Re: Screen capture help

[rubywand@aol.com]

Zappa  <open@open.seanet.com> wrote:
>Does anyone know a way to perform a screen capture on an 
>Apple IIGS? On a Mac, you can press command-shift-3 to get 
>a PICT file of whatever is displayed. Is there any such 
>shortcut for my A2, or failing that, is there any software 
>solution?


     You can capture quite a few super-res screens using a CDA, such as EA
Screen Saver: Once the CDA is installed. You can interrupt a game, etc.
via the usual OA-CTRL-ESC to get to the CDA select menu. Select EA Screen
Saver and press RETURN to save the screen as a standard 33k unpacked
screen file to the current directory (as, in order, "Screen.0", 
"Screen.1", etc.).

     One major limitation of the CDA screen-saver technique is that it
requires getting access to the CDA menu. Many games shut down this access.
Various utilities may permit a 'snapshot' at some times but shut down
access during menu pull-downs, alerts, etc.. Another limitation is that
you cannot capture Finder, etc. screens.

     You can capture most super-res screens by booting a ProDOS 8
super-res display/save utility, such as Nibble's SuperPac, which does not
modify the display area. For example, to capture a screen, you would make
sure the boot Slot has been set to 5 and that the diskette which starts
SuperPac is in drive 1. When you get the screen you want to grab, you do
OA-CTRL-RESET to force a boot, and start SuperPac. You will be able to
display and save the screen.

     A utility like SuperPac does not care whether or not the screen is a
desktop display; and, it does not require getting access to the CDA menu.
Practically any screen (320 or 640 mode, mixed or unmixed)  using 16 or
fewer palettes can be grabbed. ("3200 color" pics which employ more than
16 palettes will not be fully captured.)  Of course, one can hardly call
this method "convenient". Having to interrupt a game, etc. via a ProDOS 8
boot is a significant limitation. (Also, it is best to avoid interrupting
a disk write with a RESET.) 

Note: A captured screen which employs 2 or more palettes will not display
or save properly under Platinum Paint and most other GS paint programs.
Convert 3200, Super Convert, and Prism can display and save multi-palette
screens as can Super Pac. Most super-res screens use just one palette.


Rubywand