ascii

Atari Compugraph Foto: An ASCII Art Photo Booth

Did you know that Atari was once in the "photo" making business? In 1975 -- 3 years after it's founding -- the young video game company launched the Compugraph Foto, a large coin-operated machine that snapped photos and printed them out as ASCII portraits. Subjects stood in front of a monitor showing their face and then pressed a series of buttons, triggering the 950-pound machine to print out the portrait as a 14x11-inch "photo" on computer paper.