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Graphics corruption


Papalapa

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I found some programs (games mainly) that do not show the graphics correctly on the screen. I do not know why it may be because I have an Apple IIe Enhanced with 128K and the 80 columns card so, enough RAM memory and graphics capabilities I think. Maybe the programs are writen for an Apple III?

I have passed 4 different hardware checking programs and everything is OK so I rule out a hardware failure. The ROM switch selector in the keyboard is in the USA position (I own an European unit). Here are a sample pictures to see if someone can help me. In this case the games Airheart and Age Blaster.

 


 MN83IO5.jpg    KCkAex1.jpg

 

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14 hours ago, ChildOfCv said:

I guess you could try this in BASIC:
10 GR ' or HGR or HGR2

20 FOR I=1 TO 10

30 VLIN 1,10 at I

40 NEXT

 

See if you get a solid block in each mode.

I think so, here's in 40 and 80 columns, it is correct it isn't?

 

hpKZsaZ.jpg DkCl417.jpg

 

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12 hours ago, ChildOfCv said:

Why is it still in text mode?  Does it automatically go back to text when the program ends?  If so, add "50 GOTO 50" so that it doesn't end right away.

Hi, I added the line 50 and now I get this:

 

NEZDJsb.jpg

 

It does not plot nothing and it seems that stills being in text mode ¿?

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Can you list the program as typed in?  Did you use GR mode or HGR?

 

I guess I should note that the first line is intended to be a selection of one of the modes for the test.  But the ' character may only mean "comment" on MS BASIC and maybe Apple BASIC is trying to complain about it if you typed it in that way.  Instead, just do any of the following:

 

10 GR

10 HGR

10 HGR2

 

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What revision is the motherboard?  Is it the original revision A with only a enhancement kit installed?

 

Here's some info from Wikipedia in the Apple IIe section:

 

Shortly after the "Revision A" motherboard's release in 1983, engineers discovered that the bank-switching feature (which used a paralleled 64 KB of RAM on the Extended 80-Column Card; or 1 KB to produce 80 columns using bank-switching) could also be used to produce a new graphics mode, Double-High-Resolution, which doubles the horizontal resolution and increases the number of colors from the 6 of standard High-Resolution to 16. In order to support this, some modifications had to be made to the motherboard, which became the Revision B. In addition to supporting Double-High-Resolution and a rarely used Double-Low-Resolution mode (see list above) it also added a special video signal accessible in slot 7.

Apple upgraded the motherboard free of charge. In later years Apple labeled newer IIe motherboards with a "-A" suffix once again, although in terms of functionality they were Revision B motherboards.

 

Edited by Torrax
added relavent info
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22 hours ago, ChildOfCv said:

Can you list the program as typed in?  Did you use GR mode or HGR?

 

I guess I should note that the first line is intended to be a selection of one of the modes for the test.  But the ' character may only mean "comment" on MS BASIC and maybe Apple BASIC is trying to complain about it if you typed it in that way.  Instead, just do any of the following:

 

10 GR

10 HGR

10 HGR2

I'm so sorry, I was not aware about this command for remarks, I always used REM in BASIC and that's why I do not set line 10. I have to learn more Apple BASIC... :(

 

I have done the test again and the result is the same in the three modes: a black screen. I also add the line 50 in order to keep the computer in a loop to have enough time to check the display. When I type "RUN" it seems that there are some graphics filling the display but suddenly the screen becomes completely black and nothing else.

 

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19 hours ago, Aunty Entity said:

Perhaps the jumper on the 80col card isn't set correctly for DHGR to be functional, or although it has the tag, its not enhanced... have to admit I've not personally come across a IIe that can't access DHGR though. 

I do not see any switch on the 80col card. Where is it?

The computer is an Enhanced version, myself replaced the original three ICs and CPU to move from Apple IIe to an Apple IIe Enhanced. Also, I passed some hardware test programs and all of them identified the machine as "Enhanced".

 

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8 hours ago, Torrax said:

What revision is the motherboard?  Is it the original revision A with only a enhancement kit installed?

 

Here's some info from Wikipedia in the Apple IIe section:

 

Shortly after the "Revision A" motherboard's release in 1983, engineers discovered that the bank-switching feature (which used a paralleled 64 KB of RAM on the Extended 80-Column Card; or 1 KB to produce 80 columns using bank-switching) could also be used to produce a new graphics mode, Double-High-Resolution, which doubles the horizontal resolution and increases the number of colors from the 6 of standard High-Resolution to 16. In order to support this, some modifications had to be made to the motherboard, which became the Revision B. In addition to supporting Double-High-Resolution and a rarely used Double-Low-Resolution mode (see list above) it also added a special video signal accessible in slot 7.

Apple upgraded the motherboard free of charge. In later years Apple labeled newer IIe motherboards with a "-A" suffix once again, although in terms of functionality they were Revision B motherboards.

 

Yes, I was also aware of this but mine is "B" version I think.

 

J1sh17s.jpg

 

The "B" letter is shown before the reference 607-0664 instead of after, but I guess that it doesn't matter, it seems to be a "B" motherboard.

 

Originally was an IIe but myself installed the kit to convert to an IIe Enhanced.

 

Edited by Papalapa
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46 minutes ago, Papalapa said:

I'm so sorry, I was not aware about this command for remarks, I always used REM in BASIC and that's why I do not set line 10. I have to learn more Apple BASIC... :(

 

I have done the test again and the result is the same in the three modes: a black screen. I also add the line 50 in order to keep the computer in a loop to have enough time to check the display. When I type "RUN" it seems that there are some graphics filling the display but suddenly the screen becomes completely black and nothing else.

 

I wonder if you have to set HCOLOR too?

 

10 GR: COLOR=15

10 HGR: HCOLOR=7

10 HGR2: HCOLOR=7

 

Yep, just confirmed it on a IIe emulator.  You have to set the color otherwise it's black.  That's useless.

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Also, in the HGR and HGR2 modes, apparently HLIN and VLIN don't work.  So for those modes, replace line 30 with:

 

30 HPLOT I,1 TO I,10

 

For that matter, here's a program to show all the colors in HGR mode:

 10  HGR2
 20  FOR J = 1 TO 7
 30  HCOLOR= J
 40  FOR I = 1 TO 10
 50  HPLOT I + 10 * J,1 TO I + 10
      * J,10
 60  NEXT 
 70  NEXT

 

Edited by ChildOfCv
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Thank you for your BASIC program but finally I used some diagnostics software (XPS Diagnostics, Real Software Diagnostics, Master Diagnostics IIe, Computer Inspector and Apple IIe Diagnostics) and all them said that the 80-columns card and memory were correct.

 

I also installed AppleWin emulator and I get the same issues as with my Apple IIe so, maybe there's some compatibility problem with these games. I will try to investigate a little bit more about this...

 

Edited by Papalapa
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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, finally I have solved the small problem with the graphics.  Apparently there are two types of 80-columns card for Apple II, the "cheap" 80-columns that include RAM to double the capacity of video memory, and the "extended" that adds 64K to the memory of the Apple IIe making a total of 128K. In my case I have the "extended" one.

After running several checking programs that said that the 64K of the card was fine, I opened the Apple IIe to take a photo of the card, see what chips it had and search for info on the Internet. When taking the photo I realized a jumper marked JP1 that I had not seen before and it seems that when this jumper is not set the "double high resolution" is disabled. This is to make the card compatible with the "Revision A" motherboards. . This revision of the motherboard does not support the necessary bank switching for that video mode, so the jumper has to be removed in order the 80 columns card to work properly, and this is how I had it, without a jumper.

In my case I have a motherboard revision "B" so I have only had to put a jumper on JP1 and the graphics of all the games that previously did not look good worked for me. Although they were very few, it was really annoying. Apparently, if the computer was used for administrative functions, perhaps that graphic mode was never needed, and hence no one thought about setting the jumper.

I leave you a photo of the jumper with a red circle.

 

6k3jG0X.jpg

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Apple made no fewer than four types of 80-column cards, with and without RAM expansion, for the //e. 

 

It's possible that the PAL Rev B has the same issues as the NTSC Rev A. PAL //e systems, particularly early units, had a few weird issues that I seem to recall. 

 

We actually used NTSC models in a PAL region at the time, because we were writing software for the US market, so we wanted to ensure that there were no issues; then we'd drop it on a PAL unit and check if it worked properly for the European market. If not, we would either fix it, or avoid releasing it; but the  NTSC Apple market was by far the bigger sector. 

 

We had an ITT 2020 unit too, to check if ][+ and EuroPlus software could run on it, so that we would know to mark it on the package if it did, but after the Europlus came out, we stopped ensuring that software was ITT compatible. 

 

We also had one of those Franklin clones. The 1200 or 1000, IIRC, and we tested if software worked on that beast, too. 

 

There were a few different 80-col standards, but for the Apple ][ series, they were compatible most of the time. CP/M was the big market for 80-column support, in early days. I still retained a few weird ][+ era 80-column cards, every major //e 80-column card, and some misc resources for CP/M. I kept one of every Z-80 card that we used to test that stuff. 

Edited by GameGeezer
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11 hours ago, ChildOfCv said:

Neat.  Incidentally, Apple apparently never added support for double-hi-res into BASIC, so none of those programs would have helped to diagnose it anyway.  There's a BASIC extension someone wrote called CHROME, though, which can be BRUNed for new graphics commands.

Dunno about CHROME, but Beagle Bros had DHGR.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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