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Website :
https://twitter.com/PETSCIIBOTS
Credits :
Download :
Look for downloads on external sites:
Pokefinder.org
Summary
Submitted by Luca on 1 April 2023
In the era of the rising AI text-to-image generators, the Australian PETSCII artist Cal Skuthorpe, aka buzz_clik/Onslaught, carries on his so called PETSCII "distraction" known as PETSCIIBOTS, since February 2018. The 5-years running project to date actually presents itself as "made by a real person to look like they were autogenerated by a computer": the man virtually challenges the machine to serially, constantly, imagine more and more new machines.
PETSCIIBOTS is a growing collection of always different 5x7 characters shaped robotic figures drawn using the upper PETSCII charset, occasionally featuring 12x16 bigger ones, which have been periodically released as single images of 18 bots (or 14 + 1 big one). The lower PETSCII set has been used for the very first release only and never used again. Two dedicated special releases are excluded from the regular series' counting: the 33rd, a Xmas themed collection of letter-shaped bots, and the 70th, an armada of 5x8 large identical skeleton-ish bots.
Despite of their virtual nature as a series of PNG files, I managed to port them into the real machines which inspired their existence – Commodore 64 as first option, then Commodore 16 thru a coherent color palette conversion – and save them as single SEQ files, in order to have them as tangible and ready to use.
Although the PETSCIIBOTS production seems to be far from being stopped, in March 2023 buzz_clik has decided to start the #MarchofRobots, a one-month effort when he has daily released one bots' image a day. The #MarchofRobots initiative has created the prerequisite for the publication of the entire collection on disc so far, along withthe the player for their easy viewing.
By my side, I will continue to convert future PETSCIIBOTS to real SEQ files as much as possible, but now there are over 2300 different characters, and a dozen of their larger cousins, that I hope someone will thinks of possible games with, from strategy games to monsters capture formats or what I still can't imagine ;)
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*** [PETSCIIBOTS Player] ***
The Player displays the PETSCIIBOTS you choose to visualise on screen. It comes both as a plain .PRG file and into a .D64 where to add an edited bots' .SEQs set that you choose. For the sake of convenience, the single .SEQ files are available in sorted folders.
If the Player has to be run on emulators or on a real Commodore 64 mounting SD2IEC and the like, the best solution are the ten .D81 disk images provided in the specific folder. Any of those .D81 images always includes the Player on first row, and all the big bots, together with an ordered pack of 250 bots maximum. The AUTOSWAP.LST ensures an easy navigation via the SD2IEC buttons.
Instructions
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Use Joystick in any port or keyboard.
Joy Down,Up,Right,Left / CRSR Right,Down + Left Shift: move along the pairs of digits
Fire + Joy Down,Up / Commodore + CRSR Down,(+ Left Shift): change units
Fire + Joy Right,Left / Commodore + CRSR Right,(+ Left Shift): change tens
Fire x2 / Commodore x2: load bot
Fire (kept) / Commodore (kept): lowcase backscreen (not if the big hangar is enabled!)
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Luca/Fantastic Italian Research Enterprise, 1st of April 2023 |
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