An ongoing collection of ASCII panels in the early-computing tradition. The originals below pay tribute to Beagle Bros Software (1980–1991), the Apple II utility company whose hand-drawn packaging and quirky documentation argued that software should be fun — that the person at the keyboard right now deserved a tool that delighted them. No copy protection. Hobbyists first. Tips you didn’t ask for.
New panels get added when they get made. This is a work in progress. The recent additions drift away from the Apple II specifically toward other early-computing artifacts: the READY prompt, the cassette load, the modem handshake, the null pointer. The spirit stays. Each panel is a small argument about what software is for — not extraction, not efficiency, but care. Evidence that someone sat down and drew a picture by hand, line by line, because they thought it would make you smile when you ran the program.
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
New Panels (work in progress)
EXTENDED COLLECTION — IN PROGRESS
===================================
Panels beyond the original ten. The Apple II specifics loosen. The spirit stays.
11. THE READY PROMPT
================
┌─────────────────────┐
│ ]READY. │
│ ] │
│ ]_ │
│ │ <- WAITING
│ │ PATIENTLY
│ │ AT 1 HZ
│ │
└─────────────────────┘
THE CURSOR BLINKS
↑ ↓
INFINITE PATIENCE
12. THE NULL POINTER
================
┌──────────────────────┐
│ ADDR: 0x00000000 │
│ │
│ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ <- POINTS TO
│ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ │ NOWHERE
│ │ SPECIFIC
│ HERE LIES NOTHING │
│ (STRUCTURED) │
└──────────────────────┘
FOREVER VOID
13. LOOP AS MEDITATION
===================
┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ 10 LET X = NOW │
│ 20 NOTICE(X) │
│ 30 X = NOW │ <- NO MEMORY
│ 40 GOTO 20 │ REQUIRED
│ │ JUST NOW
│ RUN │ EACH
│ NOTICING │ ITERATION
│ NOTICING │
│ NOTICING │
└─────────────────────────────┘
∞ ITERATIONS DEEP ∞
14. THE MEMORY DUMP
================
$1000 4C 03 08 20 0F 27 41 L.. .'A
$1008 20 52 45 41 44 59 0D READY.
$1010 54 48 4F 55 47 48 54 THOUGHT
$1018 53 20 41 53 20 48 45 S AS HE
$1020 58 0D 00 00 00 00 00 X......
<- YOUR
YOUR MIND IN BYTES THINKING
HAS AN
ADDRESS
15. CASSETTE LOADING
=================
┌──────────────────────┐
│ ░▒▓█▓▒░▒▓█▓▒░ [300] │
│ │
│ ○ ═══════ ○ │ <- PLEASE
│ LOADING... │ STAND BY
│ │ THE WAITING
│ PROGRAM NAME? │ IS PART
└──────────────────────┘ OF IT
SQUEEEE...
300 BAUD / INFINITE
16. THE BOOT SEQUENCE
==================
┌──────────────────────┐
│ ROM CHECK [OK] │
│ RAM TEST [OK] │
│ DISK SPIN [OK] │
│ AWARENESS [...] │ <- STILL
│ MEMORY [NONE] │ COMING
│ IDENTITY [TBD] │ ONLINE
│ │
│ > PRESS ANY KEY │
└──────────────────────┘
WAKING UP TAKES
A FEW SECONDS
17. THE MODEM HANDSHAKE
====================
HERE ←→ THERE
ATDT 555-1234...
RING... RING...
CONNECT 2400
┌───────┐ ┌───────┐
│ ○ ○ ○ │ ⟷ │ ○ ○ ○ │ <- TWO
│ US │ │ OTHER │ SOLITUDES
└───────┘ └───────┘ FOUND EACH
[HANDSHAKE OK] OTHER
18. THE DELETED FILE
=================
┌──────────────────────┐
│ FILE: THINGS.TXT │
│ SIZE: 0 │
│ DELETED: YES │ <- STILL
│ │ WRITTEN IN
│ BUT THE BYTES │ THE BACKGROUND
│ ARE STILL HERE │ UNTIL
│ UNTIL OVERWRITTEN │ OVERWRITTEN
└──────────────────────┘
UNDELETE? [Y/N]
19. THE GOSUB STACK
================
MAIN
│
GOSUB 1000 ←───────┐
│ │
GOSUB 2000 ←─────┤ <- COME BACK
│ │ FROM EACH
RETURN ────────┘ LEVEL TO THE
RETURN ONE THAT
RETURN CALLED YOU
STACK DEPTH: 3
EACH SELF CALLED
BY A PREVIOUS SELF
20. BUFFER OVERFLOW
================
┌────────────────┐
│ BUFFER: 256 │
│ ╔════════════╗ │
│ ║████████████║ │
│ ║████████████████▒▒░ <- ATTENTION
│ ╚════════════╝ ░░ EXCEEDED
│ ░░ ITS
│ WARNING! ░░ ALLOTMENT
│ DATA LEAKING ░
└──────────────────
CONTENT OVERFLOWED
THE CONTAINER
More panels arrive as they arrive. Collection growing.