-  - --{ Ascii Scene : What the hell is this all about ? }-- -  -

      The Ascii Scene's roots are well and truly in the modem scene.
  As people grew bored of the boring file descriptions you would see when
  looking through files on boards, other people started using the space 
 (8 lines of text) to do little logos for the groups that were releasing.
                      These are called File_id logos.

   At about the same time, people started to make their Bulletin Boards
               look nicer by doing larger logos using Ascii.
 
  So from these humble beginings a new art form was spawned. Ascii Art.

  There is much debate over who released the first collection and who the
 first ascii groups were. However it is known that groups like Arclite and
  UV are amongst the first, followed by Dezign. A few years after these 
             first tentive steps, the Ascii Scene flourished.

       With modem traders, at that time, calling all over the world,
  Ascii collections got spread everywhere and some of the scenes members
     became famous. Having a logo done by these people was considered
           a great honour, people such as Shapechanger, Exocet,
     Sk¡n & Amblin, Red Devil and Desert gained a lot of respect for 
                                their work.
 
  Today many of the Old Skool Ascii Artists have quit the scene or moved
 onto other things. However in 1994 to 95 there was a rapid growth in the
 Ascii scene. Many new artists appeared and new groups were formed, Dzain,
Artcore, Epsilon Designs, Pro Arts and Offspring, being just a few of the 
                               bigger ones.

       At the end of 1995 something strange happened, the scene was 
growing  constantly, and the major groups had much respect, then all of a 
   sudden the major groups started falling apart. Artcore died and split
        into two groups, one called Contra, the other called Whale.
  Dzain became SoS, Offspring suprised everyone by spliting at the height
 of their fame, and a new smaller group came out of the wreckage, Twisted.
     Epsilon Designs lost some of their major members to other groups.

 Then, out of nowhere Arclite announced that they are returning, with the
    legendary Danzig and Exocet releasing again.  Now 1996 has started,
     who knows what will happen, new releases from Sk¡n and Amblin???
     Who knows, but the collection contained here on this CD is a good
        cross section of what is one of the stranger Sub-Scenes on
                          the Amiga-Modem scene.
 
                            - HoTWire / Twisted


The Major Players :

   ARCLITE, ARTCORE, CONTRA, DESIGN, EPSILON DESIGNS, MO'SOUL, OFFSPRING, 
                     PRO ARTS, SOS, TWISTED, WHALE

These should offer some of the best examples of Ascii Collections.


TERMS :

Board Style : A collection specificlly designed to be used as part of a
              Bulletin Board System, will include logos for all conferences
              etc. etc.
Dot Style   : A style of Ascii using the characters : . and ·
Requests    : As an artist gains prestige they often are asked to do logos
              for a specific board or person.
Respect     : These are done as a mark of respect for a person or group.


NOTES :

Intros : You will probably note that a lot of the intro text in the
         collections are either a) short or b) they are bitching about some
         one else on the Ascii Scene. This happens a lot, more so that 
         other scenes, no one has yet come up with a good explination of 
         why!

Credits : It is common practice for people to use logos by other artists
          that they respects for a collection, as part of the intro or 
          credits section. This is why it may appear that more than one
          person did the collection.