Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1.2
Early game characters were one color and very blocky.
It didn't take long before scientists learned how to change the colors on computer
monitors. Computers were still considered business or research tools, not art tools,
but the artist was not to be denied. Programmers with interest in creating graph-
ics on computers started writing programs to create computer art.
During this time another important event was taking place: The personal com-
puter was introduced to the market. These early machines were not very powerful
compared to the big mainframe systems, but they did do something that changed
the face of computing forever. They put computers in the hands of millions of
people, some of whom were interested in creating art. Many of these people were
the ones who started writing graphics programs for the personal computer, which
were the forerunners of the programs we use today.
Figure 1.3 shows another early game character. Notice that he has more pixels and
different colors than the character in Figure 1.2. He is 16 pixels high and seven pixels
wide.
Figure 1.3
Early color game characters were limited in their number of colors.
