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  • Flash the whole screen?

    From Brandon Taylor@br.ta.2818@gmail.com to comp.sys.apple2 on Tuesday, July 13, 2021 09:13:09
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

    I'm familiar with three commands in Applesoft BASIC which let you manipulate the way text gets displayed on the screen. There's INVERSE, which prints black text on a white background; FLASH, which basically just does what it says on the tin; and finally NORMAL, which cancels both of the above commands. But my question is, how do you set the entire SCREEN to INVERSE, FLASH or NORMAL? I know it will go to INVERSE at the end of a game of "The Match Machine" which can be found on "The Shell Games" disk; but I don't know is how that little effect was accomplished. The reason I'm asking is I'm in the process of writing a game in Applesoft BASIC which, ideally, will set the entire screen to FLASH, or at least INVERSE if FLASH is not possible.
    In case you need a refresher, I have the entire program listing of "The Match Machine" game here. https://mega.nz/file/woMUwJDT#LhO4jjSpjJ3Ei5z-0__HBeLHvMpGcZAGpPdv2iyrJII
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  • From qkumba@peter.ferrie@gmail.com to comp.sys.apple2 on Tuesday, July 13, 2021 09:39:24
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

    If the alternative character set is active, then full-screen INVERSE can be achieved by POKE 50,0 and then HOME.
    Otherwise, you're left to printing the characters yourself, for both FLASH and INVERSE.
    Here's one way:
    HOME
    POKE 48,mode (where mode=96 for FLASH, 32 for INVERSE)
    FOR Y = 1 TO 47 STEP 2: HLIN 0,39 AT Y: NEXT
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  • From Scott Alfter@scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us to comp.sys.apple2 on Tuesday, July 13, 2021 22:42:33
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

    In article <6cf25169-929e-4363-81f8-f9f72f69499en@googlegroups.com>,
    Brandon Taylor <br.ta.2818@gmail.com> wrote:
    I'm familiar with three commands in Applesoft BASIC which let you
    manipulate the way text gets displayed on the screen. There's INVERSE,
    which prints black text on a white background; FLASH, which basically
    just does what it says on the tin; and finally NORMAL, which cancels
    both of the above commands. But my question is, how do you set the
    entire SCREEN to INVERSE, FLASH or NORMAL? I know it will go to INVERSE
    at the end of a game of "The Match Machine" which can be found on "The
    Shell Games" disk; but I don't know is how that little effect was >accomplished. The reason I'm asking is I'm in the process of writing a
    game in Applesoft BASIC which, ideally, will set the entire screen to
    FLASH, or at least INVERSE if FLASH is not possible.

    A possibly naive approach to setting the whole screen flashing:

    10 FLASH: HOME: FOR I=1 TO 23: PRINT " ";: NEXT I: PRINT " ";: POKE 2039,96
    20 VTAB 1: HTAB 1: PRINT "THIS IS A TEST"

    The first block of spaces has 40; the second has 39. Printing the very last space would scroll a normal line into view, so it's POKEd to the framebuffer instead. Speedwise, it's not half bad.

    _/_
    / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
    (IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
    \_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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