Memory Banks

Object Editor, change the Bobs in the game, and return to the creation of your program routines bringing the new Bobs with you!

No loading and saving are necessary, everything is handled by AMOS Professional, and your working life is made that much easier! An example of this technique is featured in Chapter 13.7.

Creating your own utilities
The following functions are provided in order to provide developers with full access to the inner workings of the AMOS Professional system. They are definitely not intended for the casual programmer, but they do allow advanced users to create customised AMOS Professional utilities.

SCREEN BASE
function: get screen table
address=Screen Base

This function returns the base address of the internal table that is used to hold the number and position of AMOS Professional screens.

ICON BASE
function: get Icon base
address=Icon Base(number)

ICON BASE returns the address of the Icon whose number is specified in brackets. The format of this information is exactly the same as for the SPRITE BASE function, explained below.

SPRITE BASE
function: get Sprite table
n=Sprite Base(number)

SPRITE BASE provides the address of the internal data list for whichever Sprite number is specified in brackets. If the Sprite does not exist, then the address of the table is returned as zero. Negative values for the Sprite number will return the address of the optional mask associated with that Sprite, and the number that is returned can contain one of three possible values, as follows:

• A negative number indicates that there is no mask for this Sprite.
• Zero indicates that the specified Sprite does have a mask, but it is yet to be generated by the system.
• A positive number indicates the address of the mask in memory. The first "long word" of this area holds the length of the mask, and the next gives the actual definition.