NOTE: Can anyone tell me how to get the blank lines out of the code listings? I used to be able to copy/paste from MS Visual Studio Code with no problem, but something has changed in WordPress. For the past few weeks, I have to paste in (it looks fine), then when I look at it, it has the line feeds. I then EDIT, and copy/paste it back in to Code (where I see the blank lines) then search/replace those blank lines, then copy/paste it back in to WordPress. That has been working fine, but now that does not work. Maybe it’s a different between PC Code and Mac Code (PC using CR/LF or something?). Anyone know?

Revisiting the PUT from DATA concept… For those who don’t want to figure out the binary values for the characters, here is a routine that lets you define them using strings:

'TANK UP
DATA "   XX   "
DATA "   XX   "
DATA "XX XX XX"
DATA "XXXXXXXX"
DATA "XXXXXXXX"
DATA "XXXXXXXX"
DATA "XXXXXXXX"
DATA "XX    XX"

The routine reads these 8-character strings, then goes through them to build a value based on where the X is found.

Here is some code you can play with…

0 'PUTDATA.BAS
1 '2024-01-22
2 'SHOWS HOW TO DO IT USING
3 'STRINGS RATHER THAN #S
4 '

10 'TO SPEED UP STR-TO-BYTE
20 DIM BT(7):FOR BT=0 TO 7:BT(BT)=2^BT:NEXT
30 '
40 'VARIABLES USED IN THE
50 'POKE-TO-ARRAY ROUTINE MUST
60 'BE PRE-ALLOCATED OR THEY
70 'WILL CAUSE ARRAY MEM TO
80 'SHIFT WHEN IT GET USED.
90 '
100 DIM L,V,Z,Z$
110 '
120 'EACH ARRAY ENTRY CAN STORE
130 '5 BYTES. AN 8X8 SINGLE
140 'COLOR CHARACTER IS 8, SO
150 'WE NEED TWO ARRAY ENTRIES
160 '(10 BYTES) TO FIT THE 8
170 'BYTE CHARACTER.
180 '
190 DIM TU(1),TD(1),TL(1),TR(1):GOSUB 320

200 '
210 ' TEST PROGRAM
220 '
230 PMODE 4,1:PCLS 1:SCREEN 1,1
240 PUT (0,0)-(7,7),TU
250 PUT (16,0)-(16+7,7),TD
260 PUT (32,0)-(32+7,7),TL
270 PUT (48,0)-(48+7,7),TR
280 GOTO 280

290 '
300 'LOAD SPRITE CHARACTERS
310 '
320 PRINT "LOADING DATA";
330 L=VARPTR(TU(0)):GOSUB 390
340 L=VARPTR(TD(0)):GOSUB 390
350 L=VARPTR(TL(0)):GOSUB 390
360 L=VARPTR(TR(0)):GOSUB 390
370 RETURN

380 '
390 'READ DATA AND POKE AT L
400 '
410 PRINT
420 'READ STRINGS AND CONVERT
430 'TO BYTES.
440 FOR Z=0 TO 7:V=0
450 READ Z$:PRINT Z$,;
460 FOR BT=1 TO 8
470 'FASTER WAY
480 IF MID$(Z$,BT,1)="X" THEN V=V+BT(BT-1)
490 'SLOW WAY
500 'IF MID$(Z$,BT,1)="X" THEN V=V+2^(BT-1)
510 NEXT:PRINT INT(V);HEX$(V)
520 POKE L+Z,(NOT V)+256:NEXT:RETURN
530 NEXT:PRINT V;HEX$(V):NEXT
540 RETURN

550 '
560 '8X8 SPRITE CHARACTERS
570 '
580 'TANK UP
590 DATA "   XX   "
600 DATA "   XX   "
610 DATA "XX XX XX"
620 DATA "XXXXXXXX"
630 DATA "XXXXXXXX"
640 DATA "XXXXXXXX"
650 DATA "XXXXXXXX"
660 DATA "XX    XX"

670 'TANK DOWN
680 DATA "XX    XX"
690 DATA "XXXXXXXX"
700 DATA "XXXXXXXX"
710 DATA "XXXXXXXX"
720 DATA "XXXXXXXX"
730 DATA "XX XX XX"
740 DATA "   XX   "
750 DATA "   XX   "

760 'TANK LEFT
770 DATA "  XXXXXX"
780 DATA "  XXXXXX"
790 DATA "   XXXX "
800 DATA "XXXXXXX "
810 DATA "XXXXXXX "
820 DATA "   XXXX "
830 DATA "  XXXXXX"
840 DATA "  XXXXXX"

850 'TANK RIGHT
860 DATA "XXXXXX  "
870 DATA "XXXXXX  "
880 DATA " XXXX   "
890 DATA " XXXXXXX"
900 DATA " XXXXXXX"
910 DATA " XXXX   "
920 DATA "XXXXXX  "
930 DATA "XXXXXX  "

You can take this and change the characters real easily to play with it. Here is a smiling face instead of the UP TANK:

580 'SMILING FACE
590 DATA " XXXXXX "
600 DATA "X      X"
610 DATA "X X  X X"
620 DATA "X      X"
630 DATA "X X  X X"
640 DATA "X  XX  X"
650 DATA " X    X "
660 DATA "  XXXX  "

Have fun… When I get time, I’ll try to post versions of these routines on my Github that handle different size objects as well as 4-color objects for us on PMODE 1 and 4 screens.