Polish Characters in UDG and BASIC Patterns for ZX Spectrum

BASIC Is a Language Too...

I recommend this program to all Spectrum owners. It uses the characters A to U, originally defined in memory and entered in the so-called user-defined graphics area (UDG).

10 FOR k=1 TO 14: READ adr: READ
   bajt: POKE 65000+adr,bajt:
   NEXT k
20 DATA 375,8,384,8,407,8
30 DATA 459,112,472,8,480,8
40 DATA 512,8,496,8,497,126
50 DATA 498,4,499,8,500,16
60 DATA 501,32,502,126
70 CLS: PRINT "POLISH ALPHABET OK"

After running the program and erasing it with NEW (not USR 0), the following letters will be assigned to the graphics characters, accessible in GRAPHICS mode (CAPS SHIFT+9):

ą - A
ę - E
ń - N
ś - S
ć - C
ł - L
ó - O
ż - Q

Polish characters can be saved to tape/disk with SAVE "pol-zn" CODE USR "a",21*8. To load them, use LOAD "" CODE.

Lit Steve

Interesting effects on the Speccy don’t require any knowledge of assembler. I’d like to present a short, simple BASIC program I wrote a long time ago. These few lines draw interesting patterns—quickly, for BASIC. Just change one of the parameters to get something completely different. Use values from 1.5 to 7 for X and Y (the best effects are at 1.5, 3 and 5), and characters available from the keyboard for A$ (preferably symmetrical ones, such as O, *, x, etc.).

10 INPUT X,Y,A$
20 FOR F=1 TO 5: LET A$=A$+A$:
   NEXT F
30 FOR F=0 TO 255 STEP X: PLOT
   F,0: DRAW 255,0: NEXT F
40 FOR F=0 TO 175 STEP Y: PLOT
   0,F: DRAW 255,0: NEXT F
50 FOR F=0 TO 21: PRINT OVER 1;
   A$: NEXT F

I don’t want to discourage anyone from learning assembler, because it’s a powerful language. Someone who knows it is master of their computer. In other languages, the programmer depends on the whims of the translator’s creator; assembler makes it possible to use all the computer’s capabilities.

If anyone is interested in an assembler version of the program above, take a look at RE;EVOLUTION DEMO.

MANIU