Instructions for the DigiMag V1.0


Introduction:

This utility is a so called "Electronic Magazine Routine" or EMR for short.
The EMR displays pictures drawn in Deluxe Paint (any version) as pages, and
let you choose which page to read. There is also possible (actually it's
necessary) to play a tune made with Soundtracker 2.3 while reading...


The Pages:

The pages of the magazine are actually ordinary pictures drawn in DPaint, and
must use the folloing format:

Width:  640 (Medium resolution.........................)
Height: 256 (But don't use the lowest 12 lines.........)
Colors:  16 (Even if you do not use all 16 colors......)

Before you can use the pictures in your EMR, you have to convert them from
IFF- to RAW-Format. This you can do with IFF-converter, Pixmate or any other
converter...

Now it's time to CRUNCH the HUGE RAW files using ByteKiller (No other cruncher
will do!). If you're not familiar with the ByteKiller cruncher, here's what
you'll have to do...

Using Bytekiller:

Step one:    LOAD ByteKiller
Step two:    Alloc at least 128 KiloBytes
Step three:  Load the wanted RAW-picture
Step four:   Set offset to something between $200 and $800, depending on how
             much you want to crunch the picture (and the time you've got!).
             $800 gives the smallest file, but is very time consuming!
Step five:   WAIT... and WAIT... and WAIT again while crunching
Step six:    Choose D for Data file.
Step seven:  Save the file. Thats all! Return to step one for next picture!


Using Music:

You must use a Module saved in Soundtracker 2.3 with a maximum length of
147000 bytes. Now the module must be crunched as above...


The Preset File:

In this file, which you make with any text-editor, you write the name of
YOUR magazine, but first you'll have to write which preset pages to load
when pressing the Funktion-Keys in your mag. look at this example:

01040914152021222336<return>
The Technocratic Times Issue 1     Release Date: 1989-07-29<......spaces......> 

Note that you must fill the whole last line with spaces!

This example loads the page01 when pressing F1, page04 when pressing F2 and
page36 when pressing F10 and so on...


Putting it all together:

Step one:    Format a disk.
Step two:    Create the folloing Directories: Pages,Tune and S
Step three:  Copy the File DigiMag to your disk.
Step four:   Copy your song named TUNE to the Tune directory.
Step five:   Copy the pages named PageXX (where XX is the page number) to
             the Pages directory. The first page must be called Page01.
Step six:    Copy your preset file to the S directory (name it Preset).
Step seven:  Make a Startup-sequence file with the text: "DigiMag" and put
             it in the S directory.



Using the magazine:

Cursor Right/Left:   Loads next/previous page.
Cursor Up/Down:      Smoothly scrolls the page up/down (for NTSC users).
F1-F10:              Loads the preset pages.
Figures 0-9:         Type in the page number to want to go to.
Del:                 Toggles stars on/off!


You're not alone!

Two Great magazines have used this fanzy routine, namely:
The Technocratic Times         and         The Bad Tongue