--- title: 'Pixelia BBS' url: 'https://wiki.teletypegames.org/services/pixelia-bbs' markdown: 'https://wiki.teletypegames.org/services/pixelia-bbs.md' lang: en date: '2026-11-01' description: 'The art board of the BBS network: classic ANSI art from the 16colo.rs archive, a shared 40×25 canvas that every caller paints on at the same time, and the Wall of the works saved from it. Live at teletypegames.org:2332, in the browser on bbsweb, and through TTG Gate BBS Overview A Ruby app on the…' taxonomy: tag: - howto --- # Pixelia BBS > The art board of the BBS network: classic ANSI art from the 16colo.rs archive, a shared 40×25 canvas that every caller paints on at the same time, and the Wall of the works saved from it. > > **Live at `teletypegames.org:2332`**, in the browser on [bbsweb](https://bbsweb.teletypegames.org), and through [TTG Gate BBS](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/services/ttg-gate-bbs) # Overview A Ruby app on the [**rubbs**](https://git.teletypegames.org/engines/rubbs) gem, like the [Teletype BBS](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/services/teletype-bbs), [Scriptorium BBS](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/services/scriptorium-bbs) and [Commodex BBS](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/services/commodex-bbs). It has two faces on one port: - **Modern**: ANSI colours, windows, menus and the mouse (SyncTERM, NetRunner, PuTTY, bbsweb). A piece of art on the whole screen, the canvas in a window with a clickable palette. - **Commodore 64**: PETSCII on a 40×25 screen, for a C64 terminal program (CCGMS, Novaterm, UltimateTerm) behind a WiFi modem. The canvas is the C64 screen itself, and an ANSI piece is shown 40 columns at a time. A call starts with rubbs' `BBS::Terminal` question: RETURN takes the guess, `1` picks the modern face, `2` the C64. # The gallery **16colo.rs.** The board browses the [16colo.rs](https://16colo.rs) archive through its public API: a year, a pack, a file. It lists the text-art files (`.ans`, `.asc`, `.diz`, `.nfo`, `.txt`, `.ice`, and any file whose SAUCE says ASCII, ANSI or ANSiMation) with their title, artist, group and 16colo.rs address. Nothing is mirrored: a file is fetched when someone opens it (at most 512 KB) and kept in a 100 MB disk cache; the listings stay an hour in memory. The board renders the art itself: it reads the SAUCE record, CP437, the ANSI.SYS escapes and iCE colours, wraps at the SAUCE width, and stops at 1000 rows. On a modern terminal the piece scrolls on the whole screen. On a C64 it comes in pages of 40 columns: the CGA colours go to the nearest C64 colour, a coloured background becomes reversed video, and `R` or CRSR right steps across a wider piece. **The Wall** holds the works saved from the canvas, newest first, with title, handle and date, drawn natively on both faces. # The canvas One shared 40×25 canvas, the size of the C64 screen, so both faces show it cell for cell. Everyone on it sees the others' strokes within a few seconds. A cell holds one character in one of the 16 C64 colours, as ink on black or reversed; that is what a C64 cell can show, so the picture looks the same everywhere. The characters are the ones both a Unicode terminal and PETSCII have: letters, digits, most signs, box lines, blocks and the half blocks. **On a modern terminal:** | Key | Action | |---|---| | F3 | Open the canvas | | Arrows, typing | Move, paint the character | | F7, F8 | Previous / next ink (or click a swatch) | | F9 or Ctrl-R | Reverse on and off | | Insert or Ctrl-G | Glyph mode: letters paint the brush glyphs | | Mouse | A click places the cursor, a drag or a right click paints | | Ctrl-Z or Ctrl-U | Undo your own last cells | | Ctrl-S | Save to the Wall (Alt-S in the form) | | F2 | 16colo.rs by year | | F4 | The Wall | | Alt-X | Log off | **On a Commodore 64:** CRSR moves, typing paints, DEL rubs out, F3/F4 change the ink, F5 turns reverse on and off, F6 switches glyph mode (the letters are laid out like the keyboard: `Q W E / A S D / Z X C` are the box corners, tees and the cross, `G` is a full block, `T` and `B` the top and bottom halves). RETURN, RUN/STOP or ← opens the command row: ink, reverse, glyphs, save, help, quit. F1 and F7 are left alone, UltimateTerm keeps them. The board sends only the cells that changed, a couple of bytes each, so the canvas stays quick at 1200 baud. Limits: 20 cells a second per call, one Wall save every five minutes per call, a title of 32 and a handle of 16 characters. # Configuration and data | Variable | Default | | |---|---|---| | `PIXELIA_BBS_DATA` | `data` | the canvas, the Wall, the cache | | `PIXELIA_BBS_API_URL` | `https://api.16colo.rs` | the 16colo.rs API | | `PIXELIA_BBS_SITE_URL` | `https://16colo.rs` | the files and the links shown | | `PIXELIA_BBS_USER_AGENT` | `PixeliaBBS/1.0 (+https://teletypegames.org; …)` | sent to 16colo.rs | | `PIXELIA_BBS_API_TTL` | `3600` | seconds a listing is kept | | `PIXELIA_BBS_MAX_FILE_KB` | `512` | the largest art file fetched | | `PIXELIA_BBS_CACHE_MB` | `100` | the art cache's size | | `PIXELIA_BBS_MAX_ROWS` | `1000` | rows rendered of a piece | | `PIXELIA_BBS_PAINT_RATE` | `20` | cells a second per call | | `PIXELIA_BBS_WALL_COOLDOWN` | `300` | seconds between two saves of a call | The canvas is `data/canvas.json` (written every two seconds), the Wall one JSON file a work in `data/works/`. The admins moderate on the server: ```sh docker exec pixelia-bbs bin/works list # the Wall docker exec pixelia-bbs bin/works show ID docker exec pixelia-bbs bin/works remove ID docker exec pixelia-bbs bin/canvas clear # archives the canvas to data/archive/, then blanks it ``` The board has no secrets. # Under the hood A push to master deploys it from Woodpecker (RuboCop, compose check, `ci-deploy pixelia-bbs`); the container is `pixelia-bbs`, in `/srv/stacks/pixelia-bbs`, and `data/` stays between deploys. The entrypoint updates rubbs on start. The code follows the house layering: `lib/domain` (the colour, glyph, canvas, work, SAUCE and art models; the 16colo.rs, art-cache, canvas and work repositories; `AnsiRenderService`, `GalleryService`, `CanvasService`, `WallService`; the composition root `PixeliaBBS`) knows nothing of telnet, and `lib/ui` holds `UI::Modern` with its canvas widget and viewer, and `UI::Petscii` with a screen copy that sends only the differences. 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