Abstract: An apparatus, method, and article of manufacture for providing compatibility between an application program and a renderer executing on a computer. An application program, executed by the computer, receives commands from a user via the input device and generates an output command stream in response thereto, wherein the output command stream comprises one or more instructions for generating the graphic images. A version renderer program, executed by the computer and coupled to the application program, translates the output command stream received from the application program into a renderer command stream. One or more renderer programs, executed by the computer and coupled to the version renderer program, receive the renderer command stream from the version renderer program, selectively modify the renderer command stream, and selectively transmit the renderer command stream to the graphics peripheral device or to one or more of the other renderer programs.