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.
Thursday, December 28, 2023
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.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
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/
Monday, December 25, 2023
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.
Saturday, December 23, 2023
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.
Friday, December 22, 2023
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.
Thursday, December 21, 2023
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.
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
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.
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
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.
Monday, December 18, 2023
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.
Saturday, December 16, 2023
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.
Friday, December 15, 2023
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.
Thursday, December 14, 2023
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.
Wednesday, December 13, 2023
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.
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
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.
Sunday, December 10, 2023
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.
Friday, December 8, 2023
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.
Thursday, December 7, 2023
MIST1121/BLIPPYPIXEL-6502
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
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.
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
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.
Monday, December 4, 2023
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.
Sunday, December 3, 2023
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.
Saturday, December 2, 2023
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/
Friday, December 1, 2023
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