BADAPPLE/BADAPPLE.ANS

Mistigram: After working its way out of the soundtrack to 1998's NEC PC-9800 bullet hell video game Lotus Land Story by Team Shanghai Alice (aka Jun'ya "ZUN" Ōta), the #BadApple!! song was covered by Alstroemeria Records, yielding a recording that was eventually celebrated with a shadow-puppetry style music video. Due to the way that the monochrome palette of that video easily translates to the displays of underpowered and unlikely vintage technology and computing platforms, adapting it to different formats has become a fashionable pastime among certain circles. Here, for possibly the first time in this particular niche, Andy "NDH" Herbert, creator of the Moebius ANSI art editor, has converted the Bad Apple!! music video to #ANSImation (or #ANSIart animation.) Though it isn't entirely synchronized to the on-screen action (as ANSImation pacing isn't an exact science), we have piped in the celebrated Bad Apple!! music so you have something to groove to while you watch the block characters do their thing on your screen.

BADAPPLE/FILE_ID.DIZ

 Mistodon: the FILE_ID.DIZ -- the description of the contents of our BADAPPLE.ZIP release -- not only describes the contours of an iconic vignette in the original #BadApple!! shadow music video, the titular apple being briefly considered, but does so using #ANSImusic instructions as positive space filler which yield, when played, the bleepy #PCSpeaker tune you can hear at this very moment (if your volume is turned up.) Thanks to LDA for providing the code for the tune and to AndyH for hammering it into shape and providing the main course with his #BadApple!! ANSImation included in the archive.

MIST1223 mosaic

 

Mistigram: here's a sampling of the variety of festive new computer art offerings to be found in the new MIST1223 artpack collection, including #ANSIart, #ASCIIart, #teletext and more!

MIST1223/FILE_ID.DIZ

 

Mistigram: ok, now that everyone is freely able to view all of the screens from ADVENT23, we've repackaged them as a conventional artpack and souped it up with some additional seasonal artwork and our giant "big dig" ANSI art collaboration, a year and a half in the works!  You can immerse yourself in our holiday cheer via the web gallery at https://16colo.rs/pack/mist1223/

MIST1221/ILLARTERATE-SANTA

 

Mistigram: a very tired-looking Santa Claus looks at the viewer head-on and offers two opposing possibilities for approaches to the holiday season.  This #teletext screen was drawn by @illarterate and included in the MIST1221 artpack collection released two years ago this month. 

MIST1219/BLIPPYPIXEL-SNOWY_CHURCH

 
Mistigram: this animated #BBCMicro high resolution graphics loop, of snow falling on a church on a moonlit winter evening, was made by @blippypixel and included in the MIST1219 artpack collection released four years ago this month.

MIST1222/CODEFENIX-XMAS_2022

 Mistigram: this snowman is all business, no hard feelings, as he goes about his grim work preparing for the holiday season beneath the northern lights. Pray you don't cross his path! This #ANSIart screen was drawn by CodeFenix of Constructive Chaos BBS, and included in the MIST1222 artpack collection released one year ago.

MIST1121/ATONALOSPREY-MELON_CAT

 

Mistigram: this sour puss, rendered in #teletext by @atonalosprey, is a vintage meme dating back some 20 years! Supreme ruler of all cats, it disapproves of your thread on the GameFAQs forum. This screen was included in the recent MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/LITTLEBITSPACE-EDISON

 

Mistigram: this #PETSCII portrait of inventor and businessman #ThomasEdison was drawn by @littlebitspace for the textmode art compo at the 2022 Edison demoparty, winning 7th place (and, critically, beating out his own competing portrait of Edison's rival Nikola Tesla.) This piece was included in the recent MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121-UGLIFRUIT-TESLA

 Mistigram: here's another shocking view of the man whose electrifying discoveries powered the 20th century, #NikolaTesla, given an animated #teletext portrait here by @andyuglifruit. This piece was included in the recent MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/LITTLEBITSPACE-TESLA

 Mistigram: this #PETSCII portrait of electricity innovator #NikolaTesla was drawn by @littlebitspace for the #textmode art compo in the 2022 edition of the Edison #demoparty in Stockholm, Sweden, in which it placed tenth. It was included in the MIST1121 artpack collection on technological themes.

MIST1121/AXL-INSERT_DISK

 Mistigram: many wonders are possible on this 8-bit microcomputer, but before you can unlock their potential you first must insert the floppy diskette. This #PLAYSCII #JPETSCII screen by @axltm was included in the recent MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/UGLIFRUIT-TELETEXT_SIMON_3D

 Mistigram: If you prefer your repetitive memory fun with less symbolic baggage, here's another #teletext celebration of Milton-Bradley's #Simon game, invented by #RalphBaer and illustrated here by @andyuglifruit. This screen was also included in the recent MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/NICK_LAKOWSKI-TEXAS_INSTRUMENTS

 Mistigram: Yee-haw, buckaroo! How many megabytes of RAM does this little unit pack, partner? This painting by @niklkovfska, "Texas Instruments", was included in the recent MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/BLIPPYPIXEL-REPEAT_AFTER_ME

 Mistigram: anyone of a certain vintage will instantly recognize Ralph Baer's bestselling 1978 electronic adaptation of the #Simon Says schoolyard game. This #teletext screen, titled "Repeat after me", was made by @Blippypixel and included in the recent MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/GJ-APPLEII

 

Mistigram: this fun #textmode art illustration of the revolutionary #Apple2 home computer was drawn by @grymmjack and included in the new MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/ML-LAZY_GAME_REVIEWS-1984_BBS

 Mistigram: this #ANSIart tribute to Clint Basinger's #LazyGameReviews, as depicted on an early #IBMPC, was drawn by MeaTLoTioN of thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE BBS and included in the new MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/NICK_LAKOWSKI-YOU_CAN_RUN_BUT

 

Mistigram: KnowYourMeme.com tells us that the #ChubbyBubblesGirl image macro has been with us since debuting on 4chan back in 2009 -- a veritable epoch in Internet time -- but though she has run from many a dire Photoshop scenario, I don't know if she's ever before fled from an unruly glob of paint. (That said, it was only a matter of time before she spoiled some painter's canvas! @niklkovfska simply had the honour of being among the first to capture her feverish little footprints running across his palette.) This painting was included in the recent MIST1121 artpack collection on themes of technology and internet culture.

MIST1121/ATONALOSPREY-LOCATION_FOUND

 Mistigram: Eureka, we've found it! (What, precisely, have we found? I have no idea... but we know exactly where it is!) This #teletext animation was made by @atonalosprey and included in the new MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/BLIPPYPIXEL-6502

Mistigram: @blippypixel pays tribute here to the #MOSTechnology6502 processor used in the #BBCMicro home computer in this high resolution graphics animation loop.  (Many other historically critical machines by Atari, Apple, Nintendo and Commodore, relied on the 6502 -- which over nearly a half-century has been manufactured in quantities approaching six billion.)

This composition of course also incorporates an homage to the #Monolith in Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was included in the new MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/POLYDUCKS-PICOCAD-FOURBYTEBURGER

 Mistigram: the #FourByteBurger, featuring an all-beef patty, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, onions and a floppy diskette on a sesame seed bun, was a formative piece of #Amiga iconography, first drawn as pixelart by #JackHaeger ... and then, many years later, reproduced as a simple 3D model in #picoCAD by the inimitable @Polyducks. This piece was included in the recent MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/ATONALOSPREY-HOBBIES

 

Mistigram: artists and vintage computing enthusiasts are often posed with subsets of this problem, but when you compound both interests the conundrum can be amplified in magnitude. This #teletext open question was drawn by @atonalosprey and included in the new MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/AXL-WHAT'S_WRONG_WITH_HIM

 

Mistigram: one of these characters is not like the others.  This #PLAYSCII piece of #JPETSCII, titled "What's wrong with him?", was made by @axltm and included in the recent MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/HORSENBURGER-SONGS_FOR_ALAN_TURING

Mistigram: following up on Thursday's post of a portrait of tragic foundational computing science titan #AlanTuring, here's another portrait of him drawn in double-density #teletext by @horsenburger as an album cover design for BINÄRPILOT's 2021 album "Songs for Alan Turing", also included in the new MIST1121 artpack collection.

ADVENT23/source

Mistigram: just to remind, we just dropped ADVENT23, an #MSDOS program (here's a taste of its source code!) by Andy "Moebius" Herbert acting as an #ANSIart #AdventCalendar: every day (up to Dec 25) it unlocks a new 25-line ANSI screen for your viewing pleasure, viewable through a web browser via https://16colo.rs/pack/advent23/ADVENT.EXE or http://andyh.org/advent23/

ADVENT23/FILE_ID.DIZ

Mistigram: Season's greetings, nerds!  Our latest vintage computer art project goes live today -- an #MSDOS #AdventCalendar, showing festive users of old machines a new #ANSIart screen every day up to Christmas Day!  If your 486 hasn't POSTed since Y2K, you can check in daily through a browser-embedded DOSbox window via https://16colo.rs/pack/advent23/ADVENT.EXE

 

MIST1121/BLIPPYPIXEL-A.I.LAN

Mistigram: this #BBCMicro high resolution graphics portrait of the father of computer science, #AlanTuring, as an artificial intelligence (passing his own Turing test?), was drawn by @blippypixel and included in the recent MIST1121 artpack collection.
 

MIST1121/POLYDUCKS-GEISHA-PAINT

Mistigram: the incredible @Polyducks also found inspiration in #SusanKare's interface design and #geisha sample art for the #AppleMacintosh and its #MacPaint application, taking them in a new direction in this fantasy OS desktop design. This piece was included in the new MIST1121 artpack collection.
 

MIST1121/ATONALOSPREY-MACPAINT

 

Mistigram: this is a #teletext adaptation (by @atonalosprey) of #SusanKare's #1bit #geisha illustration accompanying the initial release of Bill Atkinson's #MacPaint for the #AppleMacintosh 39 years ago in 1984. It was included in the new MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/LITTLEBITSPACE_RGB

 

Mistigram: this #ASCIIart logo by @littlebitspace ingeniously does what it says on the tin, illustrating how on cathode-ray tube displays the colour of every pixel on screen is influenced by electron beams firing to activate red, green and blue phosphor dots. This piece was included in the new MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/BLIPPYPIXEL-INFORMATION_SUPERHIGHWAY

Mistigram: the only way this #teletext screen of the #InformationSuperhighway could be more #retrofuturistic would be if the artist @blippypixel had drawn someone travelling it via surfboard. (Mistigris' first homepage was hosted on Geocities, circa 1995!) This piece was included in the new MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121/JONINSCII-SHADOW_WOLF_CYBERZINE

 

Mistigram: this simple 2-frame animation, included in our recent MIST1121 artpack, was made by @joninscii for the 2021 installment of Dutch electronic musician Legowelt's annual Shadow Wolf Cyberzine -- itself offering a rich wealth of other #ASCIIart spot illustrations. You can find nearly a decade's worth of them up at http://legowelt.org/cyberzine/

MIST1121/ATONALOSPREY-GLITCHING_TEST_CARD

 

Mistigram: we apologise for this disruption in our regular programming. Please stay tuned while our technicians address the issue. There is no, I repeat, no connection to the Max Headroom incident of last night.

This #testpattern #teletext screen was drawn by @atonalosprey, moved by some of blippypixel's inspired glitchery, and included in the new MIST1121 artpack collection.

MIST1121 mosaic

Mistigram: here's a survey of the assortment of themes, styles and approaches represented in the just-released long-delayed MIST1121 artpack collection -- artwork primarily on technological and cyberspace themes, including that of alleged Internet culture. It includes #PETSCII and other forms of #textmode art, #teletext semigraphics, more conventional pixelart styles and even some paintings! (And of course there is no good way to represent music as a thumbnail, but we offer an earful of that, also!) If you like you can browse the artpack via the @sixteen_colors web gallery or you can download the artpack for local consumption direct from mistigris.org

MIST1121/FILE_ID.DIZ

Mistigram: as per our tradition, we curated materials for our annual anniversary artpack due out in November of 2021, on themes of technology and cyberspace. For reasons that are now unclear to us, the collection was never released in 2021, so now its MIST1121 name needs to describe the 21st day of November, 2023 -- yesterday -- when it finally went live. Thanks to @littlebitspace for illustrating its time capsule #ANSIart FILE_ID.DIZ!

MIST1094/TNT-KRAS.ANS

Mistigram: from our very first MIST1094 artpack release way back 29 years ago, here's a, frankly, typographically rather bizarre #ANSIart logo by the 418 area code's Mist Classic font specialist The Naughty Tycoon, in promotion of the "Krasch" coding magazine.

MIST1116/J33P33-ARMBIAN

 

Mistigram: this #ANSIart logo for the #Armbian distribution of Linux, for ARM devices, was drawn by j33p33 and included in the MIST1116 artpack collection released seven years ago this month!