MINIPAINT 1.2

[Mike]

Well into my sixth year here at Denial, and this being my 1000th post, I found it appropriate to bring you yet another picture done with MINIPAINT.

Just let us all keep in mind, we're all having fun here, and it's our spare time we spend hacking away on the VIC, and playing games, and ...

Cheers,

Michael


(It's contained in the Pictures section of the MG batch suite)

[gklinger]

That picture would make a fantastic new avatar for Boray.

Congrats on your milestone.

[Kananga]

Nice picture. Thanks!

[Pedro Lambrini]

Nice picture. I downloaded it last night, loaded it with PRG Starter and then instantly took a screenie and set it as my desktop wallpaper! Thanks Mike!

[Ivanhoe76]

Excellent picture, Mike!!! It really shows the power of this tool!!! I wish we had those artists and tools back in the days!!!

[RobertBe]

Are there Denial fellows, which do happen to own an Oki 20, and would like to test the ported hardcopy program?

I own an Okimate 20 (and an Oki 10, too). If you still need Oki instruction book questions, just send me a message. And I have Koalapads, too (and the Animation Station and others).

Back from Blockparty 2010,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
July 24-25 Commodore Vegas Expo 2010 -
http://www.commodore.ca/forum
and click on ComVEX

[Mike]

I own an Okimate 20 (and an Oki 10, too). If you still need Oki instruction book questions, just send me a message. [...]

Thanks again for the offer! As I had already pointed out in PM, I'll gladly come back to it, when the issues regarding a scan are solved.

As for the recent discussions about game ports in other threads, the following logo just happened to fit - of course it's a long way from a title screen to a complete game, but who knows?


(contained in the Pictures section of the MG batch suite)

[adric22]

I see these pictures, and here some of the music that has been made on the VIC and I tell myself, if only this level of programming were available in the early 1980s. But then I have to remember that the main limitation of making really good games on the VIC-20 was really the lack of RAM. So then if you were to add the extra RAM, the cost of the machine would probably be pretty similar to the C64, in which case the whole point is lost.

[orion70]

Adric, you're right on this point. The problem with Commodore was that prices were dramatically cut every few months, even for the latest machine (which in the early eighties was the C64). This screwed the competitors, but also prevented people from buying low-end Commodore models (i.e., the VIC-20).

[Mike]

[...] I have to remember that the main limitation of making really good games on the VIC-20 was really the lack of RAM.

In case of MINIPAINT, there's simply no way of fitting it into an unexpanded VIC-20. The picture alone fills the entire space of $1000 .. $1FFF - end of story.

So then if you were to add the extra RAM, the cost of the machine would probably be pretty similar to the C64, in which case the whole point is lost.

Commodore provided the VIC-1111 expansion with +16K, which had been the biggest RAM expansion available from the original manufacturer without resorting to a cartridge extender.

You can make MINIPAINT run from tape, and it's able to save/load pictures to/from tape as well. So, a VIC-20, +16K, and tape is all that's required which might have summed up to ~600 DM (in prices of 1984, which would be ~400 $ today) - not entirely unreasonable. A bare C64 sold around 1000 DM then.

For Commodore Free, I wrote this Interview, which also sheds some light on my motivation to write MINIPAINT.

In any case, MINIPAINT is now 1 year old, and the current version of MINIGRAFIK has been around for over 2 years now, and I'd really like to see some more people try writing programs with these tools!

[Wilson]

Here's a picture I've been sitting on for a couple weeks. It was made in the Halloween spirit, so now seems an appropriate time to show it.

[saehn]

Here's a picture I've been sitting on for a couple weeks. It was made in the Halloween spirit, so now seems an appropriate time to show it.

Very cool! It's tough to tease good graphics out of the VIC's limited abilities, but this is a nice image! I like the color choices especially.

[Wilson]

Thanks saehn, I'm glad you like it! I had kind of a hard time deciding which colors I should use, so I'm happy that you pointed that out.

[Mike]

I just had a little bit fun today. Here's the result:


(contained in the Pictures section of the MG batch suite)

It is an example output of a converter derived from vfli_quant. Some conversions really do look quite nice. They show what might be possible when a talented graphician tries MINIPAINT.

When a picture is meant for release, I'd ask users of MINIPAINT to not only post screenshots, but also the *.prg file of the picture.

Greetings,

Michael

Edit: changed picture of the parrot for an updated version of the converter which uses Gamma correction and Floyd-Steinberg dithering.

[rhurst]

Very nice, Mike!

If you scaled four of your best pix down 1:4 and placed them into a 2x2 matrix, what might the result yield? I am curious to see what a 1/4 sized image(s) might look like, should it be used to display graphic flash cards in a type of board game (http://well-of-souls.com/tower/) converted for VIC 20. I realize the depth of color is best realized with full-screen dithering, but it is still cool to see what can be done with so little crayons and pixels . . .