Your picture on a Cart?

[Gateway]

...Either it's the first 25, or you fight for your place by sending quality images.  I'm inclined to have the latter - and even a competition where YOU do the image conversion rather than throwing it at me.  After all, I've already given instructions on how to do it... and *nobody* has even tried.

...I'm still unsure how I'm going to work the cartridge numbers/method/choice.  I think a competition would be good, and perhaps if the conditions of the competition are that you have to RTFM and generate your own colour 48x128 pixel image to enter.... that would save me a lot of work and only the really determined would enter.

 

I am determined to give this a try! Hopefully my attempt will help others as well. I'm using Paint Shop Pro 5. Okay, following Andrew's steps: jesus.jpg

 

EDIT: see pic. in my next post below...

 

1. Select a desirable image. This one started out as 1232 x 1868 pixels at 300 dpi

 

2. Grab the part that you want to show. The final version on the '2600 is only 48 x 128 pixels, so the cropping is an important part. I cropped to 1152 x 1536, which is divisable: 48 x 24 = 1152, 128 x 12 = 1536

 

3. Adjust brightness and contrast until the image is how you want it. I adjusted until I got: Bright = 18, Contrast = 0

 

4. Resize the image (bilinear sampling) to 48 x 128 pixels Done.

 

5. Separate out Red, Green, Blue components to separate images.Done.

 

6. Colour-reduce each of these to just 2-colours. Note the choice of dithering method is important. I use stucki, weighted. I made sure to select Red, Blue or Green component instead of grey, although I tried both ways and didn't see any difference in the final result. Also, I used Stucki.

 

7. Convert the 2-colour images to greyscale and recombine to give the colour image. I kept getting an alert that I needed a greyscale image before I could recombine, even after I converted all 3 colors to "Grey scale"! I finally got it to work after I increase color depth on all 3 to "256 colors", then "Grey Scale", then clicked on the source image.

 

8. Adjust size so it appears roughly the same aspect ratio as on the TV (300 x 420 seems about right). Increase the brightness by 40% or so. I did this and you can see above how it looks at 300 x 420. Not too bad!

...For some images its an iterative process from step 3 until things look good. It took me several tries. My first attempt was way too dark!

 

Here's what I'm confused about, Andrew. If I want this ROM, Would I be sending you the 3 color files from step#6? OR would I be sending the finished image from step#7? OR step#8?

 

Also, did you change the size requirement to 96 x 128 or were those just some experiments for fun?

 

Later! - Weston

[+Andrew Davie]

[missing image]

 

Image didn't come through - could you re-post it to the forum, thanks.

 

2. Grab the part that you want to show. The final version on the '2600 is only 48 x 128 pixels, so the cropping is an important part. I cropped to 1152 x 1536, which is divisable: 48 x 24 = 1152, 128 x 12 = 1536

 

It doesn't have to be divisible. Grab any area you want - any size you want. Just remember it's eventually only going to have 48 x 128 pixel resolution.

 

Here's what I'm confused about, Andrew. If I want this ROM, Would I be sending you the 3 color files from step#6? OR would I be sending the finished image from step#7? OR step#8?    

 

Assuming I decide to actually produce ROMs for people who make the effort - all I would require would be the cropped image from step 2 or whatever it was. I would do the processing steps myself to assure the best quality. The method I detailed (and which you followed well) was so everyone could get a good idea of what their preferred images might look like. It also cuts down on the rubbish images being sent to me which have NO chance of looking any good. Finally, it also shows who is prepared to make the effort which makes me more inclined to actually do something for them.

 

Also, did you change the size requirement to 96 x 128 or were those just some experiments for fun?

 

No, that was just an experiment placing two 48 x 128 pixel images side-by-side. I do a lot of experimenting. The downside of the 96 x 128 image is that it flickers twice as much, and worst of all - won't fit on a 4K cartridge.

 

Cheers

A

[Gateway]

[missing image]

 

Image didn't come through - could you re-post it to the forum, thanks.

 

Ack! I forgot to refresh! My preview showed the pic. twice so I deleted "one" of them.

 

It should work this time.

 

Assuming I decide to actually produce ROMs for people who make the effort - all I would require would be the cropped image from step 2 or whatever it was.  I would do the processing steps myself to assure the best quality.  The method I detailed (and which you followed well) was so everyone could get a good idea of what their preferred images might look like.  It also cuts down on the rubbish images being sent to me which have NO chance of looking any good.  Finally, it also shows who is prepared to make the effort which makes me more inclined to actually do something for them.

 

...I do a lot of experimenting.  The downside of the 96 x 128 image is that it flickers twice as much, and worst of all - won't fit on a 4K cartridge.

 

Cheers

A

I hope you do still want to produce ROMs since I have a bunch of image ideas I'm preparing to submit to you! My post here was to prove I'm working on getting some to you soon.

 

While we are on the subject, Another question about the 4K size: In your "donaldmario" example you had Mario reflected back and forth every few seconds( Donald too ). That is so cool! Does it require more than 4K to show just one image "animating" like this? I may want to incorparate this into one of my submitions!

 

Later!

- Weston

[+Andrew Davie]

Another question about the 4K size: In your "donaldmario" example you had Mario reflected back and forth every few seconds( Donald too ). That is so cool! Does it require more than 4K to show just one image "animating" like this? I may want to incorparate this into one of my submitions! Later! - Weston

 

I write a little 'program' to tell the system what to display, where to display it, and how long it should be displayed for, and if it is mirrored or not. That's bascially how animation is done. Yes, we may only have one frame in the 4K limit - but that frame can be mirrored easily using the little animation program.

 

In short, the mirroring is free. Any image may use it at will.

 

Cheers

A

 

PS: Who is that bearded guy, anyway?

[+Andrew Davie]

OK, last night I got the size down to 4K, and debugged the movement code. So I am now able to go ahead with my limited "Greeting Cart" production run. I have to make some decisions on how to do this. I don't want this to be an ongoing thing, and don't anticipate much demand... so here's how it's going to be....

 

The Greeting Cart is a celebration of the new Interleaved Chronocolour colour sprite technology. As such, it is a cartridge demonstrating the new technique - a techical proof of concept, as it were. The cart will display a single colour image - and do nothing else. The image may move around the screen, mirror(flip), or just be static. You may choose.

 

There will be 25 Greeting Carts produced. I am reserving 5 for my own use. The other 20 are "available". If you want your design to be one (or more) of these 20 then you need to follow the instructions posted earlier, to make sure that your image will look OK, and then send me the cropped original. At my discretion (depending on the quality of the original, and how the converted image looks) I will make 4K binary and send it to AtariAge to burn a cartridge for you. You send AtariAge US$20 and in return receive a cartridge with a personally signed and numbered official label and manual and a cartridge burned with YOUR ROM image. I will send you via email a 32K ROM image so you can see what it will look like while you wait for your cart.

 

Note, there will only be 25 of these signed/numbered Greeting Carts made. Once the 25 slots are taken, I don't plan to produce any more - but I expect copies without the label/manual will in future be available from AtariAge.

 

Cheers

A