Q. I plan to write a game on my 48K Oric but I don't know how to get different in different colours on the screen at the same time. I also want to get a program to RUN using a command in the program itself.
Ian Eden
Cannock, Staffs.
A. To get different colours on the screen in either HI- or LORES modes requires that you "send" an attribute to the screen. In LORES or TEXT, this is most easily done by PRINTing a CHR$ in the range 128 to 151 just before the item you want displayed. To have the string "PCN" in red ink on a black background, you would use PRINT CHR$(144);CHR$(129);"PCN". The first two CHR$() control the local INK and PAPER attributes for items to their right.
If you want to use this CHR$ method with PLOT, subtract 128 from the values given.
Another method is to send escape sequences before the displayed item, but this is not without its problems.
PRINT CHR$(N)
INK
COLOUR
PAPER
128
Black
144
129
Red
145
130
Green
146
131
Yellow
147
132
Blue
148
133
Magenta
149
134
Cyan
150
135
White
151
136
Single-height, standard characters
137
Alternate character set
138
Double-height characters
139
Alternate character set
140
Flashing characters
141
Alternate character set, flashing
142
Double-height, flashing characters
143
Double-height, alternate, flashing
To get a program to RUN itself, simply use the command in a program line (1020 in the example):
1000 PRINT "Do you want another go?"
1010 GET A$:IF A$<>"Y" AND A$<>"N" AND A$<>"n" THEN GOTO 1010
1020 IF A$="N" OR A$="n" THEN CLS:NEW ELSE RUN
14th January 1984
