Electric Lantern Show. An entertaining fun program for the CPC Amstrad machines for users of all ages. Produces full size and even poster sized printer dumps. Contains an amazing 28 full colour pictures each one beautifully drawn. Load your own pictures, compress them, edit them and much more. Also includes Prides best selling "Printer Pac II", a proportional dump program for your printer. 1. Getting started. =================== If you want to get hard copies of the pictures then the first program to load is the Printer Pac. This is done with the command: RUN"PP2" (ENTER) The screen display will then show you the printer type menu. If you have a printer other than those displayed then you should choose option 1. If the output your printer produces is not full width then you should choose option 2. The computer will then ask if you want a printer buffer. If you intend to run the Electric Lantern Show then the buffer you choose should be no larger than 5k or the pictures you load from disc will be corrupted. After this the screen will display the new commands available and return to basic. The new commands can be used as normal commands in basic. Although the Electric Lantern Show needs the program installed first before it is run. If you want to try out the Printer Pac then load up a picture as you would normally and type |DUMP (ENTER) The screen you loaded should be output to the printer with proportional shading to detail the picture. Also you could try the command |TEXT (ENTER) This gives a screen dump of any text on the screen. The other commands |PRON and |PROFF will 'echo' any text printed to the screen to the printer. If you wish to dump screens from the Electric Lantern Show the Printer Pac should be loaded first. ****** Page 1 ****** Running the Show ================ The program disc has the Printer Pac and the Electric Lantern Show on both sides also 16 pictures on one side and twelve on the other. A 'cAT' of the disc should read. Side 1. Drive A: User 0 ABBEY .BIN 7K MAX3 .BIN 8K CACTI .BIN 9K NUDE .BIN 8K DOG .BIN 6K PENGUINS.BIN 12K ENGINE .BIN 11K PP2 .BAS 3K FLAMINGO.BIN 13K PRIDE .BIN 7K FROG8 .BIN 9K RAFFS .BIN 9K GRANPRIX.BIN 8K SBELLESD.BIN 13K JET .BIN 4K SHENGE .BIN 9K LISA .BIN 7K SHOW .BAS 6K 20K free Side 2. ALAN .BIN 6K PP2 .BAS 3K BOAT .BIN 11K PWILLOW .BIN 8K BRUEGEL .BIN 15K SHOW .BAS 6K BUTTIFLY.BIN 15K SWANS .BIN 14K CHEDDAR .BIN 14K TIGCOMP .BIN 15K FULMARS .BIN 11K TUTMASK .BIN 6K HAHA .BIN 12K YOTS .BIN 11K 22K free To run the Electric Lantern Show you should enter the command RUN"SHOW" (ENTER) After loading the main show menu will appear with options as below. 1 - Load a Screen 2 - Edit colours/mode 3 - Picture Show 4 - Save Comp. Screen 5 - Exit First you should load a screen, to do this choose option 1. ****** Page 2 ****** Option 1. Loading Menu ---------------------- Choosing option 1 will give the loading menu as shown below. 1 - compressed 2 - Uncompressed 3 - Screen Designer 4 - ESP Light Pen 5 - Return The disc pictures supplied with the Electric Lantern Show are already compressed. To load them Option 1 should be selected. The computer will give the message below Insert Disc then any key: Since the program disc contains the pictures just press any key. The response will be to give a directory of the compressed pictures on the disc. To enter tne name of the choosen picture just type first part, not the '.BIN'. This is the same technique for options 2,3 & 4. Option 2 is for normal screens, those you might save yourself or those on game discs. Options 3 and 4 cater for the drawing package format of Screen Designer and Electric Studios Light pen. The picture will load into the screen display then blank as the picture is relocated and the program returns to the main menu. Option 2. Edit colours/Mode --------------------------- With many pictures the pen colours the picture was saved under are different to those that the picture is loaded back in with. The editor will alter the screen colours and also the screen mode while the picture is on the screen. To prevent text appearing on the screen while commands are entered you must be prepared to work blind with no screen prompts. The commands are as follows: Mode change - Type Mn (ENTER) n being the mode number. Eg. 'M'1 (ENTER). Pen No - Type Pnn (ENTER) nn being the pen number then use the up and down cursor keys to change the colour. Mode 0 has all 16 pens 0-15, Mode 1 has 4 pens 0-3, Mode 2 has 2 pens 0-1. Since each pen has two colours which is alternates between to create a flashing colour holding down SHIFT during pressing a cursor key will change one colour. Holding down CTRL and pressing a cursor key will change the other. ****** Page 3 ****** Reset coulours - Type R (ENTER) to return to original colours Exit - Type X (ENTER) to return to main menu. Option 3. Picture show. ======================= Choosing option 3 will display the picture on the screen in the display editor. The commands for the display editor are as below: <cursor up> - Screen window up. <cursor down> - Screen window down. <cursor left> - Screen window left. <cursor right> - Screen window right. <CTRL><c. up> - Magnify window to full screen size. <CTRL><c. down> - Invert image. <CTRL><c. left> - Mirror image. <CTRL><c. right> - Multiframe image. Divides current screen image by four. <ENTER> - Return to menu. <COPY> - Redraw image. <CLR> - Erase window. <SPACE> - Lock window to current screen. <TAB> - Dump screen to printer. <CTRL><TAB> - Poster sized dump to printer. When dumping a screen to printer remember that the Printer Pac should have been loaded first. For poster sized dumps the screen will be adjusted automatically during dumping. For best results a new printer ribbon should be used. Option 4. Save Compressed Screen. ================================= To save a compressed screen simply chosse option 4. The program disc has room for one or more picture on either side of the disc or you can use another disc. The compression routine will compress most pictures to around 9k length, depending upon the intricacy of the picture. If you want to load a compressed picture from basic then you should type: MEMORY &3FFF:LOAD"NAME.EXT":CALL &4000 (ENTER) Where NAME.EXT is the name and extension code of the picture. Option 5. Return to basic ========================= Return the User to basic. ****** Page 4 ****** Text typed by T&J/GPA in november 2011 ! All superb graphics have been done by Jill Lawson, shame on Pride Utilities not to have mentionned it... In the original text, there is no title "Option 3" at page 3 !