Hisoft Art in Pascal was written by Chris Pink in Hisoft Pascal 4T as a Screen Designing tool which would allow you to create screens for your own games and programs.
Summary
- 4 Pen Shades
- Multicolour Fills
- Draw Circles
- Ellipses
- Boxes
- Airbrush
- Zoom - with the ability to perform pixel editing.
Unlike other Commercial based Art Packages or programs, Hisoft Art in Pascal also came with the Source Code which would allow the user to Customise the program to suit the needs.
This program presumably has been written in the earlier Hisoft Pascal (also known as Hisoft Pascal 4T as the tape version), for AMSDOS (distributed by AMSOFT in 1984), because this program is not compatible with PCW machines.
Presumably this program came out in 1986 (date obtained from CPC-Power), Chris Pink has not confirmed any date in his interview, merely it was one of the first programs he wrote for the Amstrad CPC machines, so it may have been written and released as early as 1985.
A Hisoft Catalog from 1988 Magazine (displayed on Hisoft Page), shows that by 1988, Hisoft Art in Pascal was no longer being sold, possibly due to this program being written in the earlier Pascal. In 1988 the later Hisoft Pascal 80 (a CP/M based Compiler), was being marketed instead, however since the earlier Compiler was distributed through AMSOFT, these earlier programs were possibly disappearing when AMSOFT disappeared around ?1987? making programs like Hisoft Art in Pascal not commercially viable?
However, the program has since become a rarity even though it was sold on Tape & Disc, which seems to suggest this program sold poorly, so if by slim change you own a copy of it in your dusty old Attic, don't sell it for less than the mortgage of your home.
Interview
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