Original idea of competition and instructions by Logiker

Download links

  • Download the official version here: Playscii (created by JP LeBreton)
  • Download the ATASCII Exporter (created by Logiker and gorgh)

Installation instructions

  • Download and install Playscii by extracting it into a folder.
  • Download ATASCII XEX Exporter and extract all directories (except Screenshots) into the folder where files of Playscii are located
  • Run Playscii

Using Playscii for ATASCII Art

Playscii is a very versatile tool to create not only different kinds of ASCII art but also animations. We'll focus only on the part of creating standard ATASCII (ATARI ASCII) here. 

New file

After starting the editor press:

File -> New

Select a name.

Leave the Width and Height.

Remember the save folder!

Select charset and colors

Press space so that the charset/color picker pops up.

Select "AtariAll" as character set by clicking on "Set: ...". (If you can't see 'AtariAll' you need to install it. Otherwise select 'atari', which has no inverted characters.)

Optional: Select "atari" as palette by clicking on "Palette: ...".

Paint

Now you should be able to paint. Be aware:

You can use only two shades of same colour. Colours are defined during export to XEX file.

Export

Click on 'File' -> 'Export...'

(Do not use 'Export last'. This option does not work always.)

Select the Atari XEX Exporter. (If you can't see this entry you need to install it.)

Chose a file name and click Export.

export 01

Then specify colours with which entry will be presented:

export 02

An executable bin file will be created.

Colours of background and characters can be specified using table below and border colour is just selected by counting from 0 and left top corner of it or just:

border color = (color * 16) + (luminance * 2)

export 03

Run the program

You can directly open .xex-files with emulators like Altirra.