Video 1: Upgrading the Hardware
The first in a three-part series of videos chronicling a project about the process of of upgrading an Atari Mega STE so that it can be used to create a five page comic using NeoChrome.
Pixeling in the Retrosphere*
Creating a Comic Book on 1980s Hardware
About this Project
In 2018, I started this project to create a comic story using 1980s computer hardware. To be specific, I refurbished a thirty year old Atari computer, upgraded it and then pixel-painted a five page comic using the art package NEOChrome Master and only 16 colors.
On the following pages you will find the project videos and the project documentation.
Video 2: Initial Designs and Proof-of-Concept
In this second video I show how I created the plot and the initial sketches for the comic, as well as a first colored proof-of-concept to get a feeling for the process.
Video 3: Drawing and Finishing the Comic
In this final video I walk through the process of pixeling the comic on an Atari ST using NEOChrome.
Table of Contents
This is the full documentation of the project showing how I upgraded an Atari Mega STE, sketched the characters and backgrounds, and then pixeled a five page comic in 16 colors using the paint package NEOChrome.
- Assembling the Equipment
- Choosing the System
- Wishlist of Extended Capabilities
- Making the Screen Upgrade
- New Floppy Disk Storage
- Hard Disk Replacement
- Input Galore
- The Upgrade Procedure
- Why not use an emulator or an FPGA?
- NEOChrome as the Chosen One
- The Zoomed View
- Color Picker
- The extended NEOChrome Master
- What do all the Bits mean?
- 512 Colors vs. 4096 Colors
- Tangent: Overcoming the Atari ST's 16 Color Limitation
- The Right 16 Color Palette
- Pixel Art Techniques
- Dithering
- Anti-aliasing
- Combining Images to Single Page
- Planning the Story and Designing the Visuals
- The Story
- The Synopsis and the Breakdowns
- Proof of Concept
[*] The original title of this project was "The Future
was 16-Bit".
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