this is just a thought, I'm not sure if this will work because I've never
messed with memory much, but could you put it in an array and then copy
the array over to where the video memory is?

    Is it possible to get more than just one video page on SCREEN 13 in
QBasic (the one with DOS)? Or can anyone help me with the following
problem:

    I'm making a game, but when I load the graphics (coded 256 color
gifs) they flash on the screen while I GET them. I know I can use a
second video page to "hide" the picture while I get the graphics, but
only one is available in SCREEN 13. Is it possible to keep them out of
view of the user using another method than video pages?

Martin Seefeldt,

http://www.geocities.com/timessquare/5698/index.html

Using the following routines, add this to your code:

'*** What this will do is save the current palette then blackout
'*** the screen.  After the screen is blacked out, draw your pictures
'*** and GET them (which will all be done in the dark!).  Once that is
'*** done, clear the screen and put the palette back the way it was.
'*** TADA!  No flashing. :)
DIM pal(0 to 255, 1 to 3)

GetPal pal()
BlackOut

'*** Put your GETs here!

CLS
PutPal pal()

'*** This subroutine will dump the current palette into an array.
'*** The array should be dimensioned like this:
'***
'*** DIM pal(0 to 255, 1 to 3)
'***
'*** The name, of course, is variable.
SUB GetPal (pal())
   FOR clr = 0 TO 255
      OUT &H3C7, clr
      pal(clr, 1) = INP(&H3C9)
      pal(clr, 2) = INP(&H3C9)
      pal(clr, 3) = INP(&H3C9)
   NEXT clr
END SUB

'*** This subroutine will restore a previously saved palette.
'*** See GetPal() for details on the array dimensions.
SUB PutPal (pal())

   FOR clr = 0 TO 255
      OUT &H3C8, clr
      OUT &H3C9, pal(clr, 1)
      OUT &H3C9, pal(clr, 2)
      OUT &H3C9, pal(clr, 3)
   NEXT clr

END SUB

'*** This subroutine will set all palette colors to 0 (black).
SUB BlackOut

   FOR clr = 0 TO 255
      OUT &H3C8, clr
      OUT &H3C9, 0
      OUT &H3C9, 0
      OUT &H3C9, 0
   NEXT clr

END SUB

+-----------------------------------+

|-----------------------------------|
|   http://www.dtx.net/~leger/      |
+-----------------------------------+-------+
|VISIT THE BULLETIN BOARD SEARCH ENGINE!    |
|       http://www.dtx.net/~leger/bbs.html  |
|17,680 BBSes indexed in the United States! |
+-------------------------------------------+

  One is creating a virtual screen to store data. Using a special routine,
you can copy the virtual screen data to the screen in a flash. I'm working
on this program but it'll be some time before I release it -- got some
extra stuff to work on.

  Second method is using Mode-X. There are routines that puts you in
mode-x but I haven't seen any fully-supported mode-x library yet. Too
bad...

-Mark

====
Mark K. Kim

http://members.aol.com/markkkim/

writes

SUB MODEX
    SCREEN 13
    DEF SEG = &HA000
    OUT &H3C4, &H4
    OUT &H3C5, &H6
    OUT &H3C4, &H2
    OUT &H3C5, &HF
    CLS
    OUT &H3D4, &H14
    OUT &H3D5, &H0
    OUT &H3D4, &H17
    OUT &H3D5, &HE3
    OUT &H3C2, &HE3
    OUT &H3D4, &H11
    OUT &H3D5, &H2C
    OUT &H3D4, &H6
    OUT &H3D5, &HD
    OUT &H3D4, &H7
    OUT &H3D5, &H3E
    OUT &H3D4, &H10
    OUT &H3D5, &HEA
    OUT &H3D4, &H11
    OUT &H3D5, &HAC
    OUT &H3D4, &H12
    OUT &H3D5, &HDF
    OUT &H3D4, &H15
    OUT &H3D5, &HE7
    OUT &H3D4, &H16
    OUT &H3D5, &H6
END SUB

About writing your own functions:  you cannot use QBasic's GET, PUT, PSET, LINE, CIRCLE,
or any graphics function because xmode is foreign to QBasic.

--
______________________________

Steven Sensarn

______________________________

that creates a cool effect as you see the colors appear at different
times