Re: ASCII versions - for animation

[Andrew Cadley SYS Staff <ac@sys.uea.ac.uk>]

On 10 Nov 1999, Niall Tracey wrote:

> I wish to develop a new type of FMV for the 8bits using ASCII art with
> subtitles. I need to work out the screen dimensions compatible with
> the highest number of machines possible (without leaving too many
> machines using a tiny display), and how much leeway is available in
> defining (simple) colour schemes (basically things like setting
> underwater scenes to blue, and sunset scenes to red/orange etc.).

I've been thinking about this and, while it *sounds* like a good idea, I
can already anticipate a couple of problems. While machines like the C64
and BBC have text based screen modes, others like the CPC and Speccy
don't. Writing ASCII characters to the screen in those cases is going to
be just as slow as working with a full-on bitmap and you're not going to
get much of a frame rate.

The colour thing might also be a bit iffy as far as the Speccy goes,
because it's graphics are somewhat limited in those respects. Also PCW
(and indeed some CPC owners) have only got green. Which isn't quite so
good.

Anyhue, it'll be interesting to see what you make of it.

AndyC