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Document Title: [AtariColorVecGen.html (html file)]

Atari Color Vector Generator 1981-1985


Last Modified on 3/14/96



	The Atari vector generator is a state machine run that runs 
independently of the 6502 processor.  The state machine has its own 
instruction set as well. Most of these instructions are two bytes long while one
is four. The VG can do many tasks with its time.  It can: HALT itself and tell the
6502 that it is done, Move the beam to the CENTER of the screen,  Load 
SCALE info to the binary and linear scaling registers,  Load STATS to the stat 
registers,  JMP to a new memory location,  JSR to a new location saving the old 
address on the stack,  RTS from a Subroutine by pulling an address off of the 
stack, and two DRAW commands; SDRAW(short vector) and LDRAW (long vector).

    This information is for Tempest, other games all vary in minor way but have the 
same general priciple.
 
    The Vector Generator addresses its instructions in a peculiar way.  Not in 
order as most processors.  The first address of any instruction is on the odd
byte and then back to the even byte.  Therefore it is always addressing odd to 
even.  Example:

                    Data Listing:    $4000  00
                                     $4001  45
                                     $4002  25
                                     $4003  40
                                     $4004  .........

    The order of execution is : 4001,4000,4003,4002,4005,4004.......


This is important so keep it in mind when your looking at a vector generator 
listing!!!!!

The format for the instructions are:

                            OOOYYYYY  Word 1
                            ZZZXXXXX  Word 2


	Where OOO is the opcode, ZZZ is the relative intensity,  YYYYYY and 
XXXXX are data.  

SDRAW: opcode 010, 2 bytes

    Format:    OOOYyyyy
               ZZZXxxxx


	The DRAW opcode(010) will be discussed first.  yyyy is the 
length in the y direction, and xxxx is the lenght in the x direction. Any 
vector drawn is from the previous location of the vector. The most significant
digit of the lenghts is the sign bit. Zero is positive and One is negative, for
negative vectors the lenght is the one's complement of yyyy or xxxx.

Here are some examples:

This following procedure draws a capital letter T

	Hex string:  20 4C 2C 40 1A 40 20 54

     Order of Execution:   4C    OPC=010  YYYYY=0C 

	                   20    ZZZ=000   XXXXX=00     Beam off

	     	           40    OPC=010   YYYYY=00

                           2C    ZZZ=001    XXXXX=0C    Beam on

		           40    OPC=010   YYYYY=00

                           1A    ZZZ=000    XXXXX=1A    (-6)

		           54    OPC=010   YYYYY=14      (-12)

                           20    ZZZ=001    XXXXX=00



Hopefully that clears things up a bit on the drawing of the vectors.  The  
LDRAW command is the same with the addition of two more data bytes.  

Its format is as follows:

LDRAW: opcode 000, 4 bytes


                         OOOYYYYY    Word 1
    	                   YYYYYYYY    Word 2
                         ZZZXXXXX    Word 3
                         XXXXXXXX    Word 4


	The added bits of data allow the vectors that are drawn with this 
command to be very long or very precise( if they are scaled down ). NOTE:
on the LDRAW command a vectors actual lenght is the YYYYYYYYYYYYY lenght 
divided by two!!!

The Remaining instructions follow:


HALT:  opcode=001, bytes 2        

                            001*****  Word 1
                            ********  Word 2     *don't care

SCALE: opcode 0111, bytes 2

                            011,1,*BBB     Word 1

			    LLLLLLLL       Word 2

         

         Where:  BBB is the Binary Scaling factor. Default=001
                 LLLLLLLL is the Linear Scaling Factor 

STAT:  opcode 0110, bytes 2

                            011,1,0***    Word 1
                            ZZZZ****      Word 2

        Where: ZZZZ is an alternate intensity for the vector

                            011,1,1***    Word 1
                            ****CCCC      Word 2

        Where: CCCC is a color number.


CENTER: opcode=100 , bytes 2

                             100*****    Word 1
                             ********    Word 2

JSR:  opcode=101, bytes 2

                             101AAAAA    Word 1
                             AAAAAAAA    Word 2     Jump Sub A

RTS:  opcode=110, bytes 2      

                             110*****    Word 1
                             ********    Word 2


JUMP: opcode=111, bytes 2     

                             111AAAAA    Word 1
                             AAAAAAAA    Word 2    JUMP A



As with the old VG, the newer one is also dual ported.  This means that the 
6502 and the VG can access the VG RAM/ROM at at the same time.  The 
addresses are identical which is different from the old system but more 
convenient.  The reason for this is because on the JUMP and JSR instructions
the 13 bit of data are left shifted one position and a 1 is brought in, giving
you  the effective address.

EXAMPLE:   F8  OPC=111  AAAAA=18
	         58  AAAAAAAA=58          A=1858



   Left shift 1858 and bring in a 1 to the low bit
   
               1858<1  =   40B1  Effective Address


Alpha/numerics Coding:

      I know that this is the format for Major Havoc, but I haven't
checked the validity on any other games yet. I assume that they are
all the same though!  First a little background.

    The Alpha/Numerics are stored in a lookup table in the vector roms.
The table contains calls to the appropriate drawing subroutine which is
a two byte instruction (JSR instruction). The order of the table and it's
contents are shown during the crosshatch/alpha/numerics screen of the 
self test, so you can see for yourself.  [Space]=00 0=02 1=04 2=06 ect....
after 9 is A and after Z are various puctuations marks(these don't exist 
in older games.  If the letter is the last in its string the high order 
byte of it's code is set to one making the code negative, this way the game
doesn't need any lenghth data for each string.   

EXAMPLE:

       00 02 04 86    Prints-> 012    Notice the code for "2" is now 86