Artist Tools

Tools for the Aquarius⁺ Artist and Content Creator

While the Aquarius⁺ is a flexible system to develop for, it is more typical that assets like graphics, fonts, and music are developed on more modern systems. Below is a list of tools and websites our team frequently use to develop applications for the Aquarius⁺:

Screen (Text Mode) Editors

• Aquarius Draw is a screen (CHARRAM + COLRAM) editor, developed by Matt Pilz for the Aquarius and Aquarius⁺ platforms. Screens can be saved as BASIC or ASM (TASM or zmac), or can be exported to 2k SCR format. The tool also allows the editing and saving of color PALETTEs and CHRSETs. Support for 80 column mode is in development.

Graphics Tools & Editors

• Aseprite is a pixel-based artwork and animation tool for sprites and tiles. It is reasonably priced and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• ImageMagick is a command-line tool that automates conversion of graphics files to binary formats that plusBASIC can treat loadable objects.
• Tiled is a tilemap editor that allows you to make scrolling graphics fields. It is donor-ware and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Digital Audio

• Audacity is a digital audio editing tool for creating digital samples. It is free and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Music

• Vortex Tracker II is a music sequencer program which creates music that can be played on the AY-3-89xx virtual sound chips in the Aquarius and Aquarius⁺, typically saved as PT3 files. This software runs on Windows.