ZX-ART

[moroz1999]

Hello everybody!
I'm new to this forum, just registered and I hope nobody will mind that I write in English, since I haven't learnt Spanish yet (though it's in some future dreams already )

I'm representing an online collection of ZX-Spectrum graphics and music - ZX-Art. The whole website started as an archive of ZX Spectrum demoscene graphics, then classic game authors, then we decided to support ZX music as well. So, now it's mainly about pixel graphics and chiptunes, supporting classic formats and modern modes as well.

Some classic Spanish game artists include:
Kantxo Design
Miguel Angel Borreguero Quesada
Kostandin Igor Ruiz
...and many others - I don't want to spam with links We have authors, demoparties, games, tops, mobile version and so on, see by yourself.

I would like to ask a permission to post short periodic updates - sometimes we manage to gather complete galleries of decent authors, sometimes there are party entries.
* I can post updates for game graphics
* I can post updates for modern demoscene graphics
* I can post music updates
Will it be interesting for anybody here? I know that MAC, who seems to have made a best picture on ZX-Spectrum of all time, also visits this forum periodically

[mcleod_ideafix]

I would like to ask a permission to post short periodic updates...

We know of your efforts to preserve every piece of pixel art created for the ZX Spectrum, specially how deep you have involved into preservation of the "Pixel a Pixel" Microhobby pixel art contest. Of course you have permission!

[moroz1999]

Wow, I didn't know that Microhobby restoration project is known somewhere except World Of Spectrum
Thanks for kind words, this is highly motivating.

In fact, the restoration project was freezed for almost half a year when I was busy on other projects. Last month I was so tired from software development so I restored a next portion





All Pixel A Pixel competitions restored so far can be seen here:
http://zxart.ee/eng/graphics/parties/19 ... l-a-pixel/
http://zxart.ee/eng/graphics/parties/19 ... a-pixel-2/
http://zxart.ee/eng/graphics/parties/19 ... a-pixel-3/
http://zxart.ee/eng/graphics/parties/19 ... a-pixel-4/
http://zxart.ee/eng/graphics/parties/19 ... a-pixel-5/

I will keep restoring the images and post it here in portions from time to time. It would be really nice if anybody from authors of these images could be found.
Does anybody have any unrestored favorite images from these competitions? I will more gladly restore a work if I knew that somebody is interested in it's reappearing in ZX format.
By the way, these images should be really accurate, most of them have about 97-98% of accuracy. I usually use cross-eye technics like in stereo images when I compare restored image to original, so all missing pixels are usually nicely seen as "flickering" in resulting image. The only parts of image I lose are where paint was really inaccurate and defect or where the image was cut. I use many photoshop filters to clear the image, adjusting the levels and removing blurs. Each image is properly converted to CMYK selecting the original colors each time from scratch. This allows to adjust color layers positions or remove the layers which don't affect the resulting image, since I only need original ink/paper structure, and original colors can be quickly adjusted manually. I even purchased myself a licence for Sattva Descreen plugin, since it spares a great deal of time After all photoshop manipulations I set manually each attribute boundaries in my own special javascript-based browser tool, which uses manually set grid to capture the pixel colors, convert them to zx image using zx screen rules and export to 6912 format.

I've been grown up on ZX Spectrum games, and I was always fascinated with loading screens, especially by Spanish authors, so it's a great fun and great honor to help restoring and preserving this part of pixel graphics historical legacy. And it's a great addition to ZX-Art archive as well - if you take a look at these years best pictures, most of them are clearly from Pixel a Pixel. It's fascinating that many compo participants were producing significantly better images than commercial games used at these years.

So, please let me know if anybody wants some images to be restored first.

[6128]

Wow, incredible art.

[Lenko]

@moroz1999, not only the graphic and music collection is amazing, but the design and usability of the site is fantastic. Congrats for the work of the develpment team.

You have a new user

[Jaimen]

Simply amazing ...

[aleasoft]

OMG
I always want to have the microhobby art in my speccy.
Also the music part is very good, I like a lot the option of play music from the browser.
Very good job!

[josepzin]

Que pasada esas imagenes! Veo uno de un comic, un chninkel o algo así

Sobre el idioma, si el aporte compensa la diferencia idiomática, por mi que se quede!

[moroz1999]

Wow, incredible art.

It's incredible indeed, most of these images are better than graphics in commercial games from same time.

@moroz1999, not only the graphic and music collection is amazing, but the design and usability of the site is fantastic. Congrats for the work of the develpment team.
You have a new user

Thanks and welcome! We will try hard to make the collection even more comfortable and useful for everybody. Please let me know if You find any problems or "rough edges" in design - all of work is done by volunteers, which means that there are always some incomplete functionality here and there.

Simply amazing ...

Thanks! Let me know if you would like some specific image to be restored next.

OMG
I always want to have the microhobby art in my speccy.
Also the music part is very good, I like a lot the option of play music from the browser.
Very good job!

Thank you! Is there any image you would like to see converted back to ZX more than others?

-- Actualizado 16 Nov 2014, 22:36 --

¿Y que hay de hablar español? ¿que soy un rancio? ¿que deberían expulsarme? Quizás, pero os recuerdo que es un foro español, que se debe hablar bien y en un lenguaje que TODOS entendamos......

Dichoso inglés, hasta en la sopa. (no me canso de decir, que el Español es EL SEGUNDO mas hablado del mundo)

¡Ah! y se me olvida comentar, que no olvidaré jamás, un día que entré a un foro que se hablaba inglés, y por que hice una pregunta en español, me echaron.

Sorry friend, there is not much choice for me. I would have written in Spanish if only I could. At the moment I can speak in three languages - Russian, Estonian and English.
Spanish would be next language I would be learning, because exactly as you have mentioned, Spanish is the second in the world by the amount of speakers.

Since I'm really concerned with this question, I would like to ask you to help me to translate all the messages and texts in ZX-Art to Spanish. What do you think about it? The engine of the website allows this to be done easilly, but there are really many small text string which should be translated. I would be really glad if ZX-Art was available in Spanish as well, since I feel like it's a really clever and right thing to do.

-- Actualizado 16 Nov 2014, 22:36 --

Que pasada esas imagenes! Veo uno de un comic, un chninkel o algo así

Sobre el idioma, si el aporte compensa la diferencia idiomática, por mi que se quede!

Thank you! Please take a look at non-restored microhobby images, may be there is something specific you would like to be restored next?

-- Actualizado 17 Nov 2014, 00:22 --

There is a nice ZX Spectrum music player ZXTune developed by Vitamin.

A pair weeks ago the Android version of ZXTune has got a nice new function - direct online connection to ZX-Art music archive. You can now listen to Beeper/AY music directly from your smartphone or tablet - just install it, select an archive (zxtunes.com, zxart.ee, csdb) and start listening to favorite music.

Please give it a try and leave a feedback here, so altogether we could make it even better than it already is.



I would be really grateful for any kind of critics or suggestions. What's missing in here? What should we add or fix?

[moroz1999]

Perdóname tu a mi, yo no hablo inglés (puedo escribir y leer, pero no hablar), y siempre he pensado que si un foro es de un idioma, se debe hablar en ese idioma.

Ok, I understand. Since I just cannot speak Spanish then I will have to stop writing at all. Goodbye everybody!
If you want to contact me - please write me email at moroz1999@gmail.com or find me on World Of Spectrum.