BORN FREE

by Mark Turner



I'm sure you know what message scrollers do. They scroll a message

across the screen, and Mark Turner's is no exception. What's

important, though, is the way they do it. They might make the message

wibble about a bit, or print it in lots of colours, or possibly

provide some form of musical accompaniment. This one, however,

distinguishes itself by printing the message twice as big as usual and

surrounding it with dotted lines which scroll at different speeds.

You've got to see it to appreciate the effect, really. And what's the

point of it? Endless "practical" uses of course, like shop window

displays and suchlike, which no self- respecting Spec-chum would touch

with a barge pole. It's much more likely to be incorporated into a

larger program, or possibly used to impress those unaware of the

Spectrum's unrivalled message-scrolling abilities.



To get the program up and running you'll need to type in the Basic

section and save it onto a tape by typing SAVE "program" LINE 9999.

Next, root out a copy of the Hexloader from a previous Pitstop and use

it to enter the Hex part. Save that after the Basic. And that's it as

far as typing it in goes.



There's a built-in demo message, but it's not very interesting so

you'll probably want to insert your own. The easiest way to do this is

to delete the existing one and replace it with one of your own. It's

then copied into memory in lines 70-90, and the scroller is informed

of its location in line 50. Line 60 tells the scroller where on the

screen to put the message, and lines 120-170 add a splash of colour.



And that's about the size of it.