TelidonP5 Project

TelidonP5.js allows NAPLPS vector graphics files to be displayed in a browser using p5.js. Its companion encoder/decoder library naplps.js can also be used independently.
[ See an example ]

Contents:

./archives/ <-- contemporary utility apps, most without source.
./css/ <-- for web demo.
./docs/ <-- original spec documentation and commentary.
./images/ <-- testbed of NAPLPS images.
./js/ <-- TelidonP5.js lives here.
./tools/ <-- misc. new tests and prototypes, with source.

Tutorial:

./tools/rosetta_stone/boom
A simple NAPLPS image explained instruction by instruction. Start here.

Reference Viewers (source included):

TelidonP5.js (Nick Fox-Gieg, 2018)
./js/telidon/
License: MIT.
Language: JavaScript.
Read NAPLPS, export to GIF.
Tested with Firefox, Chrome, Safari.
position: yes / color: yes / text: no / animation: no

TelidonP5 (Nick Fox-Gieg, 2018)
./tools/processing/TelidonP5/
License: MIT.
Language: Java.
Read NAPLPS only.
Tested in Win10, OS X High Sierra.
position: yes / color: no / text: no / animation: no

Ajwm Decoder (Alastair Mayer, 1999)
./archives/ajwm-naplps/
License: GPL.
Language: Java.
Read NAPLPS only.
Tested in Win10, Ubuntu; doesn't work in OS X.
position: yes / color: yes / text: no / animation: no

Reference Viewers (no source):

TurShow (Shawn Rhoads, 1993)
./archives/simtel/TURSHOW6/
License: unknown.
Language: Pascal.
Read NAPLPS only.
Tested with DosBox emulator; doesn't work in Win10.
position: yes / color: yes / text: yes / animation: yes

Microstar Graphics Editor (Microstar Software, 1991)
./archives/simtel/MGE201A/
License: unknown.
Language: unknown.
Read, edit, write NAPLPS.
Tested with WinXP emulator; doesn't work with DosBox emulator.
position: yes / color: yes / text: yes / animation: ?

Personality+III (Microstar Software, 1992)
./archives/simtel/PP3217A/
License: unknown.
Language: unknown.
Read NAPLPS only.
Untested; doesn't work with DosBox emulator.

Note: ./archives/ also contains more untested utilities.

Background info:

August 15th, 2018 marked the 40th anniversary of the Telidon graphics format, created in 1978. The Telidon hardware was discontinued in 1985, but a variant of the format, NAPLPS, thrived and remained in wide use throughout the BBS era, until the early 1990s. Thanks to its exceptionally small file size and limited animation features, it can be seen as a technological ancestor of the animated GIF and the Flash SWF—a medium that allowed new types of work to be both produced and consumed on the same machine.

From 1982–1985, members of the Toronto arts org InterAccess used Telidon systems to produce an ambitious series of interactive BBS-based artworks in the format.

Nick Fox-Gieg
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