Atari 65XE, Owner'S Manual

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0 Gray 8 Blue
1 Gold 9 Light blue
2 Orange 10 Turquoise
3 Red-orange 11 Green-blue
4 Pink 12 Green
5 Purple 13 Yellow-green
6 Red-orange 14 Orange-green
7 Blue 15 Light orange
The remaining 112 colors are obtained by adding a value for
luminance, or brightness. The luminance must be an even number
between 0 and 14. The higher the luminance number, the lighter and
brighter the color.
Color registers are another important element in ATARI graphics. The
color registers can be thought of as paint cans. Each register can hold
any of the 128 colors. Because there are five registers, a maximum of
five different colors can be displayed. The five color registers are
numbered 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4.
SETCOLOR is an essential graphics command. The format is
SETCOLOR 2,10,8: the first number is the color register; the second is
the color number; and the third is the luminance.
Graphics Mode 0
The color registers function differently in different graphics modes.
Their functions in graphics mode 0 (the text mode) are shown in the
chart below:
Default Colors Register Function
0 Not used
Light blue 1 Brightness of text
Dark blue 2 Background
3 Not used
Black 4 Border
The default colors are the colors that the computer automatically uses
unless you instruct it to use some other colors. Using SETCOLOR to
change colors, type in the following:
SETCOLOR 2, 3, 4
When you press , the screen turns orange. The color transfor-
mation occurs because in the SETCOLOR command, the 2 represents
the screen color, the 3 equals the color orange, and the 4 indicates
the brightness. Change the 4 to a 6. The orange changes to a lighter
orange. Change the 6 to a 7. Nothing happens because only the even
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