The Graphics Magician

The Graphics Magician
Title	The Graphics Magician
Release date(s)	1982
Original Platform(s)	Apple II
Original Publisher(s)	Penguin Software
Developer(s)	Mark Pelczarski Chris Jochumson David Lubar
Category(s)	Graphics Painting

History of The Graphics Magician

The Graphics Magician was a pioneering graphics and animation development system created by Mark Pelczarski, Chris Jochumson, and David Lubar and published by Penguin Software beginning in 1982. Developed initially for the Apple II, it combined tools for creating pictures and animated objects with machine-language routines that programmers could incorporate into their own software. It became Penguin Software's most important graphics product and was used by some commercial software developers during the early 1980s.

More than simply a drawing program, The Graphics Magician was intended to solve two significant problems facing early personal-computer programmers: creating sophisticated graphics without having to write specialized graphics routines from scratch, and storing those graphics within the severe memory and disk-space limitations of contemporary computers.

Its origins can be traced directly to Mark Pelczarski's earliest experiments with Apple II graphics.

From Magic Paintbrush to The Graphics Magician

Pelczarski began experimenting with Apple II graphics shortly after purchasing an Apple II Plus in 1979. Those experiments resulted in Magic Paintbrush, an early color drawing program that Pelczarski initially distributed himself under the name MP Software.

After spending part of 1980 as an editor of SoftSide magazine, Pelczarski returned to Illinois and continued developing more sophisticated graphics tools. In 1981 he released The Complete Graphics System through Co-op Software, the immediate predecessor of Penguin Software.

While developing The Complete Graphics System, Pelczarski confronted one of the fundamental limitations of Apple II graphics: storage.

A complete Apple II high-resolution screen required a significant amount of memory and disk space. For games—particularly illustrated adventures containing dozens or even hundreds of scenes—storing every scene as a complete screen image was impractical.

Pelczarski devised another approach.

Instead of saving the finished bitmap, his system could save a compact series of instructions describing how the picture had been drawn. Lines, shapes, fills, brush operations, and other drawing commands could be recorded and later replayed to reconstruct the image.

Pelczarski later described the technique as a small "vector graphics-like language."

This became one of the fundamental ideas behind The Graphics Magician.

Building the Magician

Another part of the system grew from Pelczarski's contacts with other early software developers.

Pelczarski met programmer Chris Jochumson at the California home of Brøderbund founder Douglas Carlston, whose house was also serving as Brøderbund's headquarters. Jochumson had ideas for making computer animation easier for ordinary programmers.

David Lubar, already associated with Pelczarski through Penguin's earlier graphics work, had also developed animation routines.

Pelczarski combined Jochumson's concepts with Lubar's routines and his own compact picture system. The resulting package became The Graphics Magician, released by Penguin Software in 1982.

Three Graphics Systems

The original Apple II version of The Graphics Magician was actually several complementary graphics-development systems packaged together.

The Picture/Object system allowed users to construct detailed multicolored pictures. Rather than simply saving the final screen image, the system could record the sequence of drawing operations necessary to reproduce it.

The animation system provided tools for creating shapes and moving them along predetermined paths. A programmer could create multiple versions of an object—for example, the different positions of a walking character—and then define the path that the object would follow across the screen.

A Super Shape system provided additional facilities for manipulating graphics and animation.

Machine-language routines supplied with the package allowed programmers to display the resulting graphics from their own BASIC or machine-language programs.

This distinction was important. The Graphics Magician was not designed merely to let someone create a picture and print or display it. It was specifically designed to let programmers put graphics into other software.

Penguin described it as a programmer's tool that could be used by someone writing only a few lines of BASIC while still providing capabilities useful to experienced machine-language programmers.

Sequential Pictures

One of the most distinctive features of The Graphics Magician was its method of storing what Penguin called sequential pictures.

Traditional bitmap graphics store the color or state of individual pixels. The Graphics Magician could instead save the operations used to construct a picture.

If an artist drew a line, filled an enclosed region, placed a brush pattern, and added another shape, those operations could be saved as instructions. When the picture was needed, the computer executed those instructions again and recreated the image on the screen.

The result produced an interesting visual effect: pictures could appear to draw themselves when displayed.

More importantly, many pictures required dramatically less storage when represented as drawing instructions than when stored as complete bitmapped screens.

Apple Graphics: Tools and Techniques( 1984) explained that this allowed potentially hundreds of pictures to be stored on a disk. This made the technique especially attractive for graphic adventures and educational software, where a program might require large numbers of individual scenes.

The method had limitations. Complex pictures could take noticeable time to reconstruct, and artists had to consider the order in which elements were drawn. But on machines where memory and disk capacity were precious resources, the storage savings could be extremely valuable.

The sequential nature of the images could itself also be exploited for animation. By drawing an object, covering or altering it, and then continuing the sequence, programmers could create simple animated effects during picture playback.

Animation

The Graphics Magician also addressed conventional sprite-like animation.

Using its Shape Editor, programmers could design several versions of an object representing different stages of movement. A walking figure, for example, could contain a sequence of leg and body positions.

The Path Editor was then used to define how the object traveled across the screen, while the Animation Editor combined the shapes and paths into an animation sequence.

The package supplied routines that programmers could call from their own programs, greatly reducing the amount of specialized assembly-language graphics programming necessary to produce moving objects on the Apple II.

For programmers accustomed to creating Apple shape tables manually with graph paper, numerical calculations, and hand-entered data, this represented a significant improvement.

A November 1982 review in BYTE demonstrated the system by describing how easily a programmer could create an animated creature without the tedious process traditionally required to construct Apple II shape tables.

A Tool for Other Software Developers

An important aspect of The Graphics Magician was Penguin Software's decision to encourage other programmers to use its technology.

Penguin permitted developers to incorporate Graphics Magician display and animation routines into commercial software. A license was required, but Penguin charged no licensing fee.

This was an unusual and effective strategy.

Instead of reserving the technology exclusively for Penguin's own games, Pelczarski effectively turned The Graphics Magician into a development platform for the larger Apple II software community.

Programs created with the system commonly carried a notice indicating that their graphics had been created using The Graphics Magician. Consequently, every commercial program displaying the credit also advertised Penguin's graphics technology to other programmers.

By the middle of the 1980s, the phrase "Graphics created with The Graphics Magician by Penguin Software" could be found on numerous commercial software packages.

Documented Commercial Uses

Several commercial programs can be directly documented as having used The Graphics Magician or its associated technology.

Penguin naturally used the system for its own products. One of the most important was Transylvania, the graphic adventure created by Antonio Antiochia. Antiochia had originally developed the game as a text adventure. Pelczarski believed that illustrated adventures represented the future and supplied Antiochia with Penguin's graphics technology so that pictures could be added.

Penguin's The Quest also used The Graphics Magician, as did other Penguin titles.

Outside Penguin, Sierra On-Line's Dragon's Keep is a documented example. The game's documentation specifically credits The Graphics Magician and its graphics routines.

Sir-Tech's Crypt of Medea is another known example.

Contemporary evidence provides additional examples. A 1982 BYTE review reported that Penguin said The Graphics Magician had been used to create Congo and Goldrush, published by Sentient Software.

Penguin's own Minit Man, published in 1983 for the Apple II and Commodore 64, explicitly stated on its packaging that its animation was created with The Graphics Magician.

These credits demonstrate an important aspect of the product's influence. Many computer users encountered The Graphics Magician without ever purchasing it themselves; they saw graphics created with it while playing games or using educational software developed by other publishers.

The Hacker Ethic and Copy Protection

Pelczarski's philosophy toward software distribution was also reflected in The Graphics Magician.

Penguin deliberately distributed the software without copy protection.

This was particularly significant for a programmer's development tool. Copy-protected disks could be inconvenient or dangerous for developers who depended upon software professionally and needed reliable backup copies.

In the manual, Pelczarski explained that Penguin wanted purchasers to be able to make their own backups and argued that successful unprotected software could demonstrate to other publishers that copy protection was not necessary for commercial survival.

Penguin asked customers in return not to distribute unauthorized copies.

The policy reflected Pelczarski's broader belief that programming tools should be accessible and useful rather than deliberately restricted. Penguin combined this philosophy with relatively inexpensive software and royalty-free commercial licensing of its graphics routines.

Critical Reception

The Graphics Magician received strong reviews shortly after its introduction.

In May 1982, Softline described the package enthusiastically, emphasizing its ability to make sophisticated graphics techniques available to ordinary Apple users. The magazine identified three major components: the animation system, picture/object system, and Super Shape system.

A lengthy review in the November 1982 issue of BYTE similarly praised the package. Reviewer Pete Callamaras emphasized that users did not need to be expert graphics programmers to create animated objects and described the software as useful to both beginning and experienced Apple II programmers.

The program also performed well in reader polls and software rankings. Pelczarski later recalled that The Graphics Magician received sales awards in 1984 and reader-poll recognition in 1985.

Picture Painter

As The Graphics Magician evolved, its picture-creation component became known as the Graphics Magician Picture Painter.

Picture Painter provided lines, fills, brushes, text, colors, and patterns for constructing computer artwork while retaining the sequential-picture concept that made the original package useful for software development.

Penguin continued improving the program as Apple introduced more capable hardware.

A version for Apple's double-high-resolution graphics took advantage of a 560-by-192 display and 16 basic colors. Penguin advertised as many as 256 blended-color combinations. Existing pictures created with the standard high-resolution version could be loaded and edited with the double-resolution edition.

Picture Painter was also adapted to other computers.

Other Computer Platforms

Although The Graphics Magician originated on the [II], Penguin eventually developed versions of The Graphics Magician Picture Painter products for several other systems. These versions did not include some of the original Apple II animation functionality. While Pelczarski remained responsible for the overall design of all versions, Penguin engaged other programmers to help with system conversions.

The [8-bit] and [64] versions were programmed by Jon Niedfeldt. These versions took advantage of the color capabilities of their respective computers and supported joystick input.

An IBM PC version was programmed by Michael Shaver.

The Macintosh The Graphics Magician Picture Painter was programmed by Eagle Berns and Roger Lawrence, used the Macintosh mouse and its monochrome display's patterns and shading capabilities.

The Apple double-high-resolution version was programmed by Steven Meuse.

These conversions illustrate another characteristic of Penguin's development philosophy: rather than simply reproducing an Apple II program exactly, programmers attempted to exploit the particular graphics and input capabilities of each machine.

The Graphics People

The success of The Graphics Magician helped establish Penguin Software's identity during the early 1980s.

The company often promoted itself as "the graphics people."

This was more than advertising. Penguin had developed a progression of graphics products beginning with Magic Paintbrush, continuing through The Complete Graphics System and Special Effects, and culminating in The Graphics Magician. Together they represented several years of Pelczarski's experimentation with making personal-computer graphics easier for artists and programmers.

The technology also became intertwined with Penguin's transition into game publishing. Graphic adventures such as Transylvania demonstrated what programmers could accomplish with the tools, while games created by outside developers helped spread Penguin's technology beyond the company's own catalog.

Later, Penguin's Comprehend adventure-development system continued this philosophy. Designed by Mark Pelczarski and Jeffrey Jay, Comprehend separated adventure content from the interpreter used to run it on a particular computer. Graphics Magician interpreters were also converted to other platforms, helping Penguin bring illustrated adventures to several different computer systems.

Legacy

The Graphics Magician is significant in the history of personal-computer software for reasons that extend beyond its success as an Apple II graphics utility.

It represented an early example of a software-development tool designed to make sophisticated techniques accessible to programmers who were not graphics specialists.

Its compact sequential-picture system addressed a fundamental technical limitation of early microcomputers by storing instructions for reconstructing pictures rather than always storing complete screen images. In an era of 48K computers and 140K floppy disks, such savings could determine whether an ambitious illustrated program was practical at all.

Its animation editors similarly abstracted difficult low-level programming into visual tools that ordinary BASIC programmers could use.

Perhaps most significantly, Pelczarski and Penguin treated the program not simply as a product but as a technology that other developers should be encouraged to use. Penguin's royalty-free licensing, lack of copy protection, relatively accessible pricing, and willingness to supply reusable machine-language routines helped The Graphics Magician spread beyond Penguin's own software catalog.

The result was a development tool whose influence was sometimes visible in software carrying another publisher's name.

Today, The Graphics Magician also provides an instructive example of how early software developers overcame severe hardware limitations through ingenuity. Modern computers can store and manipulate enormous bitmap images almost without thought. On the Apple II, every byte mattered. Pelczarski and his collaborators responded by asking a different question: instead of storing an entire picture, why not store the instructions needed to draw it?

That simple idea helped make richer graphics practical in games, adventures, educational programs, and other Apple II software- and made The Graphics Magician one of the most influential products created by Penguin Software.

Releases

Links