Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!meaddata!johnt From: johnt@meaddata.com (John Townsend) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: Increasing Graphics Resolution Message-ID: <4545@meaddata.meaddata.com> Date: 28 May 91 18:24:37 GMT References: <91141.165437HDK@psuvm.psu.edu> Sender: usenet@meaddata.com Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH Lines: 57 In article <91141.165437HDK@psuvm.psu.edu>, HDK@psuvm.psu.edu (H. D. Knoble) writes: |> We are running an Apple IIe, 128K, 80-Column Card, enhanced, either DOS 3.3 |> with AppleSoft or ProDos. We are looking for specific concrete answers |> with examples that run if this is practical. |> |> |> 1) Is there any way (even with PEEK/POKE) to get more resolution from a |> 280 by 170 high resolution screen? Is there any mechanism to get more |> colors? |> |> 2) How can one copy a graphics screen to a printer capable of doing graphics? |> About five years ago, Apple discovered that they could, with a very slight hardware change to the Apple //e (which brought about the revision B motherboard), cause the extended 80-column card and firmware to not only double the number of text columns (from 40 to 80), but also to double the horizontal resolution of hi-res and lo-res graphics. These have become known as "double hi-res" and "double lo-res", with resolutions of 560x192 and 80x48, respec- tively. As a consequence of the way the Apple II's generate color by the posi- tion of the pixel on the screen, the number of colors was also increased in double lo-res from 8 (although there are two whites and two blacks) to 16 (the same 16 colors in lo-res, with two greys). Since then, quite a few commercial programs have become available which take advantage of this feature. One of the first, I believe, was Broderbund's "Dazzle Draw" graphics program, although I think there was one even before it. If you're interested in using double hi-res from Applesoft, Beagle Brothers had/has a program (I think it's called "Beagle Graphics") which installs some "&" commands that let you do it much the same way that you would do normal hi-res graphics. However, the far-and-away best program ever written for the double-res programmer is an obscure program called "DoubleVision", by yours truly :-). It was (and might still be) sold by Dynacomp for about $40 a copy, but I haven't gotten any royalties for awhile, so I don't know what the status of it is now. It allows an Applesoft programmer to do both double lo-res and double hi-res with "&" commands which are similar to, but an extension of, the normal lo-res and hi-res graphics commands. It also has a well-defined assembly language interface with routines similar to those in the Applesoft ROM. It supports both the Broderbund and Beagle Brothers file formats for storing graphics to disk, and includes double hi-res font and shape table editors and a neat demo program. The program is ProDOS based, and has an excellent laser- printed user manual. All it requires is an enhanced 128K Apple //e, //c, or IIgs (actually, I've never run it on a IIgs, and I'm not sure why anyone would bother!). I'm now willing to give out copies to anyone who would like one, for little more than what it would cost me to make and send them out -- say, $10 -- though I'd like to retain the copyright at least for now. Maybe I'll make it shareware or something someday. Anyway, if you're interested, just let me know. P.S. See Neil Parker's reply for more info about doing double hi-res with POKEs and printing graphics. Good luck! -- John Townsend Internet: johnt@meaddata.com c/o Mead Data Central UUCP: ...!uunet!meaddata!skibum!johnt P.O. Box 933 Telephone: (513) 865-7250 Dayton, Ohio, 45401