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Jim Sachs

Jim Sachs is probably the most well known artist on the Amiga. Not only because he created breathtakingly beautiful graphics for games like Defender of the Crown and Ports of Call, but also because he created a lot of promotional art and magazine covers that were re-used all over the place to promote the Amiga.

He concentrated on architecture while in colledge, but went to the Air Force to fly C-141 Starlifter cargo planes after graduating.
After that he got into computer graphics through the C64 and then switched to the Amiga when that came out.

Interview: Amazing Computing (1987)
Interview: Amazing Computing (1994)

DefenderOfTheCrown2
DefenderOfTheCrownCDTV
DefenderOfTheCrown
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
  • Defender of the Crown (CDTV)
  • Prequel
  • Defender of the Crown
  • IFF
  • Prequel

  • Amiga
DefenderOfTheCrown2_Finale_StainedGlass
From Defender of the Crown 2

DefenderOfTheCrown2_BritainMap
DefenderOfTheCrown_BritainMap
  • From Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
The hand painted map from Defender of the Crown was replaced by a picture that was grabbed from video and touched up.

This was a technique that Jim used more often in his later work to speed up his workflow, because pixeling everything by hand took a lot of time, which was rarely available when developing a game.
  • From Defender of the Crown
  • IFF
  • Prequel

DefenderOfTheCrown2_CastleNorman_day
DefenderOfTheCrown2_CastleNorman_night
DefenderOfTheCrown_CastleNorman_day
DefenderOfTheCrown_CastleNorman_night
  • Defender of the Crown 2 - Day time palette
  • Amiga
  • Defender of the Crown 2 - Night time palette
  • IFF
  • Variation
  • Defender of the Crown - Day time palette
  • IFF
  • Prequel
The castle pictures from Defender of the Crown used the same picture but with different color palettes for the day and night time versions.
  • Defender of the Crown - Night time palette
  • IFF
  • Prequel

DefenderOfTheCrown2_CastleNormanCatapult
DefenderOfTheCrown_CastleNormanCatapult
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
  • Defender of the Crown
  • IFF
  • Prequel

DefenderOfTheCrown2_CastleNormanHall
DefenderOfTheCrown_CastleNormanHall
  • Amiga
From Defender of the Crown 2
From Defender of the Crown

DefenderOfTheCrown2_CastleNormanYard
DefenderOfTheCrown_CastleNormanYard
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
  • From Defender of the Crown
  • Prequel

DefenderOfTheCrown2_CastleSaxon_day
DefenderOfTheCrown2_CastleSaxon_night
DefenderOfTheCrown_CastleSaxon_day
DefenderOfTheCrown_CastleSaxon_night
  • Defender of the Crown 2 - Day time palette
  • Amiga
DefenderOfTheCrown2_CastleSaxon_day
  • Defender of the Crown 2 - Night time palette
  • Variation
DefenderOfTheCrown2_CastleSaxon_night
  • Defender of the Crown - Day time palette
  • IFF
  • Prequel
DefenderOfTheCrown_CastleSaxon_day
The castle pictures from Defender of the Crown used the same picture but with different color palettes for the day and night time versions.
  • Defender of the Crown - Night time palette
  • IFF
  • Prequel
DefenderOfTheCrown_CastleSaxon_night

DefenderOfTheCrown2_CastleSaxonCatapult
DefenderOfTheCrown_CastleSaxonCatapult
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
  • Defender of the Crown
  • IFF
  • Prequel

DefenderOfTheCrown_Ending
DefenderOfTheCrown_Ending_bgr
  • Defender of the Crown
  • IFF
  • Amiga
  • Defender of the Crown - Background only
  • IFF
  • Variation

  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
Jim posted a complete version of the Defender of the Crown 2 ending on his personal YouTube channel.

  • Amiga
DefenderOfTheCrown2_Finale_StainedGlass
From Defender of the Crown 2

DefenderOfTheCrown2_Normans
DefenderOfTheCrown_Normans
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • IFF
  • Amiga
  • Defender of the Crown
  • IFF
  • Prequel

DefenderOfTheCrown2_RobinHood
DefenderOfTheCrown_RobinHood
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • IFF
  • Amiga
  • Defender of the Crown
  • IFF
  • Prequel
This image was not drawn by Jim Sachs and he was not happy with it. He therefore created a completely new version for Defender of the Crown 2.

DefenderOfTheCrown2_Romantic_Fireplace
DefenderOfTheCrown_Romantic_Fireplace
DefenderOfTheCrown_Romantic_Fireplace_bgr
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
  • Defender of the Crown
  • IFF
  • Prequel
  • Defender of the Crown - Background only
  • IFF
  • Prequel

DefenderOfTheCrown2_Romantic_Kiss
DefenderOfTheCrown_Romantic_Kiss
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
  • Defender of the Crown
  • Prequel

DefenderOfTheCrown2_Romantic_LadyAnne
DefenderOfTheCrown_Romantic_LadyAnne
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
  • Defender of the Crown
  • Prequel

DefenderOfTheCrown2_Romantic_LadyKatherine
DefenderOfTheCrown_Romantic_LadyKatherine
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
  • Defender of the Crown
  • IFF
  • Prequel
DefenderOfTheCrown_Romantic_LadyKatherine

  • Defender of the Crown
  • Amiga
Interestingly two of the four maidens were left out for Defender of the Crown 2, with Lady Rebecca being one of them.

  • Defender of the Crown
  • Amiga
Interestingly two of the four maidens were left out of Defender of the Crown 2, with Lady Rosalind being one of them.

  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga

DefenderOfTheCrown2_Tournament_Begin
DefenderOfTheCrown_Tournament_Begin
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
DefenderOfTheCrown2_Tournament_Begin
  • Defender of the Crown
  • Prequel
DefenderOfTheCrown_Tournament_Begin

DefenderOfTheCrown2_Tournament_BirdsEyeView
DefenderOfTheCrown_Tournament_BirdsEyeView
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
DefenderOfTheCrown2_Tournament_BirdsEyeView
  • Defender of the Crown
  • Prequel

DefenderOfTheCrown2_Tournament_Fanfare
DefenderOfTheCrown_Tournament_Fanfare
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
DefenderOfTheCrown2_Tournament_Fanfare
  • Defender of the Crown
  • IFF
  • Prequel
DefenderOfTheCrown_Tournament_Fanfare

DefenderOfTheCrown2_Tournament_OnComing
DefenderOfTheCrown_Tournament_OnComing
  • Defender of the Crown 2
  • Amiga
  • Defender of the Crown
  • Prequel

  • Amiga

JimSachs_20000LeaguesUnderTheSea_Shipwreck
JimSachs_20000LeaguesUnderTheSea_Shipwreck_var
  • Amiga
  • IFF
  • Variation

This image belonged to a sequence where the Nautilus can be seen sinking slowly in the sunset. Jim captured this sequence from a VHS recording that he had made from the game demo during development and posted it on his personal YouTube channel.

JimSachs_Aegis

JimSachs_AmigaDemo1
JimSachs_AmigaDemo1_var
JimSachs_AmigaDemo1
  • IFF
  • Variation
JimSachs_AmigaDemo1_var
Used in the "Amiga Dealer" demo. It was produced by Commodore to promote Amigas that were on display in shops. This image was shown in the "Amiga Features" part.

Printed in Amiga Format September 1989 - Page 65

JimSachs_AmigaDemo2
JimSachs_AmigaDemo2_var
JimSachs_AmigaDemo2
  • IFF
  • Variation
JimSachs_AmigaDemo2_var
Used in the "Amiga Dealer" demo. It was produced by Commodore to promote Amigas that were on display in shops.
This image was shown in the "Art & Graphics" part.

JimSachs_AmigaDemo3
Used in the "Amiga Dealer" demo. It was produced by Commodore to promote Amigas that were on display in shops.
This image was shown in the "Video" part.

JimSachs_AmigaDemo4
JimSachs_AmigaDemo4_var
JimSachs_AmigaDemo4
Used in AmigaVision tutorial (1990)
  • Variation
JimSachs_AmigaDemo4_var
Use in Amiga demo
Used in the "Amiga Dealer" demo. It was produced by Commodore to promote Amigas that were on display in shops.[br]This image was shown in the "Music" part.

JimSachs_AmigaDemo5
Used in the "Amiga Dealer" demo. It was produced by Commodore to promote Amigas that were on display in shops.
This image was shown in the "Entertainment" part.

JimSachs_AmigaDemo7
JimSachs_AmigaDemo7_amigados
JimSachs_AmigaDemo7
The version was used in Commodore's "Amiga Dealer" demo.
  • IFF
  • Variation
JimSachs_AmigaDemo7_amigados
The version used in Rob Peck's "Amiga Companion" book.
Used in the "Amiga Dealer" demo. It was produced by Commodore to promote Amigas that were on display in shops.
This image was shown in the "Education" part.

Interestingly there was also a version of this image that was used for the "Amiga Companion" book by Rob Peck. The biggest difference between the two was the peacock on the key, that was replaced by the Amiga rainbow check logo.

The Amiga Companion version is lowres-interlaced, which leads me to think that it was created first and the Amiga Demo version was downscaled to fit with the other images.

JimSachs_AmigaDemo8
Used in the "Amiga Dealer" demo. It was produced by Commodore to promote Amigas that were on display in shops.
This image was shown in the "Products" part.

JimSachs_AmigaLagoon

  • Amiga
JimSachs_CDI

  • Amiga
This is the official boot screen from Commodore's CDTV Amiga. It differs a bit from the Anim version that is circulating the web, possibly because of size constraints within the boot roms.
It doesn't work that well as gif animation as most browsers don't play it back at the correct speed.

JimSachs_Centurion_Colloseum

JimSachs_Commodore2
JimSachs_Commodore2_var
JimSachs_Commodore2
Commodore C64, 1702 Monitor, 1541 Floppy Drive
  • Variation
JimSachs_Commodore2_var
Commodore C64C, 1802 Monitor, 1541C Floppy Drive
Showing a rendition of Wayne Schmidt's 1987 C64 artwork called "Serene".

JimSachs_FoxPuppy

JimSachs_Knight

JimSachs_Knight2

JimSachs_MazdaRX7

JimSachs_Ninja900
JimSachs_Ninja900_var
JimSachs_Ninja900_var2
JimSachs_Ninja900
  • IFF
  • Variation
JimSachs_Ninja900_var
  • Variation
JimSachs_Ninja900_var2
The variation with rider is a little strange, since the motorcycle seems to be slightly color reduced, despite the rider himself not really needing/using any additional colors. I currently can't say if Jim did this variation himself or for what this version was used for.

JimSachs_Office3D
JimSachs_Office3D_var
  • Amiga
  • Variation
JimSachs_Office3D_var
This is an office scene that was included in Ports of Call. It matches the Office 3D image closely, but uses fewer colors an has less details.
This image looks like an extended version of an image used in the game Ports of Call.

Most notable changes are the larger screen area and the increase in colors used.

JimSachs_Porsche1

JimSachs_Porsche2

JimSachs_Porsche3

  • Amiga

JimSachs_Porsche5

JimSachs_PorscheRed5
  • Jim Sachs
  • Lowres Interlaced (NTSC)
  • 2 colors (231 used)

JimSachs_PortsOfCall
JimSachs_PortsOfCall_var
  • Amiga
  • Variation
JimSachs_PortsOfCall_var
Jim re-used the title picture for Ports of Call in his abandoned [link=/game/20000LeaguesUnderTheSea.html]20.000 Leagues under the Sea[/link] project.

The german magazine Amiga Magazin did an article on Jim Sachs in their August 1989 issue. They previewed a screen from the project, while it was still in development, and you can clearly see the same sky, mountains and buildings.

$2

  • Amiga
JimSachs_PortsOfCall_Broker

  • Amiga
JimSachs_PortsOfCall_Cabin

  • Amiga
JimSachs_PortsOfCall_Cities

  • Amiga
JimSachs_PortsOfCall_Office1

  • Amiga
JimSachs_PortsOfCall_Office2

  • Amiga
JimSachs_PortsOfCall_Office3

  • Amiga
JimSachs_PortsOfCall_Office4

  • Amiga
JimSachs_PortsOfCall_Rats

  • Amiga

JimSachs_RogerRabbit
JimSachs_RogerRabbit_wip
JimSachs_RogerRabbit
  • WIP
JimSachs_RogerRabbit_wip
The work in progress is interesting as it shows several changes to the final image from the game.
Roger's head and left hand was changed, as was the expression in his face.

If you look closely it is also visible that the copyright message was moved from the center left side to the lower left side, since the text was colored black instead of removing it properly from the brick wall.

The small artifacts scattered around the brick wall are mostly my fault, because I had to reconstruct the wip image from a badly rescaled version that I found on the internet.

JimSachs_SaucerAttack

JimSachs_SelfPortrait

JimSachs_Sonix
JimSachs_Sonix_var
  • Variation
JimSachs_Sonix_var
I'm not sure if this splash screen is genuine, but I've stumbled across this multiple times. It's definitely not by Jim Sachs, but interesting, nonetheless.

JimSachs_TimeCrystal