Saturday 21 February 2015

Video game textmode art part 14: ASCII Art!

I wanted to do a blog post on an unrelated topic to cleanse the palate, but those ones all require work while I have ... more than 15 of these sitting around gathering dust, waiting to be unleashed upon the world. Someday this will be something other than the textmode video game art blog, but for the time being, that's most of what you'll be seeing here. (The ads for old video games never made much of a splash, but they sure drew a long tail of Google Image Search viewers who, admittedly, never read a word of the blog. Looking at the traffic numbers comparing and contrasting this going concern with the shuttered ghost town over at "video game comic book ads", a good day here is equivalent to a bad day there. Switching streams is hard! But then again, many worthwhile endeavours are. (Not that I will flatter myself with living up to any imagined mission here.)

But I digress! Video game ASCII art is the subject of today's post! I was over visiting the astounding collection of Usenet and BBS-era captures over at textfiles.com for some arcane reason I can no longer recall (and considering my prodigious memory for the most trivial of arcane details, that must have been pretty marginal indeed!), and I discovered that an area of the site was set aside for ASCII art! Unsurprisingly much of it was either pornography or boxy emoticons of emotionally-troubled cattle, but when I held it upside-down and shook it down, several pieces of video game ASCII art came out.

What is the difference between ANSI art and ASCII art? The former is the more glamorous member of the family, traditionally focusing on a (16-)coloured pixel-art aesthetic through the arrangement of rectangular picture elements at 80x25 resolution, using vertical and horizontal half-blocks (and four intermediary shades interpolating a foreground colour with a different background colour). There is coloured ASCII art (and monochromatic ANSI art) and ANSI artscene traditions resulted in the cultivation of a "scene" ASCII style -- two of them, actually, a "newschool" tradition focusing on nuanced carving away of outlines and contrast through use of negative space (positive pixels typically filled with dollar signs) and an "oldschool" tradition (two, counting the parallel but separate Amiga style) of slanted, often 3-D logotype line art focusing on use of forward and backslashes, hyphens and other straight lines.

The ASCII art medium is one of the original styles of textmode artwork, inheriting an earlier tradition of TTY art developed by bored radar operators during the Cold War and the still-earlier flash in the pan of typewriter art.

These specimens aren't necessary examples of any of the above styles -- many of them are just things people scribbled out with what they had at their disposal: a text editor, a keyboard and a screen (or heck, forget the screen -- a printer will do!) Part of the beauty of ASCII art is that it really is one of the most accessible of computer artforms, requiring little in the realm of specialised software to render it out. Odds are good that these were just hammered out in Notepad or Vi and intended to stick on the bottom of an e-mail, back when everything was being read in fixed-width system fonts.

               *****   *****
              ******* *******
             *****************
            *******************
IIIIIII     *******************       XXXXXXX
 IIIII      *******************     XXXXXXXXXXX
  III       ****************       XXXX0XXXXXXXX
  III       **************        XXXXX/X0XXXXXXX
  III       *************          XXXX0X/XXXXXXX
  III        ************           XXXXX0XXXXXXXX
  III         ************           XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
  III          **********             XXXXXXXXXXXXX
  III           *********              XXXXXXXXXXXX
  III            *******                XXXXXXXXXXX
  III             *****               XXXXXXXXXXXXX
  III              *****             XXXXXXXXXXXXX
  III               ***             XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
  III                *             XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
  III                             XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
  III                              XXXXXXXXXXXXX
 IIIII                              XXXXXXXXXXX
IIIIIII                               XXXXXXX

      PPPP      A       CCCCCC
      PPPPPP   AAA     CCCCCCCC
      PPP  P  AAAAA    CCCCC..C
      PPP  P AAAAAAA   CCCC..CC
      PPPPP  AAAAAAA   CCCCC    ###
      PPPP  AAAA AAAA  CCCCC
      PP    AAAA AAAA  CCCCCCCCC
      PP   AAAAAAAAAAA CCCCCCCCC
      PP   AAAAAAAAAAA  CCCCCC
                                             TM
                M      M      A      N    NNN
                MM    MM     AAA     NN   NNN
                MMM  MMM    AAAAA    NNN  NNN
                MMMMMMMM   AAAAAAA   NNNNNNNN
                MMMMMMMM   AAAAAAA   NNNNNNNN
                MMMMMMMM  AAAA AAAA  NNNNNNNN
                MMMMMMMM  AAAA AAAA  NNNNNNNN
                MMMMMMMM AAAAAAAAAAA NNNNNNNN
                MMMMMMMM AAAAAAAAAAA NNNNNNNN


                       MMMM
                      MMMMMM
                     MMMMMMMM
                     MM/MM/MM
                     MM/MM/MM
                     MM:MM:MM
                     MM-MM-MM
                     MMMMMMMM
                    MM ("") MM
                    MM(    )MM
                    MMMMMMMMMMM
                   MMMMMMMMMMMMM
                   MMMMMMMMMMMMM
                    MM   M  MM
PAC-MAN C. 1980 BALLY MIDWAY MFG. CO.
TM BALLY MIDWAY MFG.CO.
A/N INTERPRETATION BY R. SHAW
"I &heart; Pac-Man, an interpretation by R. Shaw." I don't know if it improved the overall contours of the shapes here, but we can see that R. went the extra distance and formed every individual Pac-ish letter out of the very letter it was representing: the A is made up of a pile of As, the N with Ns, etc. The dash is an exception, made of octothorpes, and of course the ASCII character set does not contain Pac and ghost characters to conveniently build the characters out of here. (It does have a heart, as part of playing-card suit characters, but that may be part of the extended "high-ASCII" set that wouldn't be supported on all terminals.)

And of course, Pac-Man has taken a chomp out of the heart. Har har har. (And of course of course, Pac-Man belongs to Namco, not Bally Midway. Perhaps they played some role in early Pac-Man imports to North America, however.)

-={ Vivi Ornitier }=-
                         .------.
                       .'        '.,
                      /         .  |
                     /          |`':
                   .'         [/] `'.
                  /   '----[/]-'|   ;
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        .'`    '"';;::;| .'"`       ;:'.
       |;._____.,',;;:;(; _ __,;;:;);;:'
       (_______.;;',----';__________;;'` zi.

Zi is a Final Fantasy fan, and here is hir rendition of the series' perpetual Black Mage class. (Oh wait, I see: Vivi Ornitier is a specific Black Mage from FFIX.)
-={ chocobo }=-
               ('(=--.
   .           ;  o  _\
  (`(/,       / `/'`
`-\` '.______/`  \
 \`'-      -=`\   )
  `={   -= = _/  /
     `\   .-'   /`
      {`-,__.'===,_
      //`       `'\\
  _.;'  jgs/zi.   '"
   `\==.
                 ('(=--.
   .             ;  o  _\
  (`(/,        .' `/'`
`-\` '.______.'   /
 \`'-      -=`\   )
  `={   -= = _/  /
     `\   .-'   /`
      {`-,__.'===,_
      //`       `'\\
  _.;'  jgs/zi.   '"
   `\==.

Zi collaborated there with "jgs" to render a couple images of running Chocobos (their necks differ slightly, perhaps in the service of a bobbing-pigeon-head effect), also from Final Fantasy games. (If you like Final Fantasy games, stay tuned -- their iconography, textmodified, is going to be the subject of a whole separate exclusive post to this blog series.) (But now, we go off on a different tangent:)
    ,                           .::.
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      MMMX   "MMMM"  MM       ~%:           !Mh.""" dMI IMMP
      'MMM.                                             IMX
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                      .---------------------.
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                      |       ,             |
                      |    PokeMon # 101    |
                      |      Electrode      |
                      `---------------------'
                      .---------------------.
                      |AMC   ..-----..      |
                      |99  .'_        '.    |
                      |   : ( O-_)  .-~~:   |
                      |  :  `-..'   `O_.-:  |
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                      |      ''-----''      |
                      |       ,             |
                      |    PokeMon # 100    |
                      |       Voltorb       |
                      `---------------------'
                 .-----------------------------.
                 | AMC 99                      |
                 |            .~~-.      _.    |
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                 |    ,                        |
                 | PokeMon # 040 - Wigglytuff  |
                 `-----------------------------'
                .------------------------------.
                | AMC                .'.       |
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                |      .''./._______.'| '.'    |
                |      '..'         | |        |
                |                  |~~~|       |
                |     ,             ~~~        |
                |  PokeMon # 081 - Magnemite   |
                `------------------------------'
              .----------------------------------.
              |                                  |
              |  AMC         .----..        .'.  |
              |   9      _.-~  __   ~~~...'' .'  |
              |   9    .'    .~  '''...  ..''    |
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              |   '.'~~    ~--...__~~~_.-'   `~  |
              |        ,           ~~~           |
              |     PokeMon # 079 - Slowpoke     |
              `----------------------------------'
     .---------------------------------------------------.
     |            .---.                                  |
     |  AMC    .-~     \  __                             |
     |   9   .'   `.._.'-~  `.                           |
     |   9  ;                 ;                          |
     |    .--.            _...'   ____                   |
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     |  ..''   __----~~~~~        ~~~....~~      ---''   |
     | '....---__________-------~~~~~    ~~~~~~~~        |
     |                   ,                               |
     |                Pokemon # 089 - Muk                |
     `---------------------------------------------------'
                 .--------------------------.
                 |         .''''''.         |
                 | AMC    ;        ;        |
                 |  9    ;  HP  HP  ;       |
                 |  9   ;   H   H    ;      |
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                 | og  h   hgfgfj   f  j gh |
                 |   gh h  h      hg  g     |
                 |     ,                    |
                 |  PokeMon #050 - Diglett  |
                 `--------------------------'
In 1999, AMC was a big fan of Pokémon, and didn't care who on UseNet knew it. There are seven creatures from the Pokédex, and, well, others have taken on more of them:
               Pikachu   
  .__                           __.
   \ `\~~---..---~~~~~~--.---~~| /   
    `~-.   `                   .~         _____ 
        ~.                .--~~    .---~~~    /
         / .-.      .-.      |  <~~        __/
        |  |_|      |_|       \  \     .--'
       /-.      -       .-.    |  \_   \_
       \-'   -..-..-    `-'    |    \__  \_ 
        `.                     |     _/  _/
          ~-                .,-\   _/  _/
         /                 -~~~~\ /_  /_
        |               /   |    \  \_  \_ 
        |   /          /   /      | _/  _/
        |  |          |   /    .,-|/  _/ 
        )__/           \_/    -~~~| _/
          \                      /  \
           |           |        /_---` 
           \    .______|      ./
           (   /        \    /        Amw
           `--'          /__/

                                                        Squirtle
                                                           ___
                                                      _.-~~   ~~~-.
                                                     /         _   ~.
                                                    |#`       /#`    \
                                                    |-'|      |-'|    |      Amw
                                                    /--        --     |-.
                                                    \__   .  .        / /\_  
                                                     \ ~~--___---~~/\| |   ~-.
                                                  .---`~~--____---_)  \ \-__  \
                                                  ) <    |__    __\_   \ \     |
                                                  ~-.__ /   ~~~~   \   \ \     |
                                                       ~-.   |     .~-.-' |    |
                                                        | \___|___/     / /     | 
                                                        | /   |   \     | |  /  |
                                                         \     |   ~-___ \ \/  /
                                                         /\__ / `._ /   ~-\ \_/
                                                        /    \_____|      |`~
                                                       |      |    |      |   
                                                        \     |    |      |
                                                        >______)   /_/\/\_\
              Psyduck
          
                     // //  //
          __    ____||_//  //
        _/__--~~        ~~~-_
       /  /___        ___    \
      /  /(  +)      ( + )    |
     /  |  ~~~    __  ~~~   _/\/|
    |    \  ___.-~  ~-.___  \   / 
     \    \(     ` '      ~~)|   \
      \     )              / |    \
       \/   /              \ |    |
       /   |               | |    |
      |    /               |  \__/
      |    \_            _/      |    ___
      \      ~----...---~       /_.-~~ _/
       \_                      |    _-~ 
         \                    /  _-~ 
          ~-.__             _/--~
         _.-~  ~~~-----~~~~~
        ~-.-. _-~     /_ ._ \   Amw
             ~       ~  ~  ~-



                                                                           Geodude

                                                       ___                __..-~-_.--__             __
                                                    _-~   ~--..      .--~/  ~-..~ .-~~ |          -~  \
                                                   /     ~-.._ )    /      |~-..` ..-  |         |\/   \
                                                  |      -._ _) |   |_     |  ( | |) | |         `-\/_ /
                                                  |     \.  /__/    |  _   |_.--~ ~--.  |        _-   |
                                                   \  /\.-~'        .-~    ~  .------.  |       /    /
                                                    \   ~-.        /   /-  .-~--.---  ~-  ~-.   |  __|
                                                     | \   ~.     |   /  _/          `.\     \_/ _/
                                                     \  \   |    /   / \  \____________/|-.  / _/  Amw
                                                      \  ~-  \__/  _/   ~-._______...../   ~\_/      
                                                       \___   `   /
                                                           ~-.__./

               Jigglypuff 

      --_                       _--
     ||\_\__                 __/_/||
     ||  \  \__...-----...__/  /  ||
     \\  _\_/    /     \    \_/_  //
      |_/       |       |       \_| 
      /    __   /     _/    __    \
     /  .-~--~-.\    / ) .-~--~-.  \
    |   ||    || \____/  ||    ||   |
    |   `-_--_-'         `-_--_-'   |
    |      ~~               ~~      | 
    |              ___              |
    |              `-'              |
     \ \_  \                /  _/  /         
      \_ \_/                \_/  _/ 
        \___                 ___/   Amw
        ..--\__           __/--..
      .~    __-~~~-----~~~-__    ~.
     (__.--~                 ~--.__)
                                                            Ditto
                                                         
                                                       /~\_.-~-._,--.._
                                                      |                ~-.._   
                                                       |     .     .        \
                                                       |                    /  Amw 
                                                       |     --....,       | \ 
                                                       /                      \
                                                      |                        |
                                                      |                        \
                                                      /                         |
                                                      \_.-._  __...___.._______/
                                                            ~~
                 Eevee
  ._                            _.-|
  |_~~`--._                 _.-~   /
    ~-._   ~-._.-~~~~~~~-.-~    _.~
        ~-._ /             \_.-~ 
            |  .-.   .-.   |      Amw
            |. |_| . |_|   |         __.-|
            /    .__,      |    _.--~    |
            \             /_--~~  \     / 
            /~-._______.-~  \     |____|      
           |  /         \    |        /
            ~|_       |_|_-~~        / 
             | ~-\_/-~    |        _~ 
             |   |   |    /     _-~ 
              |  |  /    |__---~ 
              |,_|,_|____(   

                                                        Bulbasaur
                                                               __....___ ,  .
                                                           _.-~ __...--~~ ~/\
                                                 Amw      / /  /          |  |
                                                         | |  |            \  \
                                                   __ _..---..-~\           |  | 
                                                  |  ~  .-~-.    \-.__      /  | 
                                                  /     \.-~        .-~-._/   // 
                                                 |/-. <| __  .-\    \     \_ //  
                                                 || o\   \/ /o  |    ~-.-~  \/         
                                                /  ~~        ~~              |      
                                                \__         ___--/   \  _-~-  \ 
                                                 / ~~--.--~~    /     |/   __  |
                                                |/\ \          |_~|   /    \|  |
                                                |\/  \__       /_-   /\        |
                                                |_ __| |`~-.__|_ _ _/  \ _ _ _/
                                                ' '  ' ' ''   ' ' '     ' ` `

Seven more Poké-creatures by Amw! But it was a monster franchise (sorry, unintentional humour -- I meant, massive), and consequently -- there's still more of them! Or at least one more. You can probably guess which one...
quu..__
 $$$b  `---.__
  "$$b        `--.                          ___.---uuudP
   `$$b           `.__.------.__     __.---'      $$$$"              .
     "$b          -'            `-.-'            $$$"              .'|
       ".                                       d$"             _.'  |
         `.   /                              ..."             .'     |
           `./                           ..::-'            _.'       |
            /                         .:::-'            .-'         .'
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         :                  `"--'             |    `-.     \
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        |##:                      :###:        |        >     >
        |#'     `..'`..'          `###'        x:      /     /
         \                                   xXX|     /    ./
          \                                xXXX'|    /   ./
          /`-.                                  `.  /   /
         :    `-  ...........,                   | /  .'
         |         ``:::::::'       .            |<    `.
         |             ```          |           x| \ `.:``.
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            |                     `'            |tbap\
             \                                  :MM.-'
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               |   .:::------------\       /
              /   .''               >::'  /
              `',:                 :    .'
                                   
OK, let's leave these Pocket Montsers behind us now. Here's a character we don't get to see in textmode that often -- a rendition of Atomic Bomberman by NamelessOne:
(Atomic) Bomberman
                         .-.
                         '-'
                        //
               _..---._/|
             .' ."     '-.
            /__/          \      *
           ====_____     __|     :
          /#   #""" |   /()\    :    ..*
          |#   #    |   \__/    : .'' 
          \#___#____|      /   :::.. .
           \______________|_...ä_: .. '*
  ()       // /\||||)))))))      '   . .
 .( \_     \\_\//   _-'.'/        |   * ..
( )  |^|^|^|ooo/  _#\.//"""_      |   . . .
(_)_.'v|v|v|     / \#  \_ / '_  _'    . .  
           | _ _/_/     /'./_-|"         . .
           /#_#__"""-._ /#  \__)       .  .   
           |__   ""-._ |##               . . .
           |  ""|-"""-_/##              . .    
           /""--\__.-|                       .
           \-_.-<__ /                   .   .
           /-_| /  \
           \-_| \_-<.                        .  .
           <_-/ <_.-\                    .
           <_-|  |_.-|                        .
      .----|   \__\  |                 .
     |     ."""   '.  |                       .
      .___|        |__|  (c) NamelessOne
          '.__..."""  

I feel a bit redundant IDing these characters when the text spells it out, but here it all is in one place at least: another portrait by "zi" of Meltina from 1999's Valkyrie Profile for the PS1:
                              valkyrie profile 
                                     _
    _  | |      _ .  _    _   _  _  (_ . |  _
\/ (_| | |( \/ |  | (-   |_) |  (_) |  | | (-
            /            |

-={ Meltina }=- 
                          .'""'-'"'-.,._.-.--'.
                        /`                    /'--.
                      /`,                    /""'`|-.
                     / /               )    /:::::\ |
                    |.'  .:/          /    /--.;):::\)
                  .' .:::;'       ,..'  _.'     \::: )
                /` .:;'`       ,.::'  ,' -="""'. \: /
              .'--'"`.   .--.,.-'"'` /           | /
             /   _.-'       .--.__.--'  ,zNHHKml ;'
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        "P"                                                      YP    

Saturday 7 February 2015

Video game ANSI art part 13 - back to the grab bag!

While I've been sweating away investigating other alternate niches of video game-themed fanart and sorting and categorizing them for a more curatorial kind of presentation to you all, new finds -- increasingly, of genuinely new ANSI artwork -- have been piling up in a scattered, haphazard fashion. I don't have appropriate posts-in-progress to parachute them into, but am I supposed to just refrain from sharing this fascinating and excellent new work, when I could instead be promoting and praising it, encouraging its artists to do more? Yeah, you know how I roll.

So. There was recently a new Blocktronics ANSI artpack release, "Year of the Block". Reset Survivor is usually good for a swell piece or two of video game-related ANSI art in their packs, and here he does not disappoint: We open with a piece depicting Mew from Jet Set Radio. This piece is interesting for its presentation opening in mise-en-abyme style with an emojicon (an emoticon -- think colon-parenthesis smilies -- using Japanese characters) writ en large with textmode characters itself -- only reaffirmed by Reset's trademark "oversized ANSI shading blocks" glitches.

R5 delivers with a subsequent love letter to Macross, which has been here excerpted to include a panel apparently directly derived from the 1985 Famicom game Chō Jikū Yōsai Macross.
Hot stuff, right? OK, let's cool things down a little bit with a stock TheDraw font and a 1995 visit to a legendary Sierra Online protagonist reputed for selling more hint books than games, Larry Laffer:
OK, where were we? I was touting improbable new works of excellence in the ANSI medium by new artists. Here I present a suite of works by Luke Volk, who we saw once previously illustrating some bizarre incidental artwork from a game. He's doubled down on game subjects as his theme of choice, apparently.
Quite similar to the earlier piece, this is "meat" from "Monster Hunter". But these pieces get more interesting...
Luke here makes an ANSI of a Metroid coloured according to the conventions of the Grateful Dead skull, a curious mash-up to be sure!
Luke visits, as have many before him, the seemingly endless (I see the quote "720 revealed species") well of Pokémon characters. This one is a Hoothoot.
A classic here, Cutie from Jaleco's 1989 game Astyanax, rendered with a bit of help from some unusual ASCII characters. (Compare and contrast!)
Finally, this character is quite recent, by game-characters-drawn-in-ANSI standards -- Ryfia from 2009's Arc Rise Fantasia for the Wii, with ASCII art highlighting for fine nuances. Keep up the good work, Luke!

A couple more "classic" pieces by established artists from back in the day, then I'll end on a couple more new works. These next two are by the talented Swede Mongi, who we've seen pwning these pages before. The first is still another take on Steve Purcell's demented duo of crimefighters Sam & Max, from back in 1997...

... and considerably more recently, artwork by him inspired by 2012's Battlefield 3.
This is a piece by a new artist, @pixelgoth, who has just burst apparently fully-formed into the scene, debuting at the last minute in the last Blocktronics pack with a number of inspired pieces with what could be described as a fresh new style, synthesizing ANSI and ASCII art with some dark themes. This piece, the only game-themed one in their body of work, was not included in that release, so I am thrilled to here share with you what might be one of the only pieces of "Number Munchers" (1990, MECC) fan art out there. This artist is currently crowdfunding to support their new choice of direction in a pixelart game developing city-of-residence relocating drive about which you can find out more over here:
And finally, a new piece of textmode art on a classic game that was just re-released, "remastered".