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GBA TEXT READER
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-Version: beta1.1
-By Dan

dancotter@optushome.com.au
http://members.optushome.com.au/dancotter

~c_______________

Version History
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beta1.1
-Implemented small waits after key presses to avoid button bounching and trigger problems.

beta1
-First released version.


~c________

FEATURES
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-'On-the-fly' text wrapping.
-Multiple text sizes using GBA's scaling abilities.
-Can include over 100 text files at once.
-Can support over 100 chapters for each text file.
-Different screen orientations using GBA's rotation abilities.

~c______________

MAKING THE ROM
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Place your .txt files into a directory/folder with all the files from the .zip file and run the make_rom.bat. It will generate txtrom.gba which will include all the text files in the folder. Please note that long file names are not supported and will cause the program to work properly.

~c________

CONTROLS
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Reading controls:

A- Next Page
B- Back
Up - 8x8 pixel text
Down - 8x16 pixel text
Left - 8x16 pixel text
Right - 4x8 pixel text
Start - Enter main menu
Select - Next Chapter
L - Next Page
R - Used for advanced scaling of text to any size.


Main menu controls:

A - Next book
B - Back book
Up - change background color
Down - change text color
Left - change font
Right - change orientation
L - Load (NOT YET IMPLEMENTED)
R - Help / About
Start - return to reading
Select - Save (NOT YET IMPLEMENTED)


Advance scaling controls:

Hold in R while reading and press-
Up - x zoom to 1x
Down - y zoom to 1x
Left - y zoom increase by 0.01x (if 2.0x reverts to 0.50x)
Right - x zoom increase by 0.01x (if 2.0x reverts to 0.50x)
Up and left - x zoom to 0.5x
Up and right - x zoom to 2.0x
Down and left - y zoom to 0.5x
Down and right - y zoom to 2.0x
Start - If you have used the x and y increase controls you use this to re-wrap the text to the new size.

~c_____________

Maker Program
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Maker program will take a list of text file names and make files that are needed for the ROM out of them. The text files must be in the same directory as the maker program, no long file names are allowed.

There is only one reserved character for the maker program, and it is the tilde character. If you have a tilde followed directly by a lower-case c then that point in the text will be taken as being the start of a chapter. The start of a book is automatically a chapter start. No more than 104 books is allowed in this beta version, also no more than 127 chapters are allowed per book.

To make a list of text file names in a directory, the DOS command "dir /b > list.txt" can be used.

Run make_rom.bat to make the a GBA rom text reader with all the .txt files in the directory included.

~c___________

TEXT FORMAT
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Extended ASCII is used. Character 255 (0xFF) is reserved for EOF use, no text files should contain this character unless it is the last character of the file. The tilde is also kind of reserved for command use. (The current version ignores the linefeed characters, so it is not compatiable with unix text files).

~c_______________________

FUTURE VERSION MAY HAVE
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-Ability to load and save settings and book marks.
-More fonts, and 16x16 fonts.
-ANSI/ASCII selection
-Sub-pixel rendering for more readable text.
-Support for unix text files.
-Support for different language character sets.
-Ability to scroll backwards page by page.
-Line by Line scrolling.
-One day I might make a variable width font version or something.       



~c___________

BUG REPORTS
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Please report bugs to dancotter@optushome.com.au and if necessery include the text file causing the problems.

Please note that text files with wrapped text will not display properly, this is not a bug, and is exactally how it would appear in notepad if you shrunk the window down. Text files which you need autowrap are OK, but others will have to be 'unwrapped'. To unwrap your text files you have to remove the carrage returns, I have a program on my web site which can do this automatically for you (see the address for my site below).

Already known bugs/limitations:
-This is only an emu version so it may not run on realhardware (people say it does but the there is no button de-bounce so the buttons are extremely touchy).
-If a line starts with a space it is shown as 2 spaces.
-There is a bug where if you try to go to the next chapter and you are already viewing the last chapter then the first chapter will be shown and you will not be able to change chapters again. This will only happen for the first book and to change chapters again just goto the menu and press a or b to change the book back to the same book again).
-Some of the orientations are bugged (due to rotation/scaling not taking into account zoom properly). Only the following currently works properly:

Orientation     8x8     16x8    16x16   4x8
Normal          Yes     Yes     Yes     Yes
Sideways        Yes     No      No      Yes
Backward        Yes     No      No      No
Lefty           Yes     Yes     No      No


Please note that this is a beta version. I currently have no plans to work more on this version (however I'm starting working on a new BMP mode version with variable width characters).

Note to get to work on real hardware you must patch the header of the ROM (or change the header.bin file).

~c________

WEB SITE
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My web site is:
http://members.optushome.com.au/dancotter
All new version and other stuff will be available on that site for download.
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Dan      08/08/2001