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Elite on the BBC Micro and NES

Drawing pixels: PIXEL

[BBC Micro disc version, Flight]

Name: PIXEL [Show more] Type: Subroutine Category: Drawing pixels Summary: Draw a 1-pixel dot, 2-pixel dash or 4-pixel square Deep dive: Drawing monochrome pixels in mode 4
Context: See this subroutine in context in the source code Variations: See code variations for this subroutine in the different versions References: This subroutine is called as follows: * DOEXP calls PIXEL * TT22 calls PIXEL * PIXEL2 calls via PX4

Draw a point at screen coordinate (X, A) with the point size determined by the distance in ZZ. This applies to the top part of the screen (the monochrome mode 4 portion).
Arguments: X The screen x-coordinate of the point to draw A The screen y-coordinate of the point to draw ZZ The distance of the point (further away = smaller point)
Returns: Y Y is preserved
Other entry points: PX4 Contains an RTS
.PIXEL STY T1 \ Store Y in T1 TAY \ Copy A into Y, for use later LSR A \ Set SCH = &60 + A >> 3 LSR A LSR A ORA #&60 STA SCH TXA \ Set SC = (X >> 3) * 8 AND #%11111000 STA SC TYA \ Set Y = Y AND %111 AND #%00000111 TAY TXA \ Set X = X AND %111 AND #%00000111 TAX LDA ZZ \ If distance in ZZ >= 144, then this point is a very CMP #144 \ long way away, so jump to PX3 to fetch a 1-pixel point BCS PX3 \ from TWOS and EOR it into SC+Y LDA TWOS2,X \ Otherwise fetch a 2-pixel dash from TWOS2 and EOR it EOR (SC),Y \ into SC+Y STA (SC),Y LDA ZZ \ If distance in ZZ >= 80, then this point is a medium CMP #80 \ distance away, so jump to PX13 to stop drawing, as a BCS PX13 \ 2-pixel dash is enough \ Otherwise we keep going to draw another 2 pixel point \ either above or below the one we just drew, to make a \ 4-pixel square DEY \ Reduce Y by 1 to point to the pixel row above the one BPL PX14 \ we just plotted, and if it is still positive, jump to \ PX14 to draw our second 2-pixel dash LDY #1 \ Reducing Y by 1 made it negative, which means Y was \ 0 before we did the DEY above, so set Y to 1 to point \ to the pixel row after the one we just plotted .PX14 LDA TWOS2,X \ Fetch a 2-pixel dash from TWOS2 and EOR it into this EOR (SC),Y \ second row to make a 4-pixel square STA (SC),Y .PX13 LDY T1 \ Restore Y from T1, so Y is preserved by the routine .PX4 RTS \ Return from the subroutine