Support for Apple 2 series pictures (and other classics)

Ideas for improvements and requests for new features in XnView Classic

Moderators: helmut, XnTriq, xnview

Post Reply
Keatah
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:31 am

Support for Apple 2 series pictures (and other classics)

Post by Keatah »

I think it would be neat to expand supports and add a few more file formats in XnView, especially for classic computers of the 1970's and 1980's! We've already got some Atari support and Amiga, though there are CTD's with some IFF/HAM images.

I'd like to see import (and dare I ask, export?) capabilities for the following:
Apple 2 series:
Lo-Res
Text screens
Standard hi-res images <-- most important
Double hi-res (DHR) images
Others
Commodore-64 & Vic-20
Atari 400/800
TRS-80 ColorComputer

This would certainly be a boon for my archival project. What do you think?
On a clear disk you can seek forever.
User avatar
xnview
Author of XnView
Posts: 46235
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2003 7:31 am
Location: France
Contact:

Re: Support for Apple 2 series pictures (and other classics)

Post by xnview »

I agree, but do you have samples of these formats??
Pierre.
Keatah
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:31 am

Re: Support for Apple 2 series pictures (and other classics)

Post by Keatah »

By the end of the month I could put together an Apple 2 Series graphics information package for you. It would consist of:

1- hardware/technical description of the graphics hardware in the Apple II
2- hardware theory of ops written for the layman
3- sample images directly from Apple II disks, in their native format, bit-for-bit accurate
4- those same images in modern-day jpg/bmp/gif formats for comparison
5- a slideshow running in AppleWin emulator
6- commentary and sample images of Lo-Res, HiRes, and Double-HiRes
7- examples of NTSC artifacting with composite monitor or television RF/modulator output, and documentation too
8- examples of RGB output on an RGB monitor, and documentation too

Some of the above can be done on an emulator, I can put together one-click demos. I can also do some conversions back and forth here on my end, through tedious and byzantine (to me) procedures.

The nice thing about a lot of the old 8-bit graphics formats is they are fixed in size and generally not compressed.

Eventually I could gather images and information for the other systems at a later time. I have some scattered info and image samples, for the Atari, Commodore 64 and Vic-20, TRS-80, and others. I'm in the process right now of working through my Apple 2 stuff, so I have that info somewhat more handy.

How does that sound to you?
On a clear disk you can seek forever.
Post Reply