Sixteen Colors ANSI and ASCII Archive

I am ready to get back into development of the site, and in the process a big question is brewing in my mind. Do I continue development as is, or do I make a change to allow for more collaboration? I am currently developing the site in the .NET Framework using Microsoft SQL Server. This allows me to work in the language I am most familiar with and use eto’s excellent ANSI/RIP/XBIN/* conversion engine.

There are two primary problems with this approach, however. Most importantly, hosting can be problematic. I have been fortunate to have the support of Tracker1 for many years and hosting has been free. However, the site eats up a lot of resources, and the bandwidth is less than optimal. Moving to another server would be far more costly, so if Tracker1 ever runs out of space for me or I want to push for more bandwidth, I will have to shell out a pretty penny to run the site. Second, the pool of talent is limited. I would love to get help with the code, but there are few people interested in ANSI that are able and willing to code in the .NET Framework.

Citing those two problems, I am curious if I should reevaluate the development decisions I have made. Should I switch to a more popular language to gain more hosting options and more help options. I began working on a Ruby on Rails version and was unable to get much help with it. I wonder if trying Ruby on Rails again or perhaps PHP will afford me the help I have been unable to find thus far.

So here is my question to the users of Sixteen Colors: Can anyone help? If I switch languages, is there anyone I can guarantee will be able to put some time into making this site the fantastic resource it has the potential to be? Time and motivation run short when you are the sole developer on a project. If I could get some fresh blood working with me, I think the goals I have for the site would be much more achievable. Is there anyone out there that is willing and able to help code the site in ASP.NET, PHP, Ruby on Rails or some other web development platform? If so, please contact me and let me know. I would like to start development again, and if I can get some assistance, I would be willing to make some changes.

Update: I could also use help with design, branding, and usability if anyone is so inclined.

It seems that no matter how far we drift from the days of the Bulletin Board System, ANSI continues to live on. Proof of this is evident in the creation of a new group, Blocktronics, that is attempting to use modern tools to redefine how ANSI is created and released.

The original concept was to create a Google Group where members can upload and download art. When a member has lost inspiration to work on a particular piece, they can upload the ANSI for another member to continue work on. There are, of course, a share of solo pieces in addition to the joint works, but the free sharing of art is intended to leave fewer unfinished pieces floating around hard drives across the ANSI scene.

To date, Blocktronics consists of a distinguished list of artists that, believe it or not, are actually creating new art. The list includes, but is not limited to, Avenging Angel, Enzo, ZeroVision, Skypager, Retribution, Grindstoned, The Night Angel, Big Yellow Man, Jeepee, Jack Phlash, and Sinister X.  Together they have completed more than thirty ANSI pieces and have several dozen incomplete pieces to add to the list. If you are interested in becoming a part of Blocktronics, look for the guys on IRC or on their Google Group.

Retribution has come through on his promise. The inaugural roots pack has been released. In the process it has managed to pull the likes of Jack Phlash, Ceelow and Kid Frost out of the wood works.

When I originally imported all of the packs I have on disk several failed to import. Most of this were due to the fact that the packs used a zip compression method called Decode64. I am pleased to announce that with the aid of Cake3 I have been able to unpack those missing packs. The newly added packs are:

cro0102.zip (2002)
cmm00002.zip (2000)
deg65-2.zip (1999)
deg65-1.zip (1999)
cmm00001.zip (1999)
grill-04.zip (1998)
trip0197.zip (1997)
simple01.zip (1997)
fire-a02.zip (1997)
ecl-12.zip (1997)
aphro-02.zip (1997)
aphro-01.zip (1997)
splt1296.zip (1996)
splt1196.zip (1996)
ice-spc7.zip (1996)
ice-spc6.zip (1996)
hype-04.zip (1996)
hype-02.zip (1996)
grill-03.zip (1996)
spas9508.zip (1995)
rmrs-01.zip (1994)
lbo-r3.zip (1994)
fury0794.zip (1994)
lbo-r1.zip (1993)
ice-0193.zip (1993)
acdu0393.zip (1993)
acdu0193.zip (1993)
sda.zip (1992)
rpm.zip (1992)
nc-17.zip (1992)
mirage04.zip (1992)
mirage03.zip (1992)
mirage02.zip (1992)
mirage01.zip (1992)
mirage.zip (1992)
ltd.zip (1992)
icepk-09.zip (1992)
hype.zip (1992)
hipe.zip (1992)
dead.zip (1992)
air.zip (1992)
acdu1292.zip (1992)
acdu1192.zip (1992)
acdu1092.zip (1992)
acdu0992.zip (1992)
acdu0892.zip (1992)
acdu0792.zip (1992)
acdu0692.zip (1992)

Retribution is determined to continue to live the dream. Rather than try to restate what he has to say, take a look at his announcement.

One of the greatest features of Pablo Draw is the ability to connect to a server over the internet and draw with multiple people. th0r has thrown up a Pablo Server for all to use. He is keeping it running at let.the.fbi.be:700. According to th0r it is open to all styles and has no time limit. Check it out, doodle some and regain your love of ANSI.

Geek Entertainment TV has published their piece on the 20 goto 10 gallery showing. The piece runs about five minutes long and gives you a good look at the scrollers that Kevin and company put together. There’s even a small bit with me toward the end.

This weekend marked the opening of the ANSI exhibit at 20 goto 10 in San Francisco, CA. To my knowledge, this exhibit was the first of its kind in the United States. Acidjazz and aempirei curated the event and chose to highlight the works of Lord Jazz and Somms, both of ACiD Productions. These two artists are overwhelmingly considered among the best to have created art with the medium of ANSI. Since ACiD originated in California, it is unsurprising that the curators selected ACiD artists for an exhibition in San Francisco.

The exhibit at 20 goto 10 was a huge success. Acidjazz and aempirei put together an excellent event. When I arrived acidjazz was being interviewed by Geek Entertainment TV (GETV). I was also interviewed by GETV later in the evening, and I will keep you updated regarding the video footage. The bouncer at the door waited for the interview to conclude before letting us in, but the gallery was already filled to the brim. The entire four to five hours the gallery was open the crowd only grew larger. Every square foot of the gallery was filled in addition to all of the sidewalk space in front of 20 goto 10 and its two neighbors. The light boxes that acidjazz and aempirei created were amazing. Now that I’ve seen them I can not think of a better way to display ANSI in print form. The scrollers looked great as well. Being able to scroll and view an ANSI with one simple control board and an SD card was quite an accomplishment.

Rad Man, of ACiD Productions, was in attendance. He brought his usual flair of evangelism for the ANSI scene. Jason Scott, creator of BBS: The Documentary and Text Files, also made the trip from Boston, MA to see the show. There were several other faces from the scene there, including Pinguino, Sonic, DH and Mondo Man. Those in attendance that knew nothing of ANSI enthusiastically expressed appreciation of the pieces and the medium in general. Acidjazz brought ANSI to a new audience that I hope will continue to enjoy it beyond the boundaries of 20 goto 10. In addition, I spoke to one young artist that is eager to experiment with ANSI. If just one new artist begins to create ANSI, I will consider the exhibition an overwhelming success.

If you are in the Bay Area before January 31, 2008 I highly recommend you make a visit to 20 goto 10 to see the exhibit.

Just a quick note to point out the article in the San Francisco Chronicle highlighting acidjazz’s gallery , opening tonight. Doors open at 7pm and the exhibit runs through January 31, 2008. The article does a relatively admirable job of describing ANSI Art and the styles that developed from it. There are also some images teasing what the actual pieces look like in the gallery and I am very excited to see them in person.

For those unaware, Sixteen Colors ANSI Art and ASCII Art Archive is a comprehensive archive of the ANSI Art and ASCII Art computer scenes beginning in 1991. ANSI and ASCII were used extensively in the days prior to the World Wide Web to convey imagery in online communities. ANSI and ASCII artists released what became known as packs containing artwork they created.

Sixteen Colors is now closer than ever to the goals I have set for it. A labor of love (off again/on again) for nearly a decade, Sixteen Colors finally has a quality search engine and community driven metadata management. You can finally go to a list of groups or artists to find artwork. The validity of those lists are now in your hands. Using OpenID you may login and modify any of the data associated with a pack or artwork. In addition, you can mark your favorites and return to them later to enjoy over and over.

The initial data has been populated almost exclusively via SAUCE data. This data, while helpful, is largely flawed. I am making attempts to clean some of it up. However, due to the singular nature of much of the data, it can only be entirely cleaned through your input.

I have received a lot of help and opinions along the way to creating the new version of the site. I want to single out three individuals that were particularly helpful. agent_42 has been my constant ear to bend about technical and design details. He also took my original design and cleaned it up extensively. Without his encouragement and enthusiasm I would never have completed as much as I have. In addition my brother, Wade (Ralgoth), has been as equally supportive. This past week Wade has also been manually going through the packs and adding as much data as possible. Lastly, I can not give enough praise to eto and all he has done for me and the scene by creating PabloDraw and PabloView. I have leveraged the code written for PabloView to do all of the conversion of ANSI/ASCII/IDF/ADF/XBIN files to PNG. I don’t know that eto receives the credit he deserves for his contribution to the ANSI art and ASCII art scenes. There are many others that have given their advice and words of encouragement along the way, but I will not name them individually for fear of leaving someone out.

I am headed out to the 20 goto 10 ANSI gallery showing this weekend, January 12, 2008. If anyone is there, feel free to find me and say “Hello.” Acidjazz has done a fantastic job of putting the event together, and I am anxious to see the final results.

As with most sites, development is ongoing. Consider Sixteen Colors a living entity, both in the data and the available features. Unfortunately I had to rush things out the door a little in order to put the new version of the site up in time for the gallery opening. I apologize in advance for some of the clunky UI and general unpolished feel; they should improve over the next year. Please contact me with any comments, concerns, questions or bugs.

UPDATE: I can’t believe I left a very important individual off the list of recognitions. Tracker1, from The Roughneck BBS has hosted Sixteen Colors for roughly the last 4 years. He has allowed me to spend little time worrying about the server, continually upgraded the hardware without any request from me and done all of it at his own expense.