ANSI art

Not only did it considerably simplify the process of making an ANSI art screen from scratch, but it also included a variety of "fonts", large letters constructed from box and block characters, and transition animations such as dissolve and clock.

Many of these ANSI graphics were created by Drew Markham, who went on to form Xatrix Entertainment/Gray Matter Studios and develop Redneck Rampage and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, among other titles.

The rise of the internet caused the decline of both BBSes and DOS users, which made ANSI graphics harder to create and to view due to the lack of software compatible with the new dominant operating system Microsoft Windows.

In the end of 2002, all traditional ANSI art groups like ACiD, ICE, CIA, Fire, Dark and many others, were no longer making periodic releases of artworks, called "artpacks" and the community of artists almost vanished.

The creation of newer Microsoft Windows compatible software like ACiDDraw, and TundraDraw, allowed the small number of remaining artists to keep creating ANSI art.