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PUISSANCE 4 (POWER4) by Michel Raymond

Started by ComSoft6128, 14:31, 20 March 21

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ComSoft6128

1989 French PD utility that allows for four standard 17K screen to be loaded into the memory of
the 6128 to create one large "superscreen" that can be scrolled thru horizontally or vertically.
Published in Amstar and CPC magazine March/April 1989.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lChrANHolcM

From CPCRULEZ-

"POWER FOUR increases the screen area by four, using the additional 64 KB of memory.

As the monitor screen does not allow all the screens to be viewed, RSXs have been installed to allow pages to be moved using the keys on the keyboard. The blocks can be arranged in 3 ways to create a horizontal, vertical or square screen. The second part of the software allows the printing of the drawing or the text created at scale 1 or 2. The third part can only be used with a CPC modified for the use of the 8th bit. The fourth and last part allows the video inversion of all or part of the displayed screen but also the horizontal or vertical inversion as well as the displacement of an area. All these commands can be executed in mode 0, 1 or 2 except the print command. Automatic scrolling is prohibited. The software must be installed at an address greater than 32767 otherwise, when the blocks are swapped, the program will be exited. Power 4 is used with PCB drawing software and it gives complete satisfaction.

DESCRIPTION OF THE 14 RSX COMMANDS

1 / | DOWN, speed
2 / | UP, speed
3 / | RIGHT, speed
4 / | LEFT, speed

These four commands are used to move the screen, the speed parameter allows a more or less rapid movement, if it is omitted it takes the value 1 by default.

5 / | COPY, transfer direction, block number
This command copies the screen to the memory blocks or vice versa. The 1st parameter can take the value 0 or 1. For 0, the transfer takes place from the blocks to the screen, for 1 it is the reverse. The second parameter can take the values ​​0 to 4.
0: transfer with the real location in the blocks; 1: 2: 3: 4: are the numbers of the blocks where the transfer must take place.

6 / | DISPOS, arrangement of blocks, number of blocks
The 1st parameter gives the screen the following forms. 0: VERTICAL, 1: HORIZONTAL, 2: SQUARE.
The 2nd parameter is the number of blocks to use (minimum 2 and maximum 4). If the chosen layout is the square, the number of blocks must be 4, if you enter 2 or 3, the program itself generates the value 4.

7 / | PERMUT, block number
The two parameters correspond to the numbers of the blocks to be swapped, no swapping is possible with the screen.

8 / | IMP, scale
Reproduces the design on the printer. This command only works in mode 2. The "scale" parameter can take the value 1 or 2. Printing at scale 2 gives a drawing of 640 dots * 400 or 20.32 cm * 12.70 cm for a single block which gives for 4 vertical blocks 20.32 * 50.80 cm; horizontally 81.28 * 12.70, in this case the blocks are turned by 1/4 turn to allow subsequent printing. If the value of the parameter is 1, the drawing is halved (320 points "200). If the blocks are arranged in a square, the copy is automatically made at scale 1, the dimensions of the printer prohibiting the copy at scale 2, The reduced copy removes every other bit in the horizontal direction. Also, to obtain a perfect reproduction, the vertical lines must have a width of 2 pixels or be placed on even columns. Pressing capital Q permanently stops printing.

9 / | BIT8
Allows the screen to be printed in 8 bits, if the CPC used has been modified. The principle of this routine is to divert the vector to test the 8th bit and send it to the printer if it is at 1.

10 / | BIT7
Simply put the vector back in its place if the previous command was executed.

11 / | INVH
Used to draw a window on the screen and horizontally invert its content, the window can contain one byte or the entire screen.

12 / | INVV
Like the previous command but the inversion is done vertically.

13 / | INVVID
Same principle but video inversion.

14 / | MOVE
Allows you to move part of the screen without destroying it, its use is similar to the previous commands.

THE LAST 4 ORDERS

After typing the desired command, a cursor appears in the center of the screen. This can be moved using the arrow keys; the cursor must always be placed at the bottom and to the left of the part to be modified. Pressing the COPY key fixes the cursor and authorizes the opening of a window using the arrow keys, a second press executes the command. Pressing the RETURN key confirms your decision, DEL returns to the cursor. When a window has been opened, pressing DEL authorizes the movement: you must press COPY again to fix the window. At any time, pressing capital Q returns to Basic."

Links:

https://cpcrulez.fr/applications_util-puissance_4__ASTR.htm

https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=4786

Not emulated - original hardware and software

Please note that  the aspect ratio for this YouTube video is 16:9 but the CPC monitor
has an aspect ratio of 4:3 so you may wish to adjust your viewing device accordingly.

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