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I made a simple Photoshop tool for MSX1 pixel art and am releasing it

Harayoki

2025年2月8日 13:57

* Update 2/24/25. There is an article about the updated tool below.

Photoshop UXP Plugin

As the title suggests, I have created a small extension (plugin) for Photoshop and am releasing it.

Usage and installation instructions are as written in the README, but this is a tool that creates a selection area for places where two or more colors are assigned within 8 horizontal pixels. It also warns you if more than the specified number of colors (default 15) are used in the entire image.

It selects the areas with errors. *This image was intentionally created with many errors.

I created the plugin in the UXP format, and while it is much easier to create than jsx, it is still a bit tough. I would like to turn the MSX1-style image converter I am currently making in Python into a Photoshop plugin once the specifications are finalized, but it seems even tougher since it won't be fast enough if it remains in Javascript.

MSX1 Palette File Also Released

Well, that said, it is convenient to be able to check and edit details in a tool you are used to. Although there are other drawing tools in the world dedicated to the MSX1 palette.

As a bonus, I am also releasing the MSX1 palette swatch file for Photoshop (msx1_palette.aco) and

the conventional MSX1 color table file for web export (msx1_palette.act) in the same Github repository.

For MSX1-style images where the colors have subtle fluctuations, you can fix them perfectly just by exporting as a GIF using this color table.

I might also add features to create selection areas in a checkerboard pattern or line-by-line as a bonus.

Example

As I already wrote in a previous article, I used the above plugin when manually correcting the title screen of a certain cat-girl SF adventure game (Glamour Cats 1989/1991 © Dot Kikaku) that had been converted with the MSX1-style image filter I am developing, so I will post the screen again.

↑ This is the PC88 version title screen automatically converted to an MSX1 screen using my own converter. At this point, there are no errors such as having 3 or more colors placed within 8 pixels, and it can be displayed on actual hardware, but there are still parts I want to fix, so...

This is what it looks like after I manually touched it up while checking with the plugin. Well, it looks incomparably better when organized by hand! (Although I think there is value in it looking reasonably good with automatic conversion.)

I want to try displaying it on actual hardware, but I don't have the actual hardware. No, I want to see it connected to a CRT TV via the antenna terminal. I'm sure there are binary file conversion tools and viewer programs for MSX somewhere, and it shouldn't be that much trouble to get it running.