amiga-bootcamp/01_hardware/aga_a1200_a4000/aga_registers_delta.md

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AGA Register Deltas vs ECS

New Registers

FMODE — $DFF1FC (AGA only)

DMA fetch mode — see chipset_aga.md for full description.

BPLCON4 — $DFF10C (AGA only)

Bitplane and sprite colour bank selection:

bits 15-8:  BPLAM7-0  — Bitplane XOR pattern (AGA colour bank XOR)
bits  7-4:  ESPRM7-4  — Even sprite colour bank (bits 7:4 of colour reg index)
bits  3-0:  OSPRM7-4  — Odd sprite colour bank

Bitplane bank select via BPLAM:

• BPLAM provides an XOR mask applied to the 8-bit colour index before palette lookup
• BPLAM = $00 → use COLOR00–COLOR63 (bank 0)
• BPLAM = $40 → use COLOR64–COLOR127 (bank 1)
• BPLAM = $80 → use COLOR128–COLOR191 (bank 2)
• BPLAM = $C0 → use COLOR192–COLOR255 (bank 3)

COLOR00–COLOR255 — $DFF180–$DFF3BE (AGA)

AGA extends the colour table from 32 registers (OCS/ECS) to 256 registers.

Each AGA colour register is 32 bits (accessed as two word writes via BPLCON3 latch):

; Write 24-bit colour to COLOR00:
; First write sets high nibble, second sets low nibble
move.w  #$0000, BPLCON3+custom      ; set LACE=0, select low colour word
move.w  #$0FFF, COLOR00+custom      ; write $RGB (high 12 bits)
bset    #9, BPLCON3_shadow           ; set LOCT (low nibble enable)
move.w  #$0FFF, COLOR00+custom      ; write low nibble of each channel

The standard LoadRGB32() and LoadRGB4() graphics library calls manage this transparently.

Changed Registers

BPLCON2 — $DFF104 (AGA extended)

bits 14-9:  KILLEHB  — kill EHB mode (AGA replaces EHB with 256 colour)
bit    6:   RDRAM    — read bitplane data from RAM (not registered in Lisa)
bits   5-3: PF2PRI   — playfield 2 priority
bits   2-0: PF1PRI   — playfield 1 priority + sprite priority

BPLCON3 — $DFF106 (AGA extended from ECS)

Additional AGA bits:

bit 9:    LOCT  — low colour write enable (for 24-bit colour access)
bit 3:    BRDSPRT — sprites visible in border

AGA-Specific BPLCON0 Bits

See chipset_aga.md — bit 4 is the MSB of the bitplane count for 7/8-plane modes.

Colour Register Access — Low Nibble Protocol

Writing 24-bit colour to AGA registers requires two steps per colour:

1. Write high nibble (standard): COLOR00 = $0RGB (bits [11:0] = R[3:0], G[3:0], B[3:0])
2. Set LOCT in BPLCON3 (bit 9)
3. Write low nibble: COLOR00 = $0rgb (bits [11:0] = R[3:0], G[3:0], B[3:0], these are the low 4 bits)

This two-write sequence gives 8 bits per channel (R[7:0], G[7:0], B[7:0]) = 24-bit colour.

LoadRGB32() does this automatically:

/* AGA 32-bit colour table format:
   Count, then pairs: [colour_index, 0x00RRGGBB] */
ULONG colour_table[] = {
    32,   0,         /* 32 colours starting at index 0 */
    0x00FF0000,      /* COLOR00 = red */
    0x0000FF00,      /* COLOR01 = green */
    /* ... */
    ~0UL             /* terminator */
};
LoadRGB32(vp, colour_table);

References

• ADCD 2.1 Hardware Manual — AGA register appendix
• NDK39: hardware/custom.h, graphics/view.h
• Commodore A1200/A4000 Technical Reference Manuals
• AmigaMail Vol. 2 — AGA colour programming