BM - Name, History, ... by VOiCE
BM - Name, History, ... by VOiCE
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-*HiSTORY*-
Black Maiden bM has its roots in the CPC scene. Time wrote the year 1986,
when a young computer game fanatic spent most of his time playing games on
the CPC. As time went on, the young man grew slightly bored. After all, the
CPC had 27 colors to its disposition. Why then, in most games, were there but
four, or sixteen, and then still, why so ugly? By the same time, a friend of
the youngster possessed an Amiga, and he was impressed by the graphics of
this machine. Something inside the young man said that it was possible to get
more out of the CPC, and he felt the urge to prove it.
And so he did. First programming some small graphical tricks, he went on to
getting the most out of the machine, and finally, he programmed a full role
playing game on the CPC, with some of the most stunning graphics ever seen on
that machine. Lord Healer, as he is now known, helped the young man with the
graphics, and TX began to convert the game for Amiga. The young man had the
name of VOiCE.
VOiCE and TX had from then on a good time cracking all sorts of programms,
VOiCE on the CPC while TX sharpened his skills on the Amiga. Lord Healer, for
his part never owned a computer, so it was quiet around his person, ... until
some time, when the other two guys finally got a modem - the key to the PC
scene. By that time, both of them had a PC of course.
At first VOiCE was quite sad to see that all those beautiful things he
happended to create on the CPC were quite different to do on the PC, so he
laid programming more or less aside. Fate led him to ANSi. As he had been
drawing comics and the like at hand quite often just as Lord Healer, the
step from the pencil to the ANSi block wasnt that big. It was a matter of
restricting oneself to fewer tools. Besides, the kick came from ACiD, the
world-famous Art-group, whose ANSis woke some greater astonishement in VOiCE,
and let him try his chance. His first essays were shown to TX and Lord
Healer, who both appreciated the new technique of drawing. So Lord Healer
tried too, and succeeded. Black Maiden was reborn, this time not as a cracker
and programmer group, but as an Art-group, incorporating both the graphical
as well as the literal art of its members.
Black Maiden was to be a turn in Luxembourgs computer and, mainly, in its
Art-scene.
-*THE NAME*-
The first creations of VOiCE on the CPC went under the label StarSoft. But he
realised quite fast that this wasnt a name to go into history, so he changed
it to Mask, which already had a deeper meaning.
But not deep enough, as it proved out. VOiCE leapt into the abyss, fought
his ways through the eternal bonfire, struggling to find THE name for his
group, flew through heaven, crossed the river Styx, passed the gates of
Valhalla, and finally, his journey was to find an end. He realised what he
wanted to achieve, what he wanted to create - an Ideal. The Ideal of Beauty,
and it bore the name of BLACK MAiDEN.
Thought by some to be composed of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, the meaning
is somehow different though.
Maiden stands of course for the female creation, the utmost symbol of Beauty.
But in order to symbolize an Ideal, there has to be more. I used the word
symbolized. Yes, the Ideal must be a symbol, and therefore the prefix
black. Black stands for dark, mysterious, mystiful, unseen, elusive and
unpalpable. It has nothing to do with the color of skin.
Thus, the Black Maiden is the Ideal of Beauty - Beauty which exists in higher
realms - in our imagination. It is what our minds see in our drawings and in
our words that is Art, and Art, is the purpose of Black Maiden, the Art-group
from Luxembourg.
-*THE RELEASES*-
Black Maiden are programming, drawing ANSi, GiF/JPG, RiP, ASCii, and writing.
We do this for ourselves, for friends, or for everyone who requests
something. I want to add that we must ask some money for our creations thank
the system. We still say that Art has nothing to do with money, but the
money we ask is simply a compensation for the time we spend at doing the
work, for bearing the nigglings of our parents because of the time spent
before the screen, for bearing the nigglings of life, and for paying a part
of the phone bill we get because of the public relations we have to maintain.
I am sure you understand this.
As of writing this, Black Maiden has released four packs, containing all the
art done in the period between the releases. While beholding our packs you
will necessarily notice the evolution of our creations.
Our packs are named BM-PACKx.ZiP, where x is the number of the pack,
currently one to five. These are floating through Luxembourg, Germany, and
hopefully throughout the whole world. They can be downloaded at our distro
sites and our HQs see list below as well as from many other Bulletin Boards
Systems.
-*THE MEMBERS*-
I will list here all the members that are part of, or have been part of Black
Maiden up till now. Brackets mean that the person is no longer a member, or
is not active at the moment.
Name: Doing:
VOiCE ANSi, ASCii, VGA, CODE, Literature
TX VGA, some CODE
LOrD HeAleR ANSi, VGA, Literature
Pi RoM Writing
BkC CODE
Last V8 CODE
RAGE ASCii
tRiCYCLe ANSi, CODE
SLEdGE HAMMER VGA
Bad Blood VGA
RadioActive Man VGA
MERCiLESS DEViL COURiERiNG
-*THE BOARDS*-
These boards all carry at least the latest pack of Black Maiden as well as
other occasional releases.
Name: Position: SysOp: Number:
THE WATELAND WORLD HQ LastV8 +352-858698
ThE BLACK MAiDEN PiT COORDiNATiON VOiCE +352-958996 Open only on
BOARD Sunday, 11.00am - 15.00pm!
PYROMANiA BBS EUROPEAN HQ BkC +352-570478
BRAiNLESS BBS GERMAN HQ BuSteR +49-581-30515
HiGH-VOLTAGE BBS DiSTRO SiTE CoKe +352-959277
ThE DaRk-ZoNE BBS DiSTRO SiTE FiRE +352-651271
ZENLANDiA BBS DiSTRO SiTE RAGE +352-787308
METROPOLiS DiSTRO SiTE BLACK PANTHER +352-406096
BRiTANNiA BBS DiSTRO SiTE The AVATAR +49-2461-51902
THE NORTHERN TERRiTORY DiSTRO SiTE BladeRunner +49-40-5004204
Please note that this list is suceptible to constant change. This one is
valid at least for the release of the fifth pack.
-*LAST WORDS*-
-*THE MOST iMPORTANT PART*-
Here, I would like to grasp the opportunity and thank some people, who
supported Black Maiden, and without whom, the group wouldnt be what it is
today.
First of all, thanks to the whole Black Maiden staff. Keep up the excellent
work!
Greetings go to:
Coke, Bombjack, Fire, Lone Wolf, Mr Incognito, Miki from AOG, The Sheep,
and all I forgot.
Special thanks go to all our boards SysOps and to all those who like what
we do.
In memorian of all the great people that inspired me and the whole group to
create something. To all the fabulous writers, to all the poets of musical,
literal and graphical art - Thank you.
Very special thanks go to Screamager and LastV8 for their lasting support, as
well as to my RPG team for just being great friends.
--- z VOiCE bM