On Wed, Jan 4, 2023 at 1:22 PM Philippe Van Lieu <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 1/4/2023 1:03 PM, [email protected] wrote: > > The Model 100 does not have a hardware character generator. It paints the > > characters to the display via software. The Model 100 supports one font, > > which is programmed into the ROM. > > Just to make sure I'm on the same page: the characters are saved in > software (albeit on the ROM), which means it's possible to replace it? > Because I have noticed that something like Ultimate II ROM can switch from > a 6x8 pixel character to 4x8 character. Alternatively, if I could replace > the characters to turn them into graphics for, say, a video game, that > would be awesome. > > On the Model 100, T102, T200, the characters are in ROM and the ROM cannot be changed without custom hardware. Etched in stone. You cannot really replace them via software. However... 1. You can render your own characters just as the ROM does, possibly calling it to do it in most circumstances. Or you could do your own render, the advantage being able to put your characters at any pixel position (the ROM can only do it at 40x8 positions). And you could for given characters override with your own character data.. 2. There are software hooks in the ROM that your software can use to provide higher density character displays, output to external devices, etc while everything else works the same. For example the TEXT, the BASIC prompt could appear at a higher density or redirected to an external display. 3. The NEC 8300, and I think the 8201A have banking and a facility for running the whole system from RAM. On the NECs you can replace the character raster data via software. -- John.
