ADVENT25.CPP 1
/* Good tidings we bring to you and your kin!
Two years ago, andyh diverted us from our customary big messy December
artpack of seasonal stone soup, and we focused our efforts into a then-
unique project that saw us cooking up a large quantity just over two
dozen of single-screen 25 lines or less ANSI art screens on seasonal
themes, to include in a nostalgic MS-DOS executable to programmatically
replicate the experience of a child opening doors daily on an Advent
calendar. Except instead of milk chocolates, they got that days singular
ANSI screen. Just to keep things interesting, we undertook to condense
the entire creative spree into the scanty few weeks between the end of
October and the beginning of December.
Well, making it was fun, and the end result was well received, so we
reproduced the challenge the following autumn, this time a1pha forking the
executable to also allow the daily art display to be appreciated by callers
to bulletin board services, the traditional natural element in which to be
appreciating ANSI art screens. There was, again, a good deal of interest
in our work from parties who for whatever reason arent making it out to
our galleries and social media posts, so when November came around this
year we couldnt resist taking another crack at cooking up another ANSI art
Advent calendar.
Building on the strengths of last years edition, the BBS door version of
this most recent release also includes the complete inventory of every
ANSI art screen included in our previous two ANSI Advent calendars, in the
event that while youre in the mood to appreciate seasonal ANSI art you
just might like to enjoy a little more of it than the single new screen our
program unlocks on a daily basis. You can always of course flip back to
bask in the screens unlocked on previous dates, but this years complete
gallery of screens will only become fully available on Christmas morning.
Unless, of course, you are an 31i73 hax0r.
The calendar is a community undertaking but typically there is one artist
who conspicuously feels a little more Christmassy or at least, more
productive than the others and pulls ahead of the pack. Last year it was
littlebitspace, answering the question Whats with all the skulls?, and
this year our star player is The Green Herring, whose body of work dwells
on specific themes that should be obvious to the observer! It is no
overstatement to say that without TGHs many contributions to this years
ANSI Advent calendar, it would not have been possible to release on time.
Given their incredible generosity and spirit of giving in regards to this
project, I will be striving to refer to them for the remainder of this
holiday season as The Red and GreenHerring.
Thanks to all the participants in this years ANSI Advent calendar, and to
everyone justifying our efforts by checking in to appreciate what were
going to the trouble of sharing with you. Thanks also to everyone weve
worked with over the past calendar year, everyone weve made art with and
shared art with! There are many compelling competing distractions out
there in 2025, and we look forward to continuing to connect with you all
in cyberspace through vintage computer art traditions... the tech may be
obsolescent but the sentiment is evergreen! */