Retrospecs
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retrospecs.bsky.social
Retrospecs
@retrospecs.bsky.social
1.6K followers 210 following 62 posts
A pixel art image processing app for iOS

https://8bitartwork.co.uk/

Retrospecs lets you convert images and video clips so they appear as they would on a variety of home computers and consoles from the 70's, 80's and 90's.
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retrospecs.bsky.social
Where the streets have limited resolution

(IBM EGA, Bayer 4x4 dithering.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk
A deserted street scene with two rows of buildings disappearing into distance. The image is rendered in low resolution in the IBM EGA sixteen colour palette, with obvious pixels and dithering visible.
November 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
You can now unlock the full version of Retrospecs for £1.99/€1.99/$1.99

In addition to the full suite of system and mode presets, the full version contains custom emulation, font and palette editors as well as additional features such as the emulation mutator.

Find out more at 8bitartwork.co.uk
An image of Peter Finch as the newscaster Howard Beale in the 1976 film Network. It depicts a man in his late middle age standing in front of multiple clocks with his hands in the air, shouting in frustration.
October 17, 2025 at 7:00 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
The machine must be maintained at all times

(Apple Macintosh, Atkinson dithering.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk

#retrospecs #ios #pixelart #8bitart #8bitartwork #macintosh
A still from the film Frankenstein’s Island, showing a man wearing a beanie and oversized 70’s sunglasses wiping the side of two machines with prominent dials. It’s rendered in black and white, at it would appear on the original Apple Macintosh.
October 14, 2025 at 6:53 AM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Who dis?

(PICO-8 (Secret palette), Bayer 8x8 dithering.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk

#retrospecs #ios #pixelart #8bitart #8bitartwork #puppy #minischnauzer
A Salt and Pepper (Black & white) Mini Schnauzer pup sitting on a patch of grass, staring at the camera. It’s rendered as it would appear on the PICO-8 virtual console, and hence is low resolution, and heavily dithered.
October 3, 2025 at 6:01 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
There should be a new version of Retrospecs trundling out in the next week or two.

Nothing particularly exciting in terms of new features, but the Dragon 32 presets have been overhauled and should now be correct.
A screen from the Retrospecs iOS app, showing a heavily dithered, two colour image of a dog in orange and black above a series of menu options.
July 12, 2025 at 5:07 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
The first version of Retrospecs was released in the App Store eleven years ago today.

To celebrate the anniversary, you can unlock the full version for $0.99 / £0.99 / €0.99 for the next week. 🥳

Feel free to spread the word.

8bitartwork.co.uk
A heavily dithered and pixelated image of a purple balloon against a yellow background.
June 13, 2025 at 6:47 AM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Sad to hear of the passing of Bill Atkinson, one of the key software developers on the Macintosh, from the QuickDraw system thru to era-defining applications like MacPaint and HyperCard.
A black and white, heavily dithered image of Bill Atkinson, pictured here in early eighties. He has a large moustache and wire-framed glasses, beneath a large mop of curly hair. Rendered using Atkinson dithering algorithm.
June 7, 2025 at 6:46 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Hatched

(Custom per-pixel emulation using Nintendo Gameboy (Daylight) palette. 60x240, 4∶1 pixel ratio.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk
An abstract image consisting of light and dark green areas of checkerboards horizontal lines of varying density. The image is low resolution and heavily pixelated.
June 5, 2025 at 4:14 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Embrace

(Custom per-pixel emulation using Desert palette. 136x128, Bayer 8x8 dithering.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - https://8bitartwork.co.uk

#retrospecs #ios #pixelart #8bitart #8bitartwork #abstract #dithering
An abstract image consisting of light and dark red areas of what appears to be a folded piece of material. The image is low resolution and heavily pixelated, with very obvious signs of dithering.
March 4, 2025 at 8:21 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Experiencing further degradation

Hope you’re all surviving out there. 🫡

(Custom per-pixel emulation using custom palette. 320x240)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - https://8bitartwork.co.uk

#retrospecs #ios #pixelart #8bitart #8bitartwork
An image of a skull, rendered in pixel art in an off-white colour against a dark background. Sections of the image are missing or appear to be corrupted.
February 27, 2025 at 9:21 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Monkey, puzzled

(Custom character emulation using Circlex character set and Nintendo Gameboy Color T1 Reverse palette. 256x192.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - https://8bitartwork.co.uk

#pixelart #8bitart #8bitartwork #abstract #abstractart
An abstract image composed of letters from a custom character pixel font consisting of various low-resolution geometric shapes and checkerboards. The overall impression is of a mass of yellow and black mechanical parts sitting on the left-hand side of the foreground against the backdrop of a clear, teal coloured sky.
January 18, 2025 at 2:33 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
“It’s so freeing, it’s beautiful in a way, to have a great failure, there’s nowhere to go but up.”
- David Lynch
A headshot of David Lynch rendered in a blue tinted duotone.
January 16, 2025 at 8:49 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Tree ‘n shit. Innit.

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - https://8bitartwork.co.uk.
A decorated Christmas tree, with presents around the base, presented in chunky low-resolution, with very large, obvious pixels.
December 23, 2024 at 9:48 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Fonzie-Bot requires your input

(Custom character emulsion using 12-bit palette. 128x480, 4∶1 pixel ratio.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk

#pixel #pixels #pixelart #8bit #8bitart #computerart #digitalart #designart #art #graphics
A semi-abstract blocky image of Henry Winkler as “Fonzie” from Happy Days, rendered using a character set that consists of checkerboard patterns of varying sizes in bright, over-saturated colours.
November 27, 2024 at 6:17 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Churn

(Custom character emulation using custom palette. 240x720, 4∶1 pixel ratio, Bayer 8x8 dithering.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk

#pixel #pixels #pixelart #8bit #8bitart #computerart #digitalart #designart #art #graphics
An abstract image consisting of a mix of red vertical stripes and yellow checkboxes on a black background, the image becoming less dense towards the bottom.
November 26, 2024 at 6:48 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Sunscream

(Custom character emulation using MSX character set and Bubblegum16 palette. 320x320, Bayer 8x8 dithering.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk

#8bit #8bitart #pixelart #pixel #computerart #digitalart #art #graphics
An image of a daisy, composed of standard text characters from the MSX computers from the 1980s. The image is primary bright white on a bright yellow background, with the centre of the Daisy using darker, golden colours.
November 26, 2024 at 10:12 AM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Some recent custom conversions. (Yes, I’m still a sucker for the character engine.) 😀

Generated in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk
An abstract character image consisting of a large number of characters over a bright blur of rainbow colours. Most of the characters are the hash/pound symbol. A pixel art conversion of an image from the excellent The Mitchells vs the Machines animated movie where the dog is sticking its head out of a car window. An abstract character based image in bright 3-bit RGB primary colours. The overall effect is of a smear of colour. A conversation of the original Doom title screen into a custom character set and palette. The “characters” consist of chunky squares and diagonals in varying sizes. (You can sort-of recognise that it’s Doom, if you know Doom.)
November 22, 2024 at 8:13 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
If you go down to the woods today…

(ZX Spectrum (Bright only). Bayer 8x8 dithering.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk.)

#retrospecs #ios #pixelart #8bitart #8bitartwork #zxspectrum #theevildead #brucecampbell
An image of Bruce Campbell from The Evil Dead 2, as it would appear on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum microcomputer from the 1980s. The image is rendered in bright, primary colours with clearly visible dithering and consists of a close-up of a screaming face.
November 18, 2024 at 7:55 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Stallone : COBRA

(If I’m in a @chinnyvision.bsky.social list, I feel like I should lean into it.) 🫡

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk.)

#pixelart #8bitart
A picture of Noel Edmunds wearing mirrored shades, rendered in as it would appear on a BBC Microcomputer from the 1980s.
November 16, 2024 at 12:28 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Time for tea time time

(Custom per-pixel emulation using Afternoon palette. 80x160, 2∶1 pixel ratio, Bayer 8x8 dithering.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk.)

#retrospecs #ios #pixelart #8bitart #8bitartwork
A low-resolution, heavily dithered image of a cup of tea, consisting of clearly visible, chunky double-width pixels. The cup is shown in 3/4 top-down view and is sitting on a grey background. It’s contains tea.
November 16, 2024 at 11:02 AM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Approaching Blobulon-4

(ZX Spectrum (Dim only), Bayer 2x2 dithering.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk

#retrospecs #ios #pixelart #8bitart #8bitartwork #zxspectrum #speccy #sinclair
An abstract low-resolution image in bright primary colours, consisting of a mix of large yellow, red, green and white blobs on a black background, with heavy dithering evident in the areas where the blobs intersect.
November 13, 2024 at 5:56 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Unresolved case

(Apple Macintosh, Atkinson dithering.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk

#retrospecs #ios #pixelart #8bitart #8bitartwork #macintosh #atkinson
A heavily dithered black & white image of a blurry security camera frame, showing a manic faced milk-carton shaped figurine with some desk knick-knacks in the background.
November 10, 2024 at 8:26 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
All spooky and shit.

(Custom character emulation using Diet PETSCII character set and Arne ZXArne, palette. 320x360)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk

#pixel #pixels #pixelart #8bit #8bitart #computerart #digitalart #designart #art #graphics #halloween #ghost
A pac-man style ghost rendered from text characters in a limited colour palette.
October 18, 2024 at 5:51 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Deeper still

(Custom character emulation using Sabine character set. 320x240)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk

Original animation by www.instagram.com/pachon.in.mo...

#pixel #pixels #pixelart #8bit #8bitart #computerart #digitalart #designart #art #graphics
September 30, 2024 at 5:37 PM
retrospecs.bsky.social
Lines and shadows

(BBC (Mode 1) Bayer 8x8 dithering.)

Created in #Retrospecs for #iOS - 8bitartwork.co.uk

#pixel #pixels #pixelart #8bit #8bitart #computerart #digitalart #designart #art #graphics
The frontage of a building with a protruding balcony in sunlight. Light is shining in the front of the balcony and through a side window onto the adjacent wall. Rendered in a limited colour palette (yellow, red, black and white) with significant visible dithering.
September 29, 2024 at 12:27 PM