[Coco] Graphics modes

[Kip Koon]

Bill,
I had the same problem when I used the Composite Video output on my Coco 3
when I plugged it into a High-Definition TV for initial testing.  I started
playing with the xmode command just as Luis mentioned below and found that
changing the background color and border color to black and the foreground
color to green or white caused the resulting window to be very readable even
on a Composite Video Monitor or the HDTV setup I used when I first started
testing my new cocos I had recently acquired.
I was then told about the NitrOS-9 command 'ded' that edits binary files, so
I started looking around in the OS9BOOT file and started comparing the hex
listing to the xmode listing of the various /Wx devices and found that If I
remember correctly the foreground color, the Background color, and the
Border Color are the last three bytes before the W7 near the end of the
OS9BOOT file.  You can search using ASCII strings to find W7 or any other
window you wish to play with and then backup three bytes to find the ones
that match the FBC, BGC, BDC bytes in the xmode /w7 listing and then just
edit them.  It was very easy and once you get the hang of it, you might get
bolder and start playing with other values.  :)  I haven't had a need yet,
but I'm sure I will eventually.  Remember the values are in Hexidecimal.
Now my NitrOS-9 setup boots up into whatever colors I like.  It is so cool!
I really like the black background.  I have since acquired a CM-8 so that is
no longer a problem for my Coco 3 setup, but my coco 1 must use a Color
Composite Video monitor, so I'm sure I will be doing this for my Coco 1
setup.
By the way, are there any memory upgrades possible for the Coco 1 or Coco 2
to go beyond 64K?  
I remember there was not much ram left once OS-9 (and now NitrOS-9) was
booted.  37K under the original OS-9 is not much to play with and it's even
less under Level II on the Coco 3 128K, only three 8K blocks.  I can't
hardly do anything.  I really need to upgrade my Coco 3's memory.  I'm
thinking seriously of getting Cloud-9 Tech's B2 Bomber looking 512K ram
memory upgrade card.
Anyway, Good Luck and Happy NitrOS-9ing!
Kip

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of Luis Antoniosi (CoCoDemus)
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2013 4:57 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] Graphics modes

seems those composite to vga converter doesn't like coco signal and
interprets colors as vertical lines. Everything looks like a banana in
pijamas. The only way to make it usable is through black & white screens
what is a pain:

On VDG screen you can make:

PALETTE 12,0
PALETTE 13,63

or the inverse: 12,63 and 13,0. You can as well use 40 columns: WIDTH 40 and
then CLS 5

For os-9 you need to blindly change a window and change to it:

xmode /w7 fgc=02 bgc=0 bdc=0
shell i=/w7& and press CLEAR.

play with other color numbers until you find one useable for you.






On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 4:49 PM, Bill Gunshannon
<billg999 at cs.uofs.edu>wrote:

>
> OK, moving along nicely at this point but now I have a new kind of 
> question.
>
> I have been trying out differnt kinds of adapters for getting my
> COCO3 to display on a decent monitor as all I really have from the 
> "good ole days" is a CM5.  It works, but the screen is tiny.
>
> So, I now have a box that seems to do a good job of taking the 
> composite video and displaying it on a VGA LCD monitor.  Now for the 
> kickers....
>
> The "Three Stooges" displays great.  DECB is somewhat blurry and has 
> vertical lines running thru it.  When OS0 starts to boot up the 
> display of modules loading is pretty good.  White background mostly 
> black letters (might be some artifacting causing some of the letters 
> to appear to be other colors).  But then, when it gets to the shell 
> the screen seems to go back to the same green it was under DECB and it 
> has the vertical lines again.  Of course, the font is smaller so in 
> general it becomes unusable again.
>
> Can some one explain what the graphics modes are during the startup 
> process for OS9 and where I might go to change them into something 
> usable for me?
>
> Once I get done playing with all these adapters  I will let people 
> know which work and which don't.  Maybe I need a game or two to run to 
> test those modes as well.  I don't imagine there is any kind of a 
> display benchmark program floating around anywhere.
>
> bill
>
>
>
> --
> Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
> billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
> University of Scranton   |
> Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>
>
>
>
> --
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> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>



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