Sixteen Colors News http://blog.sixteencolors.net ANSi is cool. Tue, 07 May 2013 02:48:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Holiday 2011 Hackathon http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2011/12/20/holiday-2011-hackathon/ http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2011/12/20/holiday-2011-hackathon/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:11:51 +0000 Doug Moore http://blog.sixteencolors.net/?p=55 BYM-SNTA.ANS

We here at Sixteen Colors can tend to have a motivation problem. For this holiday season we have a solution! We are inviting anyone to join us on December 28, 2011 to put our heads together and make some improvements to the site. We have a laundry list of features that we can add, but our main focus will be on these areas:

Metadata

User Personalization

Design

  • Complete design and implementation of html5 version of site

If you're interested in participating, check out the code on github. Contact @sixteencolors or leave a comment and we can help you get it running. Please keep in mind that we are always happy to include more people on the team. The invitation is not limited to the hackathon, this is just a way to help people get interested. You also don't have to be a developer to help. We could use help with design, outreach, testing, brainstorming, curating and just about anything else you can think of related to the site.

In addition, we will be ready to roll out our API at that time. If you are interested in creating a mobile app or using the Sixteen Colors data in some other way, we will be around to help you implement the API. We would also love to be joined by anyone doing development on their own textmode projects; the more the merrier!

]]> http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2011/12/20/holiday-2011-hackathon/feed/ 2 The Triumphant Return http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2011/03/28/the-triumphant-return/ http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2011/03/28/the-triumphant-return/#comments Tue, 29 Mar 2011 02:45:05 +0000 Doug Moore http://blog.sixteencolors.net/?p=43 Sadly, the Sixteen Colors ANSI Art and ASCII Art Archive has been down since the end of September, 2010. Changes were made to our shared hosting environment and I never got around to making changes to accommodating them. Sometime in the intervening moments I was approached by Brian Cassidy, once known as Mighty Mouse, regarding the site. He wanted to take a shot at writing a version of the site. I was more than happy to have someone else getting their hands dirty with the site, and gave him my blessing. For at least the fifth time in its life, Sixteen Colors was to undergo a rewrite from the ground up. As of today, that rewrite is complete enough for public consumption! We will continue to improve upon the site, but Sixteen Colors is no longer a dead site!

If you are not familiar with Brian, he is responsible for one of the most complete rendering engines for textmode artwork, Image::TextMode. In fact, the most recent version of the Sixteen Colors, which died in September, was using Image::TextMode. Brian was an ANSI artist many years ago, but like many of us, has turned to programming. He, along with others, has been one of the voices in my ear to keep Sixteen Colors thriving. As the site has neared completion I have jumped in to help with the code, but the site you see before you now is largely due to his hard work.

While Brian has worked hard to get a site that is functioning put together, we have also begun to piece together the backbone of a community that can keep the archive alive with or without the Sixteen Colors website. All of the code for Sixteen Colors is available on github as a public repository. In addition, the entire archive is mirrored on github for your consumption. Ansilove, another fine textmode rendering engine, has already begun to host a mirror off of the github repository. Anyone is free to mirror the archive, but if you would like to be listed as  a mirror, please let us know. We also welcome anyone who would like to contribute to coding the site. Anything you are able to contribute, be it content, code, images, ideas or any other valuable skill is of use. No contribution is too small. Our goal is not to keep the archive for ourselves, but to keep ANSI, ASCII and all textmode art alive and remembered.

The last important piece of the github community is the ability to submit "Issues." Issues are not only bugs, but also ideas. Definitely submit any bugs to the list of github issues, but also include anything you would like to see that is not already listed. In addition, you can up vote bugs or ideas that you think are important. We will do our best to implement or fix anything that appears in the issues list.

For those I haven't lost through boredom or sleep, I want to make one more recognition. The design of both the dead version and current version were created by Luciano Ayres, also known as Enzo. Luciano has been one of the most prolific artists and steadfast proponents of ANSI over the past five years. He, along with the other members of Blocktronics, have worked to keep people creating ANSI art and keep the process enjoyable and inclusive. Please check out their packs and consider contributing to their efforts.

]]> http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2011/03/28/the-triumphant-return/feed/ 5 YouTube does ASCII http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2010/04/01/youtube-does-ascii/ http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2010/04/01/youtube-does-ascii/#comments Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:56:58 +0000 Doug Moore http://blog.sixteencolors.net/?p=37 Personally, I think this is the worst day on the Internet. However, YouTube has thrown a bone to us old school users -- today there is a TEXTp mode available for all videos.

]]> http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2010/04/01/youtube-does-ascii/feed/ 1 Decide Where Sixteen Colors Should Go http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2010/03/11/decide-where-sixteen-colors-should-go/ http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2010/03/11/decide-where-sixteen-colors-should-go/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:00:45 +0000 Doug Moore http://blog.sixteencolors.net/?p=35 We here at Sixteen Colors have a lot of ideas about the direction of the site. However, we don't know what you, the users would like to see. We would love to hear your opinions.

Over at Codaset we have a set of tickets. These tickets include both future functionality and bugs. If you would like to give input, feel free to leave comments, add bugs, add suggestions, or "vote up" and "vote down" current tickets. This site is meant to be for everyone and we would like to include you in as many ways as possible.

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]]> http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2010/03/09/comments-on-artworks/feed/ 0 The End of an Era (of Unreliability) http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2010/03/04/the-end-of-an-era-of-unreliability/ http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2010/03/04/the-end-of-an-era-of-unreliability/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:40:44 +0000 Doug Moore http://blog.sixteencolors.net/?p=24 I am all too aware of the problems that have plagued Sixteen Colors over the past year. Thankfully, that time should be over. I am constantly looking to recreate a bigger and better of Sixteen Colors. This has been the case since the first version went live many years ago. During this process I have waffled between many technologies to accomplish the task. Today is the time to make a big change in that regard, and I think it was a long time coming.

Sixteen Colors has run under the .NET Framework for the last five years or so. It has been good when reliable, and offered the best engine for converting ANSIs, ASCIIs, Amiga images, RIP files, XBins, etc. However, with the great work by Brian Cassidy on Image::Textmode and Cleaner on Ansilove, the landscape has changed. I have decided to switch over to a php version of the site for two particular reasons. First, it opens up a lot of options for hosting. Second, it hopefully opens the window for more contributors to the development of the site than just myself.

While I have been laying the foundation for this change for a while, my hand was forced recently. For the last month (two months? more?) the site has been completely useless. No images appear. Due to that limitation, I have rushed together a new version of the site that is very stripped down. I merely wanted a site that would allow you to view every image in every pack. That has mostly been accomplish with this current version. Unfortunately for the moment there is no search functionality, no favoriting, and a lack of metadata (such as artist and group lists). I hope to bring those back before long.

Please let me know what you think of the new site, how it can be improved, and any problems you run into.

* It may take a few hours for the new site to propogate for some people; if you're seeing the old site, that is probably why

]]> http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2010/03/04/the-end-of-an-era-of-unreliability/feed/ 0 Evoke 2009 http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/08/04/evoke-2009/ http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/08/04/evoke-2009/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:38:36 +0000 Doug Moore http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/08/04/evoke-2009/ Here at Sixteen Colors we have not done a great job of covering events occurring in the scene. We covered the 20 goto 10 gallery in 2007, but have ignored everything else. This is an attempt to remedy that problem.

Evoke 2009 occurred this past weekend, July 31 to August 2. Evoke is a demo party held in Cologne, Germany and is one of the few demo parties that continues to support the ANSI and ASCII communities. Evoke was created in 1997 by members of Black Maiden and has run an ANSI and ASCII art competition at each party since it’s inception (there was no Evoke in 2001). Evoke is also the only demo party that allows ANSI and ASCII artists the option to submit their entries remotely. Keep that in mind for next year!

This year the competition saw a resurgence in the textmode medium. It is the first time in several years that ANSI/ASCII and Amiga were split into two separate categories. The ANSI and ASCII category had nine entries and the Amiga category had seven entries. The entries were primarily European artists, as is typical of the Evoke competition. Evoke attendees are all given an opportunity to rate their top three images. From those rankings, the final list is created. The results were revealed during the demo party and seemed to get an enthusiastic response. We hope that visitors to Sixteen Colors will consider entering the Evoke ANSI and ASCII competition in the future; it’s always good to increase the exposure of this amazing art medium we follow.

1.“Indiana Zwokz” by Moqui / High Society

2. “Freedom on top of the world” by Irokos / Titan

3. “Grey Girl” by Laeila / Titan

4. “Evoke” by Xero / CRO

5. “Evoke” by Avenger / Black Maiden

6. “Smile” by TGGC / TGGC

7. “Zvokz” by Kami68k / thelo0p

8. “Sense” by Avenging Angel / Blocktronics

9. “Evoke 09” by Zemra

]]> http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/08/04/evoke-2009/feed/ 0 Editing ANSI Online and Continuing Development http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/07/21/editing-ansi-online-and-continuing-development/ http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/07/21/editing-ansi-online-and-continuing-development/#comments Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:48:40 +0000 Doug Moore http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/07/21/editing-ansi-online-and-continuing-development/ Over the past year I have talked with several people about editing ANSI online. It seems to be a great way to extend the lifetime of the art medium. Perhaps it could even bring in some new artists. As I contemplate this possibility there is an important question to answer. What technology would be used for an editor, Flash or Javascript?

Some great work has already been put into a Javascript editor over at drastic.net, and I know of people toying with a Flash editor as well. I certainly don’t want to step on anyone’s toes (namely, Tom over at Drastic), but I certainly think an editor integrated with Sixteen Colors would be fantastic. I lean toward Flash, as I know for sure there are some guys I have been in touch with that would be interested in working together (Tom has also expressed a willingness), but I thought I would see what others thought as well.What does all of this ranting mean? I think it’s time to get the ball rolling again.

For the sake of timeliness, in lieu of some amazing offer of help, I think I will roll on with the .NET codebase. The site is already in a workable state, I would just need to add funtionality. It could certainly use some cleaning up here or there (and by “here or there” I mean “almost everywhere”), but it has a starting point. That starting point has been acceptable to everyone viewing the site for quite some time now. Whenever I make yet another venture into a new framework, it never seems to see the light of day.I already need to load up the code to fulfill an important request made by someone almost a month ago. I know once I start digging in the code to make that request happen, I am going to start itching to work on the site again. So, for the 100th time, if anyone wants to help, drop me a line. Even if you are one of the usual suspects, please consider this a roll call.

]]> http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/07/21/editing-ansi-online-and-continuing-development/feed/ 0 Significant Downtime http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/05/06/significant-downtime/ http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/05/06/significant-downtime/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 15:44:02 +0000 Doug Moore http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/05/06/significant-downtime/ The site has had significant downtime for, well, over a month now. I have no idea what's going on. I believe I have at least gotten the server to reset itself when there is a problem, which is better than it has been. However, I still don't know what's going on. If there are any Windows gurus that could help me out, it would be greatly appreciated.

]]> http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/05/06/significant-downtime/feed/ 0 1994-1996 Pack Goodness! http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/02/23/1994-1996-pack-goodness/ http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/02/23/1994-1996-pack-goodness/#comments Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:00:23 +0000 Doug Moore http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/02/23/1994-1996-pack-goodness/ Thanks to Prizm Sixteen Colors has added 68 packs to its collection! I have more packs from him to add as well, but they require a little more sorting through.

  1. 1994 AIC1194.ZIP
  2. 1994 AIC1294.ZIP
  3. 1994 FTL-1294.ZIP
  4. 1994 IMP45B94.ZIP
  5. 1994 JUS-0994.ZIP
  6. 1994 RAGE_294.ZIP
  7. 1994 RAGE0894.ZIP
  8. 1994 RCD-1294.ZIP
  9. 1994 RGE1194.ZIP
  10. 1994 SIN12-94.ZIP
  11. 1994 WXG1094.ZIP
  12. 1995 33-PIC95.ZIP
  13. 1995 BLDE9501.ZIP
  14. 1995 CRM-O595.ZIP
  15. 1995 DFT-0495.ZIP
  16. 1995 DIV-0495.ZIP
  17. 1995 DPS0495.ZIP
  18. 1995 DRV-0595.ZIP
  19. 1995 DVS-0295.ZIP
  20. 1995 DVS-0995.ZIP
  21. 1995 EDEN0895.ZIP
  22. 1995 FIRM0195.ZIP
  23. 1995 HAIL0195.ZIP
  24. 1995 HOE2_95.ZIP
  25. 1995 IB123195.ZIP
  26. 1995 ILLN0395.ZIP
  27. 1995 INT-0595.ZIP
  28. 1995 INT-0695.ZIP
  29. 1995 MTN-0795.ZIP
  30. 1995 MTN-1095.ZIP
  31. 1995 OPP-0195.ZIP
  32. 1995 PMT-0295.ZIP
  33. 1995 RAIN0395.ZIP
  34. 1995 RCD-0295.ZIP
  35. 1995 REV-0195.ZIP
  36. 1995 RISE0395.ZIP
  37. 1995 RVL-0395.ZIP
  38. 1995 SHV-0195.ZIP
  39. 1995 SHV-0295.ZIP
  40. 1995 SPAS0795.ZIP
  41. 1995 SPAS1095.ZIP
  42. 1995 THRS95.ZIP
  43. 1995 TL-0195.ZIP
  44. 1995 TL-0295.ZIP
  45. 1995 TL-0495.ZIP
  46. 1995 TL-0595.ZIP
  47. 1995 TL-0795.ZIP
  48. 1995 TL-0895.ZIP
  49. 1995 TL-0995.ZIP
  50. 1995 TL-1195.ZIP
  51. 1995 TOA@0795.ZIP
  52. 1995 UTD0495.ZIP
  53. 1995 VOID0295.ZIP
  54. 1995 VPR!0695.ZIP
  55. 1995 VPR$0795.ZIP
  56. 1995 VPR-0595.ZIP
  57. 1995 WIND0195.ZIP
  58. 1996 ANE-0196.ZIP
  59. 1996 HN-0696.ZIP
  60. 1996 HUNT96.ZIP
  61. 1996 IMP45B96.ZIP
  62. 1996 OIL-0596.ZIP
  63. 1996 PM-0796.ZIP
  64. 1996 RVL-0396.ZIP
  65. 1996 RVL-0496.ZIP
  66. 1996 TL-0396.ZIP
  67. 1996 TPY-0896.ZIP
  68. 1996 WKD-0196.ZIP
]]> http://blog.sixteencolors.net/2009/02/23/1994-1996-pack-goodness/feed/ 0