Re: CGA monitor on a Laser 128

[lockwood@ecs.csun.edu (James Lockwood)]

pubpc1@library.ucla.edu wrote:

> In double-hires mode, the Laser or 8-bit II can generate
> 16-colors.  Also, for the colors that CGA monitors do display,
> they are WRONG.  With an analog color monitor, the Laser's
> video display chip will generate the pallete as it is supposed
> to look.

Agreed.

> Although not applying to the Laser, since you ask is there
> "any Apple // software," if you are including the GS, then
> yes.  The GS has screens that display 16 and (theoretically
> and with limitations) 256 and 3200 color screens from a palette
> of 4096.  For non-GS Apple II/Laser computers, 16 is max.

Well, this is nearly 100% true.  :)

About 5 years ago I wrote a small assembly program to do page-flipping
between the two double-hires pages.  With the right timing loop, it could
be almost completely flicker-free, and you could get a color palette of
about 220 distinct colors.

Since it took a large amount of CPU time and precise timing to keep the
flipping going without flicker, it was only really useful for displaying
still images (similar to the IIgs 3200 mode but a little less intensive).
I thought about writing a GIF converter for this wonky format, but never
managed to get around to it.

My original code is probably lost, but it's an easy effect to recreate with
a little experimentation.

-James