(201). The default is ten. This is
the value between items separated in a PRINT statement by com-
mas -- such as PRINT AS, LOOP, C(12) -- not by the TAB key
spacing.
The minimum number of spaces between TABS is three. If you
POKE 201,2, it will be treated as four spaces, and POKE 201,1 is
treated as three spaces. POKE 201,0 will cause the system to
hang when it encounters a PRINT statement with commas. To
change the TAB key settings, see TABMAP (locations 675 to 689;
$2A3 - $2B1). PTABW is not reset to the default value by pressing
RESET or changing GRAPHICS modes (unlike TABMAP).
PTABW works in all GRAPHICS modes, not merely in text
modes. The size of the spaces between items depends on the pixel
size in the GRAPHICS mode in use. For example, in GR.0, each
space is one character wide, while in GR.8 each space is one-half
color clock (one dot) wide.
203-207 CB-CF ....
- Unused by either the BASIC or the Assembler cartridges.
208-209 D0-D1 ....
- Unused by BASIC. The only time I have seen any of these unused
locations in use is in COMPUTE! (March 1982 and October
1981), when they were used for user sort routines, and in ANTIC
(June 1982), where they were used as flags in a graphic
demonstration. The bytes from 203 to 209 ($CB to $D1) are the
only page zero bytes uncontestably left free by BASIC.
210-211 D2-D3 ....
- Reserved for BASIC or other cartridge use.
Locations 212 to 255 ($D4 to $FF) are reserved for the floating point
package use. The FP routines are in ROM, from locations 55296 to
57393 ($D800 to $E031). These page zero locations may be used if the
FP package is not called by the user's program. However, do not use
any of these locations for an interrupt routine, since such routines
might occur during an FP routine called by BASIC, causing the
system to crash.
Floating Point uses a six-byte precision. The first byte of the Binary
Coded Decimal (BCD) number is the exponent (where if BIT 7 equals
zero, then the number is positive; if one, then it is negative). The next
five bytes are the mantissa. If only that were all there was to it. The
BCD format is rather complex and is best explained in chapter eight of
De Re Atari.
212-217 D4-D9 FR0
- Floating point register zero; holds a six-byte internal form of the
FP number. The value at locations 212 and 213 are used to return
a two-byte hexadecimal value in the range of zero to 65536
($FFFF) to the BASIC program (low byte in 212, high byte in
213). The floating point package, if used, requires all locations
from 212 to 255. All six bytes of FR0 can be used by a machine
language routine, provided FR0 isn't used and no FP functions
are used by that routine. To use 16 bit values in FP, you would
place the two bytes of the number into the least two bytes of FR0
(212, 213; $D4, $D5), and then do a JSR to $D9AA (55722), which
will convert the integer to its FP representation, leaving the result
in FR0. To reverse this operation, do a JSR to $D9D2 (55762).
218-223 DA-DF FRE
- FP extra register (?)
224-229 E0-E5 FR1
- Floating point register one; holds a six-byte internal form of the
FP number as does FR0. The FP package frequently transfers
data between these two registers and uses both for two-number
arithmetic operations.
230-235 E6-EB FR2
- FP register two.
236 EC FRX
- FP spare register.
237 ED EEXP
- The value of E (the exponent).
238 EE NSIGN
- The sign of the FP number.
239 EF ESIGN
- The sign of the exponent.
240 F0 FCHRFLG
- The first character flag.
241 Fl DIGRT
The number of digits to the right of the decimal.
242 F2 CIX
- Character (current input) index. Used as an offset to the input
text buffer pointed to by INBUFF below.
243,244 F3,F4 INBUFF
- Input ASCII text buffer pointer; the user's program line input
buffer, used in the translation of ATASCII code to FP values. The
result output buffer is at locations 1408 to 1535 ($580 to $5FF).
245,246 F5,F6 ZTEMP1
- Temporary register.
247,248 F7,F8 ZTEMP4
- Temporary register.
249,250 F9,FA ZTEMP3
- Temporary register.
251 FB RADFLG
- Also called DEGFLG. When set to zero, all of the trigonometric
functions are performed in radians; when set to six, they are done
in degrees. BASIC's NEW command and RESET both restore
RADFLG to radians.
252,253 FC,FD FLPTR
- Points to the user's FP number.
254,255 FE,FF FPTR2
- Pointer to the user's second FP number to be used in an
operation.
End of the page zero RAM.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAGE ONE: THE STACK
Locations 256 to 511 ($100 to $1FF) are the stack area for the OS, DOS
and BASIC. This area is page one. Machine language JSR, PHA and
interrupts all cause data to be written to page one, and RTS, PLA and
RTI instructions all read data from page one. On powerup or RESET,
the stack pointer is initialized to point to location 511 ($1FF). The stack
then pushes downward with each entry to 256 ($100). In case of
overflow, the stack will wrap around from 256 back to 511 again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAGES TWO TO FOUR
Locations 512 to 1151 ($200 to $47F) are used by the OS for working
variables, tables and data buffers. In this area, locations 512 to 553
($200 to $229) are used for interrupt vectors, and locations 554 to 623
($22A to $26F) are for miscellaneous use. Much of pages two through
five cannot be used except by the OS unless specifically noted. A
number of bytes are marked as "spare", i.e., not in use currently. The
status of these bytes may change with an Atari upgrade, so their use is
not recommended.
There are two types of interrupts: Non-Maskable Interrupts (NMI)
processed by the ANTIC chip and Interrupt Requests (IRQ) processed
by the POKEY and the PIA chips. NMI's are for the VBLANK interrupts
(VBI's; 546 to 549, $222 to $225), display list interrupts (DLI) and
RESET key interrupts. They initiate the stage one and stage two
VBLANK procedures; usually vectored through an OS service routine,
they can be vectored to point to a user routine. IRQ's are for the timer
interrupts, peripheral and serial bus interrupts, BREAK and other key
interrupts, and 6502 BRK instruction interrupts. They can usually be
used to vector to user routines. See NMIST 54287 ($D40F) and IRQEN
53774 ($D20E) for more information. NMI interrupt vectors are marked
NMI; IRQ interrupt vectors are marked IRQ.
Refer to the chart below location 534 for a list of the interrupt vectors in
the new OS "B" version ROMs.
512,513 200,201 VDSLST
- The vector for NMI Display List Interrupts (DLI): containing the
address of the instructions to be executed during a DLI (DLI's are
used to interrupt the processor flow for a few microseconds at the
particular screen display line where the bit was set, allowing you
to do another short routine such as music, changing graphics
modes, etc.). The OS doesn't use DLI's; they must be user-
enabled, written and vectored through here. The NMI status
register at 54287 ($D40F) first tests to see if an interrupt was
caused by a DLI and, if so, jumps through VDSLST to the routine
written by the user. DLI's are disabled on powerup, but VBI's are
enabled (see 546 to 549; $222 to $225).
VDSLST is initialized to point to 59315 ($E7B3), which is merely
an RTI instruction. To enable DLI's, you must first POKE 54286
($D40E) with 192 ($C0); otherwise, ANTIC will ignore your
request. You then POKE 512 and 513 with the address (LSB/MSB)
of the first assembly language routine to execute during the DLI.
You must then set BIT 7 of the Display List instruction(s) where
the DLI is to occur. You have only between 14 and 61 machine
cycles available for your DLI, depending on your GRAPHICS
mode. You must first push any 6502 registers onto the stack, and
you must end your DLI with an RTI instruction. Because you are
dealing with machine language for your DLI, you can POKE
directly into the hardware registers you plan to change, rather
than using the shadow registers that BASIC uses.
There is, unfortunately, only one DLI vector address. If you use
more than one DLI and they are to perform different activities,
then changing the vectoring to point to a different routine must
be done by the previous DLI's themselves.
Another way to accomplish interrupts is during the VBLANK
interval with a VBI. One small problem with using DLI's is that
the keyboard "click" routine interferes with the DLI by throwing
off the timing, since the click is provided by several calls to the
WSYNC register at 54282 ($D40A). Chris Crawford discusses
several solutions in De Re Atari, but the easiest of them is not to
allow input from the keyboard! See Micro, December 1981,
Creative Computing, July 1981 and December 1981.
Here's a short example of a DLI. It will print the lower half of your
text screen upside down:
10 START = PEEK(560) + PEEK(561) *
256: POKE START + 16,130
20 PAGE = 1536: FOR PGM = PAGE TO P
AGE + 7: READ BYTE: POKE PGM, BYTE
: NEXT PGM
30 DATA 72,169,4,141,1,212,104,64
40 POKE 512,0: POKE 513,6: POKE 542
86,192
50 FOR TEST = 1 TO 240: PRINT"SEE "
;: NEXT TEST
60 GOTO 60
DOWNLOAD VDSLST.BAS
Another example of a DLI changes the color of the bottom half of
the screen. To use it, simply change the PAGE + 7 to PAGE + 10
in the program above and replace line 30 with:
30 DATA 72,169,222,141,10,212,141,2
4,208,104,64
Finally, delete lines 50 and 60. See also location 54282 ($D40A).
514,515 202,203 VPRCED
- Serial (peripheral) proceed line vector, initialized to 59314
($E7B2), which is merely a PLA, RTI instruction sequence. It is
used when an IRQ interrupt occurs due to the serial I/O bus
proceed line which is available for peripheral use. According to
De Re Atari, this interrupt is not used and points to a PLA, RTI
instruction sequence. This interrupt is handled by the PIA chip
and can be used to provide more control over external devices.
See the OS Listing, page 33.
516,517 204,205 VINTER
- Serial (peripheral) interrupt vector, initialized to 59314 ($E7B2).
Used for the IRQ interrupt due to a serial bus I/O interrupt.
According to De Re Atari, this interrupt is not used and points to
a PLA, RTI sequence. This interrupt is processed by PIA. See the
OS Listing, page 33.
518,519 206,207 VBREAK
- Software break instruction vector for the 6502 BRK ($00)
command (not the BREAK key, which is at location 17; $11),
initialized to 59314 ($E7B2). This vector is normally used for
setting break points in an assembly language debug operation.
IRQ.
520,521 208,209 VKEYBD
- POKEY keyboard interrupt vector, used for an interrupt
generated when any keyboard key is pressed other than BREAK
or the console buttons. Console buttons never generate an
interrupt unless one is specifically user-written. VKEYBD can be
used to process the key code before it undergoes conversion to
ATASCII form. Initialized to 65470 ($FFBE) which is the OS
keyboard IRQ routine.
522,523 20A,20B VSERIN
- POKEY serial I/O bus receive data ready interrupt vector,
initialized to 60177 ($EB11), which is the OS code to place a byte
from the serial input port into a buffer. Called INTRVEC by DOS,
it is used as an interrupt vector location for an SIO patch. DOS
changes this vector to 6691 ($1A23), the start of the DOS
interrupt ready service routine. IRQ.
524,525 20C,20D VSEROR
- POKEY serial I/O transmit ready interrupt vector, initialized to
60048 (EA90), which is the OS code to provide the next byte in a
buffer to the serial output port. DOS changes this vector to 6630
($19E6), the start of the DOS output needed interrupt routine.
IRQ.
526,527 20E,20F VSEROC
- POKEY serial bus transmit complete interrupt vector, initialized
to 60113 ($EAD1), which sets a transmission done flag after the
checksum byte is sent. IRQ.
SIO uses the three last interrupts to control serial bus
communication with the serial bus devices. During serial bus
communication, all program execution is halted. The actual
serial I/O is interrupt driven; POKEY waits and watches for a flag
to be set when the requested I/O operation is completed. During
this wait, POKEY is sending or receiving bits along the seriai
bus. When the entire byte has been transmitted (or received), the
output needed (VSEROR) or the input ready (VSERIN) IRQ is
generated according to the direction of the data flow. This causes
the next byte to be processed until the entire buffer has been sent
or is full, and a flag for "transmission done" is set. At this point,
SIO exits back to the calling routine. You can see that SIO wastes
time waiting for POKEY to send or receive the information on the
bus.
528,529 210,211 VTIMR1
- POKEY timer one interrupt vector, initialized to 59314 ($E7B2),
which is a PLA, RTI instruction sequence. Timer interrupts are
established when the POKEY timer AUDF1 (53760; $D200)
counts down to zero. Values in the AUDF registers are loaded
into STIMER at 53769 ($D209). IRQ.
530,531 212,213 VTIMR2
- POKEY timer two vector for AUDF2 (53762, $D202), initialized to
59314 ($E7B2). IRQ.
532,533 214,215 VTIMR4
- POKEY timer four vector for AUDF4 (53766, $D206), initialized
to 59314 ($E7B2). This IRQ is only vectored in the "B" version of
the OS ROMs.
534,535 216,217 VIMIRQ
- The IRQ immediate vector (general). Initialized to 59126
($E6F6). JMP through here to determine cause of the IRQ
interrupt. Note that with the new ("B") OS ROMs, there is a
BREAK key interrupt vector at locations 566, 567 ($236, $237).
See 53774 ($D20E) for more information on IRQ interrupts.
The new "B" version OS ROMs change the vectors above as
follows:
VDSLST 59280 ($E790)
VPRCED 59279 ($E78F)
VINTER 59279 ($E78F)
VBREAK 59279 ($E78F)
VKEYBD NO CHANGE
VSERIN 60175 ($EB0F)
VSEROR NO CHANGE
VSEROC 60111 ($EACF)
VTIMR 1-4 59279 ($E78F)
VIMIRQ 59142 ($E706)
VVBLKI 59310 ($E7AE)
VVBLKD 59653 ($E905)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The locations from 536 to 558 ($218 to $22E) are used for the system
software timers. Hardware timers are located in the POKEY chip and
use the AUDF registers. These timers count backwards every 1/60
second (stage one VBLANK) or 1/30 second (stage two VBLANK)
interval until they reach zero. If the VBLANK process is disabled or
intercepted, the timers will not be updated. See De Re Atari for
information regarding setting these timers in an assembly routine
using the SETVBV register (58460; $E45C). These locations are user-
accessible and can be made to count time for music duration, game
I/O, game clock and other functions.
Software timers are used for durations greater than one VBLANK
interval (1/60 second). For periods of shorter duration, use the
hardware registers.
536,537 218,219 CDTMV1
- System timer one value. Counts backwards from 255. This SIO
timer is decremented every stage one VBLANK. When it reaches
zero, it sets a flag to jump (JSR) through the address stored in
locations 550, 551 ($226, $227). Only the realtime clock
(locations 18-20; $12-14), timer one, and the attract mode
register (77; $4D) are updated when the VBLANK routine is cut
short because time-critical code (location 66; $42 set to non-zero
for critical code) is executed by the OS. Since the OS uses timer
one for its I/O routines and for timing serial bus operations
(setting it to different values for timeout routines), you should use
another timer to avoid conflicts or interference with the operation
of the system.
538,539 21A,21B CDTMV2
- System timer two. Decremented at the stage two VBLANK. Can
be decremented every stage one VBLANK, subject to critical
section test as defined by setting of CRITIC flag (location 66;
$42). This timer may miss (skip) a count when time-critical code
(CRITIC equals non-zero) is being executed. It performs a JSR
through location 552, 553 ($228, $229) when the value counts
down to zero.
540,541 21C,21D CDTMV3
- System timer three. Same as 538. Timers three, four, and five are
stopped when the OS sets the CRITIC flag to non-zero as well.
The OS uses timer three to OPEN the cassette recorder and to set
the length of time to read and write tape headers. Any prior value
in the register during this function will be lost.
542,543 21E,21F CDTMV4
- System timer four. Same as 538 ($21A).
544,545 220,221 CDTMV5
- System timer five. Same as 538 ($21A). Timers three, four, and
five all set flags at 554, 556 and 558 ($22A, $22C, $22E),
respectively, when they decrement to zero.
546,547 222,223 VVBLKI
- VBLANK immediate register. Normally jumps to the stage one
VBLANK vector NMI interrupt processor at location 59345
($E7D1); in the new OS "B" ROMs; 59310, $E7AE). The NMI
status register tests to see if the interrupt was due to a VBI (after
testing for a DLI) and, if so, vectors through here to the VBI
routine, which may be user-written. On powerup, VBI's are
enabled and DLI's are disabled. See location 512; $200.
548,549 224,225 VVBLKD
- VBLANK deferred register; system return from interrupt,
initialized to 59710 ($E93E, in the new OS "B" ROMs; 59653;
$E905), the exit for the VBLANK routine. NMI.
These two VBLANK vectors point to interrupt routines that occur
at the beginning of the VBLANK time interval. The stage one
VBLANK routine is executed; then location 66 ($42) is tested for
the time-critical nature of the interrupt and, if a critical code
section has been interrupted, the stage two VBLANK routine is
not executed with a JMP made through the immediate vector
VVBLKI. If not critical, the deferred interrupt VVBLKD is used.
Normally the VBLANK interrupt bits are enabled (BIT 6 at
location 54286; $D40E is set to one). To disable them, clear BIT 6
(set to zero).
The normal seguence for VBLANK interrupt events is: after the
OS test, JMP to the user immediate VBLANK interrupt routine
through the vector at 546, 547 (above), then through SYSVBV at
58463 ($E45F). This is directed by the OS through the VBLANK
interrupt service routine at 59345 ($E7D1) and then on to the
user-deferred VBLANK interrupt routine vectored at 548, 549. it
then exits the VBLANK interrupt routine through 58466 ($E462)
and an RTI instruction.
If you are changing the VBLANK vectors during the interrupt
routine, use the SETVBV routine at 58460 ($E45C). An
immediate VBI has about 3800 machine cycles of time to use a
deferred VBI has about 20,000 cycles. Since many of these cycles
are executed while the electron beam is being drawn, it is
suggested that you do not execute graphics routines in deferred
VBI's. See the table of VBLANK processes at the end of the map
area.
if you create your own VBI's, terminate an immediate VBI with a
JMP to 58463 ($E45F) and a deferred VBI with a JMP to 58466
($E462). To bypass the OS VBI routine at 59345 ($E7D1) entirely,
terminate your immediate VBI with a JMP to 58466 ($E462).
Here's an example of using a VBI to create a flashing cursor. It
will also blink any text you display in inverse mode.
10 FOR BLINK = 1664 TO 1680: READ B
YTE: POKE BLINK, BYTE: NEXT BLINK
20 POKE 548,128: POKE 549,6
30 DATA 8,72,165,20,41,16,74,74,74,
141
40 DATA 243,2,104,40,76,62,233
DOWNLOAD VVBLKD.BAS
To restore the normal cursor and display, POKE 548,62 and
POKE 549,233.
550,551 226,227 CDTMA1
- System timer one jump address, initialized to 60400 ($EBF0).
When locations 536, 537 ($218, $219) reach (count down to) zero,
the OS vectors through here (jumps to the location specified by
these two addresses). You can set your machine code routine
address here for execution when timer one reaches (counts down
to) zero. Your code should end with the RTS instruction.
Problems may occur when timer values are set greater than 255,
since the 6502 cannot manipulate 16-bit values directly (a
number in the range of zero to 255 is an eight-bit value; if a value
requires two bytes to store, such as a memory location, it is a
16-bit value). Technically, a VBLANK interrupt could occur
when one timer byte is being initialized and the other not yet set.
To avoid this, keep timer values less than 255. See the Atari OS
User's Manual, page 106, for details.
Since the OS uses timer one, it is recommended that you use
timer two instead, to avoid conflicts with the operation of the
Atari. Initialized to 60396 ($EBEA) in the old ROMs, 60400
($EBF0) in the new ROMs. NMI
552,553 228,229 CDTMA2
- System timer two jump address. Not used by the OS, available to
user to enter the address of his or her own routine to JMP to when
the timer two (538, 539; $21A, $21B) count reaches zero.
Initialized to zero; the address must be user specified. NMI
554 22A CDTMF3
- System timer three flag, set when location 540, 541 ($21C, $21D)
reaches zero. This register is also used by DOS as a timeout flag.
555 22B SRTIMR
- Software repeat timer, controlled by the IRQ device routine. It
establishes the initial 1/2 second delay before a key will repeat.
Stage two VBLANK establishes the 1/10 second repeat rate,
decrements the timer and implements the auto repeat logic.
Every time a key is pressed, STIMER is set to 48 ($30). Whenever
SRTIMR is equal to zero and a key is being continuously pressed,
the value of that key is continually stored in CH, location 764
($2FC).
556 22C CDTMF4
- System timer four flag. Set when location 542, 543 ($21E, $21F)
counts down to zero.
557 22D INTEMP
- Temporary register used by the SETVBL routine at 58460
($E45C).
558 22E CDTMF5
- System timer five flag. Set when location 558, 559 ($22E, $22F)
counts down to zero.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
559 22F SDMCTL
- Direct Memory Access (DMA) enable. POKEing with zero allows
you to turn off ANTIC and speed up processing by 30%. Of
course, it also means the screen goes blank when ANTIC is
turned off! This is useful to speed things up when you are doing a
calculation that would take a long time. It is also handy to turn off
the screen when loading a drawing, then turning it on when the
screen is loaded so that it appears instantly, complete on the
screen. To use it you must first PEEK(559) and save the result in
order to return your screen to you. Then POKE 559,0 to turn off
ANTIC. When you are ready to bring the screen back to life,
POKE 559 with the number saved earlier.
This location is the shadow register for 54272 ($D400), and the
number you PEEKed above defines the playfield size, whether or
not the missiles and players are enabled, and the player size
resolution. To enable your options by using POKE 559, simply
add up the values below to obtain the correct number to POKE
into SDMCTL. Note that you must choose only one of the four
playfield options appearing at the beginning of the list:
Option Decimal Bit
No playfield 0 0
Narrow playfield 1 0
Standard playfield 2 0,1
Wide playfield 3 0,1
Enable missle DMA 4 2
Enable player DMA 8 3
Enable player and missile
DMA 12 2,3
One line player resolution 16 4
Enable instructions to fetch
DMA 32 5 (see below)
Note that two-line player resolution is the default and that it is not
necessary to add a value to 559 to obtain it. I have included the
appropriate bits affected in the table above. The default is 34
($22).
The playfield is the area of the TV screen you will use for display,
text, and graphics. Narrow playfield is 128 color clocks (32
characters wide in GR.0), standard playfield is 160 color clocks
(40 characters), and wide playfield is 192 color clocks wide (48
characters). A color clock is a physical measure of horizontal
distance on the TV screen. There are a total of 228 color clocks on
a line, but only some of these (usually 176 maximum) will be
visible due to screen limitations. A pixel, on the other hand, is a
logical unit which varies in size with the GRAPHICS mode. Due
to the limitations of most TV sets, you will not be able to see all of
the wide playfield unless you scroll into the offscreen portions.
BIT 5 must be set to enable ANTIC operation; it enables DMA for
fetching the display list instructions.
560,561 230,231 SDLSTL
- Starting address of the display list. The display list is an
instruction set to tell ANTIC where the screen data is and how to
display it. These locations are the shadow for 54274 and 54275
($D402, $D403). You can also find the address of the DL by
PEEKing one byte above the top of free memory:
PRINT PEEK(741) + PEEK(742) * 256 + 1.
However, 560 and 561 are more reliable pointers since custom
DL's can be elsewhere in memory. Atari standard display lists
simply instruct the ANTIC chip as to which types of mode lines to
use for a screen and where the screen data may be found in
memory. Normally, a DL is between 24 and 256 bytes long (most
are less than 100 bytes, however), depending on your
GRAPHICS mode (see location 88,89 for a chart of DL sizes and
screen display use).
By altering the DL, you can mix graphics modes on the same
screen; enable fine scrolling; change the location of the screen
data; and force interrupts (DLI's) in order to perform short
machine language routines.
DL bytes five and six are the addresses of the screen memory
data, the same as in locations 88 and 89 ($58, $59). Bytes four,
five, and six are the first Load Memory Scan (LMS) instruction.
Byte four tells ANTIC what mode to use; the next two bytes are
the location of the first byte of the screen RAM (LSB/MSB).
Knowing this location allows you to write directly to the screen by
using POKE commands (you POKE the internal character codes,
not the ATASCII codes -- see the BASIC Reference Manual, p.
55).
For example, the program below will POKE the internal codes to
the various screen modes. You can see not only how each screen
mode handles the codes, but also roughly where the text window
is in relation to the display screen (the 160 bytes below
RAMTOP). Note that the GTIA modes have no text window. If
you don't have the GTIA chip, your Atari will default to
GRAPHICS 8, but with GTIA formatting.
1 TRAP 10: GRAPHICS Z
5 SCREEN = PEEK(560) + PEEK(561) *
256
6 TV = SCREEN + 4: TELE = SCREEN + 5
8 DISPLAY = PEEK(TV) + PEEK(TELE) *
256
10 FOR N = 0 TO 255: POKE DISPLAY +
N,N: NEXT N
20 DISPLAY = DISPLAY + N
30 IF DISPLAY > 40959 THEN Z = Z + 1
: GOTO 1
40 GOTO 10
50 Z = Z + 1:IF Z > 60 THEN END
60 GOTO 1
Here's another short program which will allow you to examine the
DL in any GRAPHICS mode:
10 REM CLEAR SCREEN FIRST
20 PRINT"ENTER GRAPHICS MODE": REM A
DD 16 TO THE MODE TO SUPPRESS THE
TEXT WINDOW
30 INPUT A: GRAPHICS A
40 DLIST = PEEK(560) + PEEIK(561) * 2
56
50 LOOK = PEEK(DLIST): PRINT LOOK;"
";
60 IF LOOK <> 65 THEN DLIST = DLIST
+ 1: GOTO 50
70 LPRINT PEEK(DLIST + 1);" ";PEEK(D
LIST + 2)
80 END
The value 65 in the DL is the last instruction encountered. It tells
ANTIC to jump to the address in the next two bytes to re-execute
the DL, and wait for the next VBLANK. If you don't have a
printer, change the LPRINT commands to PRINT and modify the
routine to save the data in an array and PRINT it to the screen
after (in GR.0).
If you would like to examine the locations of the start of the
Display List, screen, and text window, try:
5 REM CLEAR SCREEN FIRST
6 INPUT A: GRAPHICS A
10 DIM DLIST$(10), SAVMSC$(10), TXT$
(10)
15 DLIST$ = "DLIST": SAVMSC$ = "SAVM
SC": TXT$ = "TEXT"
20 DLIST = PEEK(560) + PEEK(561) * 2
56
30 SAV = PEEK(88) + PEEK(89) * 256:
TXT = PEEK(660) + PEEK(66l) * 256
40 PRINT DLIST$;" "; DLIST,SAVMSC$;"
";SAV
50 PRINT TXT$;" "; TEXT
60 INPUT A: GRAPHICS A: GOTO 20
Since an LMS is simply a map mode (graphics) or character
mode (text) instruction with BIT six set, you can make any or all of
these instructions into LMS instructions quite easily, pointing
each line to a different RAM area if necessary. This is discussed
in De Re Atari on implementing horizontal scrolling.
DL's can be used to help generate some of the ANTIC screen
modes that aren't supported by BASIC, such as 7.5 (ANTIC
mode E) or ANTIC mode three, the lowercase with descenders
mode (very interesting; ten scan lines in height which allow true
descenders on lowercase letters).
If you create your own custom DL, you POKE its address here.
Hitting BESET or changing GRAPHICS modes will restore the
OS DL address, however. The display list instruction is loaded
into a special register called the Display Instruction Register (IR).
which processes the three DL instructions (blank, jump, or
display). It cannot be accessed directly by the programmer in
either BASIC or machine language. A DL cannot cross a 1K
boundary unless a jump instruction is used.
There are only four display list instructions: blank line (uses BAK
color), map mode, text mode, and jump. Text (character mode)
instructions and map mode (graphics) instructions range from
two to 15 ($2 to $F) and are the same as the ANTIC GRAPHICS
modes. A DL instruction byte uses the following conventions
(functions are enabled when the bit is set to one):
Bit Decimal Function
7 128 Display List Interrupt when set (enabled
equals one)
6 64 Load Memory Scan. Next two bytes are the
LSB/MSB of the data to load.
5 32 Enable vertical fine scrolling.
4 16 Enable horizontal fine scrolling.
3-0 8-1 Mode
0 0 1 0 Character
to Modes
0 1 1 1
. . . . . . .
1 0 0 0 Map
to Modes
1 1 1 1
The above bits may be combined (i.e., DLI, scrolling and LMS
together) if the user wishes.
Special DL instructions (with decimal values):
Blank 1 line = 0 5 lines = 64
2 lines = 16 6 lines = 80
3 lines = 32 7 lines = 96
4 lines = 48 8 lines = 112
Jump instruction (JMP) = zero (three-byte instruction).
Jump and wait for Vertical Blank (JVP) = 65 (three-byte
instruction).
Special instructions may be combined only with DL interrupt
instructions.
A Display List Interrupt is a special form of interrupt that takes
place during the screen display when the ANTIC encounters a
DL instruction with the interrupt BIT 7 set. See location 512
($200) for DLI information.
Since DL's are too large a topic to cover properly in this manual,
I suggest you look in the many magazines (i.e., Creative
Computing, July 1981, August 1981; Micro, December 1981;
Softside, #30 to 32, and BYTE, December 1981) for a more
detailed explanation
562 232 SSKCTL
- Serial port control register, shadow for 53775 ($D20F). Setting
the bits in this register to one has the following effect:
Bit Decimal Function
0 1 Enable the keyboard debounce circuit.
1 2 Enable the keyboard scanning circuit.
2 4 The pot counter completes a read within two
scan lines instead of one frame time.
3 8 Serial output transmitted as two-tone instead
of logic true/false (POKEY two-tone mode).
4-6 16-64 Serial port mode control.
7 128 Force break; serial output to zero.
Initialized to 19 ($13) which sets bits zero, one and four.
563 233 SPARE
- No OS use. See the note at location 651 regarding spare bytes.
564 234 LPENH
- Light pen horizontal value shadow for 54284 ($D40C). Values
range from zero to 227.
565 235 LPENV
- Light pen vertical value: shadow for 54285 ($D40D). Value is the
same as VCOUNT register for two-line resolution (see 54283;
$D40B). Both light pen values are modified when the trigger is
pressed (pulled low). The light pen positions are not the same as
the normal screen row and column positions. There are 96
vertical positions, numbered from 16 at the top to 111 at the
bottom, each one equivalent to a scan line. Horizontal positions
are marked in color clocks. There are 228 horizontal positions,
numbered from 67 at the left. When the LPENH value reaches
255, it is reset to zero and begins counting again by one to the
rightmost edge, which has a value of seven.
Obviously, because of the number of positions readable and the
small size of each, a certain leeway must be given by the
programmer when using light pen readouts on a program. At the
time of this writing, Atari had not yet released its light pen onto
the market, although other companies have.
566,567 236,237 BRKKY
- BREAK key interrupt vector. This vector is available only with
the version "B" OS ROMs, not the earlier version. You can use
this vector to write your own BREAK key interrupt routine.
Initialized to 59220 ($E754).
568,569 238,239 ....
- Two spare bytes.
570 23A CDEVIC
- Four-byte command frame buffer (CFB) address for a device --
used by SIO while performing serial I/O, not for user access.
CDEVIC is used for the SIO bus ID number The other three CFB
bytes are:
571 23B CCOMND
- The SIO bus command code.
572 23C CAUX1
- Command auxiliary byte one, loaded from location 778 ($30A)
by SIO.
573 23D CAUX2
- Command auxiliary byte two, loaded from location 779 ($30B) by
SIO.
574 23E TEMP
- Temporary RAM register for SIO.
575 23F ERRFLG
- SIO error flag; any device error except the timeout error (time
equals zero).
576 240 DFLAGS
- Disk flags read from the first byte of the boot file (sector one) of
the disk.
577 241 DBSECT
- The number of disk boot sectors read from the first disk record.
578,579 242,243 BOOTAD
- The address for where the disk boot loader will be put. The
record just read will be moved to the address specified here,
followed by the remaining records to be read. Normally, with
DOS, this address is 1792 ($700), the value also stored
temporarily in RAMLO at 4, 5. Address 62189 ($F2ED) is the OS
disk boot routine entry point (DOBOOT).
580 244 COLDST
- Coldstart flag. Zero is normal, if zero, then pressing RESET will
not result in reboot. If POKEd with one (powerup in progress
flag), the computer will reboot whenever the RESET key is
pressed. Any non-zero number indicates the initial powerup
routine is in progress.
If you create an AUTORUN.SYS file, it should end with an RTS
instruction. If not, it should POKE 580 with zero and POKE 9 with one.
You can turn any binary file that boots when loaded with DOS menu
selection "L" into an auto-boot file simply by renaming it
"AUTORUN.SYS". Be careful not to use the same name for any two
files on the same disk.
When this is combined with the disabling of the BREAK key discussed
in location 16 ($10) and the program protection scheme discussed in
location 138 ($8A), you have the means to protect your BASIC
software fairly effectively from being LISTed or examined, although
not from being copied.
581 245 ....
- Spare byte.
582 246 DSKTIM
- Disk time-out register (the address of the OS worst case disk time-
out). It is said by many sources to be set to 160 at initialization
which represents a 171 second time-out, but my system shows a
value of 224 on initialization. Timer values are 64 seconds for
each 60 units of measurement expressed.
It is updated after each disk status request to contain the value of
the third byte of the status frame (location 748; $2EC). All disk
operations have a seven second time-out (except FORMAT),
established by the disk handler (you had noticed that irritating
little delay, hadn't you?). The "sleeping disk syndrome" (the
printer suffers from this malady as well) happens when your drive
times out, or the timer value reaches zero. This has been cured
by the new OS "B" version ROMs.
583-622 247-26E LINBUF
- Forty-byte character line buffer, used to temporarily buffer one
physical line of text when the screen editor is moving screen
data. The pointer to this buffer is stored in 100, 101 ($64, $65)
during the routine.
623 26F GPRIOR
- Priority selection register, shadow for 53275 ($D01B). Priority
options select which screen objects will be "in front" of others. It
also enables you to use all four missiles as a fifth player and
allows certain overlapping players to have different colors in the
areas of overlap. You add your options up as in location 559,
prior to POKEing the total into 623. In this case, choose only one
of the four priorities stated at the beginning. BAK is the
background or border. You can also use this location to select
one of GTIA GRAPHICS modes nine, ten, or eleven.
Priority options in order Decimal Bit
Player 0 - 3, playfield 0 - 3, BAK
(background) 1 0
Player 0 - 1, playfield 0 - 3, player 2 - 3,
BAK 2 1
Playfield 0 - 3, player 0 - 3, BAK 4 2
Playfield 0 - 1, player 0 - 3, playfield 2 -3,
BAK 8 3
Other options
Four missiles = fifth player 16 4
Overlaps of players have 3rd color 32 5
GRAPHICS 9 (GTIA mode) 64 6
GRAPHICS 10 (GTIA mode) 128 7
GRAPHICS 11 (GTIA mode) 192 6, 7
It is quite easy to set conflicting priorities for players and
playfields. In such a case, areas where both overlap when a
conflict occurs will turn black. The same happens if the overlap
option is not chosen.
With the color/overlap enable, you can get a multicolor player
by combining players. The Atari performs a logical OR to colors
of players 0/1 and 2/3 when they overlap. Only the 0/1, 2/3
combinations are allowed; you will not get a third color when
players 1 and 3 overlap, for example (you will get black instead).
If player one is pink and player 0 is blue, the overlap is green. If
you don't enable the overlap option, the area of overlap for all
players will be black.
In GTIA mode nine, you have 16 different luminances of the
same hue. In BASIC, you would use SETCOLOR 4,HUE,0. To
see an example of GTIA mode nine, try:
10 GRAPHICS 9: SETCOLOR 4,9,0
20 FOR LOOP = 1 TO 15: COLOR LOOP
30 FOR LINE = 1 TO 2
40 FOR TEST = 1 TO 25: PLOT 4 + TES
T, LOOP + LINE + SPACE: NEXT TEST
45 NEXT LINE
50 SPACE = SPACE + 4
60 NEXT LOOP
70 GOTO 70: REM WITHOUT THIS LINE,
SCREEN WILL RETURN TO GR.0
DOWNLOAD GTIA9.BAS
In GTIA mode ten, you have all nine color registers available;
hue and luminance may be set separately for each (it would
otherwise allow 16 colors, but there are only nine registers). Try
this to see:
10 N = 0: GRAPHICS 10
20 FOR Q = 1 TO 2
30 FOR B = 0 TO 8: POKE 704 + B, N
* 16 + A
35 IF A > 15 THEN A = 0
40 COLOR B
45 A = A + 1: N = N + 1
50 IF N > 15 THEN N = 0
60 NEXT B
65 TRAP 70: NEXT Q
70 POP: N = N + 1: FOR Z = 1 TO 200
: NEXT Z
75 GOTO 30
DOWNLOAD GTIA10.BAS
GTIA mode eleven is similar to mode nine except that it allows 16
different hues, all of the same luminance. In BASIC, use
SETCOLOR 4,O,luminance. Try this for a GTIA mode eleven
demonstration:
10 GRAPHICS 11
20 FOR LOOP = 0 TO 79: COLOR LOOP:
PLOT LOOP,0: DRAWTO LOOP,191: NEXT
LOOP
30 GOTO 30
DOWNLOAD GTIA11.BAS
You can use these examples with the routine to rotate colors,
described in the text preceding location 704. GTIA mode pixels
are long and skinny; they have a four to one horizontal length to
height ratio. This obviously isn't very good for drawing curves
and circles!
GTIA modes are cleared on the OPEN command. How can you
tell if you have the GTIA chip? Try POKE 623,64. If you have the
GTIA, the screen will go all black. If not, you don't have it. Here
is a short routine, written by Craig Chamberlain and Sheldon
Leemon for COMPUTE!, which allows an Atari to test itself for the
presence of a CTIA or GTIA chip. The routine flashes the answer
on the screen, hut can easily be modified so a program will
"know" which chip is present so it can adapt itself accordingly:
10 POKE 66,1:GRAPHICS 8:POKE 709,0:PO
KE 710,0:POKE 66,0:POKE 623,64:P0K
E 53248,42:POKE 5326l,3:PUT#6,1
20 POKE 53278,0:FOR K=1 TO 300:NEXT K
:GRAPHICS 18:POKE 53248,0:POSITION
8,5:? #6;CHR$(71-PEEK(53252));"TI
A"
30 POKE 708,PEEK(20):GOTO 30
DOWNLOAD CTIAGTIA.BAS
How can you get the GTIA if you don't have one? Ask your local
Atari service representative or dealer, or write directly to Atari in
Sunnyvale, California.
See the GTIA/CTIA introduction at location 53248 ($D000) for
more discussion of the chip. See BYTE, May 1982, COMPUTE!,
July through September 1982, and De Re Atari for more on the
GTIA chip, and the GTIA Demonstration Diskette from the Atari
Program Exchange (APX).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Locations 624 to 647 ($270 to $287) are used for game controllers:
paddle, joystick and lightpen values.
624 270 PADDL0
- The value of paddle 0 (paddles are also called pots, short for
potentiometer); PEEK 624 returns a number between zero and
228 ($E4), increasing as the knob is turned counter-clockwise.
When used to move a player or cursor (i.e., PLOT
PADDLE(0),0), test your screen first. Many sets will not display
locations less than 48 ($30) or greater than 208 ($D0), and in
many GRAPHICS modes you will get an ERROR 141 -- cursor
out of range. Paddles are paired in the controller jacks, so paddle
0 and paddle 1 both use jack one. PADDL registers are shadows
for POKEY locations 53760 to 53767 ($D200 to $D207).
625 271 PADDL1
- This and the next six bytes are the same as 624, but for the other
paddles.
626 272 PADDL2
-
627 273 PADDL3
-
628 274 PADDL4
-
629 275 PADDL5
-
630 276 PADDL6
-
631 277 PADDL7
-
632 278 STICK0
- The value of joystick 0. STICK registers are shadow locations for
PIA locations 54016 and 54017 ($D300, $D301). There are nine
possible decimal values (representing 45 degree incrememts)
read by each joystick register (using the STICKn command),
depending on the position of the stick:
Decimal Binary
14 1110
| |
10 | 6 1010 | 0110
\ |/ \ |/
11-- 15 ---7 1011-- 1111 --0111
/ |\ / |\
9 | 5 1001 | 0101
| |
13 1101
15 (1111) equals stick in the upright (neutral) position.
See Micro, December 1981,for an article on making a
proportional joystick. For an example of a machine language
joystick driver you can add to your BASIC program, see
COMPUTE!, July 1981.
One machine language joystick reader is listed below, based on
an article in COMPUTE!, August 1981:
1 GOSUB 1000
10 LOOK = STICK(0)
20 X = USR(1764,LOOK): Y = USR(1781,
LOOK)
30 ON X GOTO 120, 100, 110
.
.
.
100 REM YOUR MOVE LEFT ROUTINE HERE
105 GOTO 10
110 REM YOUR MOVE RIGHT ROUTINE HERE
115 GOTO 10
120 ON Y GOTO 150, 130, 140
130 REM YOUR MOVE DOWN ROUTINE HERE
135 GOTO 10
140 REM YOUR MOVE UP ROUTINE HERE
145 GOTO 10
150 REM IF X <> 1 THEN NOTHING DOING.
BRANCH TO YOUR OTHER ROUTINES OR
TO 155
155 GOTO 10
.
.
.
1000 FOR LOOP = 1764 TO 1790: READ BY
TE: POKE LOOP, BYTE: NEXT LOOP
1010 DATA 104,104,133,213,104,41,12,7
4,74,73,2,24,105,1
1020 DATA 133,212,96,104,104,133,213,
104,41,3,76,237,6
1030 RETURN
DOWNLOAD STICK0.BAS
See locations 88, 89 ($58, $59) for an example of a USR call using
a string instead of a fixed memory location.
633 279 STICK1
- This and the next two locations are the same as 632, but for the
other joysticks. These four locations are also used to determine if
a lightpen (PEN 0 - 3) switch is pressed.
634 27A STICK2
-
635 27B STICK3
-
636 27C PTRIG0
- Paddle trigger 0. Used to determine if the trigger or hutton on
paddle 0 is pressed (zero is returned) or not (one is returned).
Since these are the same lines as the joystick left/right switches,
you can use PTRIG for horizontal movement. PTRIG(1) -
PTRIG(0) returns -1 (left), 0 (center), + 1 (right). The next seven
locations are for the other paddle buttons. PTRIG 0 - 3 are
shadows for PIA register 54016 ($D300).
637 27D PTRIG1
-
638 27E PTRIG2
-
639 27F PTRIG3
-
640 280 PTRIG4
- PTRIG 4-7 are shadows for PIA register 54017 ($D301).
641 281 PTRIG5
-
642 282 PTRIG6
-
643 283 PTRIG7
-
644 284 STRIG0
- Stick trigger 0. This and the next three locations perform the
same function as the PTRIG locations except for the joysticks.
Like PTBIG, zero is returned when the button is pressed; one is
returned when it is not. STRIG registers are shadow registers for
GTIA/CTIA locations 53264 to 53267 ($D010 to $D013).
645 285 STRIG1
-
646 286 STRIG2
-
647 287 STRIG3
-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Locations 648 to 655 ($288 to $28F) are for miscellaneous OS use.
648 288 CSTAT
- Cassette status register.
649 289 WMODE
- Register to store either the read or the write mode for the cassette
handler, depending on the operation: zero equals read, 128 ($80)
equals write.
650 28A BLIM
- Cassette data record buffer size; contains the number of active
data bytes in the cassette buffer for the record being read or
written, at location 1021 ($3FD). Values range from zero to 128
(cassette record size is 128; $80). The pointer to the byte being
read or written is at 61 ($3D). The value of BLIM is drawn from
the control bytes that precede every cassette record, as
explained in location 1021.
651-655 28B-28F ....
- Spare bytes. It is not recommended that you use the spare bytes
for your own program use. In later upgrades of the OS, these
bytes may be used, causing a conflict with your program. For
example, the new OS ROMs use locations 652 and 653 ($28C,
$28D) in the new IRQ interrupt handler routines. It is best to use a
protected area of memory such as page six, locations 1536 to
1791 ($600 to $6FF).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Locations 656 to 703 ($290 to $2BF) are used for the screen RAM
display handler (depending on GRAPHICS mode).
In split-screen mode, the text window is controlled by the screen editor
(E:), while the graphics region is controlled by the display handler
(S:), using two separate IOCB's. Two separate cursors are also
maintained. The display handler will set AUX1 of the IOCB to split-
screen option. Refer to the IOCB area, locations 832 to 959 ($340 to
$3BF). See COMPUTE!, February 1982, for a program to put GR.1
and GR.2 into the text window area. The text window uses 160 bytes of
RAM located just below RAMTOP (see location 106; $6A). See
location 88 ($58) for a chart of screen RAM use.
656 290 TXTROW
- Text window cursor row; value ranges from zero to three (the text
window has only four lines). TXTROW specifies where the next
read or write in the text window will occur
657,658 291,292 TXTCOL
- Text window cursor column; value ranges from zero to 39. Unless
changed by the user, location 658 will always be zero (there are
only 40 columns in the display, so the MSB will be zero). Since
POSITION, PLOT, LOCATE and similar commands refer to the
graphics cursor in the display area above the text window, you
must use POKE statements to write to this area if PRINT
statements are insufficient.
659 293 TINDEX
- Contains the current split-screen text window GRAPHICS mode.
It is the split-screen equivalent to DINDEX (location 87; $57) and
is always equal to zero when location 128 ($7B) equals zero.
Initialized to zero (which represents GR.0). You can alter the
display list to change the text window into any GRAPHICS mode
desired. If you do so, remember to change TINDEX to reflect that
alteration.
660,661 294,295 TXTMSC
- Address of the upper left corner of the text window. Split-screen
equivalent of locations 88, 89 ($58, $59).
662-667 296-29B TXTOLD
- These locations contain the split-screen equivalents of OLDROW
(90; $5A), OLDCOL (91, 92; $5B, $5C), OLDCHR (location 93,
$5D) and OLDADR (locations 94, 95; $5E, $5F). They hold the
split-screen cursor data.
668 29C TMPX1
- Temporary register, used by the display handler for the scroll
loop count record.
669 29D HOLD3
- Temporary register.
670 29E SUBTMP
- Temporary storage.
671 29F HOLD2
- Temporary register.
672 2A0 DMASK
- Pixel location mask. DMASK contains zeroes tor all bits which do
not correspond to the specific pixel to be operated upon, and
ones for bits which do correspond, according to the GRAPHICS
mode in use, as follows:
11111111 Modes 0, 1 and 2: one pixel per screen display
byte.
11110000 Modes 9, 10 and 11: two pixels per byte.
00001111
11000000 Modes 3, 5 and 7: four pixels per byte.
00110000
00001100
00000011
10000000 Modes 4, 6 and 8: eight pixels per byte.
01000000
etc. to:
00000001
A pixel (short for picture cell or picture element) is a logical unit
of video size which depends on the GRAPHICS mode in use for
its dimensions. The smallest pixel is in GR.8 where it is only .5
color clock wide and one scan line high. In GR.0 it is also only .5
color clock wide, but it is eight scan lines high. Here is a chart of
the pixel sizes for each mode:
Text Modes Graphics modes
GR. mode 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Scan lines
per pixel 8 8 16 8 4 4 2 2 1
Bits
per pixel 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1
Color clocks
per pixel .5 1 1 4 2 2 1 1 .5
Characters
per line 40 20 20 -- -- -- -- -- --
Pixels
per width -- -- -- 40 80 80 160 160 320
The number of pixels per screen width is based on the normal
playfield screen. See location 559 ($22F) for information on
playfield size.
673 2A1 TMPLBT
- Temporary storage for the bit mask.
674 2A2 ESCFLG
- Escape flag. Normally zero, it is set to 128 ($80) if the ESC key is
pressed (on detection of the ESC character; 27, $1B). It is reset to
zero following the output of the next character. To display
ATASCII control codes without the use of an ESC character, set
location 766 ($2FE) to a non-zero value.
675-689 2A3-2B1 TABMAP
- Map of the TAB stop positions. There are 15 byte (120 bits) here,
each bit corresponding to a column in a logical line. A one in any
bit means the TAB is set; to clear all TABs simply POKE every
location with zero. There are 120 TAB locations because there
are three physical lines to one logical line in GRAPHICS mode
zero, each consisting of 40 columns. Setting the TAB locations for
one logical line means they will also be set for each subsequent
logical line until changed. Each physical line in one logical line
can have different TAB settings, however.
To POKE TAB locations from BASIC, you must POKE in the
number (i.e., set the bit) that corresponds to the location of the
bit in the byte (there are five bytes in each line). For example:
To set tabs at locations 5, 23, 27 and 32, first visualize the line as a
string of zeros with a one at each desired tab setting:
0000100000000000000000100010000100000000
Then break it into groups of eight bits (one byte units). There are
three bytes with ones (bits set), two with all zeros:
00001000 = 8
00000000 = 0
00000010 = 2
00100001 = 33
00000000 = 0
Converting these to decimal, we get the values listed at the right
of each byte. These are the numbers you'd POKE into locations
675 (the first byte) to 679 (the fifth byte on the line). On powerup
or when you OPEN the display screen (S: or E:), each byte is
given a value of one (i.e., 00000001) so that there are tab default
tab stops at 7, 15, 23, etc., incrementing by eight to 119. Also,
the leftmost screen edge is also a valid TAB stop (2, 42, and 82).
In BASIC, these are set by the SET-TAB and CLR-TAB keys.
TABMAP also works for the lines in the text display window in
split-screen formats. TABMAP is reset to the default values on
pressing RESET or changing GRAPHICS modes.
See location 201 ($C9) about changing the TAB settings used
when a PRINT statement encounters a comma.
690-693 2B2-2B5 LOGMAP
- Logical line start bit map. These locations map the beginning
physical line number for each logical line on the screen (initially
24, for GR.0). Each bit in the first three bytes shows the start of a
logical line if the bit equals one (three bytes equals eight bits *
three equals 24 lines on the screen). The map format is as follows:
Bit 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Byte
------------------------------------------------------------
Line 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 690
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 691
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 692
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 693
The last byte is ignored. The map bits are all set to one when the
text screen is OPENed or CLEARed, when a GRAPHICS com-
mand is issued or RESET is pressed. The map is updated as
logical lines are entered, edited, or deleted.
694 2B6 INVFLG
- Inverse character flag; zero is normal and the initialization value
(i.e., normal ATASCII video codes have BIT 7 equals zero). You
POKE INVFLG with 128 ($80) to get inverse characters (BIT 7
equals one). This register is normally set by toggling the Atari
logo key; however, it can be user-altered. The display handler
XOR's the ATASCII codes with the value in INVFLG at all times.
See location 702 ($2BE) below.
INVFLG works to change the input, not the output. For example,
if you have A$ = "HELLO", POKE 694, 128 will not change A$
when you PRINT it to the screen. However, if you POKE 694, 128
before an INPUT A$, the string will be entered as inverse.
695 2B7 FILFLG
- Right fill flag for the DRAW command. If the current operation is
a DRAW, then this register reads zero. If it is non-zero, the
operation is a FILL.
696 2B8 TMPROW
- Temporary register for row used by ROWCRS (location 84; $54).
697,698 2B9,2BA TMPCOL
- Temporary register for column used by COLCRS (locations 85,
86; $55, $56).
699 2BB SCRFLG
- Scroll flag; set if a scroll occurs. It counts the number of physical
lines minus one that were deleted from the top of the screen. This
moves the entire screen up one physical line for each line
scrolled off the top. Since a logical line has three physical lines,
SCRFLG ranges from zero to two.
Scrolling the text window is the equivalent to scrolling an entire
GR.0 screen. An additional 20-line equivalent of bytes (800) is
scrolled upwards in the memory below the text window address.
This can play havoc with any data such as P/M graphics you have
stored above RAMTOP
700 2BC HOLD4
- Temporary register used in the DRAW command only; used to
save and restore the value in ATACHR (location 763; $2FB)
during the FILL process.
701 2BD HOLD5
- Same as the above register.
702 2BE SHFLOK
- Flag for the shift and control keys. It returns zero for lowercase
letters, 64 ($40) for all uppercase (called caps lock: uppercase is
required for BASIC statements and is also the default mode on
powerup). SHFLOK will set characters to all caps during your
program if 64 is POKEd here. Returns the value 128 ($80;
control-lock) when the CTRL key is pressed. Forced control-lock
will cause all keys to output their control-code functions or
graphics figures. Other values POKEd here may cause the
system to crash. You can use this location with 694 ($2B6) above
to convert all keyboard entries to uppercase, normal display by:
10 OPEN #2,4,0,"K:"
20 GET #2,A
30 GOSUB 1000
40 PRINT CHR$(A);: GOTO 20
.
.
.
1000 IF A = 155 THEN 1030: REM RETURN
KEY
1010 IF A > = 128 THEN A = A - 128: R
EM RESTORE TO NORMAL DISPLAY
1020 IF PEEK (702) = 0 AND A > 96 THEN
A = A - 32: REM LOWERCASE TO UP
PER
1030 POKE 702,64: POKE 694,0
1040 RETURN
DOWNLOAD SHFLOK.BAS
703 2BF BOTSCR
- Flag for the number of text rows available for printing. 24 ($18) is
normal for text mode GR.0; four for the text window, zero for all
graphics modes. In all GRAPHICS modes except zero, if there is
no text window then 703 will also read zero. The large-text
displays in GR.1 and GR.2 are treated as graphics displays for
this purpose. The display handler specifically checks for split-
screen mode by looking for the variable 24 or four here. If it finds
24 here, it assumes there is no text window; if not, it looks for the
variable four.
You can add a text window to GR.0 by POKEing here with four.
The top portion (20 lines) of the screen will not scroll with the
bottom. To write to the top part of the screen you will have to use
the PRINT#6 statement as with modes one and two. One possible
application of this would be to keep a fixed menu at the top of the
screen while scrolling the bottom part, as done with the DOS
menu.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Locations 704 to 712 ($2C0 to $2C8) are the color registers for players,
missiles, and playfields. These are the RAM shadow registers for
locations 53266 to 53274 ($D012 to $D01A). For the latter, you can use
the SETCOLOR command from BASIC. For all registers you can
POKE the desired color into the location by using this formula:
COLOR = HUE * 16 + LUMINANCE
It is possible to get more colors in GR.8 than the one (and a half) that
Atari says is possible by using a technique called artifacting. There is a
small example of artifacting shown at location 710 ($2C6). See De Re
Atari, Your Atari 400/800, Creative Computing, June 1981, and
COMPUTE!, May 1982.
Here are the 16 colors the Atari produces, along with their POKE
values for the color registers. The POKE values assume a luminance of
zero. Add the luminance value to the numbers to brighten the color.
The color registers ignore BIT 0; that's why there are no "odd" values
for luminance, just even values.
Color Value Color Value
Black 0, 0 Medium blue 8, 128
Rust 1, 16 Dark blue 9, 144
Red-orange 2, 32 Blue-grey 10, 160
Dark orange 3, 48 Olive green 11, 176
Red 4, 64 Medium green 12, 192
Dk lavender 5, 80 Dark green 13, 208
Cobalt blue 6, 96 Orange-green 14, 224
Ultramarine 7, 112 Orange 15, 240
The bit use of the PCOLR and COLOR registers is as follows:
Bit 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
--color-- luminance unused
Grey 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Darkest
Rust 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
etc. to: etc. to:
Orange 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Lightest
When you enable the color overlap at location 623 ($26F), ANTIC
performs a logical OR on the overlap areas. For example:
01000010 Red, luminance two
OR 10011010 Darkblue,luminance ten
--------
Result = 10011010 Dark green, luminance ten
Here's a short machine language routine which will rotate the colors in
registers 705 to 712:
10 DIM ROT$(30)
20 FOR LOOP = 1 TO 27: READ BYTE: R
OT$(LOOP,LOOP) = CHR$(BYTE): NEXT
LOOP
.
. PUT YOUR GRAPHICS ROUTINE HERE
.
100 CHANGE = USR(ADR(ROT$))
105 FOR LOOP = 1 TO 200: NEXT LOOP:
GOTO 100
110 DATA 104,162,0,172,193,2,189,194
,2,157
120 DATA 193,2,232,224,8,144,245,140
,200,2
130 DATA 96,65,65,65,65,65,65
If you wish to rotate the colors in registers 704 to 711 instead, change
lines 110 and 120 to read as follows:
110 DATA 104,162,0,172,192,2,189,193
,2,157
120 DATA 192,2,232,224,8,144,245,140
,199,2
DOWNLOAD BOTSCR.BAS
If you wish to include all of the registers 704 to 712 in the routine, make
the changes as above and change the eight in line 120 to nine and
restore the 199 to 200 in line 120. This routine works well with the
GTIA demos at location 623 ($26F).
For further detail, refer to your Atari BASIC Reference Manual, pp. 45
-56, and the GTIA Demo Disk from APX.
704 2C0 PCOLR0
- Color of player 0 and missile 0. Locations 704 to 707 are also
called COLPM# in some sources. This is the shadow for 53266
($D012). In GTIA mode ten, 704 holds the background color
(BAK; normally held by 712). You cannot use the SETCOLOR
commands to change the PCOLR registers; color values must be
POKEd into them.
705 2C1 PCOLR1
- Color of player and missile 1. Shadow for 53267 ($D013).
706 2C2 PCOLR2
- Color of player and missile 2. Shadow for 53268 ($D014).
707 2C3 PCOLR3
- Color of player and missile 3. When the four missiles are
combined to make a fifth player, it takes on the color in location
711 (COLOR3). Shadow for 53269 ($D015).
708 2C4 COLOR0
- Color register zero, color of playfield zero, controlled by the
BASIC SETCOLOR0 command. In GRAPHICS 1 and
GRAPHICS 2, this color is used for the uppercase letters.
Shadow for 53270 ($D016). You can change the values in all of
the COLOR registers from BASIC by using either the
SETCOLOR command or a POKE.
709 2C5 COLOR1
- The next four locations are the same as location 708 for the
different playfields and SETCOLOB commands. In GR.1 and
GR.2, this register stores the color for lowercase letters.
COLOR1 is also used to store the luminance value of the color
used in GR.0 and GR.8. Shadow for 53271 ($D017).
710 2C6 COLOR2
- The same as above for playfield two; in GR.1 and GR.2, this
register stores the color of the inverse uppercase letters. Shadow
for 53272 ($D018). Used for the background color in GR.0 and
GR.8. Both use COLOR1 for the luminance value.
Despite the official limitations of color selection in GR.8, it is
possible to generate additional colors by "artifacting", turning
on specific pixels (.5 color clock each) on the screen. Taking
advantage of the physical structure of the TV set itself, we
selectively turn on vertical lines of pixels which all show the same
color. For example:
10 A = 40: B = 30: C = 70: D = 5: F
= 20 GRAPHICS 8: POKE 87,7: P0K
E 710,0: POKE 709,15: COLOR 1
30 PLOT A,D: DRAWTO A,C: COLOR 2: P
LOT F,D: DRAWTO F,C:
40 PLOT A + 1,D: DRAWTO A + 1,C
50 COLOR 3: PLOT B,D: DRAWTO B,C
60 GOTO 60
DOWNLOAD COLOR2.BAS
A little experimentation with this will show you that the colors
obtained depend on which pixels are turned on and how close
together the pixel columns are. There are four "colors" you can
obtain, as shown before. Pixels marked one are on; marked zero
means they are off. Each pair of pixels is one color clock. Three
color clocks are shown together for clarity:
00:01:00 = color A 00:11:00 = color B
00:10:00 = color C 00:01:10 = color D
See BYTE, May 1982, De Re Atari, and Your Atari 400/800.
711 2C7 COLOR3
- The same as the above but for playfield three. Also, the color for
GR.1 and GR.2 inverse lowercase letters. Shadow for 53273
($D019).
712 2C8 COLOR4
- The same as the above but for the background (BAK) and border
color. Shadow for 53274 ($D01A). In GTIA mode ten, 704 stores
the background color (BAK), while 712 becomes a normal color
register.
Here are the default (powerup) values for the COLOR registers
(PCOL registers are all set to zero on powerup):
Register Color = Hue Luminance
708 (CO.0) 40 2 8
709 (CO.1) 202 12 10
710 (CO.2) 148 9 4
711 (CO.3) 70 4 6
712 (CO.4) 0 0 0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Locations 713 to 735 ($2C9 to $2DF) are spare bytes. Locations 736 to
767 ($2E0 to $2FF) are for miscellaneous use.
736-739 2E0-2E3 GLBABS
- Global variables, or, four spare bytes for non DOS users. For
DOS users they are used as below:
736-737 2E0-2E1 RUNAD
- Used by DOS for the run address read from the disk sector one or
from a binary file. Upon completion of any binary load, control
will normally be passed back to the DOS menu. However, DOS
can be forced to pass control to any specific address by storing
that address here. If RUNAD is set to 40960 ($A000), then the left
cartridge (BASIC if inserted) will be called when the program is
booted.
With DOS 1.0, if you POKE the address of your binary load file
here, the file will be automatically run upon using the DOS
Binary Load (selection L). Using DOS 1.0's append (/A) option
when saving a binary file to disk, you can cause the load address
POKEd here to be saved with the data. In DOS 2.0, you may
specify the initialization and the run address with the program
name when you save it to disk (i.e.,
GAME.OBJ,2000,4FFF,4F00,4000). DOS 2.0 uses the /A option
to merge files. In order to prevent your binary files from running
automatically upon loading in DOS 2.0, use the /N appendage to
the file name when loading the file.
For users of CompuServe, there is an excellent little BASIC
program (with machine language subroutines) to create autoboot
files, chain machine language files with BASIC and to add an 850
autoboot file in the Popular Electronics Magazine (PEM) access
area. It is available free for downloading.
738-739 2E2-2E3 INITAD
- Initialization address read from the disk. An autoboot file must
load an address value into either RUNAD above or INITAD. The
code pointed to by INITAD will be run as soon as that location is
loaded. The code pointed to by RUNAD will be executed only
after the entire load process has been completed. To return
control to DOS after the execution of your program, end your
code with an RTS instruction.
740 2E4 RAMSIZ
- RAM size, high byte only; this is the number of pages that the top
of RAM represents (one page equals 256 bytes). Since there can
never be less than a whole page, it becomes practical to measure
RAM in those page units. This is the same value as in RAMTOP,
location 106 ($6A), passed here from TRAMSZ, location 6. Space
saved by moving RAMSIZ or RAMTOP has the advantage of
being above the display area. Initialized to 160 for a 48K Atari.
741,742 2E5,2E6 MEMTOP
- Pointer to the top of free memory used by both BASIC (which
calls it HIMEM) and the OS, passed here from TRAMSZ, location
6 after powerup. This address is the highest free location in RAM
for programs and data. The value is updated on powerup, when
RESET is pressed, when you change GRAPHICS mode, or when
a channel (IOCB) is OPENed to the display. The display list starts
at the next byte above MEMTOP.
The screen handler will only OPEN the S: device if no RAM is
needed below this value (i.e. there is enough free RAM below
here to accommodate the requested GRAPHICS mode change).
Memory above this address is used for the display list and the
screen display RAM. Also, if a screen mode change would
extend the screen mode memory below APPMHI (locations 14,
15: $E, $F), then the screen is set back for GR.0, MEMTOP is
updated, and an error is returned to the user. Otherwise the
mode change will take place and MEMTOP will be updated.
Space saved by moving MEMTOP is below the display list. Be
careful not to overwrite it if you change GRAPHICS modes in
mid-program. When using memory below MEMTOP for storage,
make sure to set APPMHI above your data to avoid having the
screen data descend into it and destroy it.
743,744 2E7,2E8 MEMLO
- Pointer to the bottom of free memory, initialized to 1792 ($700)
and updated by the presence of DOS or any other low-memory
application program. It is used by the OS; the BASIC pointer to
the bottom of free memory is at locations 128, 129 ($80, $81). The
value in MEMLO is never altered by the OS after powerup.
This is the address of the first free location in RAM available for
program use. Set after all FMS buffers have been allocated (see
locations 1801 and 1802; $709 and $70A). The address of the last
sector buffer is incremented by 128 (the buffer size in bytes) and
the value placed in MEMLO. The value updates on powerup or
when RESET is pressed. This value is passed back to locations
128, 129 ($80, $81) on the execution of the BASIC NEW
command, but not RUN, LOAD or RESET.
If you are reserving space for your own device driver(s) or
reserving buffer space, you load your routine into the address
specified by MEMLO, add the size of your routine to the MEMLO
value, and POKE the new value plus one back into MEMLO.
When you don't have DOS or any other application program
using low-memory resident, MEMLO points to 1792 ($700. With
DOS 2.0 present, MEMLO points to 7420 ($1CFC). If you change
the buffer defaults mentioned earlier, you will raise or lower this
latter value by 128 ($80) bytes for every buffer added or deleted,
respectively. When you boot up the 850 Interface with or without
disk, you add another 1728 ($6C0) bytes to the value in MEMLO.
You can alter MEMLO to protect an area of memory below your
program. This is an alternative to protecting an area above
RAMTOP (location 106; $6A) and avoids the problem of the
CLEAR SCREEN routine destroying data. However, unless you
have created a MEM.SAV file, the data will be wiped out when
you call DOS. To alter MEMLO, you start by POKEing WARMST
(location 8) with zero, then doing a JMP to the BASIC cartridge
entry point at 40960($A000) after defining your area to protect.
For example, try this:
10 DIM MEM$(24):PROTECT=700:REM NUMBE
R OF BYTES TO CHANGE
15 HIBYTE=INT(PROTECT/256):LOBYTE=PRO
TECT-256*HIBYTE
20 FOR N=1 TO 24:READ PRG:MEM$(N)=CHR
$(PRG):NEXT N
30 MEM$(6,6)=CHR$(LOBYTE):MEM$(14,14)
=CHR$(HIBYTE)
40 RESERVE=USR(ADR(MEM$))
50 DATA 24,173,231,2,105,0,141,231,2,
173,232,2,105
60 DATA 0,141,232,2,169,0,133,8,76,0,
160
DOWNLOAD MEMLO.BAS
You will find the address of your reserved memory by: PRINT
PEEK(743) + PEEK(744) * 256 before you run the program. This
program will wipe itself out when run. Altering MEMLO is the
method used by both DOS and the RS-232 port driver in the 850
Interface. See COMPUTE!, July 1981.
745 2E9 ....
- Spare byte.
746-749 2EA-2ED DVSTAT
- Four device status registers used by the I/O status operation as
follows:
746 ($2EA) is the device error status and the command status
byte. If the operation is a disk I/O, then the status returned is that
of the 1771 controller chip in your Atari disk drive. Bits set to one
return the following error codes:
Bit Decimal Error
0 1 An invalid command frame was received (error).
1 2 An invalid data frame was received.
2 4 An output operation was unsuccessful.
3 8 The disk is write-protected.
4 16 The system is inactive (on standby).
7 32 The peripheral controller is "intelligent" (has its
own microprocessor: the disk drive). All Atari
devices are intelligent except the cassette
recorder, so BIT 7 will normally be one when a
device is attached.
747 ($2EB) is the device status byte. For the disk, it holds the
value of the status register of the drive controller. For the 850
Interface, it holds the status for DSR,CTS,CRX and RCV when
concurrent I/O is not active (see the 850 Interface Manual). It also
contains the AUX2 byte value from the previous operation (see
the IOCB description at 832 to 959; $340 to $3AF).
748 ($2EC) is the maximum device time-out value in seconds. A
value of 60 here represents 64 seconds. This value is passed back
to location 582 ($246) after every disk status request. Initialized to
31.
749 ($2ED) is used for number of bytes in output buffer. See 850
Manual, p. 43.
When concurrent I/O is active, the STATUS command returns
the number of characters in the input buffer to locations 747 and
748, and the number of characters in the output buffer to location
749.
750,751 2EE,2EF CBAUDL/H
- Cassette baud rate low and high bytes. Initialized to 1484
($5CC), which represents a nominal 600 baud (bits per second).
After baud rate calculations, these locations will contain POKEY
values for the corrected baud rate. The baud rate is adjusted by
SIO to account for motor variations, tape stretch, etc. The
beginning of every cassette record contains a pattern of
alternating off/on bits (zero/one) which are used solely for speed
(baud) correction.
752 2F0 CRSINH
- Cursor inhibit flag. Zero turns the cursor on; any other number
turns the cursor off. A visible cursor is an inverse blank (space)
character. Note that cursor visibility does not change until the
next time the cursor moves (if changed during a program). If you
wish to change the cursor status without altering the screen data,
follow your CRSINH change with a cursor movement (i.e., up,
down) sequence. This register is set to zero (cursor restored) on
powerup, RESET, BREAK, or an OPEN command to either the
display handler (S:) or screen editor (E:). See location 755 for
another means to turn off the cursor.
753 2F1 KEYDEL
- Key delay flag or key debounce counter; used to see if any key
has been pressed. If a zero is returned, then no key has been
pressed. If three is returned, then any key. It is decremented
every stage two VBLANK (1/60 or 1/30th second) until it reaches
zero. If any key is pressed while KEYDEL is greater than zero, it
is ignored as "bounce." See COMPUTE!, December 1981, for a
routine to change the keyboard delay to suit your own typing
needs.
754 2F2 CH1
- Prior keyboard character code (most recently read and
accepted). This is the previous value passed from 764 ($2FC). If
the value of the new key code equals the value in CH1, then the
code is accepted only if a suitable key debounce delay has taken
place since the prior value was accepted.
755 2F3 CHACT
- Character Mode Register. Zero means normal inverse
characters, one is blank inverse characters (inverse characters
will be printed as blanks, i.e., invisible), two is normal
characters, three is solid inverse characters. Four to seven is the
same as zero to three, but prints the display upside down.
This register also controls the transparency of the cursor. It is
transparent with values two and six, opaque with values three
and seven. The cursor is absent with values zero, one, four and
five.
Toggling BIT 0 on and off can be a handy way to produce a
blinking effect for printed inverse characters (characters with
ATASCII values greater than 128 -- those that have BIT 7 set).
Shadow for 54273 ($D401). There is no visible cursor for the
graphics mode output. CHACT is initialized to two.
Here's an example of blinking text using this register:
10 CHACT=755:REM USE INVERSE FOR WORD
S BELOW
15 PRINT "[THIS IS A TEST OF BLINKING ]
[TEXT]"
20 POKE CHACT,INT(RND(0)*4)
30 FOR N=1 TO 100:NEXT N:GOTO 15
See COMPUTE!, December 1981.
Using a machine language routine and page six space, try:
10 PAGE=1536:EXIT=1568
20 FOR N=PAGE TO EXIT:READ BYTE:POKE
N,BYTE:NEXT N
30 PGM=USR(PAGE)
40 PRINT "[THIS] IS A [TEST] OF [BLINKING]
TEXT":REM MAKE SOME WORDS INVERSE
50 GOTO 50
60 DATA 104,169,17,141,40,2,169,6,141
,41
70 DATA 2,169,30,141,26,2,98,173,243,
2
80 DATA 41,1,73,1,141,243,2,169,30,14
1,26,2,96
DOWNLOAD CHACT.BAS
The blink frequency is set .5 second; to change it, change the
30 in line 80 to any number from one (1/30 second) to 255 (eight
.5 seconds). For another way to make the cursor visible or
invisible, see locations 752 above.
756 2F4 CHBAS
- Character Base Register, shadow for 54281 ($D409). The default
(initialization value) is 224 ($E0) for uppercase characters and
numbers; POKE CHBAS with 226 ($E2) to get the lowercase and
the graphics characters in GR.1 and GR.2. In GR.0 you get the
entire set displayed to the screen, but in GR.1 and GR.2, you
must POKE 756 for the appropriate half-set to be displayed.
How do you create an altered character set? First you must
reserve an area in memory for your set (512 or 1024 bytes; look at
location 106; $6A to see how). Then either you move the ROM set
(or half set, if that's all you intend to change) into that area and
alter the selected characters, or you fill up the space with bytes
which make up your own set. Then you POKE 756 with the MSB
of the location of your set so the computer knows where to find it.
What does an altered character set look like? Each character is a
block one byte wide by eight bytes high. You set the bits for the
points on the screen you wish to be "on" when displayed. Here
are two examples:
one byte wide:
00100000 = 32 #
00010000 = 16 #
00010000 = 16 #
00010000 = 16 #
00011110 = 30 ####
00000010 = 2 #
00001100 = 12 ##
00010000 = 16 #
Hebrew letter Lamed
one byte wide:
10000001 = 129 # #
10011001 = 153 # ## #
10111101 = 189 # #### #
11111111 = 255 ########
11111111 = 255 ########
10111101 = 189 # #### #
10011001 = 153 # ## #
10000001 = 129 # #
Tie-fighter
You can turn these characters into DATA statements to be POKEd
into your reserved area by using the values for the bytes as in the
above examples. To change the ROM set once it is moved, you
look at the internal code (see the BASIC Reference Manual, p.
55) and find the value of the letter you want to replace--such as
the letter A--code 33. Multiply this by eight bytes for each code
number from the start of the set (33 * eight equals 264). You then
replace the eight bytes used by the letter A, using a FOR-NEXT
loop with the values for your own character. For example, add
these lines to the machine language found a few pages further on:
1000 FOR LOOP=1 TO 4:READ CHAR:SET=CH
ACT+CHAR*8
1010 FOR TIME=0 TO 7:READ BYTE:POKE S
ET+TIME,BYTE: NEXT TIME
1020 NEXT LOOP
1030 DATA 33,0,120,124,22,22,124,120,
0
1040 DATA 34,0,126,82,82,82,108,0,0
1050 DATA 35,56,84,254,238,254,68,56,
0
1060 DATA 36,100,84,76,0,48,72,72,48
2000 END
RUN it and type the letters A to D.
Why 224 and 226? Translated to hex, these values are $E0 and
$E2, respectively. These are the high bytes (MSB) for the location
of the character set stored in ROM: $E000 (57344) is the address
for the start of the set (which begins with punctuation, numbers
and uppercase letters), and $E200 (57856), for the second half of
the ROM set, lowercase and graphic control characters (both
start on page boundaries). The ROM set uses the internal order
given on page 55 of your BASIC Reference Manual, not the
ATASCII order. See also location 57344 ($E000).
You will notice that using the PRINT#6 command will show you
that your characters have more than one color available to them
in GR.1 and GR.2. Try PRINTing lowercase or inverse
characters when you are using the uppercase set. This effect can
be very useful in creating colorful text pages. Uppercase letters,
numbers, and special characters use color register zero (location
708; $2C4 - orange) for normal display, and color register two
(710; $2C6 - blue) for inverse display. Lowercase letters use
register one (709; $2C5 - aqua) for normal display and register
three (711; $2C7 - pink) for inverse. See COMPUTE!, December
1981, page 98, for a discussion of using the CTRL keys with letter
keys to get different color effects.
One problem with POKEing 756 with 226 is that there is no blank
space character in the second set: you get a screen full of hearts.
You have two choices: you can change the color of register zero
to the same as the background and lose those characters which
use register zero--the control characters--but get your blanks
(and you still have registers one, two and three left). Or you can
redefine your own set with a blank character in it. The latter is
obviously more work. See "Ask The Readers," COMPUTE!, July
1982.
It is seldom mentioned in the manuals, but you cannot set 756 to
225 ($El) or any other odd number. Doing so will only give you
screen garbage. The page number 756 points to must be evenly
divisible by two.
When you create your own character set and store it in memory,
you need to reserve at least 1K for a full character set (1024 bytes
--$400 or four pages), and you must begin on a page boundary.
In hex these are the numbers ending with $XX00 such as $C000
or $600 because you store the pointer to your set here in 756; it
can only hold the MSB of the address and assumes that the LSB is
always zero--or rather a page boundary. You can reserve
memory by:
POKE 106,PEEK(106)-4 (or any multiple of four)
And do a GRAPHICS command immediately after to have your
new memory value accepted by the computer. If you are using
only one half of the entire set, for GR.1 or GR.2, you need only
reserve 512 bytes, and it may begin on a .5K boundary (like
$E200; these are hexadecimal memory locations that end in
$X200). If you plan to switch to different character sets, you will
need to reserve the full 1K or more, according to the number of
different character sets you need to display. RAM for half-K sets
can be reserved by:
POKE 106,PEEK(106)-2 (or a multiple of two)
The location for your set will then begin at PEEK(106)*256.
Because BASIC cannot always handle setting up a display list for
GR.7 and GR.8 when you modify location 106 by less than 4K (16
pages), you may find you must use PEEK(106)-16. See location
88,89 ($58,$59) and 54279 ($D407) for information regarding
screen use and reserving memory.
Make sure you don't have your character set overlap with your
player/missile graphics. Be very careful when using altered
character sets in high memory. Changing GRAPHICS modes, a
CLEAR command, or scrolling the text window all clear memory
past the screen display. When you scroll the text window, you
don't simply scroll the four lines; you actually scroll a full 24 (20
additional lines * 40 bytes equals 800 bytes scrolled past
memory)! This messes up the memory past the window display
address, so position your character sets below all possible
interference (or don't scroll or clear the screen).
You can create and store as many character sets as your memory
will allow. You switch back and forth between them and the ROM
set by simply POKEing the MSB of the address into 756. Of
course, you can display only one set at a time unless you use an
altered display list and DLI to call up other sets. There are no
restrictions outside of memory requirements on using altered
character sets with P/M graphics as long as the areas reserved for
them do not overlap.
A GRAPHICS command such as GR.0, RESET or a DOS call
restores the character set pointer to the ROM location, so you
must always POKE it again with the correct location of your new
set after any such command. A useful place to store these sets is
one page after the end of RAM, assuming you've gone back to
location 106 ($6A) and subtracted the correct number of pages
from the value it holds (by POKE 106,PEEK(106) minus the
number of pages to be reserved; see above). Then you can reset
the character set location by simply using POKE
756,PEEK(106)+1 (the plus one simply makes sure you start at
the first byte of your set).
A full character set requires 1024 bytes (1K: four pages) be
reserved for it. Why? Because there are 128 characters, each
represented by eight bytes, so 128 * eight equals 1024. If you are
using a graphics mode that uses only half the character set, you
need only reserve 512 bytes (64 * eight equals 512). Remember to
begin either one on a page boundary (1K boundary for full sets or
.5K for half sets). By switching back and forth between two
character sets, you could create the illusion of animation.
Many magazines have published good utilities to aid in the
design of altered character sets, such as the January 1982
Creative Computing, and SuperFont in COMPUTE!, January
1982. I suggest that you examine The Next Step from Online,
Instedit from APX, or FontEdit from the Code Works for very
useful set generators. One potentially useful way to alter just a
few of the characters is to duplicate the block of memory which
holds the ROM set by moving it byte by byte into RAM. A BASIC
FOR-NEXT loop can accomplish this, although it's very slow. For
example:
5 CH=57344
10 START=PEEK(106)-4:PLACE=START*256:
POKE 106,PEEK(106)-5:GRAPHICS 0: RE
M RESERVE EXTRA IN CASE OF SCREEN
CLEAR
20 FOR LOOP=0 TO 1023:POKE PLACE+LOOP
,PEEK(CH+LOOP):NEXT LOOP:REM MOVE
THE ROM SET
30 POKE 756,PLACE/256:REM TELL ANTIC
WHERE CHSET IS
Here's a machine language routine to move the set:
10 DIM BYTE$(80)
15 REM MEM-1 TO PROTECT SET FROM CLEA
R SCREEN DESTRUCTION (SEE LOC.88)
20 MEM=PEEK(106)-4:POKE 106,MEM-1: CHA
CT=MEM*256:GRAPHICS 0
30 FOR LOOP=1 TO 32:READ PGM:BYTE$(LO
OP,LOOP)=CHR$(PGM):NEXT LOOP
40 DATA 104,104,133,213,104,133,212
50 DATA 104,133,215,104,133,214,162
60 DATA 4,160,0,177,212,145,214
70 DATA 200,208,249,230,213,230,215
80 DATA 202,208,240,96
90 Z=USR(ADR(BYTE$),224*256,CHACT)
.
. ADD YOUR OWN ALTERATION PROGRAM OR
THE EARLIER EXAMPLE HERE
.
.
1500 POKE MEM-1,0:POKE 756,MEM
If you have Microsoft BASIC or BASIC A+, you can do this very
easily with the MOVE command!
Remember, when altering the ROM set, that the characters aren't
in ATASCII order; rather they are in their own internal order.
Your own set will have to follow this order if you wish to have the
characters correlate to the keyboard and the ATASCII values.
See page 55 of your BASIC Reference Manual for a listing of the
internal order. Creative Computing, January 1982, had a good
article on character sets, as well as a useful method of
transferring the ROM set to RAM using string manipulation. See
also "Using Text Plot for Animated Games" in COMPUTE!, April
1982, for an example of using character sets for animated
graphics.
757-761 2F5-2F9 ....
- Spare bytes.