ACiDDraw COM file

Revision as of 12:07, 16 August 2024

ACiDDraw COM file is a format for ANSI Art-style character graphics. It is associated with ACiDDraw, an ANSI Art editor for DOS.

It is in the form of a DOS .COM file that, when executed, displays the graphics in a full-screen viewer.

Discussion

There are apparently just two freely-distributable versions of ACiDDraw that support COM format: 1.20 and 1.25r. But, presumably, there is at least one registered edition of v1.20 that creates different files, and which hasn't been studied.

Format details

Some files end with a SAUCE record.

Identification

Let B be the byte pattern:

b8 03 00 cd 10 b4 01 b9 00 20 cd 10 e8 cb ff ba 
?? ?? 90 e8 e5 ff 3d 1b 01 75 03 e9 bd 00 3d 00
...

COM files made by v1.20-unregistered are observed to start with bytes e9 9f 00 19 00, and have B at offset 162. The text "Created in an UNREGISTERED ACiDDRAW v1.2!" appears at offset 6, though in many files, it's been modified.

COM files made by v1.25r start with eb 42 90 19 00, and have B at offset 68. Text "Created by ACiDDRAW v1.2" appears at offset 6.

More generally, B appears at the target of the relative JMP instruction at the beginning of the file ([eb xx] or [e9 xx xx]).

Software

• ACiDDraw (write-only)
  • ACiDDraw v1.20 (a.k.a. v1.2) (1995-08-01)
  • ACiDDraw v1.25r (1999-09-01)

Sample files

• smr-02.zip → RIOT_NFO.COM
• flip-26.zip → 7K-SL1.COM
• echo0197.zip → QUACKERS.COM
• sik-08.zip → RUSHHOUR.COM