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Ansilust Test Corpus

This directory contains a curated collection of historic ANSI/ASCII art files from the sixteencolors-archive used for testing and validating the ansilust parsers and renderers.

Current Contents

Summary Statistics

  • Total Size: ~35 MB
  • ANSI Files: 131+ files
  • Animated Files: 7 files
  • Artpacks: 9 packs from 1996
  • Groups Represented: ACiD, iCE, Fire

Directory Structure

reference/sixteencolors/
├── animated/              # ANSI animations (ansimations)
│   ├── FILE_ID-ANSIMATION.ANS       (24 KB)
│   ├── FIREWORK.ANS                  (13 KB)
│   ├── SHUTTLE2.ANS                  (15 KB)
│   ├── SI-INT13.ANS                 (383 KB) - Large animation
│   ├── WZKM-MERMAID.ANS             (1.2 MB) - Very large animation
│   └── __BLOCKTRONICS_Detention_Block_AA-23_Animated_NFO_File.ans
│
└── 1996/                  # Golden age artpacks (peak ANSI era)
    ├── acid-50a/          # ACiD Productions pack 50a
    ├── acid-51a/          # ACiD Productions pack 51a
    ├── acid-52/           # ACiD Productions pack 52
    ├── fire0296/          # Fire artpack Feb 1996
    ├── fire0496/          # Fire artpack Apr 1996
    ├── fire0696/          # Fire artpack Jun 1996
    ├── ice9601a/          # iCE Advertisements pack Jan 1996
    ├── ice9602a/          # iCE Advertisements pack Feb 1996
    └── ice9603a/          # iCE Advertisements pack Mar 1996

File Types in Corpus

ANSI Files (.ANS)

Standard ANSI art with escape sequences:

  • Text positioning (cursor movement)
  • Color codes (SGR sequences)
  • Character drawing (CP437 encoding)
  • SAUCE metadata (128-byte footer)

Examples:

reference/sixteencolors/1996/acid-50a/BS-ROCK1.ANS
reference/sixteencolors/1996/fire0296/TNT-AE1.ANS

Animated ANSI Files

ANSI files with time-delay sequences for animation:

  • Frame-based animations using cursor positioning
  • Delay sequences (ESC[q or similar)
  • Progressive drawing effects
  • Can be very large (1+ MB for complex animations)

Examples:

reference/sixteencolors/animated/FIREWORK.ANS       # Simple firework effect
reference/sixteencolors/animated/SI-INT13.ANS       # Medium complexity (383 KB)
reference/sixteencolors/animated/WZKM-MERMAID.ANS   # Complex animation (1.2 MB)

Other Files in Artpacks

Each artpack preserves historical context with:

  • FILE_ID.DIZ - Pack description (standard in all scene releases)
  • *.NFO - Information files
  • *.EXE - Original viewers/installers
  • *.TXT - Documentation
  • ASCII art files (.ASC, .TXT)
  • Binary art files (.BIN)

Testing Strategy

Phase 1: Simple ANSI Files

Start with basic static ANSI art (no animation):

# Small, well-formed files from ACiD packs
reference/sixteencolors/1996/acid-50a/BS-ROCK1.ANS
reference/sixteencolors/1996/acid-50a/KM-FIFTY.ANS
reference/sixteencolors/1996/fire0296/*.ANS

Test Coverage:

  • Basic ANSI escape sequences
  • CP437 character encoding
  • Standard 16-color palette
  • SAUCE metadata parsing
  • Column width detection

Phase 2: Edge Cases

Test files with specific features:

# iCE color mode (high-intensity backgrounds)
reference/sixteencolors/1996/ice9601a/*.ANS

# Various widths and heights
# (Some files may be 40-col, 80-col, or 160-col)

Test Coverage:

  • iCE colors flag
  • Non-standard dimensions
  • Different fonts specified in SAUCE
  • Custom palettes

Phase 3: Animations

Test animated ANSI files:

# Progressive complexity
reference/sixteencolors/animated/FIREWORK.ANS       # Simple (13 KB)
reference/sixteencolors/animated/SHUTTLE2.ANS       # Medium (15 KB)
reference/sixteencolors/animated/SI-INT13.ANS       # Complex (383 KB)

Test Coverage:

  • Frame extraction
  • Delay sequences
  • Cursor save/restore
  • Clear screen operations
  • Progressive rendering

Phase 4: Stress Testing

Large and complex files:

# Very large animation
reference/sixteencolors/animated/WZKM-MERMAID.ANS   # 1.2 MB

# Full artpack fuzzing
find reference/sixteencolors/1996 -name "*.ANS" | xargs ./ansilust-test

Test Coverage:

  • Memory efficiency
  • Performance benchmarks
  • Parser robustness
  • Malformed sequence handling

Expanding the Corpus

Adding More Years

The sixteencolors-archive has packs from 1990-2023. Peak years:

  • 1995-1996: Golden age, 500+ packs/year
  • 1997-1999: Still very active
  • 2010+: Modern revival with BlockTronics, Impure

Download Process:

# 1. Survey available packs for a year
./reference/sixteencolors/analyze_archive_sizes.py 1995

# 2. Download packs from GitHub
wget https://github.com/sixteencolors/sixteencolors-archive/raw/master/1995/PACKNAME.zip

# 3. Extract into year directory
unzip PACKNAME.zip -d reference/sixteencolors/1995/PACKNAME/

# 4. Keep original zip for archival
mv PACKNAME.zip reference/sixteencolors/1995/

Recommended Additions

Priority 1: Format Diversity

  • Binary art files (.BIN) - 160-column format
  • PCBoard files (.PCB) - PCBoard BBS format
  • XBin files (.XB) - Extended Binary format with embedded fonts
  • Tundra Draw files (.TND)
  • ArtWorx files (.ADF)

Priority 2: More Animations Search for packs tagged with "ansimation" on 16colo.rs

Priority 3: Modern UTF-8 ANSI Terminal-native artwork from modern tools:

  • Generated by modern terminal applications
  • Uses 24-bit color (true color)
  • Unicode characters beyond CP437
  • Modern escape sequences (Kitty graphics, Sixel)

Using the Corpus

With libansilove (Reference Implementation)

# Convert to PNG
./reference/libansilove/build/ansilove \
  reference/sixteencolors/1996/acid-50a/BS-ROCK1.ANS

# Fuzz test entire 1996 collection
./reference/libansilove/fuzz-build/ansi \
  -runs=10000 reference/sixteencolors/1996/

With Ansilust (This Project)

# Parse to IR and validate
./zig-out/bin/ansilust parse reference/sixteencolors/1996/acid-50a/BS-ROCK1.ANS

# Render to modern terminal
./zig-out/bin/ansilust render --utf8ansi \
  reference/sixteencolors/1996/acid-50a/BS-ROCK1.ANS

# Batch test all files
find reference/sixteencolors -name "*.ANS" | \
  xargs -I {} ./zig-out/bin/ansilust test {}

Validation Workflow

  1. Parse: Can we read the file without errors?
  2. IR Roundtrip: Parse → IR → Validate structure
  3. Render: IR → UTF8ANSI output to terminal
  4. Compare: Visual comparison with libansilove PNG output
  5. SAUCE: Verify metadata extraction matches spec

Known Issues and Edge Cases

iCE Colors

Some iCE pack files use the iCE colors extension:

  • Blink bit repurposed for high-intensity backgrounds
  • Must be detected from SAUCE flags or file source
  • Affects color interpretation

Font Variations

SAUCE metadata may specify fonts:

  • IBM VGA (default, CP437, 8x16)
  • IBM VGA 9x16 (9-pixel width for box drawing)
  • Amiga Topaz (different character set)
  • Amiga Microknight
  • 38+ font variations total

Non-Standard Formats

Some files may have:

  • No SAUCE metadata (older files)
  • Incorrect SAUCE data (manual editing)
  • Mixed line endings (CR, LF, CRLF)
  • Truncated or corrupted data

Animations

ANSI animations have no standard:

  • Various delay mechanisms used
  • Some use ESC[q, others use timing tricks
  • Frame boundaries are implicit
  • May require specific terminal emulator behavior

Corpus Metadata

Provenance

All files sourced from: https://github.com/sixteencolors/sixteencolors-archive

License

Original artworks are copyright their respective artists and groups. This corpus is maintained for:

  • Software testing and validation
  • Format preservation
  • Educational purposes
  • Historical archiving

Attribution

Groups represented in current corpus:

  • ACiD Productions - Legendary art group (1990-present)
  • iCE Advertisements - Major competitor to ACiD
  • Fire - Independent artpack group
  • BlockTronics - Modern revival group
  • Various independent artists

Resources

Tools

Archives

Specifications

Next Steps

  1. Expand coverage to 1995-1997 (peak years)
  2. Add format variety (BIN, PCB, XBin)
  3. Create test suite with expected outputs
  4. Document edge cases found during testing
  5. Build regression tests using corpus files
  6. Automated validation against libansilove