ICE Editor beta 0.0.0.1

Ok, this isn't much on documentation, and I am still in the stages of getting everything finished up, but when this is finished, this will be a font editor which will edit in 19 different software characterflip modes on the Atari 8-bit.

Some of you may be familiar with the concept of Character flip modes, from Bill Kendrick's Super IRG mode and his Gemdrop game.  The basics of this is, a character set gets flipped every VBI to increase the number of colors displayable.  In these additional modes, other registers such as GTIA or color registers get flipped to increase the number of colors displayable.

I will be including with this documentation an update on the software text modes I will be supporting in this editor (19 in all).

At this stage, I have split the editor into three seperate programs:

on ice-editor.atr:

ICE3.TUR - edits in 2x8 GTIA modes (Super 9, Super 10, Super 11, HIP, CHIP, APAC)

ICECIN.TUR edits in 2x8/4x8 CIN modes (CIN 0a, MIN 0a, PCIN 0a, CIN 1, MIN 1, PCIN 1, CIN 2, MIN 2, PCIN 2)

on ice-editor2.atr

ICEIRG.TUR - edits in 4x8 modes (Super IRG, Super IRG 2, Super 0a, DIN a)

note, an "a" after any modes indicate that artifacting is used in modes using GRAPHICS 0 as a base.

Editing basics:  Your joystick controls your cursor on the editing grid.  Typing 0-9 or A-F selects your drawing color from the palette listed below each editing grid.  There are two grids, one for normal video and one for inverse.  In modes besides the 4x8 ones, you can scroll your drawing pallette by doing CTRL-TAB

To select the character to edit, using control and arrows moves your cursor over the character set display, and hitting RETURN will copy that character to the editing grid.

Hitting "P" (except in 4x8 modes) moves you into the pallette selector.  A pallette of all the colors available in that mode comes up, you move your cursor over the one you want, and typing 0-9 A-F puts that color in the appropriate place on your drawing pallette.  Fire button returns you to editing.  Note that in the CIN modes, you get a dual pallette, one for normal video and one for inverse, and you select from a total of 64 colors each side.  In the GTIA modes you select from a total of 256 colors.

Typing "G" will scroll you through all the available graphics modes.

Most of the editing functions (copy, scroll character) are functional.  Still left to do:  I will be writing seperate editors for the rest of the modes (8x8 super 0, 2x8/8x8 cin 0 modes, and the 4x8/8x8 DIN mode) and I may also add support for modes which use GRAPHICS 1/2 as a base.

Ultimately, the goal is to tie all these modes and character grids into the same editor, which will be a massive undertaking.