Printing ASCII “Art” Like it’s 1980!

This is it – the Data-100 printer prints in this one! And, if we remember back all those episodes ago when I was looking at the CPU5 data platter, there was a file called “GIRL82.” Well, what better way to test the printer than by printing out some vintage ASCII p… err… science!

If you absolutely have to know what "GIRL82" is, have a quick gander here, you might find what you're looking for:

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Intro Music adapted from:
Artist: The Runaway Five
Title: The Shinra Shuffle

Thanks for watching!

Chapters
0:00 What is a Data-100 printer?
2:36 Can’t touch this. Hammertime.
5:43 Plugging it in and setting it up
7:50 Test prints
9:39 Re-inking the ribbon
12:19 Cleaning up the rest of the printer
14:27 The infamous “GIRL82”
16:43 Curse you Red Baron!
20:00 Now that the printer is done, what’s next?
21:39 Baby bunnies!

[Toothily]

“Smut is the best kind of art” — Andy Warhol, probably

[TimoNoko]

I made TV-camera digitizer in 1979 just for the purpose for producing realistic Ascii-art. One Mona Lisa in archives was definitively mine.

[vinny]

I remember my dad taking me to his workplace when I was in my early teens to show me the computers. He didn't understand them, he was a craftsman, but he knew I was fascinated by them. The men working on the computer where fixing the printer and when they saw me basically drooling over this magnificent machine they turned it on to show how it printed and they printed this exact calendar. At the time I was more interested in the absurd speed at which the image was printed than the girl but I think I still have that print somewhere.

[SheeplessNW]

As soon as you said CAL82, I knew it would be a Snoopy calendar!

[klocugh]

Usagi: Printing just $ is pretty boring.
Scrooge McDuck:

[galaxybrian]

i think currently you are the channel that I'm most excited to see upload! your energy is just infectious and even though I know almost nothing about the technology you are working on, i find every single video you produce absolutely fascinating! I hope to see you continue to grow, you really deserve the success after all your hard work!

[ScottHenion]

Back in the old days, I worked for a company that among other things sold line printers. The text file we would print as a test was a Mona Lisa image that spanned 2 sheets wide a 4 high you taped together. It did 4 passes on each line. It was impressive.
We did chain and band printers up to 2500 lines a minute. Old mechanical stuff was always interesting to watch.

[vojtechtomes]

Turning the lock by using the handle of a rake pick was the funniest part of the video for me :D

[pdrg]

I have and will never see or use a Centurion, but have enjoyed the series just because of your natural enthusiasm pulling me in :)

[rickhole]

Great episode! I was not at all surprised that reforming the cap (the easy way, yet!) fixed the jitter. Take heart, that 1982 calendar will be usable in 2027.

[wood]

Next step is to port The Print Shop to the Centurion so you can print banners.

[raymitchell]

Of course we all wanted to see Girl82... thanks for the link in the notes... It's not too spicy, it's just ASCII or you can call it Spicy ASCII!!! Hey, that kind of rhymes 🙂

[neilbarnett]

Our Snoopy prints used to get the same priority as any undergraduate work. We used to have to punch our own card for these in 1976.

[pamdemonia]

Did not realize centronics connectors for printers were that old. Amazing.

[markm]

Cool - my first job in IT back in 1989 was as a OPs person working on some Burroughs kit. This was at a debt collection agency in the UK and we had to send out thousands of letters to customers each week -to facilitate this we used chain(or band as we called them) printers. My job was to clean the bands every Friday with a cotton bud and isopropyl. Good times.

[frankowalker]

Those bunnies are looking good and healthy. You've done great work on them, too.

[mikefochtman]

My brother told a story about messing around with the driver code on his system for printer like that but slightly faster (supposedly 300 LPM). His story was one day something got wrong and it started doing just VT's constantly. Since the cover was open, before he could stop it paper was shooting straight up out of the thing and about 20-30 feet of 'green bar' was laying all over the floor.

Watching yours brings back memories, a key part of being a programmer back then was printing out the listings and binding them up to hang in the cabinet. Ahhh... it was somewhat sad when we finally stopped and threw all those 10-15 year old listings out to clear out the cabinets.

[iGregory]

Wow... that sound brings back memories... back in the 80's I work evenings as a Computer Operators. I ran two Sperry/Univac mainframes, running jobs that would process orders that were entered during the day and generating reports, invoices, pick/pack lists, etc... that printer sound really brings me back.

[TheVintageApplianceEmporium]

You've done an incredible job David. Really enjoyed the journey so far :)

[jeromethiel]

I remember an article in "80 microcomputing" (a TRS-80 based computer magazine) that showed how to create ascii art from a photograph. The ascii symbols were chosen for ratio of light to dark, and had to be done by hand. You created a grid on the photograph, and assigned light/dark values, and then the program would try to pick characters to match.

The picture featured in the article was the authors wife's face. Very attractive lady, IIRC. Definitely not Pr0n, but i can imagine that was done a fair bit. Computer nerds being a lonely lot, for the most part. ^-^