Computers today can handle millions of colors, resolutions of 1280 x 1024, triple digit processors, and gigs of RAM to handle large amounts of graphics, animation, and video. But back in 1985 when computers mostly had monochrome displays and were mostly used for spreadsheets and word processing, the Atari ST could handle animation, 3D CAD, and multimedia in color with a GUI desktop (GEM). Using a 16/32 bit processor running at 8MHz it could also be interfaced with a TV and a video recorder to tape graphic work. It also had challenging limitations like a palette of 512 colors of which only 16 could be used at a time at a resolution of 320 x 240. It was capable of higher resolutions, 640 x 200 x 4 colors and 640 x 400 x 2 colors (monochrome). One way around the low resolution 16 color limitation was to use different sets of 16 colors for each scene to give an animation more color.

The artwork on the Atari page was created on a 520 ST back in the mid 80s. It wasn't profesional quality but it taught me a lot about computer graphics and animation and the potential of computer graphics in the years to come. Using graphic programs like D.E.G.A.S. (Design and Entertainment Graphic Arts System), Neochrome, Cyber Paint and CAD-3D, I was able to experiement with illustration, cartooning, 3D CAD, animation, and multimedia at my own pace. Today's computers are bigger, badder, and faster. But I'm not sure they're more fun than the Atari ST was back in the mid 80s.