@globalc I'm trying with ImageMagick:

convert bernie-thumb-square.jpg -scale 160x160 -dither FloydSteinberg -remap c64_palette.png out.png

but the result looks too "good" for the #c64:

In part, it's because nobody was doing Floyd–Steinberg dithering back in the day (ImageMagick doesn't have a lot of options).

In part, it's also because the #C64 was constrained to 4 colors per character cell in multicolor mode.

@globalc @[email protected] #retrocomputing

@globalc @[email protected] Without dithering at all, it also looks wrong (any #C64 artist would have used some dithering):

@codewiz @root
First result looks to me already like from a c64 demo. Maybe shirt sticks out a bit - mastodon cuts that off at the preview of the pic.

@globalc @[email protected] I could make an animgif version using 60hz flickering to create intermediate color shades! #c64 #demoscene

@codewiz @root
Would be a nice hack, but effectively blow up file size, and look like a much smaller version of the image with the direct intermediate colors..

@codewiz @root
btw, this reminded me of that quote I got from somewhere, "the whole moon landing was done with less computing power than 2 c64 deliver.."

@codewiz That's awesome!
I was just thinking if there were also some "typical c64 colors", one could mass-grab c64 game screenshots for that from the net and look at the used colors.. but your result here is already great!

@codewiz You could try with cutting down resolution a bit more. Cutting down colors might be harder.

@codewiz We didn’t have error diffusion algorithms like FloydSteinberg, got anything cruder?

@codewiz @globalc The VIC-II has more restrictions than just the palette. https://mcdraw.xyz/ takes care of all that and you can manipulate dithering and color handling live until you like the result.

This mcDRAW totally *RULEZ*!

But why mcDRAW and not c64DRAW? 😜

@patrick @globalc @[email protected] @mike #c64 #retrocomputing

@codewiz @globalc @root @mike "for Multicolor". It doesn't seem to support hires mode (twice the horizontal pixels, but only 2 colors in each 8x8 block instead of 4).

@codewiz Ahh, now that’s an era appropriate dither. Very nice.