There have been visits to

The Art of James D. Sachs

Self portrait of Jim Sachs

James D. Sachs had no formal art training. He usually works in the Amiga's lowest resolution mode - 320x200, using only 32 colors (or even less if color cycling was used). I've seen a few of his graphics converted to GIF and used in early VGA demos to show off the PC's graphic capabilities.

Mr. Sachs tells me that the long awaited 20,000 Leagues games has been permanently canceled, but he has been kind enough to provide some screen shots!

He is currently working on photo-realistic fish tank screen saver that has to be seen to be believed!

If you want to see what Jim Sachs is up to now, check out CompuTrainer! See Lightwave renderings of the hardware below. He created the photo-realistic courses for the trainer.

Syd Bolton of the Personal Computer Museum has a great interview posted on their site. Check it out at the PCMuseum!

For those with Amiga systems, graphics using color cycling may be viewed/downloaded in IFF format.

Arctic - 199?

From 20,000 Leages Under The Sea

Wreck - 199?

From 20,000 Leages Under The Sea
Color cycling was used to animate the water refraction

Bike - 1995

CompuTrainer bike stand rendered in Lightwave3D

Bike - 1995

CompuTrainer bike stand rendered in Lightwave3D

Sachs' Castle - 1995

This is his house rendered in Lightwave3D. The house took about a month to model.

Sachs' Castle - 1995

This is his house rendered in Lightwave3D

Sachs' Castle - 1995

This is his house rendered in Lightwave3D

Sachs' Castle - 1995

This is his house rendered in Lightwave3D

Aegis CD-I - 198?

Aegis was planning on doing some CD-I titles

Ports of Call - 199?

One of the office scenes in Ports of Call (notice the 20,000 Leagues shot in the painting)

Amiga Lagoon - 199?

The full ad for Brilliance (when the ad first hit, only the portion above water was shown)

Roger Rabbit - 199?

From the Disney game Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Galleys - 1989

From the Electronic Arts game Centurions

Games - 1989

From the Amiga 500 demo

Multimedia - 1991

This was an entry by Jim Sachs for a magazine contest

Trumpet - 1989

From the Amiga 500 demo

Vidcam - 1989

From the Amiga 500 demo

Foxpuppy - 1985

Aquarium - 1985

Animated GIF shows the bubbles move!
Color cycling was used to animate the bubbles (IFF)

Commodore2.n - 19??

I believe this was done for a contest.
There's no color cycling, but it used non-square pixels, which did not hold the aspect ratio when translated (IFF)

Defender of the Crown title screen - 1986

Trivia: What other game used this graphic (hint: it wasn't Defender of the Crown II!)? See bottom of this page for the answer.
Animated GIF shows the reflecting light!
Color cycling was used to make the lettering shimmer (IFF)

Knight - 1986

This was included in Aegis Image and Aegis Animator, and was used in Defender of the Crown
There's no color cycling, but it used non-square pixels, which did not hold the aspect ratio when translated (IFF)

Knight - 1986

Saxon Castle - 1986

From Defender of the Crown
Animated GIF shows the fire and rain motion!
Color cycling was used to animate both the rain in the distance and the firepots (IFF)

Jousting sequence - 1986

From Defender of the Crown II

Peasant town - 1992

From Defender of the Crown II

Lady - 1986

From Defender of the Crown II

Stained Glass - 1992

From Defender of the Crown II

Sachs Castle - 1985

This is his home, which he did some of the construction himself.

Saucer Attack ad - 1985

This game was to be ported from the C-64 version.
Animated GIF shows the heat ray hitting the Capital Building!
Color cycling was used to animate the energy ray (IFF)

Timecrystal - 1985

Lotus - 1987

Rumored to be the opening screen for a spreadsheet program to be ported to the Amiga (can you guess which one?)

Gold Porsche - 1987

This graphic was included with Aegis Images.

Blue Porsche - 1987

Green Porsche - 1987

Porsche - 1987

Porsche - 1987

Does he have a thing for Porsches or what?!

Mazda RX7 - 1987

At least it isn't a Porsche!

Kawasaki - 1987

Ninja - 1987

Pretty much the same as Kawasaki

AmigaWorld - 1987

This was done for the cover of the special edition of AmigaWorld

AmigaDOS - 1988

Cover for Rob Peck's Amiga Companion book

AmigaDOS2 - 1990

Cover for Amiga Companion 2