Software with Retro Constraints

GrafX2 was made for DOS and has been ported everywhere since. It has tools no other program does, constraints for retro platforms, and an antiquated interface.

Petscii Cola is a free, basic PETSCII editor which can save raster images and Commodore 64-playable files, as well as convert raster images to PETSCII, multicolor or hires Commodore 64 images.

It also includes a choice of Commodore 64 palettes, and a gallery of PETSCII art.

Deluxe Paint was the paint program of the Amiga era and the tool a great deal of 1980s and 1990s game art was made in. Its custom brushes, palette cycling and animation features set conventions that pixel art editors still follow, and its keyboard-driven workflow is why so many later programs feel the way they do. It is no longer sold; the versions that survive do so through archives and emulation.

Multipaint paints inside the real limits of 8-bit machines. Pick a target - Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, MSX, Amstrad CPC and others - and the canvas enforces that machine's resolution, palette and attribute rules while you draw, so what you see is what the hardware could actually display. It exports in native formats.