NTSC/PAL 1.0 BootNTSC/BootPAL 1.0 User Manual Mar 3, 1990 Preface ======= These programs are public domain, source code is included. You are free to use/change it as long as you leave my copyright notice intact. If you do make some nice improvements I'd like to hear about them, so please let me know. You can distribute these programs as long as you don't ask any more money for it than a nominal fee for copying, and if you keep this document with them. If you want to include this program in a commercial product you need my written permission. The source is in assembler and is ready to be assembled by DevPac. It should be no problem at all to get it to assemble under another assembler. If you have suggestions or remarks about these programs, or if you find any bugs, please let me know. Write to the following address: Nico François Corbielaan 13 3060 Bertem BELGIUM Contents ======== 1. An introduction 2. Usage of BootPAL and BootNTSC 3. The NTSC and PAL utilities 4. ECS Agnus 1. An introduction ================== I am now the proud owner of a brand new A2000, I kicked out my A500 (It has served me well :-) and scraped all my money together to buy this great machine. But why am I telling you this ? Well, the new A500/A2000 has got the new ECS 1Mb Agnus installed. As most of you will know the main advantages of this chip is that it can access 1Mb of CHIP memory and that it can blit larger memory blocks (32Kx32K). But there is one other difference with the old agnus: the new agnus is the same in the PAL and NTSC machines. A question that leaps to mind is 'Can you switch between PAL and NTSC ???'. The answer is YES !!! At least, from PAL to NTSC is possible, the other way around I've not been able to check, but as long as your monitor can cope with it it should work ! I hope some NTSC users can confirm this. The advantage to NTSC users should be obvious, the PAL display is much larger and gives a better quality picture. The advantage to PAL programmers is that they can test-run their programs on a real NTSC machine to see if they'll work. Another advantage is that you can play games in NTSC so they will fill the entire screen ! No more screen distortion ! And last but not least interlace flicker is less in NTSC than in PAL. (30 frames per second instead of 25 !) Source code is included and shows how to install resident programs in a clean way so you can install multiple redident utilities. Of course it also shows how to make your Agnus change over from PAL to NTSC or vice versa, I think you will be surprised how easy it is :-D ! 2. Usage of BootPAL and BootNTSC ================================ BootNTSC/BootPAL can only be used from CLI, use it like this: PAL Amigas: '1> BootNTSC INSTALL' to install the NTSC romtag. The next time you reboot your machine will be an NTSC machine !! This works like a charm on my Commodore 1084S, I hope it works on other monitors as well. NTSC Amigas: '1> BootPAL INSTALL' This will install a PAL romtag. Reboot and keep your fingers crossed, your machine should boot up in PAL. To get your machine to behave normally again type: '1> BootNTSC REMOVE' (PAL) or '1> BootPAL REMOVE' (NTSC) and reboot. NOTE: - Once installed the program will survive multiple reboots unless it is removed by memory corruption. (Like after a crash or after playing a game) - It works just fine with the 1.3 RAD ramdisk. (Unlike other rebootable programs) 3. The NTSC and PAL utilities ============================= These two little programs are ideal to be put in the startup-sequence of games (and other programs ?). They will make your Amiga switch over to NTSC or PAL immediately. They will not change the size of the WorkBench screen, but they will make the Amiga think it is a PAL or NTSC machine from their execution on. Note that you will get very strange effects when you switch over to NTSC on a PAL Amiga with the WorkBench screen in front. This is because the WorkBench was opened on a PAL Amiga and will use a copperlist the NTSC Amiga won't understand. As far as I know this is completely harmless however. Use these little utilities like this: '1> NTSC' to switch PAL->NTSC '1> PAL' to switch NTSC->PAL 4. ECS Agnus ============ This new Agnus chip is in all the new Amigas (A500 or A2000) or can be bought seperately and fitted yourself in your A500 (Rev 4+) or A2000 (Rev B4.4+). (I am not absolutely sure about these numbers, check with your Amiga dealer). Fitting it is worth it, not only can you run this program :-), but you have 1Mb CHIP RAM and a more powerful blitter ! As always, I hope you find this program useful ! PROGRAM HISTORY: ***************************************************************************** VERSION 1.0 First release. ***************************************************************************** NTSC/PAL 1.0 BootNTSC/BootPAL 1.0 written by Nico François (Yes, Nico is my first name :-) (c) 1990 Nico François / PowerPeak // Thanks to \X/ Amiga for being the best computer ever !