So, sometimes software gets these things called "iterations" and "versions" where the authors of the software add features and updates. So while this link isn't the KidPix of the 90s, it certainly has the same gameplay to the point where Im personally transported back to playing this on my Dad's Mactinosh 30ish years ago.
Perhaps you can try downloading it and seeing for yourself?
Man, I used to spend hours on KidPix back on my old 68k mac. It's not quite the same, and a lot of the effects are not 1:1, but it's still a cool throwback.
Maybe a few months ago I got a real hankering for the sounds of KidPix. The theme song is 100% pure lab grade nostalgia for me. Pretty sure I never used the program to its full extent but I loved the funny sound effects.
[Editing because I commented before clicking the link. Seems this is some older version. I only used a newer one.]
I don't remember a theme song from the version of my childhood, but I vividly remember the OH NO! of the undo button (which is, delightfully, included in the web version).
I used to use kidpix 4 as a kid and recently went and set up a windows XP VM to try it again. Turns out I pretty much was using it to its full extent by just making a mess and blowing stuff up.
It’s pretty much impossible to create anything artistic in the program. The lack of layers, zoom, and only one level of undo make it extremely difficult. I have somewhat good drawing skills but wasn’t able to do anything more than a very crude stick figure. Still had a lot of fun doing that though.
In a way I appreciate knowing that I didn't miss out on much. I vaguely recall something about animation though? Other than that, I guess that's what I remember too. Just splattering stuff on the screen to hear the funny noises and making nightmare drawings. I'm sure my parents still have some printouts. I recall a bowling ball and pin brush I liked.
Believe it or not, there is a Kid Pix 5.0, and it even runs natively on Apple Silicon Macs. Inexplicably though, the company that develops it refuses to advertise it. Maybe it has something to do with their school contracts. You can grab a copy on Internet Archive though.
Really cool, I remember using this on a friend's computer in the early 90s. My only complaint is this has a smoothing alpha edge on the pencil and line tools, which gives that unfortunate white outline when using the paint bucket. KidPix is great, but gimmie that classic Nearest Neighbour behaviour.
It appears because the underlying HTML5 Canvas tools are being used, things like antialiasing are unavoidable without remaking certain API calls. I'm sure it could be done though!
This rabbit hole is a waste of time, as someone who's been down it, you'll find piles of resources claiming CSS and JS flags will give you what you want but it never really gets there.
The only way to actually get true aliased brushes in canvas is implementing a line drawing algorithm manually and drawing down aliased circles like how https://gifpaint.com/ & https://jspaint.app/ do it.
I've never used the original so this might be a faithful reproduction of the original (it's kind of cool), but it looks like the line tool and the multicoloured tool interact weirdly, and it doesn't erase the previous line when you move the mouse, instead you get a cool fan of colour instead. I was expecting a single line, but had more fun with it as it is, which is why I suspect it might not actually be a bug after all.
It's possible to avoid this issue. I implemented a Canvas based clone of the classic MS Paint back in the days. One of the tricks to avoid this, was to use decimal pixel coordinates, so instead of drawing a pixel at (100, 200), you would draw at (100.5, 200.5).
That's not a complete solution. For instance, it assumes that each canvas pixel corresponds to a single logical pixel, and that each logical pixel corresponds to a single physical pixel. There are a number of reasons that might not be true.
Craig Hickman was my Prof at UofO. Took his Digital Arts class in 1986 for one quarter and wrote an early proto color paint program inspired by MacPaint, on a Graphics Frame Store system that uses serial port to communicate with a Mac 128K.
The system had basic graphics primitives built-in and the system drew the images based on the commands received. Forgot the name of said graphics frame store, which if I recall had 8-bit color and had "Vector" as part of it's name (though it uses raster CRT with bit maps and not vector displays).
Craig was an early pioneer in using computer color graphics for Art.
Nice. Thank you. Craig is a wonderful and generous guy, and a great teacher/professor. He noticed that I was looking to learn as much as I can about graphics programming (I was doing Comp Sci) and gave me access to some neat toys, including an Apollo Domain.
The web app somehow made its way to him! He sent me an extremely endearing message that it was fun to see his 2yo grandson using it! (Craig had originally made Kid Pix for his son who is now a graphic, ui, and ux designer). I let him know I made this port for my own daughter as a pandemic-project.
What I see is people enjoying that they all remember the same thing, not claiming they are atomic or special. (Not that I see why people feeling special would be a problem, anyway.)
It's incredible, really. I haven't heard these in 25+ years and yet recognize them immediately. Probably because I heard them repeated 50 million times!
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 199 ms ] threadPerhaps you can try downloading it and seeing for yourself?
[Editing because I commented before clicking the link. Seems this is some older version. I only used a newer one.]
I remember the first part to this so well. Wondering if maybe I skipped the rest or I just forgot it. The "wow" is burned into my memory.
But as I alluded to in my edit, this seems to be an entirely different generation of product I'm remembering vs this post.
It’s pretty much impossible to create anything artistic in the program. The lack of layers, zoom, and only one level of undo make it extremely difficult. I have somewhat good drawing skills but wasn’t able to do anything more than a very crude stick figure. Still had a lot of fun doing that though.
https://youtu.be/ZbB1OuOxUr4?t=64
https://www.mackiev.com/offers/kp5/upgrade_offer.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28073383
Kid Pix as a JavaScript App - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28073383 - Aug 2021 (89 comments)
Kid Pix in JavaScript/HTML - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28069588 - Aug 2021 (12 comments)
Show HN: JS Kid Pix 1.0.2021 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28064606 - Aug 2021 (1 comment)
Meeting Mr. Kid Pix (2019) [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25108875 - Nov 2020 (16 comments)
Meeting Mr. Kid Pix - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20296370 - June 2019 (2 comments)
Kid Pix – The Early Years - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11438994 - April 2016 (1 comment)
Kid Pix: The Early Years - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1298728 - April 2010 (3 comments)
https://web.archive.org/web/20120427215910/http://pixelpoppi...
It appears because the underlying HTML5 Canvas tools are being used, things like antialiasing are unavoidable without remaking certain API calls. I'm sure it could be done though!
UPDATE: it's
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/image-rende...The only way to actually get true aliased brushes in canvas is implementing a line drawing algorithm manually and drawing down aliased circles like how https://gifpaint.com/ & https://jspaint.app/ do it.
The system had basic graphics primitives built-in and the system drew the images based on the commands received. Forgot the name of said graphics frame store, which if I recall had 8-bit color and had "Vector" as part of it's name (though it uses raster CRT with bit maps and not vector displays).
Craig was an early pioneer in using computer color graphics for Art.
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/vectrix/Vectrix_Ad_By...
http://red-green-blue.com/kid-pix-the-early-years
Well... Yeah. If you're of the age, there wasn't an app store and 5000 different apps doing the same thing. There was kidpix. We all saw it.
You're not special
(Except me, I used KidPix the most! More than you guys!!)