Textmode Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Block

All right, friends, we've made it through the harrowing sequel trilogy and emerged from the other end largely unscathed. The side stories didn't mess things up too greatly, and the Mandalorian seems to be continuing to provide a compelling case for adults to try their free week of the Disney+ streaming series. The franchise seems to be settling down for a big of a rest after being, dare I say it, over-exercised. But before we wipe the whole matter of Star Wars from our minds completely, it IS May the 4th -- do we have room in our hearts for a fifth installment of the annual Star Wars textmode art revue? (Five years of this nonsense, really? Really: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and this one brings us to the present. Phew!)

I'm always looking for deep cuts, which is my way of saying I'm always trying to find a way to avoid simply reposting the Blocktronics 2017 "Detention Block AA-23" artpack collection in its entirety. The work is amazing, but as far as blogging goes it's somewhat low-hanging fruit, and I'm not going to interest those dudes by serving them up their own creations. So let's dig a little deeper. (But not too deep, the post will also act as a showcase for the brand new MIST0520 artpack collection of my own creation.)

We'll start with some heroes, so we can get them out of the way -- fanart is generally focused specifically on one side of the Force, and it ain't the light one.

I've shared a ton of awesome Star Wars ASCII art from Lord Nikon in Impure artpacks, so how did this one slip through the cracks? It was included in the Impure74 collection, and it's just sweet. (That also provides the answer to my question: I didn't miss it, that artpack just had come out in the period between my last Star Wars post here and this one 8)

Horsenburger really put the Harrison Ford in this teletext portrait of Han Solo, included in the new MIST0520 artpack collection.

Zerovision drew this tasty ANSI art Admiral Ackbar for us in 2004's TNT-008 artpack. Hey, wanna see some pieces from an unlicensed BBS door game? (What was that, Ackbar? A traaap?)

You might think "c'mon, cut them some slack, it can't be easy to draw Star Wars subjects in ANSI art", but then you see... the rest of the contents of these galleries. Ah well, it must have been programmer art. Now from the depths of hell to the pinnacle of paradise:

The Creep Fever drew this magnificent goldenrod using what must be a tweaked XBIN palette for the 2018 Miracle on 67th Street Blocktronics artpack collection.

Another seasoned ANSI art veteran who clearly knows what he's up to, Misfit represents the Kenner toy collectors in this gallery with this ANSI art Astromech droid from Blocktronics' 2018 6710 artpack.

It's droid hour here on Blogspot! Knights of the Old Republic 2's HK-47 was kind of the template for Rogue One's K-2SO, a sassy, freethinking, outright malevolent when called for machine-man. This PETSCII portrait of him was a guest contribution by Deadguy and included in Mistigris' MIST0919 artpack collection of art inspired by video games!

A wild deep cut, Picrotoxin (who, I have just learned, appeared in last year's post as "Nance", MIRCing up a perler bead Ewok pattern) gives us the upper torso (due to time constraints) of Princess Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka from the '80s Ewoks cartoon. This piece was included in the new science fiction-themed MIST0520 artpack collection. She appears to be oddly intrigued by the next image...

Here we go, welcome to the Dark Side indeed, are you ready to get sinister? This ANSI art logo was drawn by Soda of Splat! in their 1995 SPLT0795 artpack.

Mattmatthew, this isn't very sinister, though it is awesome. I get that you're just warming us up for the real evil. Baby steps, everybody. This piece was included in Blocktronics' 2013 Space Invaders artpack collection.

Uglifruit has done a few joke Star Wars teletext screens -- you may recall his "Jar-jar Wars" from previous years. I believe this screen, included in the new MIST0520 artpack, marks the end of this particular line of gags out of him. I LOVE the detail on R2's head! Can we get a close-up on the Jawa? A little closer?

Utinni! I guess we got a little too close there. This teletext screen, also included in MIST0520, was masterfully drawn by Horsenburger.

This suite of ANSI art menus for "Death Star" BBS is masterfully done, capturing the subjects, expertly shaded, at small scale. The space station, the Stormtrooper, the blueprints and the Imperial Shuttle all deserve applause, due to Barium of Sac, who released these in their 2009 SAC-36 artpack.

Docpop's exercise here isn't quite ASCII art, leaning on a couple of exotic Unicode characters to lend just the desired texture, but he's really aiming to evoke the minimalist technology aesthetic of a monochrome display. This scene, of course, depicts a duel between a Rebel Snowspeeder and an Imperial AT-AT Walker at the Battle of Hoth. I'm a big fan of the sound effects.

Die wanna wanga! Horsenburger drew this teletext portrait of Jabba the Hutt's concierge, Bib Fortuna. It's all a little pinker than I'd prefer, but we don't always get to choose our palettes.

When Axl was first dabbling into the textmode aesthetic, he did some wholesale machine conversions of iconic subjects. This Stormtrooper, included in the new MIST0520 artpack, is one such specimen.

Horsenburger's teletext Stormtrooper helmet, also from MIST0520, is a little more stylish, informed by a human's working around the limitations of the medium and actively harnessing them with lighting and use of negative space.

The Stormtroopers have a boss, and he... is apparently mounting a dogfight in space against the Coronavirus. The message is a little muddy, but the intent is clear here. Kalcha drew this Shift_JIS portrait of Darth Vader and a whole wing of TIE Fighters (plus his advanced model in the middle), also included in the MIST0520 artpack collection. Isn't that minimalist Death Star in the upper left corner something?

Here's a specimen of notepad ASCII art, likely intended to be viewed inverted -- black on white. (I'll leave the inverting as an exercise to the home viewer.) That, or it's a rendition of the Hello Kitty Vader cosplay. This was drawn by Aylien of Cro, part of their 2005 CRO-DSKMG0805-NOVIEW release.

Here Axl has pointed his convertatron at Vader, with predictable if effective results. This piece can also be found in the new MIST0520 artpack collection.

Again, Horsenburger livens things up a bit... the black teletext background already provides all of the fill that he needs, so he goes all fauvist with the outlines, achieving an effect I like to consider... Pride Vader.

Vader isn't the only Darth worth drawing in big textmode pixels, however. Here's an ANSI art illustration of Darth Maul drawn by ANSIchrist, included in the SENSE09 artpack released back in 2002, when Maul was still a wicked kind of going concern.

That brings us to their mutual big boss, Sheev "Darth Sidious" Palpatine, aka The Emperor. The teletext palette's limitations are in effect again here, but in this case I rather fancy they work in Horsenburger's favour.

We'll take a little break while enjoying James Lyle's minimalist ANSI art rendition of an iconic scene from Rogue One, a Star Destroyer looming overhead, preparing to erase Jedha City from the face of the planet.

We've seen the good, we've seen the bad... then there are the bounty hunters, amoral and indifferent to the endless destructive war between the Jedi and the Sith, as long as they can squeeze a few creds out of the conflict. Here's a Horsenburger teletext portrait of IG-88 from the new MIST0520 artpack.

Not textmode at all, but still a lovely high resolution pixelart screen of Boba Fett's ship, Slave-1, from the recent 2XL Crew artpack.

And who flies Boba Fett's ship? Why, Boba Fett of course, Here's a teletext portrait by Nikki from MIST0520.

Here he is again, a fan favorite, drawn in uncoloured ANSI art by Aox for the 2013 Space Invaders Blocktronics artpack.

Acryl of Mean Scheme did a very nice job on this pixelart screen, found in the 9705 Mean Scheme artpack collection released 23 years ago! Not textmode art, but tossed in there as a fellow traveler.

But though Boba Fett wore Mandalorian battle armour, he did not come from Mandalore. This teletext screen shows another, similarly clad, with a better claim to the adjective. This Horsenburger teletext screen celebrating the Mandalorian was included in the MIST0520 artpack collection...

... as was this one, of his traveling companion "The Child", aka Baby Yoda, which provides us an excellent closing bookend for this post. See you next May, when I may finally be forced to get around to sharing Detention Block AA-23 with you! (Don't wait, it really is worthwhile!)