Computer history, BBS memories, and unearthed software by Josh Renaud
In my recent series ANSI art and webcomics, I debunked a false assertion that began in a history book and propagated across the web. Now it s time to solve the mystery of an old ANSI art screen that I myself helped propagate across the web 20 years ago. Allow me to explain but first, [ ] The post The mystery of the Solar Realms Elite title screen appeared first on Break Into Chat .
If you ve played Barren Realms Elite at any time in the past quarter-century, you probably have seen this spiffy ANSI title screen: That s because like most classic BBS door games BRE became more or less frozen in amber in the late 1990s after BRE s creator, Mehul Patel, sold the rights to the game [ ] The post The many ANSI title screens of Barren Realms Elite (BRE) appeared first on Break Into…
This is the final part of a multi-part series. In an alternate universe somewhere, nobody has heard of webcomics. Instead, there are thousands of telecomics. Thirty years ago, Don Lokke Jr. hoped to make that universe a reality. In 1992, he coined the term telecomics to describe his new digital comic strips, drawn primarily in [ ] The post Don Lokke and Mack the Mouse : ANSI art and webcomics,…
This is the fourth part of a multi-part series. Once upon a time, drawing comics in daily newspapers could be lucrative. In the 1950s, Al Capp, the creator of Li l Abner, was pulling in $500,000 a year about $6 million today. He was a genuine celebrity, making guest appearances on talk shows and even [ ] The post The business of BBSing: ANSI art and webcomics, Part 4 appeared first on Break Into…
This is the third part of a multi-part series. I ve always been kind of restless, says Eerie, the ANSI artist who created the character Inspector Dangerfuck in 1994. Today, Eerie is a musician and author, with a deep knowledge of cartoons and comics. But back then, he was a teenager in Quebec trying to make [ ] The post Eerie and Inspector Dangerfuck : ANSI art and webcomics, Part 3 appeared first…
This is the second part of a multi-part series. Both Eerie and Don Lokke emerged from opposite ends of the ANSI art spectrum. But what is ANSI art ? Before we can profile the two main subjects of this series or explore their work, it ll be important to understand the BBSing subculture of the early [ ] The post BBSes and the artscene: ANSI art and webcomics, Part 2 appeared first on Break Into Chat…
This is the first part of a multi-part series. Does ANSI art have a place in the history of webcomics? One of the first chroniclers of webcomics history thought so. In the first chapter of his 2006 book, A History of Webcomics, T Campbell tackled the prehistory of webcomics by discussing ARPAnet, ASCII art, and [ ] The post Filling in the blanks: ANSI art and webcomics, Part 1 appeared first on…
Israeli cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen died on April 14 at the age of 87. After his death, many outlets celebrated him for his great life s work: the Dry Bones cartoon. But throughout the 1980s Kirschen also developed fun computer games and innovative software. Regular readers of this blog know that I have been researching Kirschen and [ ] The post Remembering the late Yaakov Kirschen appeared first…
Dark Lord, sysop of Dark Force BBS, tries hard to keep his users engaged. Yesterday for April Fools Day, he surprised them with a fun prank. He changed the board s logon sequence to make it look like a powerful AI calling itself The Wraith had taken over the board. But that wasn t all. The BBS [ ] The post April Fools Day prank on Dark Force BBS appeared first on Break Into Chat .
For many years, St. Louisans have been celebrating March 14 as 314 Day, since our telephone area code was 314. And that has even more resonance for old-school BBSers like me. When I began BBSing in the early to mid-1990s, I was part of a wave of teens who hit the 314 scene. The price [ ] The post A time capsule for 314 Day: St. Louis-area BBS message networks appeared first on Break Into Chat .
One of this Atarian s dreams has come true, though it took almost 14 years. Last week, Deuce (Stephen Hurd) released SyncTerm v1.6, which adds initial support for the Atari ST s VT52 emulation mode, as well as the three ST screen resolutions and color palettes. Today, I made a short new VT-52 text animation to celebrate: [ ] The post Some love for VT52 on the Atari ST appeared first on Break Into…
In 2022, I published Nosh Kosh a Jewish spin on Pac-Man for the Apple II as part of the Kirschen software collection that I rescued from cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen s floppy disks. Since then, I have played Nosh Kosh on and off, but inexplicably I have never been able to get past the first [ ] The post Digging in to Nosh Kosh, the Jewish Pac-Man clone appeared first on Break Into Chat .
I m excited to announce the release of IGNITE, the first-ever all-IGS artpack, from the Mistigris art group and Break Into Chat. Download it now! Or, if you re not into downloading packs, extracting ZIP files, etc, then you can see all the pack content in a nine-minute YouTube video: Do you enjoy my retrocomputing tutorials [ ] The post IGNITE The first all-IGS artpack! appeared first on Break…
This is the sixth part of a multi-part series. The Instant Graphics and Sound format reached its zenith in September 1991 when artist Steve Turnbull published two psychedelic animations on a messageboard on the CrossNet network for Atari ST bulletin boards. Both were built around large triangles: a pyramid in one, a volcano in the [ ] The post Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 6: Legacy appeared…
This is the fifth part of a multi-part series. Thirty hours into his world tour, Jon Clarke was discombobulated. His business trip had begun on July 19, 1991, with a scary false alarm: during takeoff from his hometown of Auckland, New Zealand, the oxygen masks had suddenly deployed. He spent much of the rest of [ ] The post Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 5: Point and click appeared first on…