FAIL is a viewer of pictures in native formats of Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Atari Falcon and Atari Portfolio computers.

Currently the project includes:

  • fail2png - portable command-line converter to PNG files

  • FAILWin - viewer for Windows

  • thumbnail providers for Windows Explorer and GNOME (Linux)

  • plugin for XnView

  • (de)coder for ImageMagick

  • plugin for Imagine

  • HTML 5 based viewer

Supported file formats

Atari 8-bit

256, AP2

80x96, 256 colors.

4MI

"AtariTools-800" 4 mono missiles 2x240 each.

4PL

"AtariTools-800" 4 mono players 8x240 each.

4PM

"AtariTools-800" 4 mono players 8x240 each plus 4 mono missiles 2x240 each.

A4R

"Anime 4ever", 80x256, 16-level grayscale, compressed.

ACS

"AtariTools-800" 4x8 font, 4 colors.

AGP

"AtariTools-800" graphic.

ALL

"Graph", 160x192, 5 colors.

AP3, APV, DGP, ESC, ILC, PZM

"DigiPaint" / "EscalPaint", 80x192, 256 colors, 2 frames.

APC, PLM

"Any Point, Any Color" / "Plama 256", 80x96, 256 colors.

APL

"Atari Player Editor", up to 16 16x48 frames, 4 colors.

APP

80x192, 256 colors, 2 frames, compressed.

ART

"Ascii-Art Editor", up to 64x24 characters, mono.

ART

"Artist" by David Eaton, 160x80, 4 colors.

BG9, G09

160x192, 16-level grayscale.

BKG

"Movie Maker" background, 160x96, 4 colors.

CCI

"Champions' Interlace", 160x192, 2 frames, compressed.

CHR

"Blazing Paddles" font, mono.

CIN

"Champions' Interlace", 160x192 or 160x200, 2 frames.

CPR

"Trzmiel", 320x192, mono, compressed.

DIN

320x192, 10 colors, 2 frames.

DLM

"Dir Logo Maker", 11x16 characters, mono.

DRG

"Atari CAD", 320x160, mono.

FNT

Standard 8x8 font, mono.

FWA

"Fun with Art", 160x192, 128 colors.

G10

"Graphics 10", up to 80x240, 9 colors.

G11

"Graphics 11", up to 80x240, 16 colors.

GHG

"Gephard Hires Graphics", up to 320x200, mono.

GR7

"Graphics 7", up to 160x120, 4 colors.

GR8

"Graphics 8", up to 320x240, mono.

GR9

"Graphics 9", up to 80x240, 16-level grayscale.

HIP

"Hard Interlace Picture", 160x200, grayscale, 2 frames.

HPM

"Grass' Slideshow", 160x192, 4 colors, compressed.

HR

256x239, 3 colors, 2 frames.

HR2

320x200, 5 colors, 2 frames.

ICE

"Interlace Character Editor" font, 2 frames.

ICN

"ICE CIN", 160x192, 80 colors, 2 frames.

IGE

"Interlace Graphics Editor", 128x96, 16 colors, 2 frames.

IMN

"ICE MIN", 160x192, 80 colors, 2 frames.

ING

"ING 15", 160x200, 7 colors, 2 frames.

INP

160x200, 7 colors, 2 frames.

INT

"INT95a", up to 160x239, 16 colors, 2 frames.

IP2

"ICE PCIN+", 160x192, 45 colors, 2 frames.

IPC

"ICE PCIN", 160x192, 35 colors, 2 frames.

IR2

"Super IRG 2", 160x192, 25 colors, 2 frames.

IRG

"Super IRG", 160x192, 15 colors, 2 frames.

IST

"Interlace Studio", 160x200, 2 frames.

JGP

"Jet Graphics Planner", 8x16 tiles, 4 colors.

MAX

"XL-Paint MAX", 160x192, 2 frames, compressed.

MBG

"Mad Designer", 512x256, mono.

MCH

"Graph2Font", up to 176x240, 128 colors.

MCP

"McPainter", 160x200, 16 colors, 2 frames.

MCS

160x192, 9 colors.

MGP

"Magic Painter", 160x96, 4 colors with optional rainbow effect.

MIC

"Micro Illustrator" / "Graphics 15" , up to 160x240, 4 colors.

MIC

"AtariGraphics", 160x192, 4 colors.

MIS

"AtariTools-800" missile, 2x240, mono.

NLQ

"Daisy-Dot" 19x16 font, mono.

PIC

"Koala MicroIllustrator", 160x192, 4 colors, compressed.

PLA

"AtariTools-800" player, 8x240, mono.

PMD

"PMG Designer" by Henryk Karpowicz.

RAW

"XL-Paint MAX", 160x192, 16 colors, 2 frames.

RGB

"ColorViewSquash", up to 160x192, 3 frames.

RIP

"Rocky Interlace Picture", up to 320x239, 1 or 2 frames.

RM0

"Rambrandt", 160x96, 99 colors.

RM1

"Rambrandt", 80x192, 256 colors.

RM2

"Rambrandt", 80x192, 104 colors.

RM3

"Rambrandt", 80x192, 128 colors.

RM4

"Rambrandt", 160x192, 99 colors.

SGE

"Semi-Graphic logos Editor", 40x24 characters, mono.

SHC

"SAMAR Hi-res Interlace with Map of Colours", 320x192, 2 frames.

SHP

"Blazing Paddles" shape table, mono.

SHP

"Movie Maker" shapes, 160x96, 4 colors.

SPC

"The Graphics Magician Picture Painter", 160x192, 128 colors.

SXS

16x16 font, mono.

TIP

"Taquart Interlace Picture", up to 160x119, 2 frames.

VZI

"VertiZontal Interlacing", 160x200, grayscale, 2 frames.

WND

"Blazing Paddles" window, up to 160x192, 4 colors.

XLP

"XL-Paint", 160x192 or 160x200, 7 colors, 2 frames, compressed.

Note
 Artist, AtariGraphics, Magic Painter and Rambrandt had no default extensions, so I made them up. Documentation for Rambrandt suggests RM0-RM4 for the compressed files, I also use them for the raw format.

Atari ST

ART

"Art Director", 320x200, 16 colors.

BL1

"DEGAS Elite" block, 16 colors.

BL2

"DEGAS Elite" block, 4 colors.

BL3

"DEGAS Elite" block, mono.

BRU

"DEGAS Elite" brush, 8x8, mono.

CA1

"CrackArt", 320x200, 16 colors, compressed.

CA2

"CrackArt", 640x200, 4 colors, compressed.

CA3

"CrackArt", 640x400, mono, compressed.

CPT

"Canvas", compressed.

DOO

"Doodle", 640x400, mono.

GFB

"DeskPic".

ICN

"DEGAS Elite" icon, mono.

IFF

"Interchange File Format", compressed.

IMG

"GEM Bit Image", compressed.

MPP

"Multi Palette Picture", up to 416x273, 1 or 2 frames.

NEO

"NEOchrome".

PAC

"STAD", 640x400, mono, compressed.

PC1

"DEGAS Elite", 320x200, 16 colors, compressed.

PC2

"DEGAS Elite", 640x200, 4 colors, compressed.

PC3

"DEGAS Elite", 640x400, mono, compressed.

PCS

"PhotoChrome", 320x199, 1 or 2 frames, compressed.

PI1

"DEGAS", up to 416x560, 16 colors.

PI2

"DEGAS", 640x200, 4 colors.

PI3

"DEGAS", 640x400, mono.

SPC

"Spectrum 512", 320x199, 512 colors, compressed.

SPS

"Spectrum 512 (Smooshed)" , 320x199, 512 colors, compressed.

SPU

"Spectrum 512", 320x199, 512 colors.

TN1

"Tiny Stuff", 320x200, 16 colors, compressed.

TN2

"Tiny Stuff", 640x200, 4 colors, compressed.

TN3

"Tiny Stuff", 640x400, mono, compressed.

TNY

"Tiny Stuff", compressed.

XIMG

"Extended GEM Bit Image", compressed.

Atari Falcon

DC1, DGC

"DuneGraph", 320x200, 256 colors, compressed.

DEL

"DelmPaint", 320x240, 256 colors, compressed.

DGU, DG1

"DuneGraph", 320x200, 256 colors.

DPH

"DelmPaint", 640x480, 256 colors, compressed.

FTC

"Falcon True Color", 384x240, 65536 colors.

GOD

"GodPaint", 65536 colors.

PI4, PI9

"Fuckpaint", 320x240 or 320x200, 256 colors.

TRP

"EggPaint", 65536 colors.

TRU

"IndyPaint", 65536 colors.

Atari Portfolio

PGC

240x64, mono, compressed.

PGF

240x64, mono.

"2 frames" above means the picture is composed of two quickly alternating frames so that a human perceives more colors (for example black alternated with gray looks like dark gray). On Atari 8-bit this technique is commonly (but incorrectly) referred to as "interlace". Likewise, "3 frames" means three different alternating pictures and more flickering.

You can find some sample files in examples.zip.

Compilation instructions

Required tools

FAIL is written in the Ć programming language. Official releases include translation of FAIL to C, so you only need a C compiler and Make utility. For other cases (Git or JavaScript) you’ll need cito.

Required libraries

For all builds you will need development files for libpng >=1.2.5 and zlib >=1.2.3. In some systems they are installed by default or included in software repositories. For other systems, including Windows, you will need to build and install these libraries from sources. See libpng website for downloads and build instructions.

Getting officially released source code

If you want to compile an official release of FAIL, download source distribution (fail-*.tar.gz) and uncompress it to a directory of your choice.

On Unix-like systems:

tar zxf fail-*.tar.gz

On Windows you may use 7-Zip.

Getting latest source code

Alternatively you may get the latest version from the Git repository. To do this using a command-line Git client:

git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/fail/code fail-code

This will fetch the latest code to a new directory called fail-code.

Building fail2png, GNOME thumbnailer and ImageMagick coder on Unix-like systems

From your shell prompt navigate to the directory which contains fail.ci.

Review the contents of Makefile and run:

make

To install fail2png under PREFIX, run:

make install-fail2png

To install GNOME thumbnailer and fail2png, run:

make install-thumbnailer

After you restart your system, Nautilus windows should display thumbnails of Atari images.

Installation of the ImageMagick coder requires that you have complete source distribution of ImageMagick. Current version of the ImageMagick coder has been tested with version 6.7.4-0 of ImageMagick.

Run make specifying path to the sources:

make install-magick MAGICK_INCLUDE_PATH=/path/to/im/sources

To verify the installation, try to open some example files:

display COYOTE.RIP

You can also install all components at the same time, for example:

make install PREFIX=/opt/fail MAGICK_INCLUDE_PATH=/src/ImageMagick-6.7.4-0

Using fail2png

Run the program from command line to see the syntax. Unless you specify the -o/--output option, the output filename will be constructed from the input filename with the extension changed to png.

Building fail2png, XnView/ImageMagick/Imagine/Windows Explorer plugins and FAILWin on Windows

Download MinGW and install binutils, core compiler, w32api and MinGW Make.

From the command prompt navigate to the win32 directory and run:

mingw32-make

Building HTML 5 based viewer

Make sure cito is on your PATH.

From the command prompt navigate to the html5 directory and run:

make

Feedback

If you are interested in the FAIL project, please subscribe its mailing list. This list is for users and developers. Once you subscribe, you can post comments, ideas and questions about FAIL.

You may submit bugs here (log in required).

History

FAIL 2.0.2 (2013-09-15)

New formats: Interlace Character Editor font (ICE), GEM Bit Image (IMG), Multi Palette Picture (MPP).

This is the last release of FAIL. But don’t worry! We are just renaming our project to Retro Computer Image Library (RECOIL), because we are going to support formats from 8-bit and 16-bit machines other than Atari. Stay tuned!

FAIL 2.0.1 (2013-04-24)

Added Atari 8-bit formats: IP2, IMN, ICN, DIN, IRG, IR2, VZI. Added "DEGAS Elite" icon (ICN). Fixed decoding of IPC. Thumbnail provider implemented for Windows 2000/XP. Fullscreen mode in HTML 5.

FAIL 2.0.0 (2013-02-15)

Library rewritten from C to the Ć programming language. This made it possible to create the HTML 5 port. The rewrite included code clean-up and bug fixes in decoding of RIP, TIP, SGE, HR2, AGP, AP3/APV/DGP/ESC/ILC/PZM, APP, CIN, CCI. Added new formats: ICE PCIN (IPC), Daisy-Dot font (NLQ), PMG Designer (PMD), AtariTools-800 font (ACS), PhotoChrome (PCS), HPM, MCS, Anime 4ever (A4R), DuneGraph compressed (DGC, DC1), Canvas compressed (CPT), Interchange File Format (IFF), DEGAS Elite block (BL1, BL2, BL3), DEGAS Elite brush (BRU). Added auto-detection of Atari STE 4096-color palette. FAILWin and XnView show the computer family of the file format. FAILWin shows the number of alternating frames. The win64 package is now sufficient on 64-bit Windows, there’s no need to install the win32 package. Reduced CPU and memory usage in fail2png.

FAIL 1.4.0 (2012-11-28)

Added Atari Falcon formats: Fuckpaint (PI4, PI9), DuneGraph (DGU, DG1), EggPaint (TRP), IndyPaint (TRU), GodPaint (GOD), Falcon True Color (FTC), DelmPaint (DEL, DPH). Added Atari ST formats: Spectrum 512 Smooshed (SPS), DeskPic (GFB), 416x560 DEGAS (PI1). Created plugin for Imagine (might be interesting for Total Commander users, as Imagine includes a Total Commander plugin). Reduced CPU and memory usage in Windows thumbnail provider, ImageMagick and XnView.

FAIL 1.3.0 (2012-07-23)

Added Atari ST formats: DEGAS (PI1, PI2, PI3), DEGAS Elite (PC1, PC2, PC3), NEOchrome (NEO), Spectrum 512 (SPU, SPC), Tiny Stuff (TNY, TN1, TN2, TN3), STAD (PAC), CrackArt (CA1, CA2, CA3), Doodle (DOO), Art Director (ART). Added Atari Portfolio formats (PGF, PGC). More Atari 8-bit formats: Atari Player Editor (APL), Artist (ART), Ascii-Art Editor (ART), Atari CAD (DRG), AtariTools-800 (AGP, PLA, MIS, 4PL, 4MI, 4PM), ING 15 (ING), Lepix dialect of CIN, raw images (GR7, G10, G11). Fixed non-interlaced RIP modes. FAILWin extended with "First/Last file in directory", "Skip files on error". Narrow pictures were cropped in FAILWin.

FAIL 1.2.0 (2011-12-16)

Added decoding of ColorViewSquash (RGB), Blazing Paddles (CHR, SHP, WND), Magic Painter (MGP), Mad Designer (MBG), AtariGraphics (MIC), Fun with Art (FWA), Rambrandt (RM0, RM1, RM2, RM3, RM4), XL-Paint (XLP), XL-Paint MAX (MAX), SHIMC (SHC), Graph (ALL), APP View (APP), Semi-Graphic logos Editor (SGE), Dir Logo Maker (DLM), Movie Maker (BKG, SHP), BG9, G09, The Graphics Magician Picture Painter (SPC). Improved decoding of all RAW and MIC, some RIP and FNT files. Added APV extension for the AP3 format. Created GNOME thumbnailer (for Linux file browser Nautilus). You may drag&drop files to the FAILWin window. GR8 wasn’t registered in ImageMagick.

FAIL 1.1.0 (2011-04-18)

Fixed decoding of ILC, AP3, RIP, PIC, CPR, HIP and CIN. Added support for MCH, IGE, 256, AP2, JGP, DGP, ESC, PZM, IST and RAW. Created Windows thumbnail provider. Fixed user interface issues in FAILWin. Fixed compilation errors with the new libpng. Updated installation for new ImageMagick. Moved source code from SVN to Git.

FAIL 1.0.1 (2010-08-25)

Windows setup has been created. A coder for ImageMagick has been created. MCP, GHG and HR2 formats are supported. Build process has been improved.

FAIL 1.0.0 (2009-08-25)

Initial release.

Authors

Piotr Fusik <fox@scene.pl>

Idea, programming.

Adrian Matoga <epi@atari8.info>

Programming.

Paweł Szewczyk <ripek@op.pl>

FAILWin icon, testing.

Peter Dell <jac@wudsn.com>

Testing.

Sławomir Śledź <slaves@scene.pl>

Testing.

Monika Wesołowska <giulio.caesar@gmail.com>

Testing.