Conference 7.286::atarist

    I just got a program from the archives called COLOREMU which emulates a
    color monitor on the mono monitor. I have not downloaded it yet so I
    can say how it works or if it works in both medium and low res. The
    author claims that it is slow, but it may still be usefull for some
    things.
    
    The files can be copied from -
    	OLDTMR::$1$DUA8:[WALLACE.PUBLIC.ST]COLOREMU.ARC, .INF
    
    
    	Ray

    I downloaded these last night.
    
    Firstly COLOREMU.ARC is only 2 (vms) blocks large. Is this correct?
    
    Secondly my version of Arc (which I think is pretty recent) gave
    me a nice little two line text display that it couldn't understand
    it & maybe I needed a newer version of Arc. Do you know what version
    of Arc I need ?
    
    Thirdly, I only need it for interest's sake as this months ST Format (a
    UK mag with a free disk) has 'mono on a colour' and 'colour on a mono'
    emulators. I found the colour on a mono surprising fast, as well a
    number of weird options including fitting two 'colour' screens on the
    mono screen, side by side. These emulators were called (I think)
    GFAMONO and GFACOLOUR (note the *CORRECT* spelling of colour :-) 
    
    Many Thanks,
    		Stuart P.

>    These emulators were called (I think)
>    GFAMONO and GFACOLOUR (note the *CORRECT* spelling of colour :-) 
>    

	I could swear I saw a pointer to these somewhere in the past
	coupe of days - either here on the Usenet - but I can't find
	it now.  Anybody else see it?

	The reason I'm asking is the version of Monoware I have, which
	I think I got from Terminator, doesn't always work.  Sometimes
	it's fine, other times it just pops back to the color desktop.
	Any ideas?

	thanks
	chris

    Look at KAON::GFA_EMUS.ARC
    
    as posted in 9.115
    
    		Stuart P.

  The use of this colour emulator requires it to be put in the AUTO folder.
  Now I've got this one game (THUNDERBIRDS) that can only be played from
  the floppies. In fact, you need to restart the machine. A DIR of the
  floppy shows 0 files with X bytes used. This seems their way of protecting
  the floppy from being copied (other than physical track-by-track).

  How does one use the colour emulator with a game like that? Or is the
  answer as I fear it is: you don't?

  Theo

    This may not be the best place to post this note but I'll try it here.
    
    I've just bought a colour monitor so that my boys can benefit from the
    educational S/W that's around and some games.  So far the result has
    been disappointing.  Most of the stuff that I have for colour complains
    that either it can't read the disk or that the data on the disk may be
    erased.  In one case the problem was fixed by choosing medium res
    instead of low res. But this doesn't work for most cases. Even Degas
    Elite won't run.  What am I doing wrong?
    
    Thanks,  Theo

    
    if your color monitor works ok with the desktop and you can read the
    floppy messages, then it's no problem of your monitor. It seems that
    your floppies have a problem. Some of the games floppies must be 
    booted because they have a loader in the bootsector that sometimes also
    switches medium/low resolution.
    Can you see the contents of the said floppies with the black and white
    monitor?
    
    Bernd
    

    Hi Bernd,
    
    Degas Elite runs fine on the mono. It won't boot with colour monitor. I
    have a games disk called Rollerball.  It doesn't boot on the mono
    because it needs colour, but it doesn't boot on that either.  Most of
    the other colour s/w I have is games I have copied off the network. I
    will buy a couple of new games disks and see how they perform.  But I'm
    particularly disappointed about the Degas Elite.
    
    Theo

    
    Hm, in one of the previous topics was a discussion about color SW made
    with different standards (NTSC vs. PAL). I don't know if that might 
    have something to do with your problem. I never had troubles with color
    software made in the states and copied off the net. I assume that 
    everything is ok with your color monitor if it displays your desktop
    ok. So the only thing left that comes to my mind is the two resolutions
    low and medium, or a missing or corrupted *.RSC-file for the right
    resolution (some programs have different recource-files for the
    different resolutions). You may want to try the other color-res. with 
    your programs, then I'm running out of ideas...
    
    Bernd
    

My kids use DEGAS frequently on both Mono and Color montiors with out any
problems.

	Ray

    Unbelievable as it may sound, I really do seem to have a problem with
    my floppy disk drive. But it doesn't manifest itself so  long as I use
    the mono monitor!
    
    I have now managed to boot all my colour programs.  But to do this I
    have to tip the floppy drive on end so that the disk is in the vertical
    plane!  The Degas has always booted and still boots ok with the drive
    in the normal position when I use the mono monitor.  As soon as I
    change to colour monitor Degas fails unless I tip the drive up. 
    
    I can't understand it but the facts speak for themselves.
    
    Theo.

    We get calls like this all the time in the CSC!
    
    8*)

    re:.11,12
    
    Yes, but when the CSC gets the call, telling the customer to stand  his
    VAX 6000 on edge a little tends to get a different response.