BMP2SPEC version 1.0 Written by the Infamous Blood! (C)1996 Cheese Freak Software Welcome to BMP2SPEC! This software won't change your life, but with a bit of luck someone other than myself will find it useful. Please read this file thoroughly before trying to use the prog, or you may end up disappointed! And if you have any comments, see the email info at the end to drop me a line! Ta. What is BMP2SPEC? ----------------- It's a small DOS prog, run from the command line (but it could be compiled on other platforms, the C source code is included). As input, it takes a Microsoft Windows .BMP format picture, and as output it produces a .TAP file which can be loaded into your Spectrum emulator (or real Speccy). In other words, it's a fast way of getting PC pictures onto your Speccy. What do I need to use it? ------------------------- You'll need the following : The BMP2SPEC software! (obvious really) A PC to run the binary, or a compiler to compile the source for your machine A way of loading .TAP files (i.e. a Spectrum emulator such as Z80) A way of manipulating image files into a certain .BMP format (I use Paint Shop Pro on my PC under Windows) Some Pictures! What are the included files? ---------------------------- BMP2SPEC EXE - A PC Binary version of BMP2SPEC BMP2SPEC C - The C source code for BMP2SPEC BMP2SPEC H - A (very) small header file to accompany the source BMP2SPEC TXT - The documentation file MDRAW Z80 - A copy of Melbourne Draw, in .Z80 format, for editing pics EXAMPLES TAP - A .TAP file full of example screens The examples are in the following order: JSW - A section of the Jetset Willy tape cover, scanned into the PC and quite successfully ported to the Speccy. JETPAC - The Jetpac tape cover, scanned into the PC and not so successfully ported to the Speccy! LAKE - An example of how NOT to port a piccy to the Speccy. This had just too many colours in it to look nice. Looks better from a distance! CHIPHEAD - A raytraced PC picture from a PC Format coverdisk, reduced and squished onto the Speccy screen. Not bad! NASTY - My favourite. A picture of Richie and Eddie from Bottom! On your Speccy! These examples can all be loaded into the Speccy using LOAD "" SCREEN$. Have a look at them - they're fun! What do I do now? ----------------- Here's a step by step guide to getting a picture (in this case, the Jetset Willy cover .JPG file from NVG) onto your Speccy screen. 1. Get the image you want to use and load it into your computer's image manipulation software. 2. It's probably too big for the Speccy screen, so scale it down to 256x192 resolution. This may make it look crap, in which case you'd better only use part of the image. 3. Lower the colour mode of the picture to 2. This means the picture must be converted to black and white. With Paint Shop Pro, you would choose Colours-->Decrease Colour Depth-->2 Colours. PSP provides a lot of options to make your 2 colour images look nice! Basically, if it looks awful on the PC screen, it'll look worse on the Speccy! Try and get the image looking as good as possible before proceeding! 4. Save the image as a .BMP file (Windows compatible Bitmap). This should be EXACTLY 6206 bytes long. If it isn't, you've gone wrong somewhere. We'll call the file JSW.BMP. 5. Run BMP2SPEC using the following command line : BMP2SPEC JSW.BMP JSW.TAP 6. Wait for BMP2SPEC to finish (should only take a few seconds). Once this is done, a file called JSW.TAP should have been created. 7. Start your emulator (I'm assuming you're using Z80). Set the tape input file to be JSW.TAP. If you now browse this file, you should see there is a single file called 'screen'. 8. Drop to Speccy BASIC and type : LOAD "" SCREEN$: PAUSE 0 9. The screen will now load and you can view at your leisure! Restrictions ------------ The program isn't very brainy. It only does some number crunching. In other words, it won't scale your pictures for you, it won't clip them, it won't handle colour pictures and it won't handle any format other than .BMP. It'll tell you if something goes wrong, but the error messages aren't too helpful (unless you're me, that is...). If you feed it a colour bitmap, or one that's too large, or something that isn't a bitmap, BMP2SPEC won't complain. It will, however, produce garbage. You know the old saying - Garbage in, Garbage out.... Other Uses ---------- The produced Speccy pictures can be used just as normal Speccy pictures can! In other words, there's no reason not to edit them further once they're on the Speccy. I've included a snapshot of Melbourne Draw, which is pretty good for colouring the pictures in once you've got them onto the Speccy! Using this program, it's also a real possibility to produce all of your Sprites for a Speccy game on a PC using whichever graphical tools you like, and then port them over to the Speccy. Future Updates -------------- Possible, but not pressing : Let you name the SCREEN$! Let you decide on the paper/ink colours of the image. Better error trapping. Legal Stuff ----------- Sorry, but I prefer this to be here to save my hide! This software is provided as is. In other words, if it works for you fine. If it doesn't, then ask me questions but I'm not a support helpline. This is free software after all. The source code for this software is included for free. If you want to alter it or add to it or point out where I've included some crap code which could've been done better, then fine. However, please don't distribute modified versions of this program without asking me first. And definitely don't put your name on it and pretend it's your program. Alright? The source isn't very well documented, it's not supposed to be a C tutorial. Please don't ask me questions about it. This software has been checked out and tested and seems to be okay on MY machine. If it wipes your hard drive, blows up your computer, or destroys the universe, then it's not my responsibility. It's yours. So don't whinge. Finally, this software should ALWAYS be FREE! Don't even pay for the price of a disk for this, 'cos it's only small and it's not even worth 50p. And if a magazine or one of those 'whack a load of files from the Internet on a CD and sell it for twenty-quid' merchants wants to use this program to make cash then YOU CAN'T! Sod off. This is a program for the people, not the businessmen. Humph. And Finally... -------------- I'd like to hear if anyone makes any use of this program. It's not earth-shattering, but it works for me and I use it occasionally. If you find any bugs, or you'd like to see a new feature, or you make a nice picture that you'd like to show me, or you just love this little piece of C, then drop me a note at : l.d.tonks@bra0202.wins.icl.co.uk I'm always happy to hear from Speccy fans! May your lives be free of Tape Loading Errors! Blood. 12th February, 1996