''The Graphics Magician'', subtitled ''Picture Painter'', is a utility for drawing bitmapped images and playing them back from user-developed programs. It was written for the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

by Penguin Software founder

Mark Pelczarski Mark Pelczarski wrote and published some of the earliest digital multimedia computer software. In 1979 while teaching computer science at Northern Illinois University, he self-published Magic Paintbrush, which was one of the first digital paint pr ...

and Jon Niedfeldt, and published by

Penguin Software Penguin Software was a computer software and video game publisher from Geneva, Illinois, Geneva, Illinois that produced graphics and application software and games for the Apple II, Macintosh, IBM, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari 8-bit, and Atari ST co ...

in 1982. It was ported to the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

, and

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

. The routines for playing back graphics and animation were written by

David Lubar David Lubar (born March 16, 1954) is an author of numerous books for teens. He is also a video game programmer, who programmed ''Super Breakout'' for the Game Boy and ''Frogger'' for both the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy. H ...

and Chris Jochumson. ''Graphics Magician'' doesn't store images in their final form, but records the commands used to create them using a "tiny vector graphics-like language." The software plays them back to re-create the image. Images can be layered based on when each shape is drawn. ''The Graphics Magician'' was used to generate images for some commercial

graphic adventure An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

s of the 8-bit computer era, including ''Dragon's Keep'' from

Sierra On-Line Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, ...

, ''

Crypt of Medea Crypt of Medea is an adventure video game written by Arthur Britto and Allan Lamb. It was published for the Apple II by Sir-Tech in 1984. ''Crypt of Medea'' makes use of graphics, but the game is still controlled through the use of text commands ...

'' from

Sir-Tech Sir-Tech Software, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher based in the United States and Canada. History In fall 1979, Sirotech Software was founded by Norman Sirotek, Robert Sirotek and Robert Woodhead. Sirotech Software published ''Info ...

, and Penguin's own '' The Quest''. The playback routines were free to use in commercial products, but required a license from Penguin Software. The ''Dragon's Keep'' manual specifically gives credit to ''Graphics Magician'' and the authors of the graphics functions.

History

Pelczarski worked as a high school and college professor in computer science. When he got the

, he decided to see what could be done with the new color display. At first, his small skills were swapped for computer supplies at various shops. In 1979 he started selling a precursor to ''The Graphics Magician'' called ''Magic Paintbrush''. This was followed by ''The Complete Graphics System'', ''The Complete Graphics System II'', and finally ''The Graphics Magician''.

References

{{Penguin Software 1982 software Graphics software Apple II software Atari 8-bit family software Commodore 64 software