gfkdsgn, 5 months ago to IT German

The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was launched 1983 as Timex Sinclair 2068 computer on the US market. Even when Commodore won the #8bitWars in the end, the ZX Spectrum sold 5 million units until 1992 for a initial price of £175 (48KB in the UK). With a Z80A 8-bit CPU running oh 3.5 MHz it was capable to do fancy computer graphics on a regular telly, at home for everybody.

Most likely because Quantel named their first system as simple as they did, Print'n'Plotter sold their graphic software under the same product name "Paintbox", but for the ZX Home Computers. In a resolution of 256×192 pixels and limited to 15 colours #IT was great for the budget. Demo graphics been fancy, even if not as WOOOW as the real Paintbox.
https://gfkdsgn.wordpress.com/2020/01/01/quantel-paintbox/
Quantel wasn't in the Home computer business so not even MTV could afford more than a few. Real Paintbox systems are rare today, while the ZX Spectrum isn't so much.

The series of our 2023 tech anniversaries comes to a natural end and content plans for the next year have to be talked about internally. AFK

#tribute #vectorgraphics @art made in #SVG with @inkscape not #Adobe #Illustrator or #Serif #AffinityDesigner.

#nostalgia #8bit #zxspectrum #UDG #retrocomputer #vintagecomputer #vintagecomputing #sinclairzxspectrum #Paintbox #Quantel #sinclair

gfkdsgn, 5 months ago to CrystalsHashtags German

1973 the first digital art contest was going on between Richard "Dick" Shoup and Damon Rarey at the SuperPaint computer system. While Damon was ahead in the competition, in the aftermath all graphic designer have won.

Shoup's computer used a pixel framebuffer with a graphic tablet and icon based menu with HSB color selection. IT was proof of the pixel concept like #Sketchpad was for #CAD a decade earlier. #SuperPaint paved the way for #Quantel's #Paintbox, over #Adobe #Photoshop and #XRes until #pixel @art became #FreeSoftware with @GIMP and professional #FOSS #arttools like @Krita

This is a tribute to them and what their achievements made possible for all of us. Needles to mention again that vector designs and layouts are made in #SVG with @inkscape, isn't it?

1973 SuperPaint was the first pixel-based image editing computer system with framebuffer and menu icons
Original photo of SuperPaint with menthol cigarettes next to the terminal and contest stats on the chalkboard.

philpem, 10 months ago to random

Tonight's been fun. Nerdsniped by a friend: "Hey I'm having trouble figuring out these #quantel PAL dumps, can you take a look?"
So I did. And I asked DextersTechLab, the fountain of all Quantel knowledge.

"There are two versions of the Size card. The schematic is for one version. The PAL dumps are for the other."

... Internal screaming? No sir, I'll just scream into the void like a barn owl!

Topaz, 1 year ago to random

I got a chance to use the Quantel Paintbox at #VCFEast. This was a Wacom and Photoshop precursor that is ridiculously powerful. I learned it was used for a lot of famous artwork and videos in the 80s and 90s. I made a drawing of Topaz, and the printout is a video capture of the image printed to a photo printer. #quantel #paintbox

A closeup of the Paintbox interface.
VHS boxes of Silence of the Lambs, The Doors, and JFK, with a note stating all this art was done on the Paintbox.
A drawing of Topaz Rabbit holding his arms up saying "Paintbox!" It's printed on photo paper.