[Coco] Alternate font sets

[Bill Pierce]

Ron, for DECB, most adventures use the HW 32x16 text screen and that can't be alterred without external hardware. Also, a lot of those programs wrote directly to the screen area (for speed) and so even patching to the "PRINT" routine would not even work.
But if you're wanting to create fonts for the SECB hires graphics screens (Coco3), the font can be loaded directly into the rom area given the proper addreses.
A good source for the where the fonts are is in the "Super Extended Color Basic Unravelled". According to that book, the hires font table starts at $F09D.
This does not affect the HW 32, 40, & 80 column text screens, only the hires graphics screens.
There were several utilities for creating new hires fonts, but it's been a long time and I haven't played with that for years.
It's actually a pretty simple task to write a font editor in Basic. I wrote one or two for SECB back in the late 80s, but those disks were lost to hurricane Floyd in '99

 

 


Bill Pierce
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-----Original Message-----
From: Ron Klein <ron at kdomain.org>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Fri, Aug 26, 2016 5:33 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] Alternate font sets

Hi Barry,Thanks for the info.  I was hoping it might be usable from DECB.Thanks!-RonOn Fri, Aug 26, 2016 at 4:25 PM, Barry Nelson <barry.nelson at amobiledevice.com> wrote:> You have to be running OS-9 Level II or NitrOS9 Level II. You type "merge> font_definition_file" at the prompt. To use the font you must be in hires> graphics mode. OS-9/NitrOS9 draws the letters on the graphics screen.>> > Ron Klein ron at kdomain.org> > Fri Aug 26 09:54:07 EDT 2016> >> > Hello everyone,> >> > Is it possible load alternate font sets for the Coco that are compatible> > with many of the text adventure games out there?  I'm also looking to see> > if there are any 80 column font sets available for the Coco 3.> >> > If so, how is this done?  A binary EXEC that gets loaded?  Not sure how> > this would work.> >> > Thanks!> >> > -Ron>>> --> Coco mailing list> Coco at maltedmedia.com> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco>-- Coco mailing listCoco at maltedmedia.comhttps://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco