My Digital Genesis in 8-bit

I consider "The Power Plant" from 1986 my first digital artwork. I created this image with a self-written program for my Atari 800XL computer which allowed me to use a joystick and the keyboard to draw. The image resolution of this 8-bit computer was limited to 320 x 200 pixels with only two possible colors. In order to achieve a colorful image like this the resolution had to be limited to 80 x 200 pixels which resulted in extremely wide pixel-ratio of in 4:1. This mode allowed 8 from a palette on 128 available colors. To get something like a gradient in the sky I had to code a small machine language program (Display List Interrupt) to hack the video processor in order to produce those horizontal lines in additional colors. Back then this image was published in the Austrian magazine "Die Ganze Woche" where it won a price in a computer graphics contest.