Re: [stella] Would it be possible...

Subject: Re: [stella] Would it be possible...
From: emooney1@xxxxxxxx (Erik K Mooney)
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 1997 20:40:01 -0400
>I've looked for closed captioning and other information once I 
>discovered
>that Channel 3 was displaying the text "KTVK PHOENIX" in the vertical 
>blank
>area of its signal.  I then started to spot many different kinds of 
>signals
>present in other channels, sometimes several rapidly-changing 
>scanlines of
>data in each frame.  I'd like to know what's in all that data, myself.

Dunno what else would be there besides closed-captioning.  Possibly the
VCR-Plus (whatever it's called) numbers that are supposed to let your VCR
find and tape any progam using just that number... the numbers are
supposed
to work across different cable companies where different stations are on
different channels, so it can't be a simple formula indicating time and
channel -
there's gotta be something broadcast.  Dunno what else could be in there,
though...
GPS signals?  Stock updates?

>Experiment with dark gray double-width sprites and playfield graphics 
>on
>the 18th scanline, or somewhere around there, of the vertical blank.
>At least "18th scanline" is what I keep hearing.  I can't seem to find 
>much
>more information.

I doubt we're going to be able to reverse-engineer closed captioning from
simply experimenting =)  The info is obviously available to TV
manufacturers
and broadcasters, so it's gotta be available somewhere... shouldn't there
be a
regulation somewhere (anti-monopoly) saying that the info has to be
available to us in case we wanna start a TV-manufacturing company?

>If we get it working, Greg Troutman should make a version of Dark Mage 
>that
>uses this.  :)

Would be neat.. is it violation of the classic-game spirit to use
improved
graphics capability in the TV?  (hmm... wonder if a 2600 could somehow
force a picture-in-picture thingy and transmit different stuff on
channels
2 and 3... :) )

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