COMPUTER GRAPHICS
PRUDUCT SURVEY
Unlocking the art inside you
By DAVID DUBERMANThe computer's incredible power as a tool for artistic creativity was
once only available to adept programmers and dedicated number crunchers.
Times have changed. Today, low-cost visual arts hardware and software
make the Atari-with its unequalled graphics potential-the perfect tool
for a serious artist or an inventive computer novice.
With the products described in this survey, you can easily
produce effects similar to what used to be available only on $10,00 graphics
systems. You can use your computer to draw pictures or cartoons,
design a letterhead for your stationery, make your own personal greeting
cards.
You can create video games and elaborate video animation
without complex programming. You can take advantage of graphics applications
for professions or hobbies as diverse as weaving, landscape architecture
or astrology.
Let's take a look at the affordable, easy-to-use tools
for computer graphics ...
GRAPHIC TABLETS
Until recently, most graphics programs
for the Atari used the joystick for drawing on the screen. Now, Atari
owners can choose between three touch tablets. Touch tablets have
flat pressure-sensitive surfaces. When you draw on these with a stylus,
your movements are registered on the screen.
Two of these, the KoalaPad and the Atari Touch Tablet,
are similar. The third, the PowerPad, works on a different principle
and is much larger.
ATARI TOUCH TABLET
The Atari Touch Tablet, ($89.95 - all prices in this survey are suggested
retail) measures 9 3/8 inches wide by 7 3/4 inches high by about 1 inch
thick, the size of an average hardcover book. The drawing surface
is 6 1/2 inches wide by 5 inches high - about the same height-width ratio
as the standard Atari graphics screen. A cable permanently attached
to the back connects the touch tablet to joystick Port One, and there is
a jack in the rear for plugging in the accompanying stylus. The Atari
tablet's stylus is the only one that has a button built in, which is a
real convenience. There are also two buttons on the tablet, located
on either side of the drawing surface. All three buttons select options
from the drawing program. The tablet comes with the Atari Artist
drawing program on a cartridge. Atari Artist is the same program
as Micro Illustrator, which is discussed below.
KOALAPAD TOUCH TABLET
The KoataPad (Koala Technologies,$125), which was designed to be used
by a number of different computers, is similar to the Atari tablet.
It's noticeably smaller though, measuring 6 3/8 inches wide, 8 inches high,
and the thickness tapers from 1 3/4 inches at the rear down to 1/4 inches
square. The tablet can be held comfortably by an adult in one hand,
leaving the other available for drawing. A cable at the rear connects
to the joystick port. There's no place to connect or store the stylus,
though, so it could easily get lost. The KoalaPad comes with the
Micro Illustrator drawing program on diskette. Also available from
Koala are several software packages for the tablet, including Spider Eater,
a musical educational game, and Coloring Series 1, an electronic "coloring
book" of geometric patterns.
POWER PAD
The PowerPad is covered fully in a separate review adjoining this survey.
No software accompanies the PowerPad, but several programs, including Micro
Illustrator, are available for use with it.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
All three touch tablets use a version of Micro Illustrator, an excellent
drawing program. Functional differences among the tablets when using
Micro Illustrator are minimal. You can draw with your finger, but
most people prefer using the stylus. If you only intend to use Micro
Illustrator with your tablet, the chioce narrows down to deciding which
size tablet is most comfortable for you (and possibly your children).
If you want to do more with a touch tablet, however, other
criteria come into play. Touch tablets can, for example, be used
as controllers, similar to joysticks and paddles. The PowerPad is
particularly well-suited for use as an alternative to the keyboard for
children because it can sense multiple contacts on its surface. The
other two can sense only one contact at a time. Thus, if you touch
one point on the KoataPad or the Atari tablet, then while holding the first,
touch another, the second contact won't register. The PowerPad can
sense simultaneous contacts, and can, for example, be used as a piano keyboard.
Indeed, PowerPad's manufacturer, Chalk- Board, markets such a package,
called Micro Maestro.
Also available for the PowerPad is the Programming Kit
for BASIC. If you want to write a program that uses PowerPad as a
controller, this package should tell you all you need to know. The
KoalaPad documentation contains minimal information on programming for
the touch tablet, but you can buy a book called the KoalaPad Touch Tablet
Programmer's Guide for further information. The Atari Touch Tablet
documentation describes only how to use the tablet in conjunction with
the accompanying graphics program.
The drawing surfaces differ slightly from pad to pad.
The KoalaPad's surface is a small square of finely-textured hard black
plastic. It's smooth enough to draw quickly on, yet provides enough
friction for slower detail work, and appears to be quite durable.
The Atari Touch Tablet's drawing surface is a sheet of
thin, shiny black plastic, covered by a removable sheet of transparent
plastic. Atari recommends that you leave the plastic overlay in to
avoid damaging the actual surface. The overlay can also be used to
hold down drawings for tracing. The pad is just a bit too large and
heavy to hand hold comfortably; it should be placed on your lap, a desktop
or tabletop.
The PowerPad is much larger than the other two.
You can't hold it in your hands, an smaller children may have a hard time
holding it in their laps. The drawing surface is a permanently attached
thin sheet of plastic. However, all software for the PowerPad comes
with special overlays that customize the tablet for each application.
MICRO ILLUSTRATOR
There is a version of Micro Illustrator for all three tablets, (there
is no single manufacturer or price for the various versions of Micro illustrator).
This graphics program lets you draw in Graphics 7 1/2,
the Atari's highest-resolution four-color mode, the same mode used by Micro-Painter
(Datasoft). Micro Illustrator uses an icon menu, in which all the
program's different functions are depicted graphically. The program's
different modes include Draw (doodle), Point (control single pixels), and
Line, (draw straight lines). You can also draw boxes and circles
(outlined or filled), and create a sunburst effect with the "rays" function.
You can draw with "mirroring," magnify your drawing for fine detail work,
fill areas with colors and patterns, and save and load images from disk.
You can change color, size and shape of your "brush," and you can create
a magical "rolling rainbow" effect. When combined with a touch tablet's
ease of use, Micro Illustrator makes creative graphic expression with a
computer as natural as taking a bath.
Micro Illustrator uses a compressed format for file storage
that's incompatible with other drawing programs. But you can also
use the "standard" MicroPainter format. If, when the picture is displayed,
you press [INSERT] on your computer keyboard, Micro Illustrator saves the
picture as a file named "PICTURE." If you have a disk in drive 1 containing
a standard-format file named "PICTURE," and you press [CLEAR], Micro Illustrator
will load and display that file.
TOUCH TABLET LOADER
New from Atari Customer Service as a FREE listing booklet is John Clark's
very useful utility program, Touch Tablet Loader. This lets you insert
into your own programs any picture made with the touch tablets and software
previously mentioned, as well as compatible products. You can also
learn how to write programs that enable you to use your touch tablet as
a controller.
For your Free Demopac, simply write to Atari Customer
Service. Address is at the end of this survey.
POWER PAD
Chalk Board Inc.
3772 Pleasantdale Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30340
(404)496-0101
$99.95 - hardware
Reviewed by David Plotkin
The PowerPad is Chalkboard's new graphics tablet. With its combination
of features, reasonable price, friendly support, and wide range of software,
it would be an excellent addition to your hardware.
The first thing you notice about the PowerPad is that
it's big: it measures 17 inches by 14 inches, with a drawing surface 12
inches square. It is easier to draw on than the smaller surfaces
of other tablets.
The PowerPad uses 14,400 tiny digital switches to read
where pressure is applied to the pad. There are 10 x 10 per inch.
Unlike the surfaces of other pads, the PowerPad has no problem resolving
simultaneous multiple inputs. This ability allows the PowerPad to
be used as much more than just a graphics tablet: it becomes a flexible
input device.
If you've done a little arithmetic, you may be wondering
about the PowerPad's resolution. Ten switches per inch by 12 inches
equals 120 points, or pixels - not even as high resolutions as Graphics
7! However, it's possible to design a program using the Atari's highest-resolution
screen, by "software stretching" of the resolution,
The version of Micro Illustrator ($49.45) for the PowerPad
has a special feature called "Scale" that uses ,Software stretching" to
let you draw pixel by pixel, even though the tablet's resolution isn't
as high as Micro Illustrator's.
Hardware isn't of much use without software, but the PowerPad
doesn't come with any. However, Chalkboard offers several programs
in cartridges requiring 32K of RAM.
Leo's Lectric Paintbrush ($29.95) is a drawing program
for children. They can paint in medium resolution, and use special
commands like MOVE and FILL. The program is easy to use, but is limited
to a few of the Atari's colors, and lacks advanced features. You can save
and load pictures with a disk drive.
Micro Maestro ($29.95) is a piano keyboard overlay program
for the PowerPad. This is fun. The overlay also shows a musical
staff, and you can play notes by pressing on either the staff or the piano
keys. When you play a note, its letter name, key location, and staff
position are shown on the screen, giving the program strong educational
value. You can play four-note chords, and record and play back your
songs, Sounds pretty good!
The Programmers Kit ($24.95) provides extensive technical
information about the PowerPad. The manual tells you how to read
PowerPad's switches. with demonstrations, utility routines in BASIC and
machine language, and a technical discussion of the pad's operation.
This lets you design your own programs, or adapt existing programs for
use with the tablet.
A fifth program, Logic Games ($39.95), involves matching
symbols and numbers. Also available is BearJam ($39.95), an educational
game that's supposed to help prepare children for reading, (we will review
these in future issues).
Chalkboard has a toll-free number for answering customers'
questions, and when I called, they were friendly and helpful The company
has plans to release more software for the tablet, possibly including powerful
graphics utilities, I highly recommend the PowerPad to all budding computer
artists of any age, and especially to families with children. It's
easy and fun for kids to use - and too big to ever lose!
LIGHT PENS
A light pen is a type of pointing device
for computers. Despite its name, the light pen does not produce light,
but contains a light-sensitive cell at its tip to detect the presence or
absence of light. A light pen also can convey its position on a screen
to the computer.
In graphics applications, fight pens are used to draw
directly on the monitor screen. There is no abstraction between the
drawing process and the production of the drawing; it's more flexible than
drawing on a physical surface. However, because most monitor screens
are vertical, drawing requires an unnatural position. Also, prolonged
proximity to a color TV screen, which may be a common circumstance with
light pens used in the home, may cause discomfort or health problems.
ATARI LIGHT PEN WITH ATARIGRAPHICS
Most light pens are physically similar to one another. The Atari
Light Pen ($99.95) is a good example. Made of smooth black plastic,
it's about the size and shape of a ballpoint pen. It contains an
on/off switch activated by pushing the pen's tip against a flat surface.
What's special about this pen is the software. Steve
Gibson's AtariGraphics cartridge software is a stunning realization of
the Atari computer's graphic capabilities. The program's four pop-up
icon menus let you choose drawing mode (box, circle, line, and parallelogram),
color, mirroring (vertically, horizontally, and four-way), and pattern
fill, among others. You can choose from 2,880 patterns and you can
fill any pattern over with another pattern, something most other graphics
programs won't let you do. You can also do unique "smear" effects
and erase directly on the screen.
AtariGraphics is easily the most impressive drawing program
we've seen at Antic in recent memory. (See the interview with Steve Gibson
in this issue.) AtariGraphics works in as little as 16K RAM and can use
cassette or disk for file storage. AtariGraphics files are incompatible
with other drawing programs.
EDUMATE LIGHT PEN
The Edumate Light Pen (Futurehouse, $34.95), is the simplest light
pen covered here, because it lacks a built-in switch. You activate
this pen by pressing the [START] key on the computer console. Made
of red plastic, the light pen resembles a Bic ballpoint attached to a coiled
cord. The Edumate pen's main advantage is price: at $34.95 list,
it's the least expensive hardware/software package in this survey.
The pen comes with a disk containing six programs. Peripheral Vision
($39.95 or $59.95 with light pen) is Futurehouse's new graphics program
for their Edumate light pen. The program was still under development
when this survey was completed, so we were only able to review a preliminary
version.
Unlike any other graphics utilitiy in the survey, Peripheral
Vision uses a GTIA mode, Graphics 11. This gives you 16 colors of
the same brightness in a screen whose resolution is 80 pixels horizontally
by about 168 vertically. A strip at the screen's bottom displays
an icon menu, and your selection of colors is arrayed across the top of
the screen.
The icon menu's Fill feature resembles a water tap flowing
into a bucket, and Zoom looks like a microscope. You can save and
load pictures with a disk drive. And there's a feature to let you
print out your creations directly, which wasn't ready for testing yet.
You can doodle, or draw single lines, consecutive lines, triangles, circles,
and rectangles. Use the keyboard to place text anywhere in the picture.
Other functions let you move or copy parts of a picture
to another part, fill enclosed areas with solid colors or a limited palette
of textures, and draw with mirroring. The documentation describes
how to use pictures made with Peripheral Vision in your own programs.
The tradeoff with this program is that you can use more
colors than with most others, but the resolution is lower. Actually,
the vertical resolution is high, but with only 80 pixels across the screen's
width, this mode's pixels have an odd shape - wide and flat. Nevertheless,
you can draw in this mode creatively.
Futurehouse also makes a line of educational software
that includes titles such as Alphabet Construction Set (learn to draw letters
of the alphabet), Computer Crayons (an electronic coloring book), and Little
Red Riding Hood, a computerized story book for young children.
TECH-SKETCH LIGHT PEN
The Tech-Sketch pen is available in two versions: the $39.95 version
includes some BASIC programs on disk, and the $69.95 version comes with
Micro Illustrator. The pen is composed of plastic and metal, and
appears sturdier than other pens. There's a small white button to
activate the pen located in the shaft's side near the tip. The pen
is easier to use than the Edumate, but not as easy as the Atari Light Pen.
McPEN
McPen (Madison Computer, $49) is the newest light pen for Ataris, and
is the largest pen in this survey. The pen itself is made of sturdy
beige plastic and has a rather wide barrel. It plugs into a control
panel with a coiled cord. The control panel, which measures 5 inches
square by 1 1/2 inches high, has a dial for sensitivity and a red LED,
and a receptacle for the pen. Installation instructions for the pen
and panel are included on a label attached to the bottom of the panel -
a considerate feature.
McPen doesn't have a built-in switch. Accompanying
software uses the space bar to turn the pen on and off. Included
with the pen is a disk containing four BASIC programs: Tic Tac Toe; QB
graphics, a limited drawing program; a menu program; and Ballon, a Player/
Missile graphics demonstration. Madison Computer also offers additional
software for the pen - titles so far are "McPen Learning Series" and "Coloring
Book," with more to come. Antic didn't have the opportunity to review
these packages yet.
We did, however, try McPen with programs for other light
pens, including Tech-Sketch's version of Micro Illustrator and the AtariGraphics
cartridge. Unfortunately, the pen didn't work very well with either
program. This is the only instance of a light pen being incompatible
with software from other companies.
SUMMARY
Although the light pens covered in this survey are more similar than
different, the accompanying software varies significantly. If you
choose to buy a light pen, be guided by the level of sophistication you
require in a drawing program. Try to get a demonstration of the pen
and program. Also, keep in mind that software manufactured for use
with a certain light pen works equally well with most other light pens,
with the exception of McPen.
STEVE GIBSON:
CREATOR OF ATARIGRAPHICS
Story behind the powerful new light pen software
by NAT FRIEDLAND, Antic Editor
Steve Gibson, the president and main resource of Gibson Laboratories
in Irvine, California said he'd been up till 6 a.m. working on his next
light pen software package. Possibly he felt he needed to burn the
sunrise oil to come up with something as good as his brand-new AtariGraphics
cartridge software which now comes bundled with the Atari Light Pen.
Gibson's AtariGraphics is described in detail in the survey
of computer-art tools featured in this issue. The bottom line is
that this light pen software is a computer graphics classic on the level
of Micro Illustrator or Micro-Painter. For ease of use and variety
of elaborate color patterns built-in, AtariGraphics ranks at the very top.
It also has valuable unique features, such as enabling you to "fill over"
existing patterns inside shapes you've already set up in your picture.
Even the Macintosh won't do this.
Known as the light pen programmer par excellence, Steve
Gibson first became an industry star with his Apple Computer light pen
software.
A JOY TO WORK WITH
"The Atari computer was a joy to work with, compared to the Apple,"
said Gibson. "The Apple is full of what I call 'Wozni-isms'.
That's all the crazy and weird things Steve Wozniak did in order to squeeze
color into his early machines. The even bits and odd bits stand for
different colors, every seventh bit is keyed to a color family. Working
with this stuff is a horrible nightmare."
He discovered other not-widely-known advantages in doing
professional programming with the Atari. "The good news is that Atari
has absolutely phenomenal documentation on hand. You can get virtually
a 100 percent accurate map of memory locations or ANTIC chip display list
functions in the manufacturer's hardware manuals. It pinpoints what
you need to do to make precise color changes at precise scan lines.
"It's also not too shabby to have Atari's palette of 128
colors to select from," he added.
Gibson used the Atari's hardware capabilities to suggest
some of the new features he could incorporate into his emerging software
design.
"I get excited by the graphics potential of microcomputers,"
he said. "But eventually I realized that what really turns me on
is coming up with unique and powerful user interfaces - ways to make it
easier than ever for people to get more out of their computers."
One of the AtariGraphics interfaces he's most pleased
with is the sliding menu "index cards." He said, "The illusion of the familiar
is a powerful trick for getting people into easily operating the software."
NO KEYBOARD COMMANDS
"What I set out to do in AtariGraphics was a light pen tour de force,"
said Gibson. "I wanted to make a graphics program with absolutely
NO keyboard
commands.
As a result, the Atari keyboard is always in text mode.
What this means is you can enter text anywhere on the' screen, simply by
pointing to a position with your light pen and starting to type.
Possibly the most unique interface in AtariGraphics is
the light-pen "eraser emulation" Gibson created. "I've never seen
anything else like it," he said. "Since I wanted to avoid any keyboard
commands, I was very pleased when I realized that the Atari would allow
programming of a 'cancel' interpretation just by shaking the light pen
from side to side over the screen area you want to erase."
As befits a light pen specialist, Gibson has faint praise
for the high popular touch tablets. "Touch tablets can't be beaten
for accurate tracing of illustrations," he said. "But I still think,
light pens are unbeatable as a direct, graphics interface device, as well
as for, making icon menu selections effortlessly."
THE VIDEO EASEL
Gibson seems to have a very strong vision of future artists sitting
on stools in front of easels, making light pen strokes on video monitors
positioned where their blank canvases used to be.
The programming of AtariGraphics took him only three months
of entering code - following a month of nothing but planning and research.
He is now committed, through a contract with Koala, to program light pens
for one or perhaps two other popular computers. "After Atari, I'm
finding myself a little burnt out with new graphics projects," he said.
"I mean, how many lines of rubber banding code can you write?"
Gibson was raised just north of Silicon Valley in San
Mateo. He dropped out of the University of California at Berkeley
after 18 months and started working for high tech start-up companies.
He financed the start of Gibson Laboratories by doing
several years of consulting for medical electronics companies in Southern
California. He designed and programmed 3-D medical graphics displays
that were widely used in cardiology.
What the future holds for Steve Gibson (as soon as he
finishes his light pen commitments) is an exploration of creating more
active user interfaces for computer telecommunications. "I don't
see why your home computer has to function like a dumb terminal when you're
on line with a bulletin board or a telecommunications information service,"
he said. "I think that at the very least, you should be able to store
your menus in advance and flash them up onscreen to work right along with
the remote computer, instead of waiting for all the time-consuming scrolling
through every option."
GRAPHIC JOYSTICK SOFTWARE
Before the introduction of the KoalaPad,
most graphics software for the Atari used the joystick for drawing.
Many of these programs are still available. Drawing with a joystick
is somewhat awkward, but you can achieve impressive results with practice.
We'll cover the major joystick graphics programs in approximate order of
the date of release.
MICROPAINTER
This is the granddaddy of graphics programs for the Atari. When
Antic had a cover art contest for readers in 1983, 90% of the entries were
with this program. Micro-Painter (Datasoft, $34.95) lets you doodle,
draw lines, and fill areas with limited patterns in Atari's high-resolution
four-color mode, Graphics 7 1/2. Micro-Painter's storage format for
picture files has come to represent a standard for Atari graphics files.
Almost all printer dump programs for Atari, including Micro Illustrator,
will work with this file storage format.
GRAPHICS MASTER
Graphics Master (Datasoft, $34.95) is described by its makers as a
tool for creating, manipulating, and editing images for graphic layouts
and designs. You can use the joystick to draw, or you can have the
program draw shapes for you, including lines, circles, and polygons of
three to nine sides.
You can create a window that picks up images, manipulates
them (you can "rotate" an image in the window 90 degrees) and relocates
them on the screen. The contents of the window can be laid over or
under an existing image, for special effects. You can flip between
two drawing screens, transfer images between the two, add text, and zoom
in for fine detail work.
Graphics Master uses Graphics 8, the Atari's one-color
high-resolution mode. But you can add color by "artifacting," an
effect that's explained well in the documentation. There is also
a program that lets you use images from other programs with Graphics Master,
and vice-versa. Although they use different graphics modes, you can
transfer images between Graphics Master and MicroPainter. Graphics
Master is the only tool in this survey that includes a printer dump for
its images.
PAINT
Originally from Reston Publishing and now marketing by Atari, Paint($39.95)
is a remarkably versatile drawing program. There's a simplified version
that's well suited for young children, but SuperPaint is the program's
showpiece. A row of "pots" along the bottom of the screen lets you
paint with any of four colors and six patterns. You can change the
colors and the patterns, and you have hundreds from which to choose.
AR commands are explained with a help feature. You can also "zoom"
in for magnified detail work. Paint uses Graphics 7, a medium-resolution
four-color mode. One of Paint's nicest features is the accompanying
147-page book, of which approximately two-thirds is an interesting discussion
of computers, art, and computer graphics. Paint is available only
on disk, and files from Paint are not compatible with other programs. (See
review of Paint in Antic, January 1984.)
PM ANIMATOR
Player/Missile graphics is a special feature of the Atari that lets
you move several objects about the screen display without disturbing the
background. PM Animator (Tronix, $44.95) lets you create animation
sequences for use in your own BASIC programs. The documentation is
extensive enough so that someone with no knowledge of P/M graphics programming
can use the software with little difficulty. Player/Missile graphics
are technically not related to the graphics discussed in the rest of this
survey, so it's no surprise that files from this program can't be used
by other programs. (See review of PM Animator in Antic, July, 1983).
MOVIE MAKER
Movie Maker (Reston, $60) is a computerized animation studio.
You can create "movies" up to 300 frames and then add music and sound.
It's similar to PM Animator in that you're drawing objects, combining them
in sequences and moving the animated objects about the screen. However,
Movie Maker is entirely self-contained, you can't use the animations in
your own program. Also, Movie Maker doesn't use P/M graphics; all
images are drawn in Graphics 7. (See review of Movie Maker in Antic, April
1984).
FUN WITH ART
Fun With Art is a joystick drawing program with many bells and whistles.
It uses 7 1/2, as does Micro-Painter, but that's where the similarity ends.
First, you can easily change any or all colors at every other scan line
(a scan line is a thin horizontal line on your video screen). Because
two scan lines are drawn every 1/60th of a second and go together to form
the screen image, it is a simple matter to use all 128 of Atari's colors
in one picture.
Also, you can load two pictures and transfer parts between
them. You can move parts of one picture around. Fun With Art
is a cartridge requiring 32K RAM; it can store pictures on disk or cassette.
Files from Fun With Art are not compatible with other programs. However,
the documentation does describe how to use the pictures in your own programs.
(See review in Antic, February, 1984).
SCREEN MAKER
This is a tool for programmers who wish to create impressive graphics
for games or other applications, but who have yet to delve into the mysteries
of the display list, a mini-program used by the ANTIC chip in the Atari
to display information on screen. Atari has several different graphics
modes, most of which cannot be displayed simultaneously, or mixed on the
screen. This can be a problem if you want to display text and graphics
together. Screen Maker (Atari Learning Systems, $34.95) lets you
custom design a screen, combining as many as 15 different graphics modes,
and then writes a subroutine that creates the screen. You can then
use this subroutine in your own program. (See review in Antic, March 1984).
PLAYER MAKER
Described as a companion utility to Screen Maker, Player Maker (Atari
Learning Systems, $34.95) lets you design images to be used with Player/Missile
graphics. You use a joystick to "sculpt" a player, pixel by pixel.
You can create up to four players, and combine pairs for more detailed
three-color players. Once you've drawn the players, the software
writes a subroutine for use in your own program. There is no provision
for animation of players.
GRAPHICS MAGICIAN
Graphics Magician (Penguin, $39.95), recently converted for the Atari,
has been popular on Apple computers for some time. It's an ideal
tool for those who need to store a lot of graphic information in a minimum
of disk space. Possible applications include graphics adventures
and educational programs that use visual material. The program lets
you use the joystick to draw four colors in Graphics 7 1/2. You can
doodle, draw lines, and fill areas with one of a wide selection of textures.
You can also change the size and shape of your "brush," change the basic
colors at will, and add text. On-line help is available if you get
confused.
It's common in graphics adventures to have "objects" that
appear and disappear from the screen while background remains intact, possibly
as a result of being picked up or dropped by the adventurer. Graphics
Magician lets you draw these "objects" and store them as separate files.
Extensive instructions for using Graphics Magician files in your own programs
are included. Antic will review this excellent product in the near
future.
VISUALIZER
Maximus's new "graphics management system" is called Visualizer ($49.95).
Subtitled "electronic slide creator/projector," the program's functions
are divided into two parts: creating "slides" and showing them. For
the game-oriented, there's also a jigsaw game that scrambles your picture,
then lets you use the joystick to move the pieces to their proper positions.
A printout feature lets you produce a permanent copy of your pictures with
Epson and C. Itoh-type printers.
To create slides, you use a joystick to draw in Graphics
7, Atari's medium-resolution four-color mode. You can doodle with
brushes of different sizes or automatically create circles, ovals, rectangles,
and straight lines. Fill enclosed areas with solids or patterns (made
by combining two colors), and add text. The program comes with three
fancy "fonts," or character sets, to spiff up text in the picture, and
you can mix style options for a total of 24 different styles in each font.
You can design your own font too. You can save and load slides with
a disk drive, and a special feature lets you combine two slides by "merging"
them for experimentation and special effects.
There are some fairly simple animation effects.
One-color, two-color, and three-color switching involve changing the contents
of the three color registers used for drawing shapes and lines. There
are three different ways to add the by-now-familiar Atari moving rainbow
effect to your pictures.
The slide show part of the program is almost as powerful
as the drawing part. You can select an assortment of slides and arrange
them into any order. There's an auto timer routine to advance the
slides automatically. If you have an Atari 410 or 1010 program recorder,
you can add a synchronized narrative soundtrack! (You will also need a
stereo cassette recorder or deck and a data cable for connecting the recorder
to the computer.) The program comes with a sample narrated slide show that
describes Visualizer.
The documentation is more complete than that for most
such programs. There are suggestions for creating better slides,
and a list of interesting projects for parents and children. There
are detailed instructions for setting up a system to record synchronized
narrative tapes Programmers will learn how to use the pictures in their
own program. If you don't mind the medium resolution of Graphics
7, you'll find this to be a powerful and versatile package.
AND MORE
ATARI 1020 COLOR PRINTER
The Atari 1020 Color Printer ($299) is actually a plotter. It
uses four pens to draw on a 4 1/2 -inch wide strip of paper. Plotters
have been around for some time, but this is the first plotter that works
directly with Atari computers.
A color plotter is an enormously versatile graphics tool.
You can make four-color screen dumps (graphics printouts) of pictures drawn
with most graphics programs. You can also write programs to control
the plotter directly. A couple of samples are included with the 1020
documentation.
Text can be printed in four colors, in four directions
(forward and back-ward, vertically and horizontally), and in different
sizes. You can even print text in 80 columns-the characters are tiny,
but well-formed and quite legible.
The 1020 documentation provides adequate information for
programming the plotter. Commands are presented in BASIC syntax,
but it's easy to convert these to other languages. Among the graphics
functions are commands to return the pen to HOME position, change pen color,
draw from coordinates 0,0 to any X-Y position, initialize (call the current
pen position 0,O), and relative draw (a combination of the last two).
There's also move and relative move, for changing the pen's position without
drawing. And you can command the plotter to set up X and/or Y axes
for graphing.
SCREEN PRINT SOFTWARE
Screen Print Software is the new program from Atari that does color
screen dumps to the Atari 1020 plotter. You can get full-color printouts
of your creations from AtariGraphics, AtariArtist, Micro Illustrator, Micro-Painter,
Paint, or any other program that uses Graphics 7, 7 1/2 , or 8. Atari started
packing Screen Print Software with all 1020 Plotters shipped as of July,
1984. If you've bought a plotter that didn't include this software,
you can obtain it for a minimal fee (not determined at this writing) by
writing to Atari Customer Support, which is listed at the end of this survey.
SUMMING UP
As you can see, graphics tools for Atari computers are many and varied.
How to choose? Well, we hope that the information in this survey
will help you get started. If you'd like to see how a program works,
but can't get an in-store demonstration, consider visiting (or joining,
or starting) a local users group. You'll probably find someone who
owns the product you're interested in. And don't forget - Antic is
always looking for dynamite images for our Microscreens section, and we
pay cash!
ATARI, INC. and ATARI LEARNING SYSTEMS
(Screen Maker, Player Maker, Paint, AtariGraphics, Atari Light Pen,
Atari Touch Tablet, 1020 Color Plotter)
Atari Customer Service
1312 Crossman Ave.
P.O. Box 61657
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 745-2000
CHALK BOARD,, INC.
(Power Pad)
3772 Pleasantdale Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30389
(404) 496-0101
(800) 241-3989 (from outside GA)
DATA SOFT, INC.
(Micro Painter)
9421 Winnetka Ave.
Chatsworth, CA 91311
(818) 701-5161
EPYX
(Fun With Art)
1043 Kiel Court
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
(408) 745-0700
FUTUREHOUSE
(Edumate Light Pen)
P.O. Box 3470
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
(919) 967-0861
KOALA TECHNOLOGIES CORP.
(KoalaPad)
3100 Patrick Henry Dr.
Santa Clara, CA 95050
(408) 986-8866
MADISON COMPUTER
(McPen)
1825 Monroe St.
Madison, WI 53711
(608) 255-5522
PENGUIN SOFTWARE
(Graphics Magician)
830 4th Ave.
P.O. Box 311
Geneva, IL 60134
(312) 232-1984
RESTON PUBLISHING GROUP
(Moviemaker)
11480 Sunset Hills Rd.
Reston, VA 22090
(800) 336-0338
TECH SKETCH INC.
(Tech Sketch Light Pen)
26 Just Rd.
Fairfield, NJ 07006
(800) 526-5214
(201) 227-7724 (in NJ)
TRONIX
(PM Animator)
8295 South La Cienega Blvd.
Inglewood, CA 90301
(213) 215-0529