16colo.rs: ANSI/ASCII art archive

121•debo_•6mo ago

Comments

debo_•6mo ago

If you use a Gemini browser, you can visit gemini://ansi.hrtk.in/list/ and render 50k+ ANSI/ASCII images as if you are downloading them on a modem. It's terrific.

edem•6mo ago

what's a Gemini browser?

scbrg•6mo ago

https://geminiquickst.art/

kls0e•6mo ago

artist prefix: roy sparks so much joy superior art creations gots to love it.

sen•6mo ago

I have a folder of .ANS files I’ve collected from this site, and when my terminal opens it loads a random one from the folder. It’s a silly little things but it gives me that “connecting to a BBS” nostalgia feeling every time I open the terminal.

iamflimflam1•6mo ago

Ooh - post a gist of how you do that.

sen•6mo ago

I'm just using this zsh plugin: https://github.com/yuhonas/zsh-ansimotd

majkinetor•6mo ago

Ahhh, RASTAFARIAN DINOSAURS from 2Stoned is just what I needed today

https://16colo.rs/pack/blndr2025b/BLENDER2025B-2STONED.ANS

sssilver•6mo ago

What editor was generally used to draw these?

villuv•6mo ago

TheDraw was one of them https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheDraw

ethan_smith•6mo ago

TheDraw, ACiDDraw and PabloDraw were the most popular ANSI editors in the BBS era, with modern alternatives like Moebius and SyncDraw still used today.

icecheese•6mo ago

Durdraw is a modern and powerful ANSI editor for Linux/Unix/MacOS/WSL. Unlike other ANSI editors, it supports Unicode/Utf-8 encoding and 256 colors. Frame-based animation with custom speed control, too.

https://durdraw.org

Other modern editors are Moebius and IcyDraw (part of Icytools).

tptacek•6mo ago

At the peak of the scene, almost everyone used TheDraw.

xyst•6mo ago

The bitchx irc client is probably my first exposure to ascii art. Sad to see it’s not in here

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitchX

ProfDreamer•6mo ago

There's at least some of the original ANSI Art of BitchX in there.

Here are some examples:

https://16colo.rs/pack/acid-100/ANSI-100.ANS

https://16colo.rs/pack/sense-19/logos-19.ans

https://16colo.rs/pack/awe-20/MID-BX.ASC

saidinesh5•6mo ago

What I fondly remember along with the ASCII art is the keygen music: https://keygenmusic.tk/#

And a little video on youtube that made me rediscover this nostalgia recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHgcrdv8zpM

yowayb•6mo ago

Unrelated, I asked Grok to "Generate ANSI art of the cover of the first issue of Iron Man War Machine" (I did this back in the BBS days for a friend's welcome screen) and it repeatedly outputs:

|_______|\n |_______|\n

It's been going for a minute and still going as I submit this comment

greeniskool•6mo ago

Obligatory Bad Apple conversion https://16colo.rs/pack/badapple/BADAPPLE.ANS

ilaksh•6mo ago

There's a program called `durdraw` for Linux that works well for 'playing' the files. But it won't leave it on the screen afterward as far as I can tell. Also look for the Perfect DOS VGA 437 font.

durdraw -p file.ans

LocalH•6mo ago

I would suggest this range of fonts over Perfect DOS VGA 437: https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/

JdeBP•6mo ago

It's an ncurses application, so it will be switching to and from the alternate screen buffer at startup and exit; and might even be using the control sequence that causes the alternate screen buffer to be auto-cleared when switched off.

icecheese•6mo ago

Durdraw actually can open the files directly from 16colo.rs (File Open screen, tab to or click on "16colo.rs archive"). You don't need to download them first.

It also includes a program called "durview" for just viewing instead of editing the files. It works quite nicely for browsing the live 16colo.rs archive.

Since Durdraw and Durview automatically convert from CP437 to Utf-8, you don't need a custom font. It's very nice.

For leaving on the screen, you can load the ANSI file in Durdraw, then save it as a Utf-8 ANSI. That converts the character encoding to be Linux compatible. Then you can just "cat" the file from the console.

ptek•6mo ago

When you couldn’t afford a ps1 or your DOS pc was shit. https://16colo.rs/pack/fire-43/AVG-LARA.ANS

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