Files that took advantage of extra terminal codes buried in the ANSI standard for text transfer and terminal control became known as ANSI codes. This name acts like ANSI exists only for color and cursor control in files, which it does not. It's short for the American National Standards Institute whose home page you're welcome to visit. This particular standard was a way to send all sorts of terminal behavior through to waiting computer terminals, including color, cursor moving, and sounds. Naturally, users saw this as a way to send neat artistic images across the screen, and even if it was to the relatively small group that handled the ANSI the way they expected, it became another way to express themselves.
There's also a very large collection of ANSI tags in the Piracy section, as many groups would go out of their way to provide colorful tags to go with their programs. These other tags are located here.
A portion of these descriptions come courtesy of Tetbrac who took the time to load all these images into an old ANSI viewer called TheDraw and describe them for me. Thanks, Tetbrac!
| Filename | Size | Description of the Textfile| $uperflu.004 | 75127 | Superflu Issue #3 (February 25th, 1996)
| 1014.ans | 6253 | ANSI BBS Ad for the Sector X BBS
| 1701.ans | 1243 | Side and Front Views of the NCC-1701 by Noel Gamboa
| 1701a.ans | 1196 | Side and Front Views of the NCC-1701-A by Noel Gamboa
| 1701d.ans | 1246 | Side and Front Views of the NCC-1701-D by Noel Gamboa
| 1701top.ans | 665 | View of the Top of the NCC-1701
| 1_eye.ans | 13067 | ANSI Animated Explosion/Eyes Looking at you
| 1stbrtbc.ans | 2000 | ANSI: The Beta Connection will celebrate it's 1st birthday on Jan 15, 1991
| 21.ans | 2335 | ANSI Map of United States/Mexico
| 29cents.ans | 6952 | ANSI Graphic of Stamps saying "Love Our Kids"
| 2hello.ans | 3121 | ANSI: Greetings from Elkhart, IN, by Jean Ludwig
| 3_d.ans | 3237 | ANSI: 3-D (With Glasses!) ANSI Image
| 40ishere.ans | 14493 | ANSI: Animated Ad for "TheDraw 4.0 Is Here"
| 4past.ans | 3206 | ANSI: Four Past Midnight by BS (1991)
| 4thjuly1.ans | 1981 | ANSI: Watermelon Time, by Jean Ludwig
| 4thjuly3.ans | 1446 | ANSI: American Flag Heart, Sweet Land of Liberty
| 7seas.ans | 3552 | ANSI: Ad for the Seven Seas BBS
| a_boy.ans | 3277 | ANSI: Generic Announcement for "It's a Boy"
| aalogo.ans | 21734 | ANSI: Logo for the ANSI Club Logo, with Faked Sysop Breakin Screen
| aardvark.ans | 3753 | ANSI: Ad for the Aardvark BBS
| aatiger.ans | 5872 | ANSI: Drawing of a Tiger, by Pennywise
| abcmail.ans | 715 | ANSI: Title Screen for ABC-MAIL BBS
| abstr2.ans | 1664 | ANSI: Drawing of a Tree Reflected in Water
| abstr3.ans | 5531 | ANSI: Drawing of Pastel Forest
| abstr4.ans | 6109 | ANSI: Abstract Stripes
| abstr5.ans | 4687 | ANSI: Absctract Rings
| abstr6.ans | 6223 | ANSI: Abstract Lines by Michael
| abstr7.ans | 3155 | ANSI: Abstract art by Michael Arnett
| abstract.ans | 4465 | ANSI: ANSI Nude by Dan Loffler
| ac-dc.ans | 2549 | ANSI: AC/DC Logo
| ac6_0.ans | 4150 | ANSI: Title for Alpha Colony VI
| advice.ans | 5371 | ANSI: Advice to Back Up your Files
| aerosmt3.ans | 1406 | ANSI: Aerosmith Logo by Keith Arends
| aerosmth.ans | 1407 | BBS: Second Aerosmith Band Logo by Keith Arends
| afmid.ans | 1818 | PuTTYANSI: After Midnight BBS
| after5.ans | 2250 | ANSI: Ad for the After Five BBS
| agama.ans | 2040 | ANSI: Image of Robot/Agama
| ah_64.ans | 3386 | ANSI: Image of the AH-64 Apache Helicopter
| ahhh!.ans | 3664 | ANSI: Screaming Astronaut
| alabama.ans | 3404 | ANSI: Road to Alabama (With Banjo Player)
| alarm.ans | 4745 | ANSI: Animation of Clock Counting down the Last Days of 1990
| alf5.ans | 9332 | ANSI: Alf, the Supreme Being?
| alice.ans | 4679 | ANSI: Alice's Restaurant
| alien.ans | 701 | ANSI: Image of Alien Peeking over Wall
| alterlin.ans | 1339 | ANSI: Title Screen for the Alterlink BBS
| ambrosia.ans | 14588 | ANSI: Pic from Super Dimensiona Fortress Macross II (Haruhiko Mikimoto) (1992)
| americom.ans | 815 | ANSI: Ad for the Americom BBS
| amishbug.ans | 2096 | ANSI: The Road to Thy Neighbor's House is Never Long, by Jean Ludwig
| anarchy.ans | 419 | ANSI: "Anarchy" Logo
| anbbs.ans | 1223 | ANSI: Ad for The All Niter BBS in Brockville Ontario
| angle1.ans | 2335 | ANSI: Image of some Angled Boxes
| animated.ans | 29895 | ANSI: Animated Images of Robots and Other Stuff
| ans_0001.ans | 4797 | ANSI: Title Screen for the Kandy Shack PC-Board
| ans_0002.ans | 2727 | ANSI Ad for the The Aero BBS
| ans_0003.ans | 5494 | ANSI: Title Screen for the Premium BBS
| ans_0004.ans | 2550 | ANSI: Title Screen for the Sandcastle BBS
| ans_0020.ans | 3751 | ANSI: Title Screen of the Underdogs Mininet BBS
| ans_0054.ans | 2850 | ANSI: Title Screen of the Starbase Alpha BBS
| ansi-tut.txt | 16128 | DOCUMENTATION: Using the ANSI Driver by C. Scot Giles
| ansi1.ans | 19075 | ANSI: Four Past Midnight BBS Ad
| ansi2.ans | 11675 | ANSI: The Dumper's Den BBS Title Screen
| ansi3.ans | 5811 | ANSI: Title Screen for the Paladium BBS
| ansi4.ans | 18743 | ANSI: Title Screen of the Digital Noise Alliance
| ansi5.ans | 6364 | ANSI: Title Screen of the Land of Destruction BBS
| ansi6.ans | 18658 | ANSI: Excellent Animated Logo for the Shadow Gate BBS
| ansi_art.ans | 8075 | ANSI: "Ansi Art" in animated lettering
| ansi_la.ans | 2247 | ANSI: The Los Angeles Public Domain Software ANSI of LA Collection
| ansiavtr.txt | 45680 | Full Explanation of the AVATAR Video Control System
| ansib.txt | 10496 | ANSI Bombs II: Tips and Techniques, by The Raging Golem
| ansib20.dox | 1675 | Documentation for ANSI Bomb version 2.0 by Attitude Adjuster
| ansibmbs.txt | 16320 | Creating ANSI Bombs, by Genesis and Rad Man
| ansibomb | 10395 | ANSI Bombs II: Tips and Techniques by The Raging Golem
| ansibomb.bom | 0 | ANSI Bombs, by Neuromancer
| ansibomb.cap | 8258 | The Ansi Bomb FAQ v0.4 by Jason Livingston, 05/11/1995
| ansibomb.txt | 10496 | ANSI Bombs II: Tips and Techniques by The Raging Golem
| ansicode | 3215 | ANSI Codes Demystified
| ansicode.txt | 4857 | ANSI Codes of Terminals and Terminal Emulation
| ansidraw.txt | 17280 | One on One Interview with Ian Davis: The Creator of The Draw by RaD Man of ACiD Productions (May 26, 1992)
| ansigif.txt | 3680 | Pros and Cons to GIF to ANSI Converters by TANK of ACiD
| ansilime.ans | 3143 | ANSI: Title of the Lime Light BBS
| ansimusi.txt | 18720 | Creating ANSI Music
| ansinovi.txt | 31680 | Reassignment of your Function Keys using ANSI
| ansisze1.ans | 1708 | |