==== Online Graphics ====

ASCII - ANSI - RIP - MAX - F/X DDO

Break out of Frames

Play Stop

Midnight Ramblings about Graphics

ASCII:

ASCII text is by far the most limited of all computer art mediums. It consists of large images created
simply with the standard IBM extended 256-character set or Amiga-X characters. Some artists limit themselves even further, to only the first 128 characters (7-bit ASCII), so that they may be displayed on virtually ANY terminal without the need for any emulator whatsoever.

ASCII art was one of the first ways to display any kind of graphics on a PC, and it will certainly be around for a long time to come. Even today it is the only acceptable way to show a picture in certain situations; such as in archive comments, ftp .messages, IRC scripts, etc. Some people create ASCII art on their own, but the vast majority join into groups and release their art in ASCII archives known as "artpacks", "disks" or "collies" and others choose to release their pieces with the other artwork inside regular artpacks. For Artpacks of all kinds follow the Links.

ANSI:

ANSI stands for American National Standards Institute. This federation is responsible for facilitating development of national and international standards. They play a role in standards of just about anything, from airline safety to zirconium storage -- but most importantly, terminal emulation!

If ANSI is involved with so many different standards, which one are we talking about? Institute-wise, we are referring to ANSI's Advanced Data Communication Control Procedure (ADCCP) X3.64-1979. But to the common computer user ANSi means just one thing: A textmode medium which consists of the standard IBM PC 256-character set, enhanced by 16 foreground colors, 8 background colors, and the ability to control and move the cursor. So, from here on, ANSI X3.64-1979 = "ANSi".

Through a device driver (ANSI.SYS), ANSi allowed PC users to take their plain old black and white communications software (Anyone remember the original CROSSTALK?) and breath into it a whole new life! 16 colors, 8 background colors, even cursor movement! What would they think of next? Through the ability to control the cursor, one could achieve the illusion of animation on the screen.

ANSi artists are by far some of the most creative and resourceful individuals in the entire 'scene. "ANSiMations", or ANSi-Movies were popular in the late 80's and early 90's. These comic-like scenes dashed across the screen with only 256 characters and 16 colors on 1200 and 2400 baud modems. Although it's original usefulness as a standard terminal emulation for Bulletin Board Systems and remote system access has diminished, its popularity as an artform lives on.

Since ANSi is made up of complicated escape sequences, special editors have been created over the years that offer some truly incredible features. TheDraw(tm) was the pioneer of all ANSi editors, and it's still used today for its powerful animation mode. However, more advanced editors such as ACiD Production's ACiD Draw(tm) and Sector Logic's ArtWorx(tm) have been developed.

Today, ANSi art has evolved to the point where its no longer practical to simply rely on your terminal to display them for you. Many different viewers have been been developed that offer features such as smooth scrolling, vga mode viewing, and lightbar file selectors. Some of the most widely used today are ACiD View, iCEView, and DarkView.

For Artpacks of all kinds follow the Links.

RIP:

RIP stands for Remote Imaging Protocol. RIPscrip was developed by Telegrafix in the early 90's with the intentions of giving dialup-BBS users a choice of graphics, text, or both. Unfortunately, due to the proprietary nature in which their protocol was written, it failed miserably and was not accepted by the masses as they had originally planned. However, artscene members welcomed this poorly written protocol with open arms and exploited it's limitations of 640x480x16 color EGA display and animation possibilities.

Unlike most of the art you see on web pages and such, RIP is vector based, meaning that you see images being drawn in real time, calculating geometric shapes, lines, fills and such rather than a simple straight down binary copy in pixel maps. The only way to view RIP screens is with a special viewer such as ACiD View. The best program to create these types of screens is undoubtedly Tombstone Artist.

Comentary on ASCII, ANSI, and RIP:
Condensed from a Doucmentary by RaD Man, Shivan Bastard, and Wildcat.
Copyright Š 1997-1998 ACiD Productions, All Rights Reserved.
Follow the link to the ACiD Productions Home Page to view the Complete Documentary.

MAX:

Though MAX Graphics showed some promise it has fallen short of it's claims and promise to replace RIP. It does give SysOp's the ability to make nice Menu's with sound and Graphics using Max Menu but to date the only doors that have been developed are Ballistic and Roids.
As a FREEWARE program (except for MAXpaint) it is worth looking at if you want to add sound and graphics to your BBS. But as is often the case it requires callers to use a special terminal to view and hear it.

F/X DDO:

This is the NEWEST and most Exciting Online Graphics System I have seen to date and hopes to "revitalize" the BBS world.
It too requires a special terminal to display the sound and graphics, with two versions to be available. A FREEWARE Pioneer Li-Term with just the "Bare-Bones" needed to get started and a Shareware Li-Term Pro that's a feature rich communications terminal.
So far the support of the author's has been phenomenal; with response to questions and suggestions of SysOps acted upon very quickly. With over 20 games already in release the F/X DDO Doors take BBSing to a whole new level with 3D raytracing and Arcade quality games unlike any other Door Games. This is one new Graphics protocol to keep an eye on!
For the latest F/X DDO Information go to The Locatha Home Page.

Files:

Freeview
Download FREEVI12.ZIP
Freeview 1.2, An awsome command line *.RIP file Viewer! **FREEWARE** Supports & displays every RIP command. Great for viewing RIPs in messages with an offline mail reader. It has a trace mode for finding problems with RIPs. Requires EGA or better graphics and 300Kb free memory. Supports VGA and Adlib sound.

Dead Paint
Download DPAIN40.ZIP
Dead Paint version 4.0 shareware The easy to use and easy to own RIP paint program is back uncrippled, and it's packed with features! Save/Load, Objects Copy/Paste/Delete/ Move, All draw tools, Button/Icon,Full buttons styles support, Text import, PCX import, Windows .ICO, and more!

Tombstone
Download TOMB-200.ZIP
Tombstone Artist(TA) is a powerful RIPscrip paint program, fully featured for creating & editing RIP graphics. New in this version of TA is command line file loading, pie slices, and a snap-to grid. With TA, a sysop can easily design high-quality graphics for their BBS, including buttons and mouse regions. Uncrippled Shareware. Registration: $30

RIPsketch
Dowload RIPSK111.ZIP
Easy to use RIPscrip editor/viewer for creating and displaying online RIP graphics. Also includes an icon displayer. Requires EGA or better and a mouse. Supports Adlib sound. MPF

MAXpaint
Download MXP_203.EXE
"The" MAX screen, icon, image, and mouse cursor designer program. So many functions that it's impossible to list them all in this limited space. Main features include "Full" mouse navigation, ł256 color mouse cursor designer, graphics image slicer, MIF (MAX Image File) saver, MAX icon editor, and a high quality MAX screen editor with intelligent MAX syntax checking. Now even faster than before, NO MORE BGI GRAPHICS CODE! Now operates more like MS Windows or IBM OS/2 complete with a drag and drop graphical user interface. Just an all around better paint program!!

The Draw
Download TDRAW463.ZIP
THEDRAW SCREEN EDITOR VERSION 4.63 - (10/93) A text-oriented screen design tool. Similar is some regards to a graphics paint program. Offers multiple page SPRITE editing, powerful Ansi ANIMATION support, Ansi/Ascii FONTS, pulldown menus, full mouse support & online help. Saves files for ANSI, ASCII, AVATAR, PCBOARD, WILDCAT, COM, BINARY, BSAVE, OBJECT (C/Pascal/QuickBasic), and source code in Asm Pascal and C formats. Registr: $22-$25

RAGE
Download RAGEV99A.EXE
RAGE v.99a "Rapid ANSI Graphics Engine" 08/94 The most powerful ANSI art program available! Draw your art creations in EGA mode, and save them in ANSI format. Features include: Great icon driven environment, full sprite editing routines (flip, rotate, copy, etc.), zoom mode, converting parts of PCX files, regular and external font capabilities, re-sizing routines, color replacement and more! A must have! EGA+/Mouse Required. Registration - $20

Links:

Outworld Arts
Monthly ANSI\RIP\RIP2\MAX\VGA Artpacks and resources for all your Graphic needs. Sandy Chidester is a dedicated artist that continues to give of her talents to the online community and her "Works" grace many online games.

ACiD Productions Home Page
One if not THE Largest collections of Computer Graphic Archives on the WWW.

The MAX Graphics Home Page
A Whole NEW Online Graphics that's quickly gaining a following.
With "True" SVGA Graphics and Sound Support it's turning some heads! And most of it is FREE!

TeleGrafix Communications Inc.
The Home Page of RIP and RIPterm. The "Original" Remote Image Protocol is still alive and has made some major changes. Check here to see just what they're up to now. But they have gotten alot more commercial about their products than they were in the past.

Locatha F/X DDO.
Locatha Industries has just released a whole new line of games (F/X DDO) as well as a Full Featured Terminal Program to play them. It supports all kinds of extras (Sound, SVGA Graphics, Mouse Support) as well as retains and includes what many users want and demand. Full featured with all the standard emulations, scripting and more.

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