ASCII art

[Andrew Armstrong]

This isn't very important, but my interest was piqued today at the NMOC - discussing what can be done with a corridor, and the suggestion of finishing off the walls with more ASCII-art was proposed since there was no space for any actual computers. The thing is, I barely got on the net on windows 98 on dialup, I never experienced the joys of BBS and ASCII stuff - so, does anyone know some great sites with actual vintage BBS ASCII art, or know some sites with the history of it?

I'll potter around myself but I always hit some dead ends and rubbish sites, and some people here are bound to know much, much more about it, or even had done some themselves.

[RedWolf]

This isn't very important, but my interest was piqued today at the NMOC - discussing what can be done with a corridor, and the suggestion of finishing off the walls with more ASCII-art was proposed since there was no space for any actual computers. The thing is, I barely got on the net on windows 98 on dialup, I never experienced the joys of BBS and ASCII stuff - so, does anyone know some great sites with actual vintage BBS ASCII art, or know some sites with the history of it?

I'll potter around myself but I always hit some dead ends and rubbish sites, and some people here are bound to know much, much more about it, or even had done some themselves.

I have a handful of ASCII text files from my early MUSH days -- in the BBS world (during my time), we usually used colored ANSI art for graphics, which consisted mostly of IBM extended ASCII block characters.

And I've found some good web archives of ASCII art through the years.  Like usual, though, I don't have them on hand, so to find them I'd do what you'd need to do: search "ASCII art" on Google.  I'm sure you'll find something.

This is still a good excuse for a thread, though.  Perhaps we should all dredge up our favorite examples of the art form and somehow post them here.  Now, to get off my arse and actually do it...

[Andrew Armstrong]

Yeah, I'll have a look around. I know Jason Scott's Textfiles.com has some from the BBS side, which would be interesting. Need to figure out some of the history too, I'm sure there are some "Prominent artists" from the time

Interesting stuff would definitely be original and fun to see - I've seen plenty of Star Trek spaceships, Snoopy characters and whatnot. I'm sure there's some other more unique art done in ASCII too.

[Konata]

8===========) @(0.0)@


LOL STARWARS HENTAI XD

[RedWolf]

Yeah, I'll have a look around. I know Jason Scott's Textfiles.com has some from the BBS side, which would be interesting. Need to figure out some of the history too, I'm sure there are some "Prominent artists" from the time

Interesting stuff would definitely be original and fun to see - I've seen plenty of Star Trek spaceships, Snoopy characters and whatnot. I'm sure there's some other more unique art done in ASCII too.

Most of the ASCII art I saw was like that too.. there was the tongue smiley face guy from Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, a picture of Spock's face, Ren from Ren & Stimpy, Bob Dobbs from the Church of the Subgenius.  Then there was the other category: naked women, of which there were a few, and I even saw one naked man ASCII that some guy used as his description on a MUSH.

Anyway, good luck finding them.  If you want to write an article about ASCII art for VC&G when you're done, let me know.

[Konata]

I have a handful of ASCII text files from my early MUSH days -- in the BBS world (during my time), we usually used colored ANSI art for graphics, which consisted mostly of IBM extended ASCII block characters.

Ala your avvie (which is AWESOME).

[Andrew Armstrong]

Good point, I never noticed that. Cool Avvy made of block ascii!

I'll see about gathering together some interesting info at some point, it just was a quick idea, I can't get back to the museum for a fair few weeks so I'll see what I can come up with for them in the mean time.

[silencewordsaway]

one site that i have found is this one:
http://www.roysac.com/default.asp

it has galleries of art and some tutorials. it even has some, yes, nudie ascii art.... direct link here: http://www.roysac.com/asciinudes/default.asp
which i would say is NSFW if only because they are such big drawings you can't really just glimpse at them without taking up the screen. other than that they are mostly kinda silly.  though it does provide a "BOSS KEY" lol

but yea ascii is awesome. Have you seen any of "BBS: The Documentary"? There is a chapter about the BBS art scene. Actually that whole movie is worth watching IMHO. it's also all on google video. here is the part about the BBS artscene.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8368209864515842287&ei=G4OlSJGqCJPm-wGRrpky&q=BBS+documentary+artscene

[wiskow]

I never really got into ASCII art...  I mean, with the color and graphic charachters of PETSCII art, it makes plain old ASCII art look... well... plain. 

One of the things I keep meaning to get around to doing is putting up a website dedicated to PETSCII art... I just haven't gotten around to it yet.   

[RedWolf]

One of the things I keep meaning to get around to doing is putting up a website dedicated to PETSCII art... I just haven't gotten around to it yet.   

That would be awesome.  I'd love to see it.

[t3hfr3ak]

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;;;   #######  #########\\\#########  #######   ;;;
;;;   #################/////#################   ;;;
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Thats how bored I am at work lol

[Andrew Armstrong]

Haha, not bad. I guess there is a knack to it, I am terrible at art not using ASCII so I can't do much with ASCII, hehe.

[t3hfr3ak]

It wasn't very hard. I was just really bored at work. I'm still in training but I am so far ahead of everyone it's not even funny! lol. ok it is. and those pictures just basically came out. took me about 5-10 minutes each

[RedWolf]

It wasn't very hard. I was just really bored at work. I'm still in training but I am so far ahead of everyone it's not even funny! lol. ok it is. and those pictures just basically came out. took me about 5-10 minutes each

Not bad at all.  Where are you working these days?

[t3hfr3ak]

a contact center for a local Wireless provider