Although bundled with the pad, KoalaPainter could also be operated using an ordinary digital joystick. The pad shipped with a simple bitmap graphics editor developed by Audio Light, Inc called KoalaPainter, PC Design or Micro Illustrator depending on the target machine (see release history). Immediately above the color chart is the brush shape bar (8 different shapes).Īpple II, TRS-80 Color Computer, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, IBM PC The lowermost part of the screen contains the color choice chart (16 pure colors, 16 dithered). The " undo" command was called "Oops" (2nd row, left). A similar tablet from Atari, the Atari CX77 Touch Tablet, addressed this with a built-in button on the stylus, which some enterprising users adapted for use with their KoalaPad.Ĭ64 KoalaPainter menu screen.
The top-mounted buttons tended to be somewhat frustrating to use, as the user had to "reach around" the stylus to push the buttons in order to start or stop drawing. The pad hooked into the computer using the analog signals of the joystick ports (the so-called paddle inputs), which meant that it had a low resolution and tended to jostle the cursor if moved during use.Īs an alternative to the drawing stylus, the pad could as easily be operated by the user's fingers for tasks that demanded less precision, such as selecting between menu items (thus using the pad as a kind of "indirect touch screen"). At the top, "behind" the pad, were two buttons. roughly 10×10 cm) and mounted on a slightly inclined base with the back of the pad higher than the front. A program called Graphics Exhibitor was included for creating slideshow presentations from KoalaPainter drawings. KoalaPainter was called KoalaPaint in some versions for the Apple II, and PC Design for the IBM PC. David Thornburg as a low-cost computer drawing tool for schools, the Koala Pad and the bundled drawing program, KoalaPainter, was popular with home users as well.
company Koala Technologies Corporation, for the Apple II, TRS-80 Color Computer (as the TRS-80 Touch Pad), Atari 8-bit family, and Commodore 64, as well as for the IBM PC.
The KoalaPad is a graphics tablet, released in 1983 by U.S.
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