The Apple II has 2 graphics modes. Low-resolution mode, or LORES as the cool kids call it, supports 40×40 pixels with 16 fixed colors. The colors are bizarre – lots of blues but kind of short on reds. Two of the colors are the exact same shade of gray. The other mode is high-resolution mode (HIRES) which gives 240×192 pixels and 6 colors. But you can’t just put any color anywhere you want. You kinda lose half your horizontal resolution once you start using color and even then you can’t just put a green pixel next to an orange one. It’s unbelievably complicated. I wrote software on the PC to turn Twitter avatars into both LORES and HIRES graphic representations. The result is a cool 8-bit vibe, and in many cases the graphics are distant abstractions that bear little resemblance to the original image.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
