Pixel Parade

Introducing Pixel Parade, the tool that will transform your Apple // into a visual masterpiece! Pixel Parade is a “screen saver” for your Apple // series computers. It runs through 84 different animations in a loop.

Many collectors and hobbyists love to display and show off their restored 8-bit computers. Now you can have a really interesting set of animations being displayed on your monitor.

Utilizing the fast speed of the hard drive emulating devices such as the Floppy EMU, Booti, CFFA, and the X-Drive, Pixel Parade loads high-resolution images onto the screen at a fairly rapid pace (utilizing the speed of the hard drive emulating device) to create a fairly speedy animation. See the technical article in the 8-bit Shack Members section, with all the details on how it was done.

Pixel Parade could be used in the following ways:

Displaying the Apple // in pictures.
Displaying the Apple // in videos.
Provide interesting content on systems during trade shows.
Display animations during idle time while presentations are taking place.
In a room while demoing computers to fellow retrocomputing enthusiasts.

Keyboard CONTROLS

    
                Key
                Function (on the menu screen)
            
                P
                Will start the pixel parade animated screen saver.  This will loop through 84 different animations (v1).
            
                I
                Will show the credits and information screen.
            
                Q
                Will quit the pixel parade program and return you to a Applesoft BASIC prompt.
            
                Key
                Function (during animations)
            
                ESC  or Q or q
                Will quit the pixel parade animation and take you back to the menu screen.
            
                ← left-arrow 
                Go to the previous animation.  Can be pressed multiple times.  If you hit the key on the first animation, it will loop back to the last animation.
            
                → right-arrow
                Go to the next animation.  Can be pressed multiple times.  If you hit the key on the last animation, it will loop to the first animation.

Click the above ticket to be directed to the shop or the downloads section.

System Requirements

Pixel Parade runs on an Apple //e enhanced or better with the following minimum system requirements:

Apple //e enhanced, IIc, IIc+, IIgs
65C02 CPU and min. 128 kB RAM
External hard drive emulator. See compatibility addendum below.

Credits

Concept and Applesoft BASIC Programming
Daniel Henderson
Documentation and GIF conversion
Greg Jewett

Compatibility Addendum

Due to the necessity of reading a bunch of data over time and the need for the data to be read a quickly as possible, we have tested many devices.

TESTED: X-Drive on Apple //e and Apple //c
TESTED: CFFA3000 on Apple //gs
TESTED: Booti on Apple //e and Apple //c
TESTED: FEMU on Apple //e and Apple //c
TESTED: Wdrive on Apple //e and Apple //c
TESTED: SPSD on Apple //e and Apple //c
TESTED: FujiNet on Apple //e and Apple //c
TESTED: Dan ][ Card on an Apple //e
TESTED on AppleWin (Windows Apple ][ emulator), and Apple2TS (web based emulator)
NOT TESTED: Floppy EMU