The Ascii scene isn't dead.
This is the answer to Styx's article "What about Ansi". When translating it into Russian I realized that Styx is too far from the Ansi/Ascii scene. Yes, he agrees that he's not an Ansi/Ascii-insider, but... he knows almost nothing. I won't tell you about the Ansi scene, because I'm not an Ansi-insider either, but I love Ascii and do Ascii. Just check it out: Ansi and Ascii are different things. Although... for the beginning some words on the Ansi-scene.
I don't know exactly, but the Ansi scene isn't dead yet. It's supported by some groups like Avenge, Ecolove, Poffelipoff. I don't know more, except such mega-groups like Cia, Ice, Purg have their packs supplied with some kind of Ansi-stuff. At least, the two last groups in the first lot are quite alive and work pretty well. And the Ansi-scene isn't as dead as a dead-man, it's just as small as a point on a sheet of paper.
Ascii scene... Oh, Ascii is my love. I've drawn Asciis for some time and I'm some kind of expert in it. I know groups, I know releases... But I still don't know about new groups' appearances since I don't have Internet access. And once I'm on the net I'll never lose a chance to fix that. Ok, let's go on. Again, the Ascii scene isn't dead. It's supported by large groups, which release something almost every month. They are Mimic, Remorse (Acid Ascii division), Galza, Unique and maybe some others. Recently me and my friends have created a new group, Secular, which is going to make ascii-art too. But, let's get back to Styx' article.
Styx had two main complaints: First he doesn't like the lack of textmode art in demos and related stuff's design, second he dislikes the absence of the textmode (let's say textmode art in place of Ansi/Ascii or, as Styx did, a/a) compos. The article is full of funny jokes which are worth to be read.
The main thing about the 1st complaint is that demo-coders are simply not textmode art creators. And it's too boring to ask some Ascii-person to make a special diz for the next group production. They often use a diz painted long time ago (like Bomb group). And when the demo itself is watched, it does not matter whether it is decorated with a cute diz. What matters is: when you want to see some kind of REAL Ascii art, you must visit group homepages to download new and old artpacks and http://artpacks.aCid.oRg in order to see the whole thing. You know, there's an ftp server which contains tons of textmode artpacks and other textmode graphics masterpieces. Those groups up there release elite stuff which can be compared with nothing except itself. I emphasize that the Ascii scene is alive. People join it and leave it, but the scene leads an active life and it kicks ass. You can't say that there are no textmode art in the world nowdays. There are, and they rock. Just take a glance at any artpack done by one of those groups. Just as a point of advice: when you visit http://artpacks.aCid.oRg, simply look for the four or five names mentioned earlier and you'll get a long list of productions. Choose anything you want to look through. Another good way to check that the textmode art world lives is to visit acid.oRg's ftp site. Actually http takes files from that ftp. The given url and directory will come up with such a huge amount of artpacks that your eyes will pop out of your head! Just surf through the files with a size not greater than 200-300kb. It's too little for a hirez artpack, but it's quite the limit for an Ascii/Ansi artpack. I promise you, you'll admire what thing you didn't know before: textmode art has never died, it lives and it will live forever. By the way, just visit #Ascii on the efnet^irc and you'll see crowds of Ascii artists and related people.
There's even some kind of competition between the Ascii-sceners. They try to do their best for the group to become the best in the world. Lots of groups died, split up, joined other groups (I can name such stars like Karma, Noname, Serial, Aspire, Wax, Glue), but the best of them are still around. In my opinion, the main reason why people like Styx don't know about the Ascii scene is because Ascii-sceners simply seem not to require any people from the outside. They don't need the world's recognition, they draw just for fun or to be the best amongst all other Ascii-sceners. The Ascii scene isn't a part of the demoscene. And the demoscene knows little about the Ascii scene, about the Ansi scene etc.
The second topic of his article is textmode compos. Of course, we need them. And they happen... Exactly, they happen, but not have place. At Evoke'99 textmode art was included in the compo-list. And what can we say after the party has finished? Only six entries, and the second place is a childish Ascii... The party organizers made an awful mistake: they made Ansi and Ascii pics participate in one compo. Of course, it was a new and fresh idea, but who can judge coloured Ansi stuff and soft Ascii pics at one time? It's a miracle that this terrible, not antialiased Ascii, which was devoid of any sense of art, came second. It was the only Ascii in the compo. And only two of those five Ansis were made by known groups' members. The compo sucked. And it will suck at any party if the organizers take it to be an unnecessary compo. I even think the organizers have to put up a special prize for the winners to attract good artists to participate with their works. For the past half year we've had three parties here in Russia. And all of them had Ascii and Ansi compos. What can I say about them? Twice I came first and second Ascii artist in compos and I didn't do so three times merely because I didn't participate in the first party (I didn't know I could do it remotely, sitting at home). Ascii were kind of shit in all of those three compos. Things will keep going this way if the elite people avoid such compos. If there were even 2-3 pics from the Russian Ascii elite (mainly Galza members), I couldn't have come first. But they didn't participate. And, by the way, the first party had five pics in the Ascii compo from two artists, the second had seven from four artists and the third again had five pics from three artists. Are these real compos with real competition? No. I don't like them. It's better to participate in world wide compos like info and diz creation for Hugi and Blender2000 on the irc (an interesting online compo). Will the elite ever participate in textmode art compos? I don't think so... They're afraid of not being first. And they hate the crowd at the party, which votes not for the sense of a pic, but for some nudes and foolish similar stuff. This is not the way things should be. But I fear it will never change...
To conclude, I wanted to say that there was something like a textmode party. I saw a couple of demos and several intros from it and I reckon they suck big time. It's better to watch any gfx demo than trying to understand what's shown in a textmode demo. Ok, I quit, but... you must learn painting Ascii and Ansi and... who knows, sometime you will surpass the elite and be one of the best... you're able to do so. With a bit of luck.