Resolutions available on the Atari Falcon030
(c) 1992 Atari Corp. Written by John Townsend
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This document may be re-printed again and again as long as the Atari
copyright remains intact.
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A couple of notes: Unlike previous machines, there are just too many
resolutions to give each resolution a name. Therefore, I will do my best
to describe what the resolution is and which monitor it is on.
- NOTE: TV and a Color Monitor are the same.. by Color Monitor, I am
talking about the standard SC1224. By VGA, I mean a standard VGA
Monitor.
40 column modes ( "column" means the number of x pixels divided by 8)
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4 color, normal, TV: 320x200, 4 colors, 2 planes
16 color, normal, TV: 320x200, 16 colors, 4 planes
256 color, normal, TV: 320x200, 256 colors, 8 planes
True color, normal, TV: 320x200, true color
4 color, interlace, TV: 320x400, 4 colors, 2 planes
16 color, interlace, TV: 320x400, 16 colors, 4 planes
256 color, interlace, TV: 320x400, 256 colors, 8 planes
True color, interlace, TV: 320x400, true color
4 color, normal, VGA: 320x480, 4 colors, 2 planes
16 color, normal, VGA: 320x480, 16 colors, 4 planes
256 color, normal, VGA: 320x480, 256 colors, 8 planes
True color, normal, VGA: 320x480, true color
4 color, line-doubling, VGA: 320x240, 4 colors, 2 planes
16 color, line-doubling, VGA: 320x240, 16 colors, 4 planes
256 color, line-doubling, VGA: 320x240, 256 colors, 8 planes
True color, line-doubling, VGA: 320x240, true color
80 column modes
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2 color, normal, TV: 640x200, 2 colors, 1 plane
4 color, normal, TV: 640x200, 4 colors, 2 planes
16 color, normal, TV: 640x200, 16 colors, 4 planes
256 color, normal, TV: 640x200, 256 colors, 8 planes
True color, normal, TV: 640x200, true color
4 color, interlace, TV: 640x400, 4 colors, 2 planes
16 color, interlace, TV: 640x400, 16 colors, 4 planes
256 color, interlace, TV: 640x400, 256 colors, 8 planes
True color, interlace, TV: 640x400, true color
2 color, normal, VGA: 640x480, 2 colors, 1 plane
4 color, normal, VGA: 640x480, 4 colors, 2 planes
16 color, normal, VGA: 640x480, 16 colors, 4 planes
256 color, normal, VGA: 640x480, 256 colors, 8 planes
4 color, line-doubling, VGA: 640x240, 4 colors, 2 planes
16 color, line-doubling, VGA: 640x240, 16 colors, 4 planes
256 color, line-doubling, VGA: 640x240, 256 colors, 8 planes
and lastly.. there are compability modes for ST Low, ST Medium, and
ST High on both VGA monitors and SC1224 monitors. (On a color monitor,
ST High is achieved by using the interlace mode).
Also, the ST Monochrome monitor (the SM124) will work with Falcon030
as well. However, it only supports one resolution: ST High Resolution.
All modes on a TV can be overscanned. This means multiplying the X and Y
resolution by 1.2. For example, modes with 320 pixels of horizontal
resolution (X res) will become 384 pixels across, and modes with 640 pixels
will become 768 across. Overscanning is done in the X and Y resolution. You
can't do them independently. Special Note: On a VGA monitor, overscan is
"faked".. since the video hardware doesn't have the capability to do
overscan on a VGA monitor, we made it so that if a overscan mode is set on
a VGA monitor, you still see the normal size screen, but the screen is a
window onto the bigger overscanned image. Make sense? We did this for
compatibility. This way if a game that has an overscanned starup picture
can use the same pic on both the VGA monitor and the TV monitor. Pretty
cool, eh? <grin>
BTW.. Overscan can NOT be set from the desktop. The AES and Desktop will
work just fine with it, but because you can't see the parts of the screen,
we thought that that option shouldn't be available from the desktop. We
don't want to confuse people. However, Overscan can be set using a new
XBIOS call (Vsetmode()).. so it is still available.
I hope I haven't made any mistakes. I triple-checked this document in
search of errors and I couldn't find any. If you do find some, send me
Email on GEnie (to TOWNS) or CIS (70007,1135) and let me know.
-- John Townsend, Atari Corp.
PS. Anyone who would like to reprint this message, please do so!
The smaller the number of times I have to type that message, the
more my fingers with thank you! ;-)
After looking at this one more time.. one point to clear up: By
saying SC1224 Color Monitor, I mean any Color Monitor that Atari
have manufactured for the ST/Mega/STE/MegaSTE computers. Clear
as mud? ;-)
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