Blackthorne

These are for the file_id.diz and readme.txt of two of my new windows
startup screens that are based on the game Blackthorne:
http://www.iinet.net.au/~vannevar/castle.zip
http://www.iinet.net.au/~vannevar/night.zip
             ,
  o ,__  '`. '\ o
 /|~`        ; '\
 / \        / \

  o|
 <|`'
 / \

 ,__________
 '-:_:==:___`\
     `~~' `-\_)

-- 
|    _             .\ ~~   _       ^~
|   <')_,/    ,  ;  .\   >(')__,  . ` '  ,  ,______________._
|   (_~=/   \._`.'.  .\   (_~_/         _,  '------:_______  ;==( *BANG*
|    ='-     \=~_) ;  .\ ~^~~^~   ` (_~_/            | | `-\ \    *BANG*
|             -'=      .\    ~^~    ~^~~^~           `~'    \_;
|ICQ:11367619  EMAIL:bateau:-)jupiter-io.net  SITE:www.flashback-aw.net

those logos where really good, how did you get the animation? and the time
delay with the comet without any noticeble change in colour?

"Bateau" <Its...@Not-A-Real-Address.com> wrote in message
news:19t...@4ax.com...
> These are for the file_id.diz and readme.txt of two of my new windows
> startup screens that are based on the game Blackthorne:
> http://www.iinet.net.au/~vannevar/castle.zip
> http://www.iinet.net.au/~vannevar/night.zip
>              ,
>   o ,__  '`. '\ o
>  /|~`        ; '\
>  / \        / \
>
>   o|
>  <|`'
>  / \
>
>  ,__________
>  '-:_:==:___`\
>      `~~' `-\_)
>
> --
> |    _             .\ ~~   _       ^~
> |   <')_,/    ,  ;  .\   >(')__,  . ` '  ,  ,______________._
> |   (_~=/   \._`.'.  .\   (_~_/         _,  '------:_______  ;==( *BANG*
> |    ='-     \=~_) ;  .\ ~^~~^~   ` (_~_/            | | `-\ \    *BANG*
> |             -'=      .\    ~^~    ~^~~^~           `~'    \_;
> |ICQ:11367619  EMmAIL:bateau:-)jupiter-io.net  SITE:www.flashback-aw.net

Tommy: Do you expect me to reply?
Bateau: No Mr Tommy, I expect you to die!
>those logos where really good, how did you get the animation? and the time
>delay with the comet without any noticeble change in colour?

Well startup screens are just normal bmp files but with one byte
changed. That byte is a palette number. It means that entry on the
palette and every one after it will cycle among themselves.
For example, if the byte was set to 25 (37 in decimal), and the
palette looked like: 

abcdefghijkl
mnopqrstuvwx
yzabcdefghij
kLMNOPQRSTUV

Then the 38th (L) onwards would scroll, becoming:

abcdefghijkl
mnopqrstuvwx
yzabcdefghij
kMNOPQRSTUVL

Then:

abcdefghijkl
mnopqrstuvwx
yzabcdefghij
kNOPQRSTUVLM

Etc.
That's what causes the little blue bar to scroll in the default
Windows startup screen.

The whole picture only uses a few colours so there is lots of spare
room in the palette. I set all the spare entires in the palette to the
same colour as the sky, then set them and a few different coloured
entries (for the comet) to scroll. Then I had to set each pixel along
the path of the comet to a set palette number so that they would cycle
through to the light blue colour of the comet at the right time and it
make it look like the comet was moving. The comet is actually made up
of 2 sets of colours every time you see it but the comet stays in the
same shape. That's because each of those 2 sets of colours is divided
by half the spare background coloured palette entries.

This site explains it well:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Campus/7779/how.html
-- 
|    _             .\ ~~   _       ^~
|   <')_,/    ,  ;  .\   >(')__,  . ` '  ,  ,______________._
|   (_~=/   \._`.'.  .\   (_~_/         _,  '------:_______  ;==( *BANG*
|    ='-     \=~_) ;  .\ ~^~~^~   ` (_~_/            | | `-\ \    *BANG*
|             -'=      .\    ~^~    ~^~~^~           `~'    \_;
|ICQ:11367619  EMAIL:bateau:-)jupiter-io.net  SITE:www.flashback-aw.net