I am wanting to recreate some old Graphics I've done, previously using the Atari 800 computer - but lack the necessary tool to do so. I think it was AtariArtist I used, to obtain the data for the 100s of plot and drawto coordinates required, to have the computer drawing a picture for me. ie. To then write a simple BASIC program, that would then use those coordinates to draw the picture. I have done - the computer drawing a beautiful woman, itself (the Atari 800) and a lighthouse. These are at YouTube - at the time I did these 1989? or thereabouts... I didn't do anything with them - and so, no one knew I had done them... What AtariArtist did.. was that it had a magnify mode, and also showed you the x, y coordinates of where the cursor was ... I don't think there was any other graphics utility program that had this feature? Micropainter doesn't show the coordinates, nor Fun With Art, etc etc.

If anyone can help me? Like making a mod to an existing program ... that would be great!

I wrote in the forum about Galaga - that the Atari 800 hardware does not have enough independent sprites available, such that it would not allow Galaga to be possible on the Atari 800. I can only guess that some tricks were used in Galaxian - but cannot be done for Galaga? Hyperblast doesn't have that many sprites on screen .. from memory? I don't think there is any arcade game that shows a great number of independent sprites on screen at once?

There is little point to programming Galaga on the Atari 8-bit computers now... when you can download Mame and the Galaga roms and run it on any PC nowadays. Of course it would be wonderful to see some keen programmer able to do it, but that would involve enormous effort and talent (that would be better utilitised doing something more relevant in todays videogame industry? that would be far more profitable).

I don't mind discussing such matters, although I am not into playing videogames of any kind anymore...

I am wanting to get some writing projects underway - some mixed media material..

Note - the above was written in May 2008.

I didn't know then, that I would get back into designing game graphics for the Atari 400/800 etc computers once more - with that start of GTIABlast! which has evolved into AtariBLAST! (that now adds Antic modes 2 and 4 to the GTIA modes)....

Paul Lay did send me 2? small demos of something he put together - which didn't look all that promising - or which I couldn't see much of it developing into much... but a while after that did start putting something together that appealed to me more... that of a spacey shooter blaster game... being a keen past spacey shooter fan, this is what would get me interested to work on some new Atari 8-bit graphics once again.... especially because it would be something different from that done in the past...

Harvey