Sprite Editor

Sprite Editor - Simon Owen (Your Sinclair-August 88-Page 80)

[files SPRITE-E.*]



It's been ages since we had a sprite designer, and out of the lot that I've

collected Simon Owen's really caught my eye (ouch!). Why did it catch my eye,

you may ask? Because it's utterly and totally brilliant of course. For an

amateur attempt, this program is distinctly professional. It's really, really,

really good and well worth the 2682 bytes of typing.

"The Editor is a 100 percent machine code, high quality, user friendly, grap-

hics utility, which has many extra features to make designing and editing easy

and enjoyable." says Simon and I couldn't have put it better myself, so I

haven't!

Got the message? Good, on with the show...



METHOD



As normal, type in the endless list of hex using the Hex Loader. The code be-

gins at 25000 and is 2688 bytes long so save it with SAVE "editor"CODE 25000,

2688. Then just RANDOMIZE USR 25000 to get it running.



WHAT'S WHAT



After running, the following is shown on screen:

- the current examine address in the top left (initially 27904)

- the current sprite (actual size), in the top right

- the current mode in the bottom left (VIEWING, EDITING, SAVING or LOADING)

- the magnified sprite in a grid (you can't miss it!)

- confirmation instructions between the viewing window and the current ad-

dress (in all cases, answer either "Y" or "N")



VIEWING MODE



The Editor works in two main modes. Viewing mode is used to search through

memory to locate sprites or to find a free space:



*Q - Increase by 2 window width

*A - Decrease by 2 window width

*O - Decrease by 1

*P - Increase by 1

*W - Increase by 32 window size

*S - Decrease by 32 window size

H - Decrease by 1000

J - Increase by 1000

E - Enter EDIT mode

ss - Return to Basic

G - Toggle grid On/Off

L - Load file (headerless)

K - Intelligent save (saves what was last loaded)

F/T - Window copy

F - Move to window to be copied

T - Move to place to be copied

9/0 - Save block

9 - Move to first character

0 - Move to last character

1,2,3,4 - Change grid width



EDITING MODE



The other mode is the mode for changing or designing your own sprites:



Q - Cursor up

A - Cursor down

O - Cursor left

P - Cursor right

M - Set/Reset pixel

Z - Return to VIEWING mode

I - Invert window

V - Flip vertical

B - Flip horizontal

C - Clear window

7 - Scroll window up

*8 - Scroll window right



And for this superb contribution, Simon receives a cash reward and a free

game of his choice.



THE CODE



Mammoth, but worth it if you're serious about graphic design or game program-

ming.



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TYPE: Utility



COMMENT: Keys in Viewing Mode and Editing Mode marked '*' were mistypes in

the text in Your Sinclair, and Miodrag Stancevic helped correcting this.



[Text typed by Jim Grimwood for The Type Fantastic]