ATASCII - NicheInterests/mistfunk GitHub Wiki

ATSCII (aka [ATARI] ASCII) is the ATARI Standard Code for Information Interchange, a standard regulating [textmode] input and output on Atari's line of 8-bit home computers from 1979 through 1985. From a [text art] perspective it is an interesting medium sharing some of the limitations of Commodore's PETSCII (eg. use of only one background colour), but with tighter constraints (also only one foreground colour! Fortunately, a different one.) Consequently ATSCII art is [monochrome]. The selection of [semigraphics] characters is also quite a bit more limited, though it does curiously contain tiles needed to build an Atari logo or a portrait of the Church of the Subgenius' J.R. "Bob" Dobbs.

The [Atari ST] that followed Atari's 8-bit home computers used a different text encoding standard, one somehow even more hostile to text art. (Or I could say: its constraints were so great that they stifled rather than fostered virtuosity among text artists 8)

ATASCII was a popular medium for [break movies], animated semigraphics screens, on Atari 8-bit BBSes.