Does anyone remember the days of connecting to bulletin board systems when the Internet hadn't reached its prominence? ANSI graphics made up of 16 colors were used to display blocky images, and from these bulletin board systems one of the first digital art communities formed. Well, the ANSI art scene still exists and you can reminisce the old days by telnetting to [link].

<img src="[link] align="left" border="1">Start off by downloading an ANSI-compatible telnet client. MTelnet is the preferred choice to call ansi boards, and can be downloaded at link(ozone.eesc.com/mtelb8.zip,ozone.ees c.com). Unzip and load up the software, hit F1 to modify the first entry then fill out the details - description as "piranha" and hostname as "piranha.zapto.org". Press escape to save, then enter to connect! Once you're in, visit Piranha's door games and venture into a game of LORD 1 (Legend of the Red Dragon). The entire game has been redesigned by some of the ANSI scene's best artists, so it's definitely worth a look.

The ANSI scene is undergoing a small revival of sorts, with groups like link(www.ice.org,iCE) pumping out some of the best ansis around and several other groups popping up. It is from these original ANSI and ASCII groups that art groups like link(www.breedart.org,breed) formed. If you're interested in checking out some more ANSI art then either visit piranha, link(www.acheron.org,acheron.org), or our very own link(bym.deviantart.com/gallery,bym's gallery) here at deviantART.