Using the Wordpak2+ and the CoCo-PSG on the Dragon

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pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Using the Wordpak2+ and the CoCo-PSG on the Dragon

Post by pser1 »

Hello,
I have prepared two drivers to work in mode Text1 (40 columns) and in Text2 (80 columns)
Both intercept some system hooks in order to 'adapt' the CharOut, Cls and Print@ to the new width
Because of the changed hooks, you should remember to uninstall the driver or system will hang or go wild!
I attach here two virtual disks:
- WORDPAK2.VDK that contains programs and FONTS.VDK that contains some 160 fonts downloaded from the wildnet.
Most of them are ok for games but really awful for text reading, even some of them are too wide, using the eight bits
for each character whilst the V9958 defines the chars using only 6 bits so 2 separator bits ...
RUN"T1MODE" will install the driver for the 40 column mode and will show you the 'default' set of fonts that are very readable.
Pressing a key will show two important messages and will allow you to choose one font among the 160 that are in the FONTS disk.
This FONTS disk should be mounted in drive 2 ... or you could edit the Basic program to your liking.
Same applies when using RUN"T2MODE" for the 80 columns mode.
***REMEMBER*** to EXEC&H7000 before changing from one mode to another ...
cheers
pere
WordPak2+ Test VDKs.zip
(64.04 KiB) Downloaded 451 times
Last edited by pser1 on Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: Using the Wordpak2+ on the Dragon

Post by pser1 »

Besides the text drivers for Basic and DOS, I have been testing the graphic modes G4,G6 and G7
These are 256x192@16, 512x192@16 and 256x192@256colours. The vertical 192 can be set to 212 at will.
My first atempt has been trying to blend together two images with different colours, so that we could see a lot more
on the resulting screen, say 16x16/2 due to repetitions will be some 128 colours on a 16 colours graphic mode, not that bad
for still pictures ...
All of the modes allow for three different ways to get this result, but none of them succeeded.
All of the cases end up showing the two images interleaved, say one row from image1, one from image2 and so on
resulting in an image with double vertical resolution 256x384 but this was not what I wanted :-(
The programs to be tested .. after EXEC&H7000 if you were in any Text mode are:
- G6MIX2V0.BIN, G6MIX2V1.BIN, G6MIX2V2.BIN
They paint on Page0 16 vertical coloured bars and then after pressing a key they paint 16 horizontal coloured bars on Page1
Pressing a key again launches a process that should blend them ... You will see the result on your setup.
G6MIX2V1 enters an endless loop switching pages, so requires reset to exit. I have included it because this was 'another' way to do that :-(
You will tell me how this works on your upgraded Dragons ;-)
cheers
pere
pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: Using the Wordpak2+ on the Dragon

Post by pser1 »

Hello,
let me show you a few photos-screenshots ...
cheers
pere
Laptop with DW4 server and D64 screen Video captured.jpg
Laptop with DW4 server and D64 screen Video captured.jpg (77.78 KiB) Viewed 11746 times
D64 with WordPak2+ & CoCo-SDC.jpg
D64 with WordPak2+ & CoCo-SDC.jpg (84.72 KiB) Viewed 11746 times
vertical bars.jpg
vertical bars.jpg (70.17 KiB) Viewed 11746 times
horizontal bars.jpg
horizontal bars.jpg (71.31 KiB) Viewed 11746 times
two interleaved images.jpg
two interleaved images.jpg (99.64 KiB) Viewed 11746 times
pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: Using the Wordpak2+ on the Dragon

Post by pser1 »

After a lot more tests with a friend from Retrowiki who knows far better the MSX2, the result keeps
being awful. No matter how we do the page changes, the V9958 decides to show both images interleaved :-(
Attached is a video showing the testing program
cheers
pere
G6Interleaved.zip
(22.34 MiB) Downloaded 479 times
pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: Using the Wordpak2+ on the Dragon

Post by pser1 »

Hello John,
some people think that this problem (interleaving images) could be due to the use of the 15KHz VGA signal (RGBS)
right to a modern TV set without upscaling it.
I will be looking for schematics that help getting both synchro pulses (VSync and HSync) out of the Composite Sync
that Wordpak2+ offers. This will help using other adaptor/upscaler modules different than Gonges GBS-8200
I will wait for the result of the tests on your module ... for maybe mine has some kind of defect.
So, I will appreciate you let me know how do the three programs work for you.
Thanks in advance
pere
pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: Using the Wordpak2+ on the Dragon

Post by pser1 »

I have been using a web images converter and got four of them in screen 12, which is a YJK mode
These are the results ... much better than previous images and conversors, but still searching for a better converter!
and yes, this is running on a Dragon 64!
cheers
pere
WSAILS-red.jpg
WSAILS-red.jpg (110.83 KiB) Viewed 11692 times
WWATCH-red.jpg
WWATCH-red.jpg (106.76 KiB) Viewed 11692 times
WMONARCH-red.jpg
WMONARCH-red.jpg (118.55 KiB) Viewed 11692 times
WLENA-red.jpg
WLENA-red.jpg (103.65 KiB) Viewed 11692 times
pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: Using the Wordpak2+ on the Dragon

Post by pser1 »

@dublevay
Hello John,
Have you had the time to test any of the three images 'mixer' programs I uploaded here?
It would be interesting to know how they work on your setup that seems to be quite like mine.
Once known the result we could decide if we should go for an upscaler module ...
Thanks in advance
pere
pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: Using the Wordpak2+ on the Dragon

Post by pser1 »

working on games screen ...
This is the first screen of the game Foggy's Quest that I had converted some time ago from ZX-80 AGD for the 6809 computers in B/W
but now we can see it in 16 colours (out of 512)
The image has been produced with the Dragon64 and Wordpak2+, combo that I like to name as "Dragon-MSX2+" ;-)
cheers
pere
Foggy1stScreen-D64V9958.jpg
Foggy1stScreen-D64V9958.jpg (120.16 KiB) Viewed 11599 times
sixxie
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Location: Hertfordshire
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Re: Using the Wordpak2+ on the Dragon

Post by sixxie »

Looks nice!

Are you able to update the display fast enough to make something playable?
dublevay
Posts: 173
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:41 pm

Re: Using the Wordpak2+ on the Dragon

Post by dublevay »

Hi Pere,

I have finally tried out your programs. Here are my videos...

T1 Mode: https://youtu.be/aAxDEZ3Slr4
T2 Mode: https://youtu.be/IU4zW53OILU

G6 Mix 2v0: https://youtu.be/FZCj4OMQZpc
G6 Mix 2v1: https://youtu.be/8iuuypJUCpI
G6 Mix 2v2: https://youtu.be/IOpnsn751JA
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