generating scene-style .nfo files in 2026 - cleberg.net
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generating scene-style .nfo files in 2026
2026-08-20 · Announcing nfogen, a small utility to generate NFO files.
#development
Table of Contents
1. What Is an .nfo File?
2. The Aesthetic<br>2.1. ASCII Art and Box Drawing
2.2. Codepage 437
3. Introducing: nfogen<br>3.1. Sample Output
4. Usage<br>4.1. Installation
4.2. Generating a File
5. How It Works<br>5.1. Width
5.2. Character Sets
5.3. Banner Generator
5.4. Resolution Order
6. The Future
1. What Is an .nfo File?
If you're unfortunate enough not to have lived through the heyday of .nfo files, I want to provide some context. Because honestly, this project might seem weird or useless without it.
First, an NFO file (short for info/informational) is a file format originally released in 1990. This file format was used by various projects, but especially by warez/scene groups to provide info about their projects. This might include credits, installation instructions, BBS/contact info, greetz/notes, etc.
For example, here's the bonzai.nfo file for a patched save game for Lemmings III, with credits to those involved and instructions to get in touch.
Note: The original file on textfiles.com contains CP437 bytes decoded as Cyrillic, so I converted this example correctly to CP437. If you view the online version, you'll notice that the box drawing and group logo are incomprehensible, which proves my point later on in the CP437 section.
║ ║
█████║ ║<br>█████║ ║<br>█████▀███ █████▀███ █████▀███ █████▀███ █████▀███ ▀▀▀▀▀<br>█████║████ █████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ █████<br>█████║████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ▄▄▄▄▄▄████ █████▄████ ██████<br>█████║████ █████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ▄▄▄▄ █████ ████ ██████<br>█████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ██████<br>█████║████ █████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ██████<br>█████║████ █████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ██████<br>█████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ██████<br>▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀<br>║ ╓────────────────────────────────────────╖ ║<br>║ ■ BONZAi ─ EVERYTHiNG BUT FRiENDSHiP ■ ║<br>║ ╙────────────────────────────────────────╜ ║<br>R E L E A S E D :<br>║ ║<br>║ 9O BYTES SAVE GAME PATCHER FOR LEMMiNGS III ║
║ FiLENAME .............. : ........... BNZ-L3T.ZiP ║<br>║ TYPE .................. : ............... TRAiNER ║<br>║ COMPANY ............... : ............. PSYGNOSiS ║<br>║ CODER .. .............. : ................ SCAMPY ║<br>║ PACKAGER .............. : ................ SCAMPY ║<br>║ DATE AT RELEASiNG ..... : ............ 11-27-1994 ║<br>║ TiME AT RELEASiNG ..... : .............. 15:OO PM ║<br>║ RELEASE NOTES : ..................... READ BELOW! ║<br>║ ║<br>║ !!!*!!! IMPORTANT !!!*!!! ║<br>║ ║<br>║ NiCE PATCHER FOR A NiCE GAME - THiS PATCHER WAS ║<br>║ KINDA DiFFiCULT BECAUSE OF THE MANY BYTES TO BE ║<br>║ PATCHED. BUT PROBLEMS WiTH PATCHiNG TiME AND ║<br>║ FiLE LENGTH HAVE BEEN SOLVED. ║<br>║ ║<br>║ ENJOY PLAYiN' -SCAMPY! ║<br>║ ║<br>║ ║<br>║ MEMBERS OF BONZAi ARE . : ║<br>║ MOTiV8- SCAMPY- SUM-1- DEViL ║<br>║ ║<br>║ BULLETiN BOARD SYSTEMS : ║<br>═ ═ ══ ═══╝ NONE! SEARCHiNG! ╚═══ ══ ═ ═
GREETiNGS TO:<br>TOXiC HYBRiD PENTAGRAM PARADOX THHG G.T.A TRSI
#TO GET iN TOUCH WiTH BNZ LEAVE MAiL TO US ANYWHERE YOU FiND US#
CURRENTLY WE ARE SEARCHiNG FOR ALL KiND OF MEMBERS.. LiKE TRADERS<br>SUPPLiERS.. SYSOPS.. ETC.
═ ═ ══ ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ ══ ═ ═<br>If you want to browse an archive of NFO files, head over to textfiles.
2. The Aesthetic
2.1. ASCII Art and Box Drawing
As you can see in the example above, complex ASCII drawings, logos, and structure are a staple of a good NFO file. Commonly, the ASCII art is used to create recognizable logos for specific groups in the scene.
This requires fixed-width fonts to be viewed appropriately. E.g., on Windows, you could open an NFO file in Notepad and ensure a fixed-width font is selected, such as Consolas. Proportional and custom fonts break the flow and structure of these files, which is unfortunately the default in modern browsers (unless you use code blocks, like I did above).
2.2. Codepage 437
One such character set was often used for NFO files: IBM's CP437 character set, released with the 1981 IBM PC. This set was popular because each character could be typed with an alt code in DOS, even if they were not on the user's keyboard. E.g., Alt + 3 would result in the following character: ♥.
3. Introducing: nfogen
So, why am I writing about this now? Well, I was feeling nostalgic for NFO files recently. As part of this, I started using NFO files for my git repos under my new org and wanted a tool that could help me accelerate the generation of these files.
Introducing nfogen, a small Python utility that can generate NFO files for you based on:
templates
profiles
configuration files
CLI flags
interactive CLI prompts
This enables fast, customizable, and templatized NFO files you can generate on the fly.
3.1. Sample Output
There's no better way to introduce a...