Bryce Tomlinson has posted on his Facebook group that a new beta version of ‘Kaleidoscope Reloaded’ for “serious and active” PETSCII graphics artists and all Commodore 64 enthusiasts willing to help.
Kaleidoscope is known as the “THE” graphics editor for the Commodore 64, released back in the 80’s. Bryce, the original developer decided to bring it back to life as Kaleidoscope Reloaded and Kaleidoscope v5.
Here is his post:
“Jeff, AgentFriday & I have been working hard to get this far. We’re very, very close to having our first public release candidate.
I’ve given Kaleidoscope an entire facelift. Functions that used to subordinately exist on a “Plain Jane” text screen are now in a fancy dialog box. Almost all features will now have a “RUN/STOP=ABORT” option, which will allow you to get out of just about any feature that you’re wanting to jump out of before it goes too far, or if you’ve just pressed the wrong button. Every effort has gone in to make each feature have similar interfaces, without sacrificing the simplicity of it. No extra keystrokes to do the same task, many features slipstreamed into other features to streamline the program. The new Edit Menu is easier to read, and features are organized by type.
Now, more than ever, I need my testers to TEST this baby. I need to know every bit of what might glitch out or goof up.
I feel pretty confident that it’s relatively stable at this point, but I’m sure that heavy testing will show where the weaknesses are!
With this Beta “G” release, I’m including all the old files from the 1989 Kaleidoscope V4 disk for your enjoyment and tinkering. This will give you some material to mess around with, especially if you’re not the type to be PETSCII-artistically-inclined.
But especially if you ARE a PETSCII artist, I want to hear from you! What would you have differently? What doesn’t work the way you want it to?
If you’re not in the beta program yet, please get in today! Just go onCommodoreServer.com and add me, “brobryce” as a friend, and I’ll share the disk image with you, and you’ll get automatic notifications when a new build is released! THANKS!”
If you are one good candidate to help, follow the instructions above, or ask more information to Bryce on Facebook.
Link: Facebook Group