Brain dump, October 2022 – Dmitry Brant
Summary
As an enthusiast of digital preservation, I want to make sure that any images saved using that software can still be decoded and converted using modern-day tools. What I found is a rich history of software developers squeezing every last bit of performance out of underpowered hardware and limited storage, using techniques that blur the line between laughably hacky and downright ingenious. That’s right, the color palette actually appears as several lines of seemingly “garbage” pixels at the top of the image, and a proper decoder needs to be aware of this hack. Now here’s the same image decoded correctly, with the color palette lines consumed and blanked out: But doesn’t that sound wrong? Therefore the palette lines will be automatically hidden from view, unless the user explicitly adjusts the overscan on their monitor.
