Problems with PAL/NTSC...  (A User's Nightmare)
by Ken Mays, International Connections
--------------For NewsFlash!-------------------

The first thing that may  come  into  your  mind  is, "here we go
again with ANOTHER tutorial"  but  that  is not the case here. In
Germany, I  have  found  that  people  choose  to  use  different
utilities that are not often  found  in America or Great Britian.
These utilities, like  Soundtracker  V3.0  (and V2.4) provide the
user with a easier way to obtain a  music program without burning
a hole in their pockets.


In America, the hottest utilities being used Cape Assembler V2.1,
Synthia professional, Sonix V2,  CanDo!,  The  Director, DigiView
V4, DigiPaint V3, Deluxe  Paint  III,  Deluxe  Video  III, DevPac
V2.14, Lattice C V5.04, Aztec C  V5.0,  ReSource Disassembler and
the list just goes on. Most of  the  european  programs using PAL
usually aren't majorily distributed  because of the lower part of
the screen missing  from  view.  I  lately  loaded  up  a few PAL
programs to check  how  bad  this  can  be  and  YES - there is a
problem.


In Europe (I  could  do  other  countries  but  there  are  other
reporters for that job :-) ) some  of the best utilities I've use
was  Amiga  Loads  faster  V2,  GFA  Basic,  HiSoft  Basic,  Seka
Assembler,   Soundtracker-Animator,   XCopy   V2.1,  BurstNibbler
(1990), The Nordic Power Cartridge,  Reflections (ray-tracer like
the  American  Turbo-Silver  V3.x),  Kick-Editor,  Kick-Assembler
V1.2,  R.C.T-Requester/Menu  Construction  Tool,  TurboPrint  II,
SAM-Security  Application   Microprocessor   System,   DigiSmooth
(graphics tablet), the  AMIGA  Action  Replay  Cartridge, and the
VD-4 Digitizer. There is  also  TechnicSupport's  Official  AMIGA
Catalog 1990 carrying out over 900 AMIGA products. If you want to
get your hands on one for DM 26.00 then write to:

                         TechnicSupport GbmH
                         Marketing und Verlag
                         Bundesallee 36-37
                         1000 Berlin 31
                         Tel: 030/862 13 14/5/99
                         (The Official Amiga Catalog 1990)
                         (ISBN 3-926847-28-x)

This all brings one thing to  mind,  why do some of your programs
not use the last few lines on  your  screen  (NTSC-to-PAL) or why
can't you SEE the last few  lines  on  your screen (PAL-to-NTSC)?
With all of the best utilities  being  made  in various countries
you would think the programmer  would  make  a few adjustments in
his or her code to detect for NTSC/PAL  screens. I have all three
of the 1989-1990 Commodore RKM Manuals  and found there were ways
in C and Assembler to detect  this  on the Agnus chip. Adding the
code was easy and  detecting  the  screen  mode was easy but what
about the actual  picture  file!?  I  had  written a few mags and
asked what would happen if you digitized  a few PAL screens for a
slideshow and then sent it  to  America  for  presentation?  What
would happen is that  someone  would  see  your great pictureshow
with the lower part of it  "chopped"  out.  The opposite is to do
this in America on  the  NEWTEK  NTSC  Digiview  V4  and show the
slideshow in Europe only to  have  a  big black border show up in
that lower half of the screen (oh well!).

To all programmer, developers,  and  hackers: I ask that you keep
this in mind when you program on the Amiga. Before you write your
world famous utilities/games/demo  then think whether you want to
make your product adjust itself  to  the NTSC/PAL modes or suffer
the NTSC/PAL mode tragedy (chop-chop). -:KLM:-


Reference Books to Make Your Programming Life Easier:
------------------THE-MAYS-BIBLIOTHEK----------------

The Official Amiga Catalog 1990 by TechnicSupport
Commodore Amiga Hardware Manual by Addison-Wesley
Commodore Amiga RKM:Includes and AutoDocs by Addison-Wesley
Commodore Amiga RKM:Libraries and Devices by Addison-Wesley
The Abacus/Data Becker AMIGA Library
The Mark and Technik AMIGA Library
The Sybex Programming the Amiga HandBooks.
Inside Commodore Dos and Bantam's AmigaDOS manual (OLD!!)
Kickstart Guide to the Amiga (New version)
Rob Peck's Guides to the Amiga Operating System
The GFA 3.0 Book by Heim Verlag (German)
Guru's Guide,Meditation #1
All the 68000-68040 reference  books  you can find plus lots of C
and Assembler source code  floating  around in PD houses.-> There
are more books but this is an excellent start.

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