/\_____________________/\ . ._) 2 0 0 1 (_:_ _ | | | T H E Y A R D |_ _ | - --------------------- - \///_ _ | | | Amiga/Ascii/Graffiti/N64 | | Gameboy/NeoGeoPocket/Snes | | Psx/Ps2/Dc/Smd/Oldies/Mp3 | | Unix/Drugs/Chiptunes/Mods | | | __________ _____| ________ | _ __\_ ____ \_ _\_ |__ _ _\_____ \_ | / \ / ___/ _/ /_ __ _ | _ __/ \\__/ | \____/ | / \_ |______ | _ ___ /_________| /___ _____ _ __ _ : \/ | /\ . _____| / \ _______ _______ _ _\_ | / .\ _\_____ \_ _\_____ \_ __ _ \____ / \\ _/ _/__ / |/ / \\ \ _ / / / \ \ // _ ___________\__________/____\ /_________ __ _ . \/ . : AHS/DTR/AGEEMA!/ROYAL/PHT : _ _| AEROSOL/LiGHTFORCE/MANGOO | \\\/ LP!/BAD KARMA/UP ROUGH/DS | | SOiA/MOPLAYAZ/TQL/PVM/100 | | H E A D Q U A R T E R S | | | | the idea of s t y l e | | | | is the k e y | | | | to all f o r m s of | | | | r o c k i n g | |_ __ _|H2o! )_______ /\_\ __ _______( \/ \/_//_/\ \/ __\_\/ \/ [SOF] @BEGIN_FILE_ID.DIZ._ __________ ______ ____ _______________. | \\ _ _ /_\___ /_ _/___\ _ | | /_/ /_\ _ / \ \\/ tHE | |tR!/ // / _/ / aSCii cHARTS | +--/_____\\_______\________/---------------+ | yOUR fAVORiTE aSCii ziNE iS bACK! | nEW yEAR, nEW cONCEPT... | | - -- - ---------------------(12.o2.2oo1)---'@END_FILE_ID.DIZ _ __. ______. _ _ _ __ ¾ _ __ _) l___ \ l__ _ _ _______ __ _ ¾ __ _ _ :\\\\ ¾ ¾ \\ .__/--\ ._ \ / ._ // ¾ ¾ ////: | ¯ ¾ _\ !/ !/ / !/___( _ ¾ ¯ | drn! | ¯ /___/ ____/ __ / __\ ¯ | lp! ! ________ `----' `----' `----' _. ! _______\_ /___. _. ______\!_____ _\ ._ _ _|_____ __________ ____\!____\ /_ < - /______ l/ __\____. \\ ._ // ____ ___\ - > . `----' /___ /! ___ !/___( ___ __\ `----' . | /---' /__ \ __\ `----' | ! _______. `----' __. | ________\ __ l______ ________ ._________) l___ ____. ! \ ._ \ / ._ _ /____\_ /--l _ X .__/___\ _|______ _ !/____( !/ / ._ / / _ !/ )___. /_ /__ \ _____/ _____ l/ ___ \-----\___/ ____ /! ___\ `----' `----' `----' `----\ `----' /---' ¡ ¡ | - > t h e a s c i i c h a r t s < - | !_ _ _ _ _! :////____________________ _ ¾ _ ____________________\\\\: ¾ ¾ ¾ ¾ ¯ ¯ ¯ «·» iSSUE jANUARY 2001 «·» _. _________ _ _ ._ \|_) (_|/ -×ßL/SEA | __|____: ____ _ ________ | _) |_______ _ ________ __ .// ___ ____ .__ ____ ___\_ | / \\_( | _\_ )_\ \| /___(__ /_) __/ \ | | \ / \\ \ __/ _/ . / __ | (_)_____ / \_____\ \| \| | ____ _ \_\\_______ (_) \____/ /_____\___|______\___ |_\ · /_____L _| |_ - --- \|---I N D E X---|/ ---- EDITORIAL..................................................by.Dipswitch NEWS.......................................................by.Dipswitch PICKS OF THE MONTHS 12/00 AND 01/01.................................by: .............................................................Abhorrence .................................................................Daeron ..............................................................Dipswitch .............................................................Lord Chaos .........................................................Mortimer Twang INTERVIEW WITH LORD CHAOS/DTR.................................by Daeron INTERVIEW WITH DAERON/LP!.................................by Lord Chaos IRCNET #ASCII ARTICLE.........................................by Threaz RELEASE LIST FOR 12/00 AND 01/01...........................by Dipswitch ._______ -×ßL/SEA | // e D i t o r i a l _____ _ __|__ /___ ___ ____ ___ ____ ______ ____. __) __/_\/ __/ _\__ )_( /___( _ /____(_ //__\__ )__( ____/_/ | \\ _/ \\ |/ \ \_ _/ \ / / \ / \| / __|__ _ \| / | / \| | \ \ _ / \ _\ _ \ \\ /_/___\__ \ |___ )_____/| |_______/\ \\__)____ // |___\\_ /_____/ - --------- \_____\ - ---- |____| -------/___/---------/____| -------------- Dear Sceners ! As you see, your favorite Ascii magazine is back... Pretty surprising, eh ? =) Well, I really planned to stop the whole TAC thing because the amount of work seemed not to be proportianal to the interest for a new issue, but as there was a really big amount of quality collies in the last two months, I thought that the Ascii scene is in need for an news zine, and so here we go... Of course, TAC'2k1 won't be the same like TAC'99 and TAC'2k. I am sick of all this charts'n points stuff, and damn, who cares if one group got more points than another one ? I'm also sick of having to review EVERY damn colly, even the worst and most boring ones. So what ? TAC'2k1 neither has charts nor a point system. There is, as always, a month's complete list of releases, so you can see what you've missed and what you haven't. But, there aren't reviews of ALL collies. Only the most interesting ones are reviewed as "Picks Of The Month". Each colly is commented by many reviewers, to give you a large spectre of oppinions. The comments are short, the sort of you see in console scene mags like "GBScene" or "Corrupt". Instead of all this pointsystem crap TAC'2k1 features more actual news from the Ascii-scene and also some "gimmicks" like interviews and articles. I hope you have fun with the new concept ! How you can contribute ? First of all, we are always glad for logos. If you like to draw us a new set of logos ("editorial", "news" etc., look through the mag to see what is needed), please don't hesitate to do so, send your stuff to asciicharts@gmx.de ! "The Ascii Charts" logos and "TAC" file_id's are also very welcome. If you feel to write an ascii-scene related article you're welcome, send it to the above-mentioned and we'll be happy to publish it. Same goes to interviews with ascii-sceners. Of course you are also VERY welcome to send all ascii-related news to asciicharts@gmx.de to be sure that anyone knows about changes in your ascii group and stuff. And remember - TAC is an _Amiga_ Ascii scene zine ! We also, to a certain extend, write about Amiga-style Ascii drawn by PC-based groups, but please don't bother us with PC-news unleast they are about Amiga-style art. Yours honestly, Dipswitch/DTR (main editor) PS: The scene portal WWW.SCENET.DE, maintained by Ghandy/FTH^DKG, has the exclusive permission to republish interviews published in TAC. Big respect for your work for the scene, Lars ! ______ _ ____ .___ _____ _____ ___ _____ ________ __(\\ __\ \| /__) __/( / ______\ _)_____ //)___ \ \\ _/ //\\ //___ / _ //_____\ _ \| /\ \ |/ \ _-×ßL/SEA _ ______\/___ _ /______)__\______/ \____ /_____ _/ \/__________ _ What's happening in our beloved Ascii scene ? Well, first of all it's to mention that two Ascii forces of the past seem to refound again. First of all it's good old Divine Stylers, in the linup of the active-again Dino, perhaps-will-be-active-again Nike and steadily-active Mortimer (who is NOT going to leave Low Profile btw against all rumours). One dS! colly was released by Dino in 12/2k (see comments in the review section), and I am sure there will be more in next future. The other re-birth is even more spectacular - the mighty Epsilon Design started to show massive lifesigns. Like through a magic trick, 4 of the old e^D'ers popped up from nothing in nearly the same time: Fatal, Cybergod, Chrombacher and Juan (who is present in some warez buisness as mADMAX&jUAN! - but not many realized it's THE Juan from back in the days). The first three announced to take requests on www.thuglife.org, the fourth one on some boards. Then, in the last days of 2000, Ftl, Cg and Crb released "Haresis vs. Majs" (see reviews). Other lifesigns were not present till now, but who knows what the next months bring ? And what's up with the groups which dominated 1999 and 2000 ? Abhorrence, the only active member of Inhale, left for Twisted. That means that Twisted has now one man more to perhaps kick some serious shit in 2k1. That also means that Inhale is quasi dead though =(. It became very quite around Aerosol. The shooting stars of 1999 seem to have more and more faded away in 2k to finally dim out in 2k1 - or perhaps not ? Whatever, the last ASL colly was released in 09/2k, and except of Darkus and h7, no members popped up on irc since ages. Well ok, Darkus became dad, so that might be the reason for his ascii-wise abstinence, but whats about the others ? Even ASL's new hope Nasone hasn't been seen a long time - hey Nasone, it's no good to let things hang after one colly, eh ? But whatever, we'll see if the future brings us a new ASL colly rush. Not much to say about Lp! too... Volatile released a colly which was a little bit too rushed perhaps (see reviews). The other newer Lp! member, Daeron, is working hard on his Lp! debut. Rumours tell that it will include 99 logos, and according to top secret previews I've seen it will include VERY VERY hi-quality design. So prepare yourself for a real ascii-bomb from Daeron in near future. That's all bout Lp! i think. Out of the older members only Mortimer is around on a regular base, doing music and WB icons, but not much of ascii =/. Ramone is also back since a couple of months, hanging around on ircnet and even drawing logos, but he strangely decided to release his stuff under House Of Style although he is the only one "alive" member of it. Dream Theatre got their ranks filled up: Sperm Whale joined in December 2k. That might bring some action to DTR - or not ? Dream Theatre kicked its last colly in August/2k, the break is becoming someway TOO long. The only hope is the rumour that some co-ops with some top groups are in planning... And what's happening with our brothers in the east ? =) K0re seems to have disappeared, at least I havent seen new K0re collies since nearly half a year, or did they just failed to reach me in the snailmail jungle ? SEA (or at least what is still available from SEA after the SEA->L124 split in early 2k) still throw out collies constantly, represented by Xball and Far. Strange things are going on in Link124: they kicked their (and perhaps Poland's) most talented artist Krs for inactivity (he wasn't inactive even for a full year) and let misfit Hazh of the newbie group SOC join. I doubt that this step will raise the, at the moment, pretty low quality level of L124. At last, news from the group some do love and some do hate: Remorse 1981. Volatile of LP! took over the leadership of the "oldschool" (=amiga-style) division of RMRS to clean it up and build some good out of it. Will he be able to repair the (at least in Amiga scene) bad image of the group ? Things and time will tell. That's all, folks ! Dipswitch/DTR _ __ _ _________ __ _ _// \\_ \_ _/ -×ßL/SEA |____ | r E v i e w s ___ _________| // ____ ·____ _____ ___ __(_ //_) __/\ | _\___)__) __/( / ____ \ _)____ // / _/ . / / _/ /\\ /___ // _\ \ _ \| | \ \ \| /\ \ |/ _\_ /__/____\\____\_____)|_____/_____/___\______/ \___/_______\__\ - --------------------------------------------------------------------- - _|__ __|_ p i c k s o f \ / \_ / t h e m o n t h _ / \ _ __\\__________ _ __//__ The reviewers of this month are: Abhorrence/-T! Daeron/LP! Dipswitch/DTR Lord Chaos/DTR Mortimer Twang/DS!^LP! This is just a selection of the most interesting collies which came in December/2k and January/2k1. If your colly is not included, it was either not interesting enough or it didn't reach us in time. .\\----------------------//. Filename: dn-drofa.txt | | Title: "Droid Factory" / d R O i d f A C T O R y | Artist: D0n | | Tag: d0n | a colly by d0n/thelo0p / Group: TheLoop |_ _| Releasedate: 24.12.2000 //---------- 24.12.00 --\\ ABHORRENCE: What can I say? A basic colly with a basic logostyle and some design. The problem is that this one right here have been seen so many times, one can't possibly find any real interest any more. DAERON: This collection has originality level set to zero. A style what I have seen a thousand times before combined with lousy design. Maybe you should include some original ideas to your next collection, Don? DIPSWITCH: Logowise this collection is very very far from being perfect. The letters don't really fit together and, well, it seems that D0n first has to create a unique style. Imho the ascii-wise strenght of D0n lies in creating of ascii figures. I concidered the robot asciifigures as very nice, and this "ascii star" cartoon put a big grin upon my face (i remember this ascii stars and cubes too well=). Big up to D0n for some really funny ideas, but there is very much work to do on the logos. LORD CHAOS: Regarding it is his second collection ever, this one surprises me quite positive. I am not a too great fan of the style but partly the logos appeal nice to me and some good tries at background designs here and there. MORTIMER TWANG: nice collection. its okay looking, i personally dont jump up in joy, neither do i cry out in vain. i just get a nice smile, and a "dooh" i feel you brother when reading that don has been dumped by his girlfriend. ouch, it seems that being left by a girlfriend is the most common reason to release an ascii-collection. if it werent for the girls the asciiscene there wouldn't be a scene at all. mark my word. (= .--[asc2]-- aµææø -[ d¡ViNE sTYLERs ]-. Filename: ds!-d00.txt | ¬ØØØØø ________. | Title: "Is 1995 here ?" ¦ µæØ*ÑØØÑæµØØØØ#ø ØØØØØE ©Mt ¦ Artist: Dino ·gØØØ# ¬¶ØØØØØØØF °¤ØÑØ#ææµµ____ : Tag: dNo øØØØØL °ØØØØØ# ¸µæµæ毬°¶ÑØØØØØæw·· Group: Divine Stylers mØØØØØr ___ØØØØØWØØØØØF ¬¶ØØØØØ#w Releasedate: 24.12.2000 øØØÑÑØØ--'°¬"¯¯ ¬""ÆØØØØØK________.Ø#ÑØ#ØØø |-------------------------------------| | divine stylers & jedi arts presents ¦ | dinos xmas presents - is 1995 here? | `--------------------------[00/12/24]-' ABHORRENCE: Dino starts up with a text that I can agree with, but the actual colly lacks design, and to be honest, I don't really find his logostyle so stylish. In fact, the guestlogos outshines his. ANYWAY, it's nice to see something new from an old DS!-fella. Keep the graffiti alive! DAERON: It's nice to see Dino making a comeback, but I must confess that I hoped this collection to be a little better. It shows that he has been away for so long, because his style isn't too good and his collection lacks of design. The collection contains some great guest logos though. DIPSWITCH: Nostalgic feelings come up from seeing the file_id... Finally a new dS! product hits the boards ! Unfortunately one notices that Dino was away for a long time: some logos look even really newbish, or is it perhaps caused by using awful edit.com ? Other logos look quite cool, although Dino's style in general is very specific. Whatever, but all in all, regarding the legendary label and the cool design and the cool guest logos, it's a must leech ! LORD CHAOS: Dino has a very special style of his own, which does not quite match my personal taste, thou I kinda like his a bit 'larger' asciis. Nevertheless, this collection is done how it should be done and as its name 'Ascii Flashback' already says, it reminds me of good old times. And: great to see DS! back on track. MORTIMER TWANG: eh, is this legitimate me commenting this release? we, the divine stylers, reign supreme. i spoke with orlingo and it looks like even he will start asciing on his imac again. .e^D.vnvnvsnivnisnopanNISBO;BNONADOBDNO;NINQ Filename: e^d-mvh.txt NIBNUWAGACHUJaNBONIANBANIBAN.cG.IBSNIBANPBBQ Title: "Majs vs Haresis" NFAKEGERMANOBIDNBAONIBANIABOONIBOSNIBPONIABA Artist: Chrombacher/Cybegod/ FACEOFF KUKUKUK Fatal AEFAEFF MAJS VS HARESIS VS THE WORLD UKUKUKU Tag: cRb/cg/fTL FBJIB9B KUKUKUK Group: Epsilon Design AANIAVS * APA APA KENT * UKUKUKU Releasedate: 30.12.2000 AFAFAWS[2000-12-30 | Org. Size 42000]KUKUKUK ianivndndvnnivqisnoppanNISO;BNON.cRb.NO;NINV NIjagVILLSECROUCHINGTIGERFILMENBAJSsFBANPBBB NIIBNIBNIBNOB.fTL.ONIBANIABOONIBOSNIENONIABN ABHORRENCE: Ahmm. Fatal and Cybergod having some fun. I guess that's something asciiscene have lacked for some time now. It's just that I would probably enjoy the colly a bit more if I could understand shit about anything in it :) DAERON: I have never been a fan of these joke collections and this collection doesn't make me think otherwise. Art-wise this collection is a little better. There's some nice logos here and there, but I remember seeing artwork with much higher quality from Fatal, Cybergod and Chrombacher. Maybe their break is shining through. DIPSWITCH: Aaaaah, just great. This stuff i missed for a long time... Of course it's not the kind of a perfect asciicollection, but it's also not ment to be one. I think the scene needs this fun stuff, of course as long as the amount of it is lower than the amount of "serious" collies. As a German-speaking person I had a good laugh about this "tourist"-german stories and stuff, it's just a pitty that for someone who doesnt speak any germanic or nordic language it just seems a pile of junk. About the logos: Sure, the break is shining through, but the most logos are still cool, especially Cybergod showed that he still is capable of the art of Ascii. The only think I was a bit surprised was Chrombacher's logo - I remembered his style in a very different way. LORD CHAOS: I never was a great fan of 'fun' collections and it's no difference here. Cool to see Epsilon Design active again, some nice logos by cg in here. I was a bit disappointed about Chrombacher's styles because I remembered him as one of the top artists of the past years. MORTIMER TWANG: hehehe i give this one ten out of ten. its hilarious full of nonsence and with asciimen and illustrations. the mere fact that its all written in some tourist-german makes it a future classic.. feta proppar! _ _____ . \_\_ \____ ___/\__________ _ _ Filename: hos-tage.txt · | ·\ \ \/ _ / ___/_ _/ Title: "Hold no hostage" _ \ _ _ _ / _\ · \ \ _\____ \___ Artist: Ramone | _/ \_ \___\ \_____/ / / _ | Tag: rN! - -·( ·_· )·- - - \___\rN! \___ /___/ || Group: House Of Style · )___( | Releasedate: 31.01.2001 : / . \ [ Hold no hostage · rAmON ] .| | · | · _|| `=--------h-o-u-s-e--of--s-t-y-l-e--------=' (note: because the colly reached us kinda late, only three reviewers managed to comment it) DAERON: Once again I have to start my comment with the words; I have never been a fan of styles of Ramon. Though I can clearly see why people like his stuff. His styles are ever changing and so are his designs. Still they follow that certain pattern so you can recognize an original. I must admit that I don't like his collection a lot, because it's messyness, but it has its moments. Some nice logos and great ascii character designs. Definitely worth a leech if you like Ramon's styles... DIPSWITCH: Great to see Ramone back, even if I see no point of releasing collies in a quasi one-man-group. Well, the long ascii break is sure shining through (like in the file_id and in some logos in the colly), but all in all this colly if for sure an absolutely must-leech ! LORD CHAOS: Ramone from the Oldschool shows that he masters way more than just one style, most of the Asciis inside look a bit quick and dirty but I am sure it's all straight from the heart. And who else gives you such a lot of nice characters in a collection nowadays? Welcome back, Ramon! ____. .______.______._____. . ¦____¦ ¦ ¦ ¦----¦ Filename: l124-asf.txt _ \ _|_ |_ |_ ___| | Title: "#Ascii fuckers" /_______\·/_____|/______|spk/_____| Artist: Noches ----------------------------------- Tag: no noches/link124 present Group: Link124 new colly `#ascii fuckers' Releasedate: 10.01.2001 -------------------[10/01/2001]---- ABHORRENCE: No design, just logos. Noches' style could be more original, but I ain't gonna start accusing him being a ripper neither. My message to people: experiment! We are in ascii biz, what can we possibly loose? :) DAERON: I don't like Noches' style. It looks rather boring to me. Letters don't connect well into each other and background design is always the same (if there's even some), but anyway this is still one of the best L124 collections I've seen. I just hope that Noches tries to develop his style a bit further and try different background designs. DIPSWITCH: Quite nice colly. Concerning the current L124 lineup, Noches is, together with Azzaro perhaps, the only good artist at L124. Of course, the style needs touchups here and there, on some places the letters must better fit together, but I am sure that people will remember him as one of the few good ascii artists from the east, like they do remember The Founder today. Btw i really do wonder why the heck this colly has this name... LORD CHAOS: Thou noches' style is a bit hard to read sometimes, I think most of the logos look quite nice (with a few exceptions). The collection design is just ordinary but does for me. To make it a real good collection, this one lacks something 'special'. MORTIMER TWANG: this is the first time i ever heard of this link124 group, (shame on me, when i reached the end of the coll there was a gigantic list of releases). i had a hard time viewing it since jennyjones is on tv while i write this. i did however think that the logos where a bit too, straight. i mean they arent twisted and bent and fucked up as i like them... hehe. kind of too complicated for me and jenny, jones that is. ___ _____. _____ ______ / /___\_ |__\_ \ /____. Filename: l124-sim.txt / _// (_| | __/ /| | Title: "Stronger..." / \ /| | \_ ¯¯ | l124 pL! Artist: Azzaro \___\___/ | |______/______. | Tag: az0! «-diP/dTR-|___|-------------|____|---------» Group: Link124 stronger (impressions millennae) Releasedate: 10.01.2001 a z z a r o versus l i n k 1 2 4 effect v e r s u s design «-[10/jan/01]------------------------------» ABHORRENCE: This time Azzaro hits us with some average design and logos. If you like his style, you'll like this. If not, then you don't. I find the logos somehow messy, or maybe messy ain't the right word here, but right now I can't find a better. Maybe you'll get the idea. And it was funny to see Strode's respects logo there, eh. You won't understand. DAERON: Azzaro's new style is horrible. I cannot find anything good to tell about it. It's very unbalanced and messy. His designs follow the same pattern so there's nothing good about them either. Only good thing that I could come up with are the lyrics that Azzaro has included to this collection. DIPSWITCH: I am very impressed concerning Azzaro's colly design this time. Not messy at all, and the lyrics create a very special athmosphere. I'm not a big fan of this letterstyle, though. Too messy and unproportional in my opinion... But whatever, big up to Azzaro for steadily being active for so many years ! Everyone's picking on Azzaro for his (for western standarts) messy style, but noone really gives respect to Azzaro for being true to the ascii thing for such a long time and being active without big pauses, and that's a pitty. LORD CHAOS: While noches' collection seemed rather nice to me, I can not find many good things about this one, sorry - azzaro's style does not give me anything and looks very unbalanced in my opinion. MORTIMER TWANG: i like this one more than l124-asf.txt. azzaro has a fucked up style. me likes... me likes... ___________. ___________ _) || (_ Filename: lp!-pimp.txt | || | Title:"Pimpin Aint Easy #1" | lo' profile| DUREX | Artist: Volatile | :: | Tag: vol | Pimpin' Aint Easy | Group: Low Profile | :: | Releasedate: 22.12.2000 | Pt.1 : The White Trash | | || | | DUREX || | ¯)__________||__________(¯ ABHORRENCE: Volatile has progressed in his logostyle, but I don't think he has really put his mind on the design. It looks a little fastmade. Vol's stories are above the average blaablaa. Damn, you might even start feel like fucking :) Btw. Vol, I guess that doing twenty minutes what you described would be sort of a mission: impossible even for a veteran pornstar :) DAERON: COLLECTION OF THE YEAR! :) (no, I cannot comment on artists that are in the same group with me) DIPSWITCH: Nice that even in his army time Volatile finds time to put a colly together. The army is also perhaps the reason for the apperience of the colly to be a little bit rushed. The logostyle is cool, but imho there are not enough logos for a colly. The design is just average. The stories are not *that* my taste, but it's cool to see a colly with stories nowadays anyway. LORD CHAOS: I don't like the collection design very much here and some of the logos don't look good to me at all. As his second affiliation Remorse already says, volatile comes from the PC scene and this is just too obvious in some places. Some of the stuff works for me, anyways. And the storytelling makes this collection something special these days! MORTIMER TWANG: eeeh, again, im biased here. im a member of lopro. (= but if i can say something id say that volatile has made better collections. even though the divider in this one is sexy (hahahaha). __________ ________ _____ ._\_____ /____ / .\ Filename: p^a-snth.txt .--| _____/ _/ _/_ \\-----------. Title:"Something..." | l_______|_____\ /_______/ pro arts | Artist: Nup! | ______ _________\___/_______ _______ | Tag: ©nup ._\___ \ _____ / _ /_\ ___/__ | Group: Pro^Arts | _ \ _/ _/_ \___/ \___ / | Releasedate: 27.12.2000 l________/___\ /_____\ ___________/ | | -mNt/aC!\___/ | |·smth so i can say i did a colly this year| `------------------------------------------' ABHORRENCE: No colly design at all, but I don't really even care that much, 'cause I don't think that there are nor have ever been many artists that can fuck with nup's magnificent style. And that's it. DAERON: Reading the preface explains a lot. This collection contains absolutely no collection design, just the basic parts. Nup's style isn't one of my favorites, but there's some quality logos in this collection and of course some weaker ones. I cannot decide whether I like this collection or not, but I guess that's the whole point. If you like Nup's style, you'll like the collection. If not, skip this one. DIPSWITCH: Even though the collection contains no design, it is one of my favourites of this issue. It's not the average request colly, but a group-logo&file_id colly like they were released in the early 90's. That's cool, that's what applied art is about, there we see who supports the traditional contacts of asciiers with the pirate scene and who doesn't. Unfortunately some logos look quite rushed, but therefor some others are just _magnificent_. Big up for this one Nup! How about some design additions next time ? =) LORD CHAOS: Nup definitely on the old school tip here, sometimes I get the impression he really tried to 'force' his asciis to look old-fashioned. Ascii-wise for sure the best collection I had to review but unfortunately, a real collection design is not existing at all - read Nup's preface text which probably explains why. I would have expected a bit more here. MORTIMER TWANG: hehe, my man, nup, represents. slick collection from the slickest of the slick! (= . _ ____________ __| 7__ \\ // ./ \. i N t e r v i e w s .:| _____ |:. _____-×ßL/SEA ____ ___ .__ ____ _·___ ___ ____| // _|__ ____( /____ ___ _\__ )__\ \| /_( /__) __/_(_ /_\ | _(__ /_) __/ / ) \ _)_____ \ / \\ \ _/ _/ / . / / _/ /\\ _/___ // / \ ____\ | \| \ _ | \ \ \| /\ \ |/ \ \_____/ /______)____|___\_____\\____)| /_____)__\____/ \____\________/ - -----------------------|---------- - |____/ - |- -------------------------- - · | ____ | _ _ | _____ \ \\_ _// / /__ _/_____ _ ___\_ __\ (____\ /_____) This time we have a double pack here - first Daeron interviewing Lord Chaos and then Lord Chaos interviewing Daeron. Have fun ! - diP/dTR [LORD CHAOS OF DREAM THEATRE INTERVIEWED BY DAERON OF LOW PROFILE] 1) Tell me about yourself (real first name, age, nationality, group(s), school/work and stuff like that) As most people already should have noticed, my first name is Alex, I am 21 years old, from Germany, current Group affiliations are a lot but the most important should be Lightforce (Console), Bypass (PC Demo) and Dream Theatre (Ascii). The best time I had while I ran the group Shoot! (active on Amiga) together with my old school mate Krypton! I have finished school and made my 'Abitur' (after 13 years of school - well, 14 for me due to lazyness) and at the moment (after a short stay at the university) I am unemployed. 2) Tell me about your ascii career up to this point in time. When I got into Amiga scene, first thing I started with was doing asciis. In the beginning I did not quite understand it at all because someone told me the tags on the Asciis were the signs of the Traders who uploaded the files Back in those days you didn't have an included file_id.diz and stuff.. and had to paste the descriptions after your upload if you wanted to have nice logos along with your upload (but I guess most out there will remember this time better than me). At the beginning I was quite into ripping because as I said, I did not get the sense of it. But later on I started with my own styles, ofcourse. Well, I started doing Ascii while i was in Latex (not the group Latex that has been active the last years but way before), later on I released a collection for Shoot and then, due to the possibility to call out, I became good friends with Count Zero and Acid Kid from Whale! and so when they started the group, they invited me to join aswell! I released two very average collections for them and already during that time, I almost totally lost connection to the other members, then Amiga in general started to die slowly and I got myself a PC. There I one day ended up in Black Maiden and on Amiga I joined Dream Theatre. I haven't drawn Ascii for a long time but recently I made some tries again which looked rather promising to me, so expect something to come in the future. 3) What do you want to be when you grow up? I guess I am kinda grown up now, with 21. But I got no idea what I want to be at all. Just being healthy and satisfied with myself for all the future, I think, would be a great gift already. 4) When did you draw your first ascii? Speaking of the year, it would be 1992 or 1993. 5) Why did you start drawing ascii? I needed a default signature for the boards I called.. 6) Did you have a mentor when you started or did you learn all the hard way? No, I did not have any contact to other Ascii-artists back then. Collections by the true oldschool gods showed me how things should be done. 7) How do you draw your logos? Do you have a solid idea before you start drawing a logo or does the idea shape itself along the process? What programs do you use? Now as I am operating on PC, I use Aciddraw to draw and then maybe in the end have a look at it with an Amigafont and the standard Dos-Edit. I couldn't be bothered to install WinUAE + CEd yet and I doubt it will bring great advantages cause I am used to watch asciis with the ugly PC-font for years now. 8) If you could change your personality into some other artist, who would you be? Tough question. Honestly I wouldn't feel good when drawing someone else's Asciis, I think :). 9) What inspires you to do ascii besides ascii done by other artists? Boredness probably. Or people from outside the Ascii-scene requesting and 'admiring' art. Sometimes I just need to do something and in some cases it is Ascii then. 10) Look back and name your best collection. Explain your choise. Look below! 11) Look back and name your worst collection. Explain your choise. I don't like all the collections I've released yet very much.. none of them has been a real good designed one or something very special. If there'll be a best collection by me, it is still to come! 12) If you could change one thing in your ascii career, what would it be? Having the bad start with ripping, that really was not good at all. But luckily very few of those logos were around and I was really a kid back then. 13) Have you ever regret that you started drawing ascii? No, why should I? In the end some of my stuff got used and that's good! 14) If you couldn't draw ascii, would you be in the scene? If so, what would you do? Meanwhile I got myself some minor coding skills and also got teached how to do some Trainers, so this is what I am doing mainly these days. Thou, mainly I just hang around and do nothing. 15) What's the recipe of a good collection? Good logos, good overall collection design, not too much guest art and if possible no guest art that outshines your own stuff. Additionally, a real good collection should have something individual - whether its a real own style that catches the viewer's eye or some personal experiences, stories or whatever. Thou some Artists don't need all the surroundings - their style just makes up for everything and doesn't need a real collection design in my opinion. But ofcourse when speaking of the art of making a 'collection', you should put some effort in that too. 16) If you could take different skills from different artists and combine them into a Super_Ascii_Artist[tm], what skills would you take and from who? The workaholicness from Mogue, the graffiti-likeness from Desert and Maz mixed with the simple but very effective oldschoolness from Rotox, the skills for dot-letters from Desoto and the balls from Mark Ryder. 17) What are your biggest benefits as an artist? The experience I have back from the days, just to have felt the spirit of the scene back then leaves marks on your attitude and style, I guess. And ofcourse my good taste and amount of collections and different styles I have seen to see how experiments can go wrong or on the other hand can work out good. 18) How about weaknesses? I am much too lazy and I gotta improve my background-layouts. 19) Who are the artists you look up to? There are many artists I look up to. But first of all, all those who started the whole Ascii-thing and have showed all us young cats how it should be done! All those who released superb collections back in the days with awesome styles like Shapechanger, Skin, Amblin, Desert, Maz and so on! Then dudes like Mogue who showed that one can seriously work his way up from zero to the top of the Ascii-business! And some of the newer artists also inspire me to kick some stuff again for bringing new innovation into the scene! 20) Are there any newcomers with potential to become a real artists? If so, who are they? I don't really know if newcomers fits them right, but recently I've seen some stuff from dudes like H7 or Daeron and I really like their works! Those dudes are one of the reasons why I decided to pick up Ascii again! On the other hand I also see a lot of shit collections going around which I can not see anything good in, which also motivates me to kick something for real! 21) What's your opinion on these polish artists? They seem to pop up like mushrooms in the rain. Is it good or bad? Why? I don't associate much good things with the polish artists but also, I don't really know who is polish and who is not. But I remember to have seen some collections by polish artists who really were very bad. But nevertheless, they seem to have fun while doing the ascii-thing and at least are somehow, somewhere a part of the scene and maybe inspire the 'better' artists to kick something again! But in the end you for sure can't generally say all polish artists suck, thou I can not remember anyone being good.. 22) Have you ever thought of retiring? If so, why? I never thought about retiring once and for all. I think when you lose interest in Ascii, it just happens - I don't wanna decide once and for all 'from now on I will never draw again', that's crap in my opinion. You will end up like 2fast quitting scene and coming back for like 10 times. 23) Have you ever had these blocks when you can't draw a single logo? How do you get by them? Basically I almost always have problems when drawing something, at least at the moment while I am developing my new style. But if you have your style, you shouldn't have a block. And if you need to get by the blocks, you should just take a break.. 24) What are your future plans? In real life and in the scene? I should get myself a place to work and get some things back in order again. Scene-wise I don't have any concrete goals.. I'll just see what happens. Putting out a good collection throughout this year would be one of my goals. 25) Someone said that ascii is one of the hardest computer art forms to master. Was the beginning hard for you or were you a natural? How about now? Do the chars bend to everything you want them to? The beginning is hard for everyone, I suppose. Nowadays I have some problems to keep a certain harmony in the final logo but I keep working on the Logos till they satisfy me, more or less. 26) Has your taste in ascii developed during your career? Do you like different styles than back then or has your taste stayed the same? I can't really judge if I had liked the styles of nowadays' artists back in the days, but I think so. And I still respect the artists I respected back in the days. But probably I've become a bit more open-minded when it comes to experimental stuff nowadays. 27) A perfect artist doesn't exist. How can you still improve your skills? What areas need some work? I still need lots of work, starting from the style and the harmony between the letters, over to more background layout and finally ending with a real good and unique collection design. But if I'll manage to put out that collection of mine, I will try to make it as good as possible. 28) What are your thoughts on TAC? It's nice to have a mag that kinda holds the scene together and gives an overview about releases and people still involved. But to bring the old spirit back, there would be some more things needed. But it's a step in the right direction! 29) Is the ascii scene dead? Compared to former times, yes. But if you can live with very few action and very few good asciis, it's not. I doubt it will really be living again but 2001 seems to be a year in which a lot of artists step back into Ascii business. So there might be some cool stuff to come! 30) You took a long break from the world of ascii. What was that all about? I have almost totally lost the connection to both the Ascii and the Amiga scene and so I didn't put up with Asciis at all. 31) You have been around for quite long. How is the ascii scene changed since you started? I think definitions of respect and such have really changed. Nowadays artists who are just around since 3 years are rated as 'top artists' thou their styles don't really rock at all. And none of the new artists seem to know the roots of the ascii scene and can't really feel what it's all about and therefore also can't feel or love the art from older times like you could when you had been around in those days. I mean, seeing asciis only in collections or seing them 'in action' on the boards, in the infofiles and such is something different. Ofcourse it's mainly about collections but today you don't have the 'surrounding' elements that you had years ago - and those mainly made the exciting atmosphere of ascii and amiga scene. 32) Greetings & last words Greetings to my mates in all the groups I am in. Some ascii-wise greetings fly out to those I got the opportunity to chat with during the last few months: Desert, Daeron, Rotox, Mogue, Mark Ryder, H7 and Taxi! Last words: Know where you're at, where your position is, what you've done, who you are and behave according to that. Not more, not less! Show respect to those who deserve it. [DAERON OF LOW PROFILE INTERVIEWED BY LORD CHAOS OF DREAM THEATRE] 1) First of all, give us some general personal information (like first name, age, nationality, groups, your current job, social situation if you like to talk about it). You decide how much you tell us. My name is Marko. I'm twenty years old dude living in middle of Finland in a small town called Siilinjärvi. It's about 25 kilometres north from a larger town called Kuopio. You might even find that from a map of Finland. I'm currently working as art director at Golden Cee (http://www.visio45.com). It's a small firm which maintains a local tv channel, a radio station and a nightclub. It also produces music videos, movies, commercials and such. I also do some freelance work for various clients. Mostly websites for big bucks. In the scene I'm currently an active member of Low Profile, Galza and the infamous LTC. 2) Give us an overview about your scene-life/ascii-career so far. How did you come to draw ascii, why did you draw ascii? Which stages of evolution have you gone through? I took my first steps in the field of ascii back in '94 when I saw an ascii collection for the first time. I remember saying to myself that this couldn't be that hard. Oh how wrong was I. I was only involved with the scene through my cousin who had a modem. Time passed and I lived my scene life thru this cousin of mine, but the passion for ascii wouldn't die. I doodled an ascii every now and then just for the sake of it. No one has ever seen these asciis and that's only a good thing. Anyway, in '96 I got a modem from my other cousin to my amiga and my scene career started. In this year I released my first collection which sucked as much as you can imagine. My skills in ascii didn't show any development as I put out my second collection later that year. Soon after this I decided to take a break and it lasted almost a year. I made a comeback to the scene, but I wasn't drawing as much as I was before. Not until Tropic!Ascii affialiated with this board I was calling. Then I decided to develop a new style and really try my wings in the ascii scene. When my new style was ready for the public, I showed some of my works to Horizon and Orthex and they accepted me to join TA!. I released one collection under TA! in '97 before it died mainly because of its bad reputation. I haunted Behemoth for a while that he would let me join his new-founded group Alien Technology and, what surprises me the most, he let me join without any extra hassle. I wasn't entitled to call myself an artist back then you know. I wasn't too good at drawing ascii. Anyway, I managed to put out another collection in late '97. The next one came out in early '98. That collection still remains to be my latest real one. The next big turn in my ascii career happened in '99 when I accepted Otium's offer to join a PC ascii group called Galza. A while after that I decided to leave the sinking ship once known as Alien Technology. Behemoth had disappeared from the face of the earth, Venturus quit doing ascii and H7 left for SOS. So I asked Red Demon if I could join to Low Profile and after some consideration he said yes. I felt like I was on the top of the world. I mean being in the same group with the artists I look up to is something else. Almost two years has passed since I joined LP!, but still I haven't released a debut collection. I released some small ones during the year of 1999, but they were only spread in Galza packs. That's pretty much my ascii career until today. Only time can tell what fate has planned for me. So I'll just wait and enjoy the ride. All my older releases have been just some practice. Finally in the 2000 I found my own way of doing ascii. Now I'm totally satisfied with the shit I'm designing and that's a great thing. Now I can look back to my old releases and laugh at them. I guess the evolution is been pretty straight forward. I've always been trying to find my own style and finally I have succeeded to find one that pleases my eye and public's too if I hear the comments correctly... 3) What programs do you use to draw your asciis? I tend to use edit.com with topaz-font. Never afs.com, because it shows most of the chars wrong. I cannot imagine why most PC people use it. 4) How do you see your own ascii-past from the point where you are now? Are you satisfied or is there anything you would like to 'undo'? I'm a perfectionist as most of my associates know. I cannot be satisfied with the shit I have released in my past. Especially I would like to erase the first two collections of mine from the face of the earth. Luckily only one of them is spreaded to the public. 5) What do you think makes your style individual and different from the hundreds of styles out there? The fact that it's mine. 6) In which parts of the ascii-art are you skilled and in which do you consider yourself as rather weak, if any? What would you like to change? I'm okay in all areas of ascii. I'm especially good at making background and collection designs, but naturally all areas still need a lot of work. I guess I don't want to change a thing. I like myself the way I am for the first time since I started doing ascii. As an artist I mean. 7) What other artists inspired you? And what apart from other ascii-art inspires you? Along the way many different styles from many different artists have inspired me to try a little harder. I would like to especially thank Stezotehic, Shock G, Mogue and Shapechanger, because if there weren't them I would never have started drawing ascii. Also I would like to mention three rather new artists who have given me inspiration: Native, H7 and Holmez aka Shank. If you want to see more names, I advice you to check my upcoming collection's respect-list. Haha, Shame on me! Apart from other ascii-art music has a great impact on me. When I'm at home, I always listen to music. One could even say that music is my life's fluid. Also good-looking web or graphic design inspires me in so many ways that you couldn't imagine. I think I mostly feed on those two things when I'm looking for my lost inspiration. 8) Which artists have done something remarkable in ascii scene and what is it that they have done? Of course I must give credit to the artists who shaped the ascii scene as it is today. I'm talking about the guys who started this shit and made the ground rules. We and I personally owe them a lot. They were the pioneers. I also want to show my graditude to the artists who come after them. Artists of the second generation. Some of the top names of this generation are the reason why I started drawing. I'm not going to mention any names here, because I'm sure that all know who I'm talking about and, if I mentioned names, I would leave someone out and that wouldn't be fair. I don't know if this qualifies as remarkable, but Dipswitch has done great work with this TAC project. It has really given some extra kick to this half-dead scene of ours. Karma has actually done something really astonishing. His first collection ever was quality stuff. I love that style. I don't remember seeing anyone who directly started from the top. Isn't this one weird point of view? :) 9) Which newcomers do you think are promising and have potential to make it to the top? I cannot get a single name to my mind so I guess there isn't one brighter youngster. Although there are couple of promising newcomers, but I'm not sure if they have what it takes to make it to the top. I don't want to give any names here, because the artists I'm talking about could take too much pressure from it. I don't know where I got this idea to my mind, but I think almost any newcomer can become a real ascii artist with years of hard work, enough of devotion and a little bit of talent. 10) What do you think of the quite active polish ascii scene? Where is their position in the ascii scene? About 99,9% of the ascii that is released in the polish ascii scene is pure crap. Lousy design combined with even uglier logos doesn't count as good ascii in any scale. Because of all these releases, the small percentage that is actually quality stuff gets lost in the mass. This small bit contains some nice styles and innovative designs. I don't know if there's talent involved or just luck, but I think because of these releases polish ascii isn't all bad. 99,9% of it is and the percentage could easily change to hundred if some artists don't stop releasing crappy collections every week. Polish artists don't really have a position in the ascii scene I know. That's mainly because they don't know who started this shit and they don't know who Shapechanger or Mogue are for example. They don't know their roots and because of this they can never be a part of this scene totally. Maybe I'm wrongly putting all the polish artists into one catagory, but I have to do just that to make a point. Polish artists should learn to use space in their advantage. Now they fill their collections up with useless texts and non-necessary design. There is no empty space for the contrast and that isn't good. If I look through two regular polish ascii collections in a row, my eyes get sore and I feel like jumping off a bridge and that can't be good. 11) What do you think is the significant difference between the artists who have been around for longer and the newer ones? Is there any? If yes, would you like to tell the newer artists something? It's all about skill. The artists that have been drawing a longer time have developed their skills further and can do pretty marvelous things with the chars. Although there are some exceptions to that rule of mine. Couple of newer generation artists who have so mad skills that they are almost on the same level with the artists that have been here longer. My advice to the young artists is this; experiment a lot. Also work hard and never stop trying, because if you do, it's all over. Try to constantly develop your style until it pleases your eye completely then it will please public's eye as well. And yes, don't forget to design. Background and collection design are big parts of ascii art. 12) Do you consider ascii as an art? And if so, do you think everyone who draws ascii is to be seen as an artist? And how do you see your own role within this discussion? Ascii is art whether we like it or not. Of course anyone who draws ascii cannot be counted as an artist. As in real life, you aren't seen as an painter just because you can paint a flower with crayons. Same goes for ascii. It requires a certain amount of talent and devotion to be an ascii artist. I don't know what's my role is, but I want to fight for the name of ascii art against the evil forces who say that ascii is just something we do. In my opinion those people aren't entitled to do ascii, because if you have any love for ascii, you will call it art. I call it art, because it's greater than trading, coding or anything like that. Get my drift? 13) What role does the computer itself take in your life? And which role plays the scene and especially ascii? Computer is just a tool for me. I have to use it to get the butter on the bread. You know Zeus was partly right, when he said: "if you work with a computer daily, it kills using it as a hobby". That goes for people who aren't masochists, but I am. I'm using computer a way too much, because I'm involved in countless projects and I cannot leave them in trouble. Now can I? I'm not that active in the scene anymore. That's because most of my friends have retired. Actually the only two things I do in the scene nowadays are drawing ascii for the crazy people who still need it and being the devil in the details in the Daydream project. Although I have become more active within these last months: helping Dipswitch with TAC and helping couple of sysops by designing an outlook to their BBSes. Ascii is just something I do when I feel like it. It's another form for expressing myself. Don't take this in the wrong way. I hold ascii and the scene around it high up, but it's not even near the center of my tiny universe. I have this love/hate-relationship with ascii art. It has given me much, but maybe taken more... 14) In which situations do you to decide to sit down and draw ascii? When I feel down, bored or inspired. Sometimes I have these moments when I say to myself: "Hey! Now I gotta do some ascii". Then I sit down and draw. After these occasions I usually end up drawing what they call good shit. Also time to time I force myself to open up my editor and start drawing ascii. This happens more often when I have many requests waiting to be fulfilled. Forcing myself to start drawing isn't good at anytime, because then I end up designing crap that is no good for anyone. But it's still a part of the process. 15) If you should name some of your favourite collections, which are those and what makes them special? What makes a good collection in general? Nukeproof series by Stylez first came to my mind. They weren't nothing collection design wise, but the styles he introduced were out of this world. When I first saw those collections, I was stunned by such a great art work. Also "In Fire In Which You Burn" collection by Native of Aerosol has burned into my mind. I think that's mainly because of the killer logos this collection contains. I have to mention two more collections here. They're both from the finnish miracle H7. They set new standards for collection design. "Enjoy the Silence" and "Streetlife" are definitely worth checking if you haven't seen them already. They contain the best collection designs seen 'til today. I know there's plenty of other great collections out there, but these are the ones I remember straight from the top of my head. 16) Which artists would make up the perfect ascii-group for you? Who would you put together to form the overall best group? Line-up would be Shock G, Native, Mortimer Twang, Stylez, Chrombacher, Karma and Mogue. All these artists have put out nothing but quality when they were active. I mean this would be the perfect group for my viewing pleasures if all artists were on the peak of their form and formed a group like this. Uhuh, I'm drooling here... 17) What do you think about the releases of the past months? I haven't seen a quality release in ages. 18) What would you wish to see in the future of the ascii scene? Or is the ascii scene dead as meat already? More quality releases of course. I'd like to see the old artists returning and starting to release once again. I'd like to watch the artists from my generation developing their skills and challenging the masters. Ascii scene isn't dead 'til it dies in our minds and if it's up to me, it'll never happen. 19) What are your personal plans for the future? In scene and in real life? I'm planning to release my eternity project soon. It'll be one huge motherfucker of a collection containing 99 logos and couple of lyrics of mine. No need to tell that it'll be my best collection so far. I'm going to change my job soon. I mean if there's a better one available than the one I have now. Also I'm going to get the proper education I need for becoming a real graphic designer so I'm applying to a bunch of schools this spring. Hold your thumbs up! 20) Ever thought of giving that whole ascii-shit up and leaving the scene? If so, why didn't you leave then? I have taken couple of breaks from the scene, but I have never considered to leave it permanently. I don't know why really. Scene of today isn't what it used to be. 21) Are you interested or active in any other art-forms besides ascii? Of course. I do graphic design for living so I guess I have to be a little bit interested in it. I also take photographs every now and then, but they cannot be counted as art just yet. Music and movies have caught my interest aswell, but I cannot play any instruments, sing or act so that's it. 22) What is your opinion on the Internet? What is different from the BBS scene of old times? Do you see any sense in running a BBS nowadays? Internet is a great thing, but it has more or less single-handedly killed the board scene. The major difference from the board scene days is that internet has killed the intimacy. That certain feeling that we had on the board scene has been lost forever. I really cannot explain this to someone that hasn't experienced it himself. I have to see a point in running a board in this age of internet, because I'm involved with couple of projects whose goal is to open up a brand new board. I think boards of today give us a mouthful of what was left behind and that's important. Besides who would use your asciis, if there wasn't any sysops around? 23) What is your opinion on The Ascii Charts? And how do you see its importance in the ascii scene of today? TAC is an important part of today's ascii scene no matter who says and what. It's a forum where artists can discuss about ascii art in general and read reviews and stuff. I don't know if that's important for you, but it's for me. As I said earlier, I think TAC has done some good things for us; boosted up the ascii scene a bit. 24) Name your favourite movies/music/webpages/books/girls/food/drinks. Movies: Usual Suspects, Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Matrix, Fight Club, The Crow, Dark City. There's plenty of good movies missing, but I cannot remember them. Maybe some other day. Music: Dream Theater, In Flames, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Chroma Key, Sentenced. Those are the bands I've been listening lately. Webpages: Member13.net (my own site), Visio45.com, Feelingsinister.com, Halfproject.com, Kiiroi.nu, Thespot.nu, K10k.net, Surfstation.lu, Factory512.com, Cemgul.com. There's too many good websites to mention here. Books: Tolkien, William Gibson. Good authors. I have read "Lord of the Rings" over 15 times. Girls: Janina Frostell. Nothing more to say. Food: Good steaks, Pizza, Pommes Frites. Drinks: Pepsi Max, Fanta, Sweet Perry Cider with or without a vanilla twist, Long Island Ice Tea, Lipton tea! 25) Have you ever been on one of those cruises with 2000 students where the only target is getting drunk and afterwards getting laid? Absofuckinglutely! 26) Why do you think we have chosen you to give us an interview? I have no idea. Maybe I just got lucky...or not. 27) Everyone deserves some last words. Here you go. I'd like to quote a Dream Theater song called "A Change of Seasons" here: "We can learn from the past But those days are gone We can hope for the future But there might not be one" I'll save greetings for my upcoming collection. . · . __ ____ ____ ______ _____ ________ .:. . · __\/____\_ \ / _/_____\_ \_\_ \ _ _ / ::::: :_.__/ / _/ _//_ \ \ / / / /_/ /_\______________:_:.:__ _ |/| / / \ / / / / /___/ / / : ·: _| /______\___/____/_______/__\____\_______/____\ (· iRCNET #aSCii ·) \| tR!/-T! ______ ___ ____ __ .:_: · _ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ __\___ /_ /___/_ _/___ __\/_:__\/__ |\ \ \\\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ // _ /___ / \ \ / / |¯ \\//__\\//__\\//__\\//__\\// / _/ / / / / / : \_______\________\______/_____\_____\ · . ... . written by: tHrEAz / Twisted ::.:: ::::: Even if amiga ascii scene went downhill a long time ago, the place :.::: where to meet your mates still exists: IRCNET #aSCii! This year ::::: plenty of real deal amiga asciiers have shown up there, like: .:::: Mogue, Desert, Rotox, h2o, Adon, Tango, Gravedancer, Stezotehic, ::::: Zeus and Speeddevil for example! Never heard about ascii art at .::.: all? Never mind, #ascii on EFNET is like custom made to you. :.::: ::::: I remember, that I came to #ascii first time in 1996. Earlier all ::::: the ascii artists used to hang on #amielite with traders, sysops :.::: and other amiga peeps. After #ascii was found, it kinda isolated ::::: some of the artists from amiga scene and caused them to get less ::::: requests. The first bot on #ascii I remember was AsciiGawd. ::::: Artists I remember on the channel from those days are Fatal and :·::: Chrombacher of Epsilon Design, Folar of Style, Wise-K of Jedi :.::: Arts and Rooster of Head. Of course there was plenty of others ::..: too, but I remember my chats with them the best. ::::: ::.:: Pretty soon channel came hip thing in amiga ascii growd and in the ::::: evenings there could be 30 peeps at the same time. Those were the ::::. days of ascii scene. You had dreamed to be able to request from ::::· your favourite artists, but you had no clue how to reach them. .:::: Suddenly you were in the same channel with them having a ::::: conversation. Of course boards had made it possible to be in touch ::::: with your ascii mates earlier, but this was something even better. ::::: Leave and take requests while you are online and sending and ::::: receiving the requests in a short time. :..:: :::.: This may sound that I am some sort of IRC fanatic (and maybe it is ::::: even true), but I got so many good scene memories from #ascii. :.::: Deep, a couple of hours lasting chat sessions, plenty of new ::::: contacts and friends and a plenty of taken away time from school ::.: and work, ehm.. ·::: ::· These are the regular peeps on IRCNET #aSCii these days. They will ·:: bash you with their sarcastic remarks every time they get a :: change. And beware, many of them are bad ass black belt idlers, so : even if you try to have a fight, they just may totally ignore you . and keep snoring.. (which is the default) .:::. ·:· . Handle: aBHO (aBHO) Country: Finland ·:· Groups: Twisted, Flo Asc-Past: Inhale Function: ASCII, Sysop (1996-1999) To Scene: 1995 CoolShit: http://www.saunalahti.fi/pikka/pl/menu.htm Handle: bOhEmE (bOhEmE) Country: Finland Groups: Style, Bombsquad, Abuse Function: ASCII, Webmaster To Scene: (I couldn't reach him for all the info) CoolShit: http://www.purkamo.com (I expect he would have said this one) Handle: Cleaner (Cleaner) Country: France Groups: Used, Revelation, Just For Fun, Moonrise, Aeroholics, Drunken Function: ANSI/ASCII on PC, BBS Modding, Sysop, Democoding To Scene: 1996 (pc ascii 1997) CoolShit: http://cleaner.planet-d.net Handle: D'Artagnan (dtn) Country: Previously Australia, Currently USA Groups: Twisted, G^Force, Conspiracy Asc-Past: Whale, Honey Function: ASCII, Leader of Twisted and Conspiracy, Webmaster, Sysop & Cosysop, Courier, Cracker To Scene: 1990 (amiga ascii 1992) Coolshit: If you know me your cool 8) Handle: Daeron (daeron) Country: Finland Groups: Low Profile, LTC, Galza Asc-Past: Tropic!Ascii, Alien Technology Function: ASCII, web design To Scene: 1996 (amiga ascii 1995) CoolShit: www.halfproject.com Handle: Desert (d3sert) Country: Germany Groups: Dezign Function: ASCII, GFX To Scene: 1991 CoolShit: http://www.breakbeat.co.uk Handle: Dipswitch (dip^dCS) Country: Germany Groups: Dream Theatre, DCS, Bad Karma, AHS, Black Maiden, 100% Asc-Past: Arcade, DKB Function: ASCII, Music, Cosysop To Scene: 1995 (amiga ascii 1998) CoolShit: www.reggae-riddims.com Handle: Dwarf (dwarphie) Country: Finland Groups: Mimic, Killkrazed Asc-Past: Hazmat, Impure Function: ASCII To Scene: 1995 (ascii 1998) CoolShit: http://www.thehun.net Handle: Exile (Exile) Country: Holland Groups: Inhale Asc-Past: Grand Royal Function: ASCII To Scene: 1989 (amiga ascii 1993) CoolShit: http://www.newpic.com : A free new pic with every click Handle: h7 (velikani) Country: Finland Groups: Aerosol, TRSI, Mimic, Hirmu Asc-Past: Save Our Souls, Alien Technology, Karma, Aalto Function: Ascii, Hires, Sysop (1995-2000) To Scene: 1995 (amiga ascii 1997) CoolShit: http://www.thuglife.org Handle: Lord Chaos (aleks__) Country: Germany Groups: Dream Theatre, Bypass, Mo'Playaz, Aeroholics, Black Maiden Asc-Past: Shoot, Whale, DKB Function: Ascii, Music, Coder To Scene: 1992 (amiga ascii 1994) CoolShit: www.shaemarks.com Handle: MC Laser (MC_Laser) Country: Germany Groups: TSCC (Atari), Icebird Function: ASCII, Music (Chiptunes, Synthstuff) To Scene: 1991 (ascii 1996) CoolShit: http://tscc.atari.org Handle: nasOne (nasOne) Country: Holland Groups: Aerosol, Mimic Function: ASCII To Scene: 1998 CoolShit: http://www.mimic.ca Handle: Nup! (bdcs) Country: Finland Groups: Pro^Arts, DCS Asc-Past: Mo'Soul, Whale Function: ASCII, pixel gfx, siteop To Scene: 1993 CoolShit: www.sokeri.com Handle: poskgubbe (posc) Country: Finland Groups: Katharsis!ascii Function: ASCII, Fucking eleete trad0r To Scene: 1992 (ascii 1993) CoolShit: http://ktsascii.net Handle: red demon (oO]red[Oo) Country: Holland Groups: Low Profile, Paradox Asc-Past: Grand Royal, House of Style Function: ASCII, Leader, Trader, Smoker, Lover To Scene: 1987 (amiga ascii the night before christmas 1995) CoolShit: http://trendsportworld.com (when its open) Handle: Repe (Repe\SE) Country: Finland Groups: Style Function: Music (modules & "real" stuff. Building a homestudio at the moment, so pretty seriously in the biz..) To Scene: 1991 CoolShit: http://www.subakt.fr/ Handle: sycotic (sycotic) Country: New Zealand Groups: Plague, Department 38 Function: Sysop (1993-2000), Trader To Scene: 1987 CoolShit: http://www.sbp.org.nz Handle: tHrEAz (tHrEAz) Country: Finland Groups: Twisted, Damones Asc-Past: Head Function: ASCII, Swapper (1988-1997), Cosysop (1992-1999), Webmaster, PC-Code pr0nl0rd To Scene: 1988 (amiga ascii 1993) CoolShit: http://www.damones.net (cool shit, no design) Handle: tribe (tribe) Country: Finland Groups: Mimic, Killkrazed, Phantasy, Woe, ISO Asc-Past: Pen15, TheLoop Function: ASCII, Sysop (1997-2000) To Scene: 1996 (ascii 1999) CoolShit: http://girls.c64.org/ Handle: warder (warder) Country: Hungary Function: ANSI, Cosysop To Scene: 1992 CoolShit: http://daydream.iwn.fi Handle: zANEr (zANEr) Country: Germany Groups: Dream Theatre, Lightforce, Bad Karma, Aeroholics, SOIA Asc-Past: Arcade, DKB Function: ASCII, Sysop, Supplier To Scene: 1993 (amiga ascii 1996) CoolShit: http://www.artcrimes.org As you see, there are mainly Finnish barbarians and German scumbacks on the channel these days. It seems like ALL the Swedes have quit. Well, Holland with it's three asciiers should be mentioned too. Just as a little hint to newbies, try checking who is who and remember it. Newbie who expects scene to be like a day in a play school is dead wrong. That should go and mostly goes with #ascii too. Heh, just pop in, if you got the guts... - tHREAz/-T! - some words by Dipswitch: This article was written by Threaz over half a year ago. I tried to update it a little bit due to the developement of #ascii. I added some people who are regular attenders on #ascii nowadays, and also some people which Threaz simply forgot. Unfotunately, I couldn't not reach anybody for the necessary infos. Big sorry to all of you who feel like having to be listed here. If we'll bring an update of this list, we will include anyone who have to stand here. -diP/dTR ______ _ _ ______) //_____ _ /_// \\_\ | 7 r E l e a s e - l i s t .:| _| ___ _____ __ _____ _____ _·_ _____ \____ _ __(_ //_) __// |__) __/_( ___/_\ _)____) __/__ | -×ßL/SEA / / _/ |__ _/ \| _/___ / _/ ____ __¦_ ___ ___ \ \ _ \| | / \| ___\ \ |/ \ \| / |_\__ )_\ _)__( //_ /____\\____\_______\__\____/____\\_____ /__\____ |___ //___ \_ _/ - ------------------------ - \ _. | / \ |/ | | . /__||_______\___/_____ |___|--- - | · __| . . |__ \\|_ _|// _// ---------- -\_ ____\ /___ _ * = reviewed in this issue .-- dECEMBER 2000 - - - - |--------------.---------------------.-------------.--------------.----------. | Filename | Colly Title | Artist | Crew | Date | |--------------|---------------------|-------------|--------------|----------| | soc-hano.txt | Hard Nova Days | Sqlim | SOC | 03.12.00 | | r-angel.txt | She's An Angel | Whodini | Remorse 1981 | 10.12.00 | | r-horiz.txt | Quivering In The... | Mukumdi | Remorse 1981 | 10.12.00 | * lp!-pimp.txt | Pimpin' Ain't Easy | Volatile | Low Profile | 22.12.00 | * dn-drofa.txt | Droid Factory | D0n | The Loop | 24.12.00 | * ds!-d00.txt | Ascii Flashback | Dino |Divine Stylers| 24.12.00 | * p^a-smth.txt | Something I Can... | Nup! | Pro^Arts | 27.12.00 | * e^d-mvh.txt | Majs vs. Haresis | Ftl/Crb/Cg |Epsilon^Design| 30.12.00 | `--------------+---------------------+-------------+--------------+----------' .-- jANUARY 2001 - - - - |--------------.---------------------.-------------.--------------.----------. | Filename | Colly Title | Artist | Crew | Date | |--------------|---------------------|-------------|--------------|----------| * l124-sim.txt | Stronger (Impres... | Azzaro | Link124 | 10.01.01 | * l124-asf.txt | #Ascii Fuckers | Noches | Link124 | 10.01.01 | | mkd-bye.txt | - | Mukumdi | Remorse 1981 | 25.01.01 | | lot-luvu.txt | I Lahve You! | Lahve | Layout | 27.01.01 | * hos-tage.txt | Take No Hostage | Ramone |House Of Style| 30.01.01 | `--------------+---------------------+-------------+--------------+----------' - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- - THAT'S THE END, MY FRiEND! - Credits - Ascii Work by: Daeron/Low Profile Lord Chaos/Dream Theatre Threaz/Twisted XBall/Sative Mea People involved into this issue: Abhorrence/Twisted (reviews) Daeron/Low Profile (reviews, interviewer) Dipswitch/Dream Theatre (main editor, reviews, compiling) Lord Chaos/Dream Theatre (reviews, interviewer) Mortimer Twang/Low Profile (reviews) Threaz/Twisted (article writer) - Disclaimer - None of the material may be republished on websites, in diskmags etc. without permission of TAC. All material is (c)TAC'2000-2001. Ascii art is (c) of the artists who drew it. No material may be altered in any form. Every opinion expressed in any TAC issue is just an opinion of the author who wrote it. TAC as whole can not be hold responsible for opinions expressed in any TAC issue. TAC sees itself as a forum for Ascii artists to express opinions, not as an oppinion-forming organisation. No staff member of TAC can be hold responsible for an opinion expressed by another TAC staff member. Spelling and other errors may occure. Cologne, Germany. 12.02.2001. Dipswitch/DTR (main editor) Contact e-mail: asciicharts@gmx.de BBS World Headquarter: The Yard BBS (op: Zaner/DTR) - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- - [EOF] ¡ "bEYONd thE EdGE Of REAlitY..." >> ¡ -------------------------------------- - |. .| || || AEROhOliCS / MO'PlAYAZ / dREAM thEAtRE !| _ |! MANGOO / AEROSOl / diSCiPlES OF AGEEMA | ; | bAd kARMA / ARCAdE WHQ | _ | | ; 7 liGHtfORCE / ROYAl lOW PROfilE / SOiA | : UP ROUGh / PUNGAS / 1OO PERCENt | ¡ tEQUilA / PhUNk GHQ / PhANtASY EHQ | _ | | "...dON't PlAY US ChEAP!" ; | AMiGA/ASCii/GRAffiti/dRUGS/N64/GAMEbOY ! | GAMEbOY COlOR/NEOGEOPOCkEt/SNES/OldiES ___. ______. drn\lp! | PSX/PS2/dC/SEGA/MP-ThREE/ChiPtUNES/MOd \\ !___ \ !__ _ _ ________ | =C64/SPECCtRUM/AtARi-8/cPc/liNUX/*NiX! \\ .__/--\\ ._ \ / ._ / | _\ ;/ \ !/ \ !/____/_ | PRiVAtE SYStEM With thREE diAlUP NOdES /___/ _____/ __ / __\ _! fiVE BlAStiNG 24h tElNEt NOdES ON ADSL `----' `----' `----' \\; . ______ ___ _ _ _________ _______ ¡ \ !/ __ /___\_ \ / _ __ /___\_ // t h E Y A R d _______,| _\ _/ \ / _ / / \ / / /______________________\ ____|_ /_____); ______ ) __ \ ______ /_ ___,_________________________\ ! ,_____\ `----' `----\ `----'