Fifty to Infinity
the ACiD news ...
n
e
w
unsane
Issue No.13 An Official ACiD Productions
tm Public Update September 1996
By Necr
omancer
In this ever-turbulent sea of change that we call life,
there are very few
stable points. For some, it is love. For others, it might
be that they are
financially stable. In the underground computer art scene, i
ts ACiD. For six
years, piddly groups have come, made their own niche in
this land called
cyberspace, and then left it as unobtrusively as they ente
red. But one has
stayed. Starting with just a few members and a vision, ACi
D has continued to
expand its horizons and all the while fulfilling the incr
easing demand for
quality artwork. And this month is no different, with the
exception of one small thing: ACiD turns 50. And aft
er all these years the ratio of cyber-years
to true years being 7:1, ACiD has been there. Weve been th
ere since the days of WWIV, V-X, Telegard, THG, INC,
the original iCE merging with ACiD, and we
will continue to be here long after youre gone.
By Cthulu
Now that were back to a more serious mentality about
this whole art
creation speil, we decided to compliment the return of the e
lite attitude with some policy changes just to make ev
erything run that much more like clockwork.
The first major change in the way ACiD is run now is that
we have eliminated
all Senior Staff and Coordinator positions. How does that w
ork? ACiD is now
functioning with an hierarchial Advisory Staff system. As us
ual, RaD Man looms over all. He knows all an
d sees all. Reporting to him is Beastie, wh
o aids various division advisors. These advisors an
d their cooperative staff are mainly comprised of
former Senior Staff and Coordinators. Beneath
them come sundry co-advisors, secretaries, pages
, execu-
tive producers, gaffers
, key grips, and finally the
artists. Eight months later
, we show up on the
big screen! No,
wait, I forgot, Im not
supposed to menti
on ACiDs new Cinema di-
vision until the NEXT newsletter...
Well, anyway, there are several menti
ons to be made
relating to this whole shifting of
positions and
titles, so I will attempt to make th
em as seamless
and conc
ise as possible. To begin with, Rocket
Scienti
st, a longtime ACiD core member, retired and
ascende
d into the Alumni with JED and ReDMaN. Though
he has be
en fairly low-profile in the past couple of
y
ears he was a major contributer through 1993 and has
consistantly released lo
aders ever since. Hes such
Tweed shows here the an institutio
n in the ACiD family that even RaD Man
similarities to his isnt sure ho
w long hes been a part of ACiD, so his
cousin, Oats n Hay. stepping down
and hence stepping up will provide an
inspiration to us all while al
lowing new bureaucrats to cut their teet
h on group relations, which is no
mean feat in itself. Hey, this is rocket science, not brain
surgery.
Rocket Scientists departure left the Coordinator Staff
of ACiD with only two members - Soultaker and Sinned
Soul. Theyve both made grabs to more con-
ventional titles, so Soultaker stepped down to become
another member of Telecom once he left for college wh
ile Sinned Soul redelegated down to ACiD Infor
mation
Systems.
With that matter of Senior Staff resolved, wed li
ke to welcome these folks to the new Advisor
hierarchy of ACiD. The Chief Advisor,
behind RaD Man him-
self, is Beastie, who looks over art. Thi
s comprises ANSI, ASCII, RIPscrip,
and high resolution artwork. Other adviso
rs, respectively, are Tasmaniac, for
coders Pinion, for ACiDs pHluid music divisi
on Mindcrime, for ACiDic BBS
modding Wolfie, for ACiD Information Syste
ms, and Mad Arab, who is in charge
of the new joint Telecom-Courier division.
All of these advisors have sundry
co-advisors and people to help them in their own regard, but
those are the only
names youll really have to deal with at the moment.
Mad Arab has replaced Soultaker as leader of the
telecom division. He is a
talented telecom member in his own right who has been wi
th us for several
months and is also a member of 200 Proof. Since taking Sou
ltakers place he
has recruited two new members to the Telecom-Courier division
Tasmaniac will be helped in his advisory capacity by Sh
ivan Bastard, who has
dropped all his art affiliations to come to ACiD as a coder
and will continue
from where Dark Emnity left, working with Tasmaniac to c
reate SPAM, the scripting language for Oblivion/2,
of which he has recently become in charge.
He codes in a plethora of languages notably, C++, Asm, and
Perl. In addition
to his regular coding responsabilities, he plans to continue
assisting ACiDiC
with mods for Obv/2.
To coordinate ACiD-ASCII, Necromancer has sprung fr
om the ranks to fill the
position of leadership needed. To aid him with administra
tive duties comes award-winner Killa Hertz,
who surely knows the ins and outs of ASCII.
Reinstated as the coordinator of the ACiD ANSI logocluster,
that effervescent
cluster of ACiD ansi logos, is Unsane, with aid from
Tosh10. With efforts from
both of them, we will prove once again that ACiD logoclust
ers are the best
logoclusters in the scene!
The former ACiDiC PPE Team Leader Captain Hood,
was overthrown by members of
his own department. The new PPE Team Leader is Social Dis
tortion, who will work
twice as well accounting for the fact that he has the u
se of both hands.
Editors Note: This would have been a bit more humorous,
but his name isnt Captain Hook.
In supplementary news for ACiDiC this season comes the i
nstatement of the
Telegard Team, to service the most used BBS software in th
e world! Hooch is
team leader, but he was unavailable to comment, as he was b
usy filling in the
3000 strings of his newest creation.
In a striking blow felt to all, The Grey Ranger
was removed from the ACiD
Memberlist from his position of Chauffeur due to some troubl
e with the driving
comission and the trunkful of communist literature they found
in the ACiD limo.
By RaD Man and Cthulu
Though it may seem that we have now covered enough politics
to fill an entire
newsletter, those were merely the changes dealing w
ith advisors and
ex-coordinators and Senior Staff. We havent even begun
to deal with the
artists roster which has changed so much since you last
heard from us!
To begin with, then, a co-secretary has been assigned
to aid Cthulu w
ith the seemingly endless task of
writing newsletters, web pages, articles, news
releases, docume
ntation and naughty stories for the
us
e of ACiD members in general. His name is Hack,
and
the sooner he starts
, the better, in one secretarys
opin
ion. And no, for once, no one is going to
complain about cheap li
terary hacks.
While those two abo
ve are big news on their own, they
are followed by giants. The one
, the only, Lord, of
Jazz better kno
wn as Lord Jazz has returned to ACiD
after a st
ing running The Girl Scouts, later Bleach.
He cit
es personal reasons for re-joining, and we
arent comp
laining! For those of you who entered the
scene last week, he draw
s ANSI, RIPScrip, high Madness runs
in
resolution, ASCII, writes music and pornography. What
Madballs family alley
more can you ask from a versatile young artist?
No ones heard much from Morbius since he left Nation
two years ago. Sure, hes
released the odd pic in ACiD, one every few months, and as
he seems to be
drawing again, he wants his ANSI pictures to be released in t
he group which has
been on top ever since. Who can blame him?
Unsane quit the ANSI scene, but this doesnt seem t
o have prevented him from
joining ACiD and drawing ANSI logos for us. Perhaps there w
as some confusion
down the line? He can quit whatever he likes if this is how
he reacts to it.
Our friend Visigoth, the two-time winner of the NAi
D high resolution graphics
competition, has returned to ACiD after a terrifying stint
in one of those
number-two groups. Weve managed to calm him down, but the
neurologist says
that hell have that nervious tic underneath his eye for the
rest of his life.
Let that be a warning to the rest of you.
Though its apparent that hundreds of artists have been throu
gh ACiD one way or
another, it seems that there are still a few of you who haven
t had the fortune
of being part of our family yet. Well soon remedy that,
but until the Lord
Jazz starter kit is ready for release youll just have to
keep your pants on and try improving on your own.
Now, I mentioned something earlier about MOP. This marks t
he first time that
weve really merged with anybody since Saga, more or less
a year ago, and it truely does give us a shot of fres
h blood and adrenalin, and hopefully our gestalt w
ill produce better art than the two groups had seperate
ly in the past.
Putting ANSI first, a move many have said should have been
done long ago, we
have gained several members. Abnormal and Arrogan
ce give our ANSI department an
unusually uppity air to it, but under their Sensei
the brash untrained energy
should be refined to a calm honed edge. Liithn,
Mendator and Baltazar join the
ranks of such ACiD members as Nitnatsnoc and Tomppa1 with
handles which are
completely impossible to elaborate on. So instead, we wil
l simply let them
express themselves through their art. To date, it looks like
they have a lot to
say. Rounding off the ANSI acquisitions from the Mop merger
comes Pushead, an
excellent pic artist and the former head of Mops ANSI depart
ment.
Mop benefitted our ASCII and RIPScrip drawings peripheral
ly, but Haji for
ASCII and Wildcat for RIP are still very welcom
ed into the group. Theres
only two of them, but we like to realize the old adage quali
ty over quantity.
Were not sure what language Hydrocephalus uses, bu
t between the C that Leroy
is adept with and Toxic403s mastery of Pascal, n
ot to mention the Assembly with which they are both pr
etty handy, were confident that well be able to
compile whatever code comes out of his twitching fingers.
Finishing the list of resources gained and friends forged th
rough the alliance
of two world-class groups come four outstanding high-resolu
tion artists. The
first, appropriately enough, is named Blandest. T
wo of the remaining three comprise Bob the Janit
or and Tweed, the co-founders of Mop
and talented,
trippy, surreal high-resolution artists who could stand alo
ne. The last one,
Tabaqui, produces some of the best high-res weve s
een. Shes comparabale to
Catbones, so that deserves some sort of special mention. No
w, while it is too
late for Blandest to have founded the group, theres noth
ing preventing him from trying to win then fair hand o
f another tattooist...
Has anyone heard of Newtons Third Law of ANSI Dynami
cs? It goes like this: what goes down, must come ba
ck up. That is the only way we can explain why forme
r members of ACiD just keep coming back to the best g
roup out there. Perhaps Ive just answered my own qu
estion. In any event, well start off by welcoming ba
ck into ACiD two folks who we gained through a me
rger with the sensational Mop, so we welcome back
Bedlam and Icto with open
arms, as they wow us with RIPScrip, high resolution ar
t, HTML design, and mere high rez, re-
spectively.
Just when you thought it was over, some 220 lines later
, we reveal to the masses all the people who have rece
ntly joined OUTSIDE of the Mop merger! Make these peo
ple stop joining or else this newsletter will never end
We found a peculiar individual wandering the streets a
few months back. He amazed us all, by proving to be
a master of old school ASCII. Formerly of CIA, we w
elcome in that enigma known only as EverLast.
We welcome Quisling, an international trendsetter, i
nto our high resolution
department this quarter. What makes this VGA artist a
nd photo manipu-
lator so fashionable? Formerly of Mop, he proudly joined AC
iDs ranks several weeks before the rest of his comp
atriots followed suit. Coincidence or cons-
piracy?
Jason not to be confused with Jae or Sun, i
n any combination gives our high resolution departm
ent a boost with his great abstract style only Finns s
eem to have perfected.
We thought that we hear
d something when The Silent
Killer l
eft Fire, but nothing reached our ears until
we found the pile of
ANSI logos on our central
branchs desk. Oh, and the cor
pse.
Be warned. ACiD is now high in
Sodium. So, um... you
may want to co
nsult your doctor before consuming any
more of our art. Blades productions a
re free of the
mine
ral now, however, so eat as much of it as you
wan
t.
From CiA come two great ANSI logo artists -
Mad Ball
an
d Spear. Spear said that it was great to be in
ACiD
at last, but Mad Ball was u
navailable for comment
until he finished seeing his psychiatrist abou
t that
Caught red-handed, the awful dream
where hes on that big green table.
Silent Killer muses
over a quick escape. Just to prove
our appeal over vast denominations, we
now boast that ACiD has
White Trash in it, and that
were not going to do anything about it. Th
is
wonderful ANSI picture artist really isnt a problem for us,
and hes even less
of one for Legend now.
Two RIPScrip artists join the fray just in time - Sata
nic Sly from the late late Decades and
PhazeOne from Teklordz to wow us with their a
nime and graffiti RIP stylings.
Cylus, Mesonyx, Nomex, Nova,
and KX Mode join ACiDs pHluid mus
ic division, proving truth to the old adage that all m
usicians have the letters y, v, or x in their ha
ndles. In addition to that quality, Cylus is also fo
rmerly the the coordinator of Blades music division.
Also joining is Bejrutt, who has a marginall
y more normal handle, and Panther, who has a su
bstantially more normal
one.
In addition to the coding escapades of Hydrocep
halus, Leroy and Toxic403 from Mop as were mentionne
d above, ACiDs general coding team would love to a
nnounce our newest member, Tyger, who is bringi
ng with him the ongoing
support for The Tombstone Artist RIPscrip drawing utility, v
ersion 2.0.
From the infamous and respected PPE coding team of Pirates Wi
th Attitudes PWA
comes Bad Spirit to ACiDics PPE Team, along with
Chaos Warrior. Though his handle is similarl
y unpredictable, Chaotic Prisoner is
busy creating art for ACiDic modific
ations. Katt joins th
e Telegard team, p
roviding increasing support to a rising
software, and Onslaught
joins ACiDics Special Team, a uniq
ue task force working on unannounced projec
ts which will surely rock the
scene once theyre released.
Under the new management of Mad Arab, ACiDs telecom divisi
on has welcomed in the services of Clover and
Mirror Image, who has worked previously with
DOD and Amnesia yes, the Amnesia who is currently th
e number one couriering group. We are suitably hum
bled.
By RaD Man and Cthulu
To prove Newtons laws of ANSI dynamics true, unfortunately,
some artists must
otherwise find reason to leave that they might rejoin at a
later date. It is
such that we bid the following people not a good-bye so mu
ch as an until we
meet again.
Weve already mentioned the anachronistic qualities of the C
hauffeur position.
In any event, the only highway were tearing down at t
he moment is the
information one, what with our new web page and all.
Some of them had the decency to at least resign formall
y when it became
apparent that they wouldnt be creating much more a while, s
uch as Christopher
Robin. For others such as Sushi-X and
Iczer-1, it seemed more of a problem with
the work that they were submitting on those rare occasions t
hat they submitted
at all. There even seemed a geographic turn of events when
Plague and Sharp
Edge, both from Israel, ceased to create art for u
s. But this plague of apathy affects many artists fo
r inscrutiable reasons, claiming greats such as
Somms and Bad Karma down to peo
ple like Surreal, better known as Rendere
d Uselesss
phantom brother. In passing, it also cut short the ANSI d
rawing careers of
Spellbinder, Sinister X, and
Tripe.
Making formal resignations are several other loved and r
espected artists,
leaving their cherished hobby due to time constraints or out
side pressures and
influences. Black Lightning, Degenerit
, Final Descendant and
Rotting Christ have gone off to pursue oth
er hoobies, such as basket-weaving, or in the case o
f Rotting Christ, synchronized swimming.
Crimeboss was removed completely from the annals o
f ACiD history for completely different, and much l
ess original, reasons. In addition,
Soul Assassin
mistakenly thought that he could find a deeper sense of i
nner peace in iCE while Mage was last se
en conspiring with members of his first big group
Mistigris.
In some disharmonious news, Vibrance was removed
from pHluid by the advisor,
Pinion, due to internal conflicts.
ACiDic grew a bit more base with the loss of Chronic
Fatigue, Redemption and Lil El
vis for reasons of inactivity. The unanimous mot
ion to replace Captain
Hood has already been mentioned, so we will onl
y mention that he ran off
muttering something about a crocodile who has my hand! a
nd a flying boy.
On a final spurt of early-breaking news, Anarchist
is finally taken peacefully
from among the ranks of ACiDs famous telecom division as he
resigns and hangs
up his beige box.
By Cthulu
For those masochists out there who dont think that 370 line
s is entirely long
enough for a respectable newsletter, information of all
shapes, sizes and flavours will be available for your
discreet entertainment as presented in the
upcoming release of the second ever issue of the official e
lectronic magazine
of ACiD, The Product II. Specifications for new software
secrets will be
discussed in it as well as much lively commentary on the stat
e of the Art scene
at large and how much it had changed and remained the sam
e since the many
many months between now and the release of the hal
lowed issue one.
By Cthulu
In case you havent noticed, were playing up the fact that
this is the 50th
release of the monthly Acquisition Update which ACiD has
released since its
inception way back when. Despite the frantic efforts at E
clipse we are the
first group to have released 50 packs, and will hopefully m
aintain our steady
schedule and be getting geared up for pack 100 within
a few years. That makes this pack a milestone of many
deep meanings for many people - face it, can you
remember a time without ACiD? Well, since you began
modeming at least. This momentous marker will denote
a return to ACiDs tried-but-true tactics of kicking
ass, taking names, lording over the scene, and taking
no prisoners. So, to paraphrase - if you think that
the first fifty have been a weird, wonderful trip -
you aint seen nothing yet.
As a fiftiricious update, wed like to draw attention
to a few special features in our momentous release.
ACiD View now features the only internal JPEG viewing
of any viewer in the scene to date, so you can all
put away PV. To add to our growing list of scene
resources were proud to be releasing new versions of
Eyeing some punk going
the Tombstone Art 2.0 RIPScrip creator and the
for his bucket, Bob
Oblivion/2 bulletin board software. Our new web page
the Janitor readies
complex is up, running, and awesome to editorialize
his trusty wooden MOP.
slightly - so check i
t out at www.a
cid.org.
Finally, wed like to display attention towards the
amazing demo, ACID-50.EXE, contained within the
50th pack archives. This demo was created by the Ger
man demogroup Simple specifically to celebrate
our
fiftieth update.
By Cthulu
As we grow closer to dominating all aspects of the sce
ne - graphically,
musically, through the internet and through general data
transmission - the
relationship we share with our artists becomes ever more in
tense. We provide
them with the tools needed to do new things and test the
limits of their
imaginations. We provide an inspiration to aspiring artists t
esting their first
faltering footfalls in this turbulent sea of politics and buf
foonery. But most of all, we remain steadily as num
ber one, as a mark for all other groups to
gauge their successes and failures against, to provoke
and inspire higher
levels of creative fervour in response. And we love eve
ry minute of it.
ACiD 1996 - Have 50 packs gone by already? I hadnt not
iced the time.
ACiD Credits: Writers:
Cthulu, RaD Man Ed
itor: Necromancer ACiD
ACiD Special Thanks: Unsane
Photographer
: Lord Jazz ACiD