ACiD Productions is a
digital artDigital art is a general term for a range of artistic works and practices that use digital technology as an essential part of the creative and/or presentation process...
group. Founded in 1990, the group originally specialized in
ANSI artANSI art is a computer art form that was widely used at one time on BBSes. It is similar to ASCII art, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437, often referred to as extended ASCII and used in MS-DOS and Unix environments...
work for
BBSesA Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
. More recently, they have extended their reach into other graphical media and
computer softwareComputer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
development. During the BBS-era, their biggest competitor was
iCE AdvertisementsiCE Advertisements is a digital art group formed in 1991. Although the expanded title is rarely ever used, iCE is an acronym for Insane Creators Enterprise...
.
History
ACiD Productions was founded in 1990 as
ANSI Creators in Demand by five members:
RaD ManChristian Wirth , better known by the pseudonym RaD Man, is an American computer artist and historian. He works in the field of ANSI art, a method of creating art using a limited set of text characters and color escape codes based loosely on the relevant ANSI standard .RaD Man was initially...
, Shadow Demon, Grimm, The Beholder, and Phantom. Their work originally concentrated in
ANSIANSI art is a computer art form that was widely used at one time on BBSes. It is similar to ASCII art, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437, often referred to as extended ASCII and used in MS-DOS and Unix environments...
and
ASCII artASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters...
, but the group later branched out into other artistic media such as music
trackingMOD is a computer file format used primarily to represent music, and was the first module file format. MOD files use the “.MOD” file extension, except on the Amiga where the original trackers instead use a “mod.” prefix scheme, e.g. “mod.echoing”...
,
demoA demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer subculture known as the demoscene. Demogroups create demos to demonstrate their abilities in programming, music, drawing, and 3D modeling...
coding, and multimedia
software developmentSoftware Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
(e.g., image viewers). Membership rose from five members in 1990 to well over seven hundred by 2003.
In the mid-1990s, ACiD created subsidiary groups responsible for these broader areas. For example,
RemorseRemorse ASCII, or Remorse 1981, is the official ASCII sub-label of ACiD Productions.-History:Remorse was established in late 1994 by two IBM-PC scene ASCII artists from San José, California who went by the pseudonyms Necromancer and Necronite....
is the official ACiD sub-label responsible for ASCII art and other text-based graphics. Similarly, pHluid is responsible for module tracking and music production, and ACiDic handles bulletin board software modification and enhancement.
Today, ACiD focuses largely on the preservation of
digital artDigital art is a general term for a range of artistic works and practices that use digital technology as an essential part of the creative and/or presentation process...
history,
talk radioTalk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
news, and sale of their
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
-based artscene archives.
DemosA demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer subculture known as the demoscene. Demogroups create demos to demonstrate their abilities in programming, music, drawing, and 3D modeling...
Metadata protocols and binaryThe binary numeral system, or base-2 number system, represents numeric values using two symbols, 0 and 1. More specifically, the usual base-2 system is a positional notation with a radix of 2...
image standard
- SAUCE
Standard Architecture for Universal Comment Extensions or SAUCE, as it is most commonly known, is an open metadata protocol for tagging and describing ASCII text files and other files, most of which generally center around or date back to the era of BBSing...
- XBin
XBin, or eXtended Binary, is a file format for saving IBM PC text mode images.Essentially an extension to the normal raw-image BIN files, it provides an enhanced means for saving console graphics superior to ANSI graphics.The format was created by Belgian programmer Tasmaniac of ACiD, partly in...
RadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
programming
- The ARTS (news
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
/talk radioTalk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
)
- pHluid Radio (music)
- ACiD Radio (music)
See also
- ANSI art
ANSI art is a computer art form that was widely used at one time on BBSes. It is similar to ASCII art, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437, often referred to as extended ASCII and used in MS-DOS and Unix environments...
- ASCII art
ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters...
- List of artscene groups
- List of text editors (ASCII art section)
External links
ACiD tools downloads
- ACiDDraw for DOS download page at ACiD.org
- ACiD View for Windows An image viewer for Microsoft Windows which supports several formats, including ANSI art and ANSI animation; includes source code; compatible with Windows 9X