Beagle Bros Software ran from 1980 to 1991 out of San Diego, making Apple II utilities that were as memorable for their packaging as for their code. Their box art was hand-drawn and funny. Their documentation included tips you didn’t ask for. Their philosophy — no copy protection, hobbyists first, software should be fun — was the opposite of the locked-down computing culture that followed. They cared about presence: the person sitting at the keyboard right now, figuring something out, feeling capable.
This collection of ten ASCII panels captures that spirit: the beagle mascot, the Apple II as holy object, the floppy disk as digital soul, the programmer as mystic, the DOS command line as power. The last panel quotes founder Bert Kersey’s actual philosophy. There’s something here about tools that make you feel good using them — which is its own form of attention, its own argument about what software is for. Recovered from archives; originally created as a tribute to a company that understood the human side of computing.
BEAGLE BROS ASCII ART COLLECTION
==================================
Inspired by the quirky, creative computer graphics of Beagle Bros Software (1980-1991)
1. THE BEAGLE MASCOT
================
/| /|
( :v: )
|(_)|
,---' U '---,
/ \
/ B E A G L E \
| B R O S 1 9 8 0 |
\ /
'---,_______,---'
| | | |
| | | |
_|_|_|_|_
2. APPLE II COMPUTER SHRINE
========================
┌─────────────────┐
│ APPLE ][ │
│ ┌───────────┐ │
│ │ █ █ █ █ █ │ │
│ │ █ █ █ █ █ │ │ <- YOUR PROGRAMS
│ │ █ █ █ █ █ │ │ LIVE HERE!
│ └───────────┘ │
│ [DISK ][ │
└─────────────────┘
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
═════════════════════
HOLY COMPUTING ALTAR
3. FLOPPY DISK WORSHIP
===================
╔══════════╗
║ 5.25" ║
║ DISK ║ <- HANDLE WITH CARE!
║ ║ THIS IS YOUR
║ ● ║ DIGITAL SOUL
║ ║
║ BEAGLE ║
║ BROS ║
╚══════════╝
4. PROGRAMMING MYSTIC
==================
/\ /\
( ◯◯ )
\ ∪ /
||||
┌──────┴┴┴┴──────┐
│ APPLESOFT │
│ GURU │
│ 10 PRINT "HI" │
│ 20 GOTO 10 │
│ │
│ INFINITE WISDOM │
└─────────────────┘
||| ||| ||| |||
TYPE RUN AND WATCH
THE MAGIC HAPPEN!
5. DOS BOSS COMMAND CENTER
=======================
╔═══════════════════════════╗
║ D O S B O S S 3 . 3 ║
╠═══════════════════════════╣
║ >CATALOG ║
║ >LOAD PROGRAM ║ <- BOSS MODE
║ >RUN ║ ACTIVATED
║ >SAVE MASTERPIECE ║
║ ║
║ YOU ARE THE DISK MASTER! ║
╚═══════════════════════════╝
▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲
POWER FLOWS UPWARD TO YOU
6. SHAPE TABLE MADNESS
===================
████ ████ ████
██ ████ ████ ██
██ ██
██ APPLE MECHANIC ██ <- DRAW YOUR
██ ██ DREAMS IN
██ CREATE SHAPES ██ HI-RES!
██ ██
██ ████ ████ ██
████ ████ ████
\ SPRITES /
\ GALORE! /
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
7. TIMEOUT SERIES TRIBUTE
======================
⏰ ⏰ ⏰ TIMEOUT! ⏰ ⏰ ⏰
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ APPLEWORKS + ++ │
│ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ │
│ │T│ │I│ │M│ │E│ │O│ │ ENHANCE
│ │I│ │M│ │E│ │O│ │U│ │ YOUR
│ │M│ │E│ │O│ │U│ │T│ │ WORKFLOW!
│ │E│ │O│ │U│ │T│ │!│ │
│ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ │
│ │
│ MACROS! FONTS! TOOLS! │
└─────────────────────────┘
8. UTILITY CITY SKYLINE
====================
/\ /\ /\
/ \ / \ / \
/ 21 \ /UTIL\ /ITY \ <- 21 UTILITIES
/______\/______\/______\ IN ONE PACKAGE!
|COPYA ||RENAME||FORMAT |
| || || |
|DISK ||FILE ||DISK |
|TOOLS ||TOOLS ||TOOLS |
|______||______||_______|
|||| |||| ||||
BEAGLE BROS UTILITY CITY
(POPULATION: HELPFUL)
9. I.O. SILVER GAME TRIBUTE
========================
☆ ☆ ☆ I.O. SILVER ☆ ☆ ☆
┌─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┐
│ │█│ │█│ │█│ │█│ STRATEGY
├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ MEETS
│█│ │█│ │█│ │█│ │ ACTION!
├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤
│ │█│ │█│ │█│ │█│ CAN YOU
├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ CONQUER
│█│ │█│ │█│ │█│ │ THE GRID?
└─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┘
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
LEGENDARY SINCE 1984
10. BEAGLE BROS PHILOSOPHY
======================
╔═══════════════════════════════╗
║ "SOFTWARE SHOULD BE FUN!" ║
║ ║
║ * NO COPY PROTECTION ║
║ * QUIRKY DOCUMENTATION ║ <- THE BEAGLE
║ * HELPFUL TIPS EVERYWHERE ║ WAY
║ * HOBBYISTS COME FIRST! ║
║ ║
║ BERT KERSEY, FOUNDER ║
╚═══════════════════════════════╝
▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲
WISDOM FROM THE BROS