Converting PETSCII to (animated) GIF or (A)PNG

Tristan Miller

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Jun 1, 2021, 3:18:29 AM6/1/21

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Greetings.

In the early 1990s I used to run a BBS that hosted many SEQ files
containing PETSCII graphics, including C64 colour and cursor control
codes. When the files were transmitted to users at 1200 baud, they
produced clever and beautiful animations. I'd like to convert these
animations to a format that can be easily viewed from a modern web browser.

So does anyone know of a free, preferably command-line tool that will
convert my PETSCII animations to an animated GIF or APNG? I know I
could write a simple CBM BASIC program to view the files, run it in
VICE, capture the emulator output to a video file, extract the
individual frames with ImageMagick, and then reassemble them into an
animated GIF using gifsicle. But that's a rather kludgy process that
requires a lot of manual intervention for each and every file I want to
convert; I was hoping there might be some dedicated tool that I could
just run directly on a given SEQ file and automagically get a GIF or
APNG as output.

Regards,
Tristan

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Tristan Miller
Free Software developer, ferret herder, logologist
https://logological.org/
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Rob Swindell

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Jun 5, 2021, 1:20:16 AM6/5/21

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Re: Converting PETSCII to (animated) GIF or (A)PNG
By: Tristan Miller to All on Tue Jun 01 2021 09:18 am

> Greetings.
>
> In the early 1990s I used to run a BBS that hosted many SEQ files
> containing PETSCII graphics, including C64 colour and cursor control
> codes. When the files were transmitted to users at 1200 baud, they
> produced clever and beautiful animations.

Do you happen to have an archive of those SEQ files available for download
somwhere? They'd be useful to demo/test the PETSCII support in my BBS software
(www.synchro.net).

Thanks,

-Rob
--
digital man

Synchronet/BBS Terminology Definition #67:
SCFG = Synchronet Configuration Utility
Norco, CA WX: 61.6øF, 81.0% humidity, 3 mph E wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

Tristan Miller

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Jun 6, 2021, 2:20:40 PM6/6/21

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Greetings.

On 04/06/2021 11.35, Rob Swindell wrote:
> Re: Converting PETSCII to (animated) GIF or (A)PNG
> By: Tristan Miller to All on Tue Jun 01 2021 09:18 am
>
> > Greetings.
> >
> > In the early 1990s I used to run a BBS that hosted many SEQ files
> > containing PETSCII graphics, including C64 colour and cursor control
> > codes. When the files were transmitted to users at 1200 baud, they
> > produced clever and beautiful animations.
>
> Do you happen to have an archive of those SEQ files available for download
> somwhere? They'd be useful to demo/test the PETSCII support in my BBS software
> (www.synchro.net).

No, just what I have on floppies somewhere. I haven't yet gotten around
to copying them to a modern PC, in part because I don't have one of
those specially modified drives that would let me read the flip-side of
a double-sided disk with Kryoflux.

Rob Swindell

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Jun 6, 2021, 9:20:10 PM6/6/21

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Re: Re: Converting PETSCII to (animated) GIF or (A)PNG

By: Tristan Miller to Rob Swindell on Sun Jun 06 2021 08:20 pm

> > Do you happen to have an archive of those SEQ files available for download
> > somwhere? They'd be useful to demo/test the PETSCII support in my BBS
> > software
> > (www.synchro.net).
>
>
> No, just what I have on floppies somewhere. I haven't yet gotten around
> to copying them to a modern PC, in part because I don't have one of
> those specially modified drives that would let me read the flip-side of
> a double-sided disk with Kryoflux.

I recently used the services at https://www.floppydisk.com/ to restore some 30
year old 5.25" floppies. They did a great job.

If you ever get those SEQ files online, please let me know. Thanks,
--
digital man

Rush quote #45:
The treasure of a life is a measure of love and respect
Norco, CA WX: 70.5øF, 59.0% humidity, 10 mph SE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

Glenn P.,

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Jun 7, 2021, 6:10:28 PM6/7/21

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On 06-Jun-21 at 2:20pm -0000, <psych...@nothingisreal.com> wrote:

> ...in part because I don't have one of those specially modified

> drives that would let me read the flip-side of a double-sided
> disk with Kryoflux.

> Regards,
> Tristan

I say, why couldn't you just turn the disk over...???

-- %%%%%%%%% "Glenn P.," <C128UserD...@FVI.Net> %%%%%%%%%%%%
===================================================================
"All of the scenes in this program, whether actual or created,
depict authenticated facts." ------------------------------------
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Al DeRosa

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Jun 7, 2021, 7:20:09 PM6/7/21

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On 06 Jun 2021, Rob Swindell said the following...
RS> >
RS> > No, just what I have on floppies somewhere. I haven't yet gotten aroun
RS> > to copying them to a modern PC, in part because I don't have one of
RS> > those specially modified drives that would let me read the flip-side of
RS> > a double-sided disk with Kryoflux.
RS>

Jim Brain from RetroInovations has what is called a Zoomfloppy device, you
install some drivers on your PC and hook this thing up to a USB port and then
a CBM drive to the zoomfloppy. You can then copy disks to .d64 images. Works
great and does a great job getting the disks copied.. That is if you have a
Commodore Disk Drive.. If not then the only thing is the Greaseweazel like
you said....

Robert Roland

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Jun 8, 2021, 6:33:12 AM6/8/21

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On Mon, 7 Jun 2021 18:10:23 -0400, "Glenn P.,"
<C128UserD...@FVI.Net> wrote:

>On 06-Jun-21 at 2:20pm -0000, <psych...@nothingisreal.com> wrote:
>
> > ...in part because I don't have one of those specially modified
> > drives that would let me read the flip-side of a double-sided
> > disk with Kryoflux.

>I say, why couldn't you just turn the disk over...???

Because then the disk spins the wrong way.
--
RoRo

Myles Skinner

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Jun 8, 2021, 9:54:20 PM6/8/21

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Oh, that's an easy one. Just flip the drive over.

ms

Tristan Miller

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Jun 14, 2021, 3:54:59 AM6/14/21

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Greetings.

On 08/06/2021 00.10, Glenn P., wrote:
> On 06-Jun-21 at 2:20pm -0000, <psych...@nothingisreal.com> wrote:
>
> > ...in part because I don't have one of those specially modified
> > drives that would let me read the flip-side of a double-sided
> > disk with Kryoflux.
>
> > Regards,
> > Tristan
>
> I say, why couldn't you just turn the disk over...???

This is explained in the manual that KryoFlux distributes for its
specially modified 5.25" drives:
http://www.kryoflux.com/download/kf_525modded_manual.pdf See in
particular the section "About flippy disks" on Page 7.