NEOchrome
NEOchrome is an early color bitmap graphics editor for the Atari ST. It was written by Dave Staugas, a programmer at Atari Corporation and co-author of the ST's operating system. NEOchrome supports hardware-supported color cycling to give the impression of animation. A color cycling waterfall, created with NEOchrome, was one of the iconic images of the early Atari ST. Following in the footsteps of MacPaint and the Apple II version Mouse Paint, both released in 1984, NEOchrome uses the then-novel representation of painting tools by icons (in addition to other GUI elements). A pre-release version (v0.5) was included with the system disks of the first STs. Version 1.0 arrived later and was bundled with several versions of the ST. Although not officially public domain, this version was often treated as such, and was never actually sold. NEOchrome enjoyed a relatively high level of popularity within the ST community, even in the face of more advanced packages such as DEGAS and Deluxe Paint.
| NEOchrome | |
|---|---|
 v1.0 showing color cycling waterfall from 1985 | |
| Original authors | Dave Staugas (programmer),[1][2] Jim Eisenstein (programmer),[3] Jerome Domurat (User Interface Designer)[4][5] |
| Developer | Atari Corporation |
| Initial release | 1985 |
| Stable release | |
| Written in | Assembly |
| Operating system | Atari ST |
| Type | bitmap graphics editor |
NEOchrome is an early color bitmap graphics editor for the Atari ST.[3][6][8] It was written by Dave Staugas, a programmer at Atari Corporation and co-author of the ST's operating system.[9] NEOchrome supports hardware-supported color cycling to give the impression of animation. A color cycling waterfall, created with NEOchrome, was one of the iconic images of the early Atari ST.[10][11]
Following in the footsteps of MacPaint and the Apple II version Mouse Paint, both released in 1984, NEOchrome uses the then-novel representation of painting tools by icons (in addition to other GUI elements).[12]
A pre-release version (v0.5)[6][13] was included with the system disks of the first STs.[6] Version 1.0 arrived later and was bundled with several versions of the ST. Although not officially public domain, this version was often treated as such, and was never actually sold.[6] NEOchrome enjoyed a relatively high level of popularity within the ST community, even in the face of more advanced packages such as DEGAS and Deluxe Paint.[citation needed]
NEOchrome Master
[edit]Although there were no further official versions,[6] an unofficial revision called NEOchrome Master was released by the Atari demo scene group Delta Force's Till Bubeck[14][15][16] (programmer of The Return of Medusa) in the early 1990s.[17]
NEOchrome Master was built by disassembling the binary program "NEOchrome 1.0". The resulting source code was uncommented and hard to read, but could be assembled back into the same binary program as before. This allowed the author to extend the program.[18]
References
[edit]- ^ Dave Staugas, AtariAge, Programmer for Atari 2600 Cartridges, Krull (1983) and Millipede (1984)
- ^ Dave Staugas (Atari)'s Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine list of works: Hover Strike, Rampage
- ^ a b An interview with Dave Staugas and Jim Eisenstein creators of NeoChrome. Inside Atari, By Mark Jensen, page 8–10, Atari Explorer - Volume 7 Number 2 (1987-03)(Atari Explorer Publications)(US)
- ^ User Interface Designer - Jerome Domurat Archived 2016-02-15 at the Wayback Machine, Atari Corporation; Sunnyvale, CA 11/81 – 07/86, ...Also defined the feature set and interface to the NEOchrome paint program.
- ^ Page 4, NEOchrome version 0.5 manual
- ^ a b c d e f NeoChrome Archived 2008-07-23 at the Wayback Machine, Alive 10
- ^ "Atari ST Atari 2600 / 7800 Development System : scans, dump, download, screenshots, ads, videos, catalog, instructions, roms". www.atarimania.com.
- ^ Review:NeoChrome, By John J Anderson, Page 18–20, Atari Explorer - Volume 7 Number 2 (1987-03)(Atari Explorer Publications)(US)
- ^ ...Dave Staugas, who ported the text blit and later wrote the ST's NEOchrome paint program... Archived 2012-05-21 at the Wayback Machine, 3 Years With the ST, An exclusive look inside Tramiel's Atari, by Jeffrey Daniels, START VOL. 3 NO. 1 / SUMMER 1988
- ^ Randelshofer, Walter. "Atari ST Animations".
- ^ OpenSourcedGames/Atari-7800 GitHub, 5/26/89, Memo: Julie Wade, Atari Corporation, ...I suggested that to Dave Staugas who ..... This was to supersede [sic] the method provided at the outset of the project which uses NeoChrome and "NEO2S". NeoChrome is excellent, but the "NEO2S...
- ^ "What Is Paint For A Mac". seorccvseo. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
- ^ "Page 6 - Issue 28 - Books". www.page6.org. Archived from the original on 2023-06-05. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
- ^ Scener:Chaos Inc. Also known as: Till Bubeck, Demozoo
- ^ ...if you still can draw with the great NEOchrome Master (thanks to Chaos Inc. AKA Till Bubeck for improving this great piece of software)... Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine, AN INTERVIEW WITH HEINZ RUDOLF, Alive 5
- ^ Till Bubeck(Germany)...a.k.a. "Chaos Inc.", coder in Delta Force (DF)...Famous for: NeoChrome Master, Atari Scene and STNICCC News
- ^ Files (Pixel painters) Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Dead Hackers Society
- ^ What's new... Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine, NEOchrome Master Manual, Alive 9
External links
[edit]- NEOchrome (.neo) file format, archiveteam.org
- NEOchrome Animation (.ani) file format, archiveteam.org