Advertisement
ATARI Light Pen Operator's Manual
the position of the test characters on the screen. This information
tells the computer uhat to do next.
You may extend this control function to sense a selected menu item and
perform a complete function. Such functions may include: turning on
the Program Recorder* sounding an alarm* choosing a mathematical
formula to be executed* selecting a specific disk file* and others.
You may use the light pen as a high-speed joystick (game paddle) to
move the cursor to a neui location on the screen directly rather than
using the keyboard or paddle cursor controls. In games such as tic-
tac-toe* chess* or checkers the light pen can "pick up" a specific
item from a selected position on the game board or place that item or
a marker at another game board position.
In business app1ications* an office planner can use the light pen to
pick up a graphics-represented piece of furniture and reposition it in
another area in his graphics-represented room.
You can experiment uiith the ATARI sound generators by plotting one or
more organ keyboards on the screen. You can use the light pen to
"play" each one of the organs by selecting notes from each of the
keyboards. Each key represents one note of a selected sound generator*
and each keyboard represents a separate sound generator.
There are certain applications for uihich keyboard input would be too
complex or time-consuming. In a case like that* the computer can do
all of the work* determining the pen position and plotting items on
the screen on that basis.
A Light Pen Demonstration Program Cassette has been provided to
illustrate such an application. The cassette contains two copies of a
program called PALLET*
with an 8K version on Side 1 and a 16K version
on Side 2. Each version allows you to draw with the light pen on the
screen by plotting colored dots at each position occupied by the pen.
The 16R version includes many extra features. These programs are
described in Section 4* ATARI Light Pen Demonstration Program
Cassette. These suggested uses are only a beginning. You will probably
invent many other ways to use the ATARI Light Pen in your own
programs.
Possible Uses of the Light Pen
Advertisement
