
PowerGrid Loader Source
-----------------------

- Whats this?

	This is the source to the loader I put together for the PowerGrid. I
figured I'd release the source to this because it shows a couple of neat
items used in loaders, and some of those out there might need a little help
in setting up some of those effects, notably the lens deal. However, I cant
really stop people from ripping the routines without modification beyond
what's necessary to make it run. I mean, I did it when I started, but when I
started releasing work, it was original (well, the CODE was original, the
effects weren't :)) But some people out there aren't willing to learn HOW it
works, they just want to slap their name on the product and say how cool they
are. Oh well. Enough of this... on with the goods.

We got several files in this archive:

- Data
SC256.DAT       - Sin/Cosine table.
LENS.DAT        - Lens refraction table.
NEWFONT.DAT     - 8x12 Font courtesy of Pixel/FC
PGRID_SC.DAT    - Eight Ball's PowerGrid bitmap
PG_FINAL.DAT    - Final ANSI Screen, TheDraw .ASM Format
AD_DATA.DAT     - Adlib Song: "PowerGrid" by Purple Motion/FC

- Code
ADLIB.ASM       - Psi's ST3->SIMPLEXADLIB player.
LENS.ASM        - Drawing the Lens
WR.ASM          - The Writer
PGRID.ASM       - Main code
PGRID.EXE       - Executable

- General
FILE_ID.DIZ     - Description
PGMAKE.BAT      - Make batch file
P3.GIF          - Eight Ball's Bitmap, .GIF format
PGRID.ANS       - Final ANSI Screen, ANSI format
README.SF       - You're reading it.

A coupla things worth noting:

1. The Writer, as well as the main screen draw routines, write both to the
   screen at A000:0000 and a 64000 byte buffer at DS:0000. If you don't
   account for this, you're gonna trash your entire program when you so
   heinously rip this. :)

2. The Lens has a 1 pixel border around it so it self-erases. If you want to
   move the lens more than 1 pixel at a time, you're gonna need to erase it,
   too.

3. Uncomment the BORDER directive to put a timing bar on the screen. On the
   386DX/33 w/OLD Paradise I used to write this, it got down about 40 or so
   pixels. On my 486, it shows about 10 or so pixels. (not including music)

4. The palette rotation routines for moving the background grid are kinda
   weak, because I started this program intending to see how red/green/blue
   balls could move independently. It sucked. I didnt change the routines,
   just how they were called.

5. Three parts of this loader I recommend against ripping for your own toys:
   Pixel's font, Psi's SimplexAdlib player, and Eight Ball's pictures. You
   may ask these people for the use of their stuff, but it is not mine to
   give out. Of course, thanks go to these folks for putting such excellent
   parts into the loader.

Anyway, enjoy.. Greets: See the PGRID.ASM. :)

		-Friar
