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1998: The year of art
by dangermouse (31st December, 1998)

Hey Hey. Shit, has this year gone so quickly? I guess so, unless of course I'm in a fantasy land where it is 1999. Oh well, in any case, let's have a brief look at what happened in 1998.

It was the year that art made a comeback, especially ansi art. Following maestro's "my message to the scene" article, he set up a group called Legion, which after this point, inspired many an artist to pick up the mouse (or cursor) and start mucking around with those little coloured blocks again.

Creator's Avenge was also another group which emerged before The Legion, but ultimately would become its major competition. A lot of other groups like Function , Sense and Aspire make their debuts, and old timers like Force make a brief comeback.

It was also a year of change, especially for acheron.org. Three designs later, we finally emerged to the design you currently see.

Deaths of groups were also aplenty, but you can read on to find out which ones. Shit, it was a big year afterall, have fun reading.

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January

01. The biggest happening this month was the announcement that FUEL, the biggest European group at the time, was no more. ZeusII submitted a news piece giving explanations of why the group called it quits: lack of senior activity; nightdee's death; no activity from members; among others..

02. Avenge Cult makes its scene debut. You will remember last year Acheron reported the ACiD!ANSI debacle? Well White Trash merged that 'group' with Creator's decadence, and Avenge was the offspring.

03. Sense debuts, headed by Hexd.

04. The Saturday War newschool/oldschool ascii competiton, created by martz, was started this month, held around four times in all over a number of weeks..

05. Spies Ascii, headed by Martz, died after only releasing 3 packs. more info available in the interviews section.

06. Satire and Ruckus ascii were created, headed respectively by kayozz and anarkzz.

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February

01. Blender made a come back to the scene, headed up by Mistigris head Cthulu. The event attracted dozens of entries, but apparently Cthulu didn't receive any entries via his email account!

02. Avenge had a major reshuffling this month, the members agreeing to appoint Creator, ZeusII and Sudden Death as the new team leaders, replacing White Trash. ZeusII wrote that the members did not feel that White Trash was the proper leader for their group, and that they hold no grudge against him what-so-ever.

03. Kwest, Cain's ascii group, died. A merger between Odelay and Kwest reportedly failed.

04. Odelay also saw two new team leaders in the form of Konami and Discofunk.

05. Satire and Ruckus ascii both died.

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March

01. Legion, the group created by long time scenester Maestro, finally makes its scene debut. The pack was absolutely amazing, with artists like The Knight, Lord Jazz and others contributing..

02. Tomppa1 visits Catbones on his American tour (the first leg staying with Rad Man on the west coast). Tomi braves the chair, and gets his own tattoo in a 'joint' design between himself and Cat.

03. Reports of Noname being revived sprouted from Pariah..

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April

01. Function, a group created by Warpus and Quip, makes an announcement of its plans to join the art scene, and add to the mayhem Avenge and Legion were creating.

02. Acheron.org took on a whole new design in a hope to improve speed and usability. Acheron also changed over to a new server, provided by element design, rw's web hosting and design company.

03. As if prompting a redesign, artpacks.acid.org also had a makeover, making the site look a lot better.

04. Force made its announcement that they would be coming back from the abyss, headed up by Cyrogenic.

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May

01. The biggest news this month was the shock death of AWE Lettering, the number one logo group run by The Night Angel. Reasons behind the death are due to TNA's request for a coder, and no-one filling the posistion. The reason behind TNA wanting a coder is that he wanted AWE to release not packs, but portfolios. This new way of presenting ANSI would mean a loadable viewer with all the art alrady in it -- or so I'm lead to believe..

02. Acheron unviels its new pack reviews section, working in conjunction with operation rescue.

03. Fire announces that pack it is releasing a pack 33, and that it will be its last release ever. The news doesn't really come as that much of a surprise as their member numbers and interest was dwindling. The last pack was said to contain lots of guest appearances from artists around the scene, and is expected to be a massive release.

04. The lit scene makes a comeback, with groups like Codine and Pipe making an appearance. Dark Spiral and other online zines continued to produce, and Mistigris was still pumping out lit.

05. Blue Devil announces his resignation from Avenge, and he subsequently took his group Scrollz with him, to release on his own accord. BD gives his reasons in that he felt the group was not heading in the proper direction for him, and that he felt it was falling apart.

06. Cthulu writes a retort to Blue Devil's rants and about the 'new' lit scene.

07. Function releases its debut pack, and what a ripper it was, with artists like Quip, Ironghost and Konami shining.

08. oOze 3 is released to warm welcome from the scene, the issue including pack reviews from the last year (all the ones they missed since the last issue!), articles and quirky tid-bits.

09. Acheron's art gallery is finally unveiled. After numerous people requesting it, acheron finally had the bandwidth and space to provide one. It opened with legion and function online.

10. Cia announces that it is making a comeback, with Burning Chrome and Sudden Death at the helm. [more info]

11. The first Dark Meet of Spring takes place on the 29th, with members like The 4th Discyple, Acidic Soap, Carnifex, Corinthian, Critical Illusion, Epitaph, Expatriate, Godless, Holocaust, Scrupulous & the Green Hornet attending.

12. Scrollz merges with Cia, and Blue Devil seems content in justifying his actions to the scene - and Cthulu.

13. Souls, a .RIP only group is created by nightstalker.

14. Gutter issue one is released to the scene. Filth's emag delivers articles, pack reviews, and other tasty treats. [more info]

15. iCE had a general get together at this years E3 show, causing all sorts of mayhem. Read their 9805 pack .nfo file for more information.

16. Reports of Avenge dying were put to rest by Creator, stating that the comments and rumours started by various people in the scene enraged him beyond belief. [more info]

17. Odelay Ascii, formed by Prodigy, died. The decline of members is blamed for the death.

18. Homi Ascii also died.

19. On a lighter note though, Noname Ascii and Grill Ascii were both revived.

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June

01. Zenith, a group founded by egoteq and taintedx, makes its scene debut in spectacular style, some branding it the next group to rival the likes of Legion and Avenge.

02. Dieznyik makes a public attack on tX's decision to include a 'comeback' nfo file against the views held by The Extremist, in his reviews of his solo pack.

03. Blender Kombat, a 'new' scene competition geared towards teams from art groups. [more info]

04. iCE announces that it is reorganising its ANSI division in order to get it back to what it once was. Inazone and Count Zero were leading the revival.

05. Either this month or last month, alt.art.hirez is created to service the high resolution art community.

06. Fistful of Steel Issue 8 is released, the 'special' issue focusing on group and art scene websites.

07. Hallucigenia release their debut pack.

08. Impulse BBS Software is handed over to Judge Dredd, Horrid stating it was a fun 6 months of development.

09. Gutter Two is released.

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July

01. Nightstalker's RIP group, Souls, release their debut pack.

02. The Knave joins ACiD. The Knave was kicked out of ACiD over, apparently, alegations that he 'ripped'.

03. Awards 98 is put on the drawing boards, and proposed to the scene via a news posting.

04. A new emag by kyp and shine called beam is released. [more info]

05. Lost Soul proposes a scene-wide 1000 line ansi file, with anyone who is interested able to contribute.. No word was ever given on the outcome.

06. Knocturnal stands down as the leader of Avenge.

07. After many rumours and stirring, The Night Angel makes a public announcement that AWE Lettering would be making a comeback, and they did just that.

08. Aspire releases their debut pack. Gwyndian later kills it in December.

09. Blade actually release a pack.

10. Distant release their first pack.

11. Avenge releases their new web site.

12. Flare makes their debut.

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August

01. "Discussions" area is started in an attempt to remove non-news related items from the news page.

02. Scrye announces that he indeed is not dead.

03. Awards98 is postponed due to pretty shitty nominee lists. A suggestions form is made so that people can submit the names of their favourite artists.

04. Artpacks.acid.org splits servers, with all ftp functions being handled by ftp.artpacks.acid.org. The move was geared to give greater speed. [more info]

05. Power Flower, a russian art group (it's all happening over there) releases their first pack.

06. Sense #12 releases with a virus. The scene was alerted thanks to Scrye.

07. iCE release their T-Shirt, available for purchase online. [more info]

08. iCE and ACiD go into battle in the short lived Blender Kombat. iCE came out victorious due to some clever ANSIMation. [more info]

09. Sharp release their debut pack.

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September

01. Route666 goes back online on a cable modem with 16 nodes at route666.detour.net. Dial-up was also available.

02. Purg annouce their plans for a "world-wide" scenecon, called, funnily enough, PurgCon '99.

03. Image kills his group Uprise, and then un-kills it :>

04. ACiD release their beanies and hooded sweat shirts. [more info]

05. HRG announces that thye will be creating a new division for anime and manga related material.

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October

01. Mongi announces that he has plans to bring back hirez.org. [more info]

02. Sodium announces the return of his popular scene emag Acrylic Weekly, but we are still to see any results.

03. Sephiroth heads up a new group called Sadist.

04. The popular Australian emag oOze is officially dead. It came as no real surprise, as the emag had always had delays in production (for up to one year once).

05. Mimic, the ascii group, annouce that they have a website. [more info]

06. Massd announces iCE's plans for a serious of ANSI Seminars, where famous scene artists help out the new and budding artists within the scene. [more info]

07. Acheron.org is completely revamped with a new look and philosophy. The new design goes back to its 'sceneish' beginnings and looks a shitload better.

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November

01. The first news this month was the dismal death of Force, after a much anticipated comeback under the leadership of Cryogenic. The group was at the pinicle of the Australian art scene for quite a few years, and will be sadly missed.

02. As if to worsen matters, Function then also dies. There were reportedly a few troubles in the senior ranks a few months earlier, causing them to miss a months release in September.

03. Ellisdee's Lore release their first pack to a favourable reception.

04. One of the most popular pc warez scene sites Defacto2 was hacked by some 'unknown' culprits. The hacked version was kept online for a few days before being removed. [more info]

05. Filth comes out and admits that he didn't really kill Gutter and promptly releases issue #6. [more info]

06. Woe and Rebel art release a joint art pack.

07. Mr. Violent starts his own scene mailing list, but it never takes off.

08. Starks announces that a new group called Natural has been formed, also including his now controversial group Fluid, which is Natural's art department.

09. Lore annouce their web pressence, and shit, it rocks. It was just a pity nothing was on the page besides the splash. [more info]

10. Scrye's Sense died.

11. HRG announce that they will be show casing digital underground art at an art museum in Russia. This would have to be a first for the scene. The exhibition was called Heritage. [more info]

12. Xypher Matrix leaves Dark Illustrated, and that same month announces his plans to start a new elite group called the Shadowboxer's Guild.

13. After closing down near the start of the year, Dieznyik's VTAG reopens with what can only be described as a plehtora of art exhibits. A truely valuable resource for the scene. [more info]

14. Blue Devil's Scrollz announce their new web pressence. [more info]

15. Palmore's Cyberia and Pariah's Massive join forces to create a new bigger and better ASCII mag called Quantum.

16. Marlon Brando announces his new BBS emag called Mercenary.

17. Beam release their new, revamped website. [more info]

18. Cyber punch announces a new group called Engine.

19. Acheron.org unveils a new discussions area, supporting fully-threaded message areas, the ability to create new topics and more.. Just like the old bbs days.

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December

01. Gywndian's Aspire dies.

02. Woezine announce their web pressence. [more info]

03. Poti states that Black Maiden is indeed not dead, after a confusion between the two "Maidens". Maiden Brazil was indeed the group that died. I think the confusion started from the fact that I made a small mistake by putting "Black Maiden dead" on the "Latest News" bit on the sidebar.. Sorry guys ;)

04. Shadowboxer's announce their website. [more info]

05. Infliction, a high resolution/ansi and ascii group tell us all about themselves. [more info]

06. Inazone posts a news item about the FOS Reunion pack, calling for all former group members to submit art for the big pack.

07. Awards 98 is called off due to an undisclosed amount of people cheating. To continue with the contest would have been foolhardy. Other methods in the future for such a ceremony might include having a judging panel -- but don't expect me to do it :)

08. Klumzee announces his plans to start a project called "Basic Training". He proposed a monthly column in Gutter featuring artists showing newbies or any interested parties how to draw --> a tutorial section with a difference.

09. HIrez.org opened its doors for the first time, becoming acheron's sister site, featuring a similar design but with a different colour scheme. [more info]

10. Filth calls for all submissions for his "Connected at 2400" section in the next Gutter. All interested artists should submit articles about their favourite times in the scene, how they got started, etc..

11. iCE beta test their iCEVIEW for windows program.

12. Empty announces that Tyrone will be making a comeback, but is still unsure which issue he was up to. [more info]

13. Sodium also announces that Acrylic Weekly will be making a comeback -- for sure this time..

14. Black Maiden shows their new website to the world, and what a site it is. [more info]

15. Argon announces his plans to form a new group called Project V, encompassing mainly lit.

16. Palmore and Pariah release their new ascii emag called Quantum.

17. A new ASCII ftp archive is unveiled. [more info]

18. Azrael comes back to the scene, and reportedly joining Avenge.

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Discussion Topic this month:
What do you remember from 1998 that was pretty damned cool? State your good moments within the scene, or even your bad ones. Reflect on the year that was 1998.

>> discussions (General Art Discussion)

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