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*                                                                             *
*   Demo:   CPC Plus Desktop   Type:    Amstrad CPC Emulator DSK File         *
*   Author: Odiesoft           Webpage: http://www.odiesoft.de                *
*   Size:   1 * 194816 Bytes   Date:    14. January 2004                      *
*   File:   Odiesoft Shorts - CPC Plus Desktop (1995).dsk                     *
*                                                                             *
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Title: CPC Plus Desktop
Year:  1995


In 1994 I ordered a CPC+ from a mail order house in Great Britain. I wanted to
see what this new kind of CPC was able to do. Unfortunately the extra features
of the CPC plus weren't supposed to be used by the general public. After these
features were exposed by Logon Systems everybody was able to use them in his
programs or demos.

I've used the features of the new ASIC graphics chip in some of my demos. That
is I upgraded the twistscroll to feature a plus version with better color. I
also added more colors to my texture mapping demo to make it look even better on
the CPC+ and I added hardware sprites to the unfinished chessboard zoomer, so
that besides the chessboard I could also have vertical color bars on the
screen.

But besides that I was also just trying out different things with the sprites
and extra colors. For example I created a ROM-RAM-Box module that's only purpose
was to display a mode 1, 16 color Odiesoft logo in the bottom right corner of
the screen when the CPC was turned on.

Another one of these test programs was a mock-up desktop for the CPC+. The
graphics for this desktop were a blatant rip-off from the Acorn desktop, but I
intended to change that as some later point. I used up all 16 CPC+ hardware
sprites to display a full horizontal line of graphics on the screen.
Unfortunately I had to zoom the sprites to Mode 0, so that they filled the whole
screen - that made the menu and icons look a little blocky, but I didn't know
how to do a horizontal splitting of the hardware sprites.

I also added some submenus to the desktop, so if you move the mouse over the
different drive icons or the change color icon, context menus would pop up.
These menus didn't have any function. I intended to add at least minimal
function to these menus, that is you were supposed to be able to change the
screen resolution and the colors and display the directories of the A, B and C
drive. But more than that wasn't planned. I never intended to create a fully
functional operating system - I was just fooling around a little and that's all.


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*                                                                             *
* This program can be distributed freely and without the need of a written    *
* of a written permission by Odiesoft, as long as it is distributed free of   *
* charge!                                                                     *
*                                                                             *
* If you had to pay for this, you've been ripped off!                         *
*                                                                             *
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