Here is a quick start guide on how to use the Double Koala Paint Demo / Loader Maker:
You will need the following files:
- 2 Koala paint multicolour bitmaps (Filenames do not matter)
- A piece of SID music (Converted to C64 data/prg), located at $1000
- A custom character set.
- A packer/cruncher (optional)
- Plenty of disk space.
1. Select option 1 and load in the music. (For example a tune saved in PRG from Goat Tracker, or any music editor like DMC V4.0, JCH, Voicetracker, etc). Enter as the file name MYMUSIC* for example.
2. After loading, enter the music init / play parameters. For general music players like Goat Tracker, DMC, JCH, etc. Init address is $1000 and play is $1003.
Note: Use 1000 (without $) and 1003 (without $) when entering the init and play parameters. Otherwise you will get silence possibly a crash.
3. Select option 2 and load in your two Koala Paint images, there is no extension required. Simply enter for example ?PIC 1* ?PIC 2* if using the generic Koala Paint extension or PIC1* PIC2* if your pics are NOT using the koala paint extension.
4. Select option 3 and load in your custom made 1x1 font for the sprite scroll.
5. Select option 4 and write a scroll text, remember that @ should be set as the wrap marker to loop your scrolling message. Home your cursor and then press RETURN (Enter) to exit the scroll editor.
6. After Edit the colour flash table (40 chars). The colour table looks something like this:
@ = Black, A = White, B = Red, C = Cyan, D = Purple, E = Green, F = Blue, G = Yellow
H = Orange, I = Brown, J = Light Red (pink), K = Dark Grey, L = Medium Grey, M = Light Green, N = Light Blue, O = Light Grey
After you are happy with your table press Return (Enter) to exit.
7. Enter the delay rate of the colour flash (1-8). The lower the value the more faster the scroll text flashes.
8. Select if you would like your scrolling message to expand the Y axis to display enlarged sprites. (Note, due to the size of the screen on NTSC, the size of the sprite scroll is automatically set as no Y axis expansion).
9. Test your demo, to see if you are happy with it. Press spacebar or fire to flip to the second image, and then press spacebar or fire to exit back to the main menu.
10. Finally save your finished demo to disk as either a demo (which will reset the C64 after displaying) or as a loader (Enter the name of the program to load first end end file name with * e.g BLASTOPIA*. ).
11 (optional). Use a packer/cruncher to crunch the file further. Use $080D as jump address and $37 as $01 value.