te
hal
- surreal babbles! -
hola. thats spanish for hello, if you didnt know. not that it
matters or anything, of course. oh, and sorry were a few days late .. we
had a few unforseen delays : .. hopefully you havent fallen out of your
chair at the fact that halaster isnt writing the newsletter this month,
and youve realized that yes, that IS surreal logic writing firenews. odd,
eh? well, first off, Ill explain why good old halaster isnt writing your
newsletter this month. in order to do this, Ill be forced to dispell all
those ugly rumours about poor jesse injuring himself while putting a little
hair on his hands .. theyre not true : in fact, he fell while skating
and scraped about 75 of his body hair off, in addition to fracturing his
nose, and hurting his hands - the reason he isnt writing this newsletter.
yes, hes all right, if a little embarrassed according to talen :. so I
am here as his temporary replacement. temporary, you say? yes, he should
back typing 600 words per minute within a week or two, so dont cry.
ah, now to the good stuff. for yet another month, weve survived to
put out another great pack for your perusal ... to keep the old saying
alive, no, we arent dead yet! : our now-treasured constitution seems to
be fully in order, and our web site, fireweb, should be up sooner or later yes, Im still working on it, damnit! : ...
some minor staff changes this month: maxwell returns to replace
panacea as coding head this month and is nice and comfy back in his old
position. halaster has also been voted most likely to break his nose while
skateboard.. wait, thats already been done : ... in other news, our new
team setup seems to be working in full force. all the divisions show a
large representation in this wonderful pack.
the brand-spanking new fire music division will no longer be called
that : ... instead, it will go by the codename radianCe. Ill let silicon
explain this in further detail later in the newsletter.
other than that, there has been LOTS going on with fire over the last
month. Ill let some of the other seniors explain their stories : ...
- pyrodraw update -
as a side note, panacea is STILL with Fire - contrary to popular
belief - and still running projekt aardv4rk, aka pyrodraw. Ill let good
ol panny ramble on about that right about now ..
- even better then an amoeba ... -
Pyrodraw is a program that Im writing for Fire. Its a drawing program that will make files for the ANSI format. With Pyrodraw, one is
able to use the keyboard and mouse if available to draw ANSI pictures
and become ELITE.
We decided to let people use up to 16 colors, numbered from 0-15. The
higher 8 colors will be brighter versions of the first 8. The colors
supported in Pyrodraw are still undecided, thus they will be announced
later.
So far Pyrodraw is relatively sophisticated. We have created several
features that will allow better pictures to be drawn, such as the ability
to change the 16 colors Pyrodraw defaults to. Although, Pyrodraw still
needs decorations for many screens, so message Panacea to ask how you can
help out.
- ascii update -
once again, blatz rambles about this months ascii stuff. infofiles
are tiring. remind me not to volunteer next month g ..
- bleh.. blergh.. bl4tz! damned hairballs : -
This month was amazing for the fire ascii division.. we got three of
the best ascii people inthe scene.. they rule..worship them.....
ack.. ack comes from trank/basic/iesus/kts/etc.. he rules.. yay aCk..
also coming is pixelpusher. he comes from mop/oil/jinx/acid and a slew of
others. hes amazing..his colored ascii is grade A. also joining is unsane.
everyone knows unsane.. he was in acid/saga/ice and everyone in fire is
excited about having him in the group.. unsaneyay! .. whoah, this info
file sucks.. its late, im tired. seeing as how big fire ascii is getting,
next month we might put the logos in one or two big collys.. i dunno, well
see.. tell me what you think.. oh yeah... smokey left fire and the rest of
the scene due to a big ass phone bill or something.. too bad, he was really
good.. bye bye smokey.. uhmm.. thats all for now.. somebody say columbo..
Last minute additions: Coming to fire ascii in the last minute are
point blank and xane. They both come from sole. Pblank is a promising new
ascii artist who is getting better with every ascii and Xane is an old
favorite from trank who is getting back into the scene. I guess you could
say sole merged into fire ascii since it only had these two members.
- hirez update-o-rama -
welcome to dennys .. please find a ... err, maybe not. Im back
again, people, with some info concerning this months happenings in my
own loved, cherished hirez division yes, you lazy-assed bastards! you! :
- oooh .. baby. thats so surreal! wait.. maybe not. -
yes, its me again. Im sure youre getting tired of my ranting by now,
but we have news! yes, fire hirez division news! well, why dont we get the
new members out of the way. clear the floor, please.
first off, gig is a talented new vga artist who comes to us from a
smaller scene group, leper society. his photomanip work looks to be a great
addition to our growing fire hirez crew! outkast is another great artist,
joining directly from CiA. his rip and comic-vga work are quite impressive
satansly, a spiffy brazilian artist, came to us after the death of decades
last month, and his rip work is also favourably padding our now thickening
RIP portfolio.
this month, I have also decided to take on a sub-coordinator in the
fire hirez division: none other than our former vga coordinator, legendary
fire hirez artist extraordinaire, god among lice. Id like to throw out a
personal thanks to good ol phil, because without him fire hirez wouldnt
have the wonderful august memberlist we can now proudly preen over :
fire hirez has also decided to participate in the NAID 97 graphics
competition next year on both the individual and group levels, but thats
still a long ways away. its something to aim for, though, and I guess
thats what counts.
in other news, I hope that the fire hirez division members will begin
contributing to the fireweb effort in earnest once production is heavily
under way. to all of you fire hopefuls out there, send us your apps! fire
hirez is in a growing phase right now, and that means that NOW is the best
time to apply. applications can be sent to me see below for e-mail
address, or god among lice psmith@patriot.net. thanks, and enjoy!
surreal logic fire hirez coordinator dbouton@direct.ca
- eerie-kun is STILL in the trash can? -
since the release of the august samsara pack, you may have noticed
that the samsara tactical team somehow managed to release eerie-kun from
halasters treasured trash can. lets not go into details about the
gratuitous violence involved : well, tough luck.
*cough* .. err.. that was a decoy! snicker : ..
hey, let me out!
no, shut up :P
dont you have a cybertopia font to draw or something?
luckily for the fire crew, halasters trusty compan.. er, trash can :
is still holding mr. turgeon nice and tight ... come and get him, you
samsarian anal cattle probes! ransom is still 10 US, 15 CDN :
- coding update .. hah, you wish! -
for the second month in a row, our illustrious coding department has
managed to forget their update. thanks, clay :
*POOF*
on second thought, maxwell just reappeared. maybe we will have a
spiffy new coding update after all!
- el pollo loco es en la casa de maxwell! ? -
Greetings fellow Fire fans, and welcome to another fun-filled
newsletter. Within the past month, Fire has undergone a series of changes,
and the Coding department was certainly not overlooked by any of them. The
title of Coding Coordinator changed hands 4 times in as many days, and
was even abandoned altogether for a while. I am now once again heading
up the division and accepting applications from talented Coders who would
like to join our ranks and be a part of the eternal flame that is Fire.
Coding is the most overlooked aspect of the art scene, and unrightly
so. As in theatre, where the technicians who run the show often remain
behind the scenes and receive little acknowledgment, the Coders of the
scene dont get the respect they deserve. Without Coders, many innovations
such as iCE-Color, RIP, Sauce, and even most music formats would not exist.
In addition, we wouldnt have ansi viewers or editors, loaders,
application generators, and other such delights common to the scene. In an
attempt to revive the art of Coding and restore the prestige which Coders
deserve, the Fire Coding Division continues to recruit talented new members
and put their skills to use. Fire is already home to some of the best
Coders in the scene, such as Aphelion, Floating Point, Intrepid, Panacea,
and child prodigies Fatslayer and Lord Cracker.
Fire has numerous projects in the works, including Panaceas ansi
editor Pyrodraw, which breaks through the limitations of the standard
TheDraw hacks and provides hi-resolution ansi editing, and even has RIP
editing capability. Pyrodraw is still in its early alpha stages, and it
wont be released to the public until a final beta version has been deemed
bug-free, but we feel the capabilities of this editor justify the wait.
Additionally, Fire continues to lead the scene with Pyroview, the
first and only art scene viewer to support the popular JPEG graphics
format. While still in early beta testing, this months version of Pyroview
claims to have the fastest and smoothest operation of any viewer to date,
and weve also added support for the animation formats FLI and FLC, which
allows for a whole new medium with which artists can express their
creativity.
Other projects include porting Pyroview to 32-bit Windows and X-window
platforms, designing demos for international competitions, and of course,
simple loaders. Fire has also revised the aging RIP protocol specification,
allowing for animated RIP graphics sure to please the eye.
It is my goal to make the Fire Coding Division the best group of
Coders in the scene, and so far, its becoming a reality.
maxwell fire coding senior
- music division update -
in the last month, fire has acquired an strange collection of members, odds, and ends. in the mean time, we also acquired a music division! fire
music division founding member silicon who also runs our mailing list has
taken over as music division coordinator, so Ill let him have a go at
explaining his situtation :
- whip out those implants and dance, baby! -
d*b d*b b b d*b d*b d*b d*b
l * * l l l * l l l * l *
::i ,d**b:: ,d**b:: i:: ,d**b:: ::i :: ::i ::i.n.
. . . . . . . . .:: . .:: Si
Fire will be starting a music division called radianCe. Since music
files tend to be so big weve decided to put it in a different zip. The
files will be named RAD-XXXX.ZIP, or if needed RADXXXXA or RADXXXXB, etc..
At this point we dont know how often well be releasing the radianCe pack.
The packs will consist of the music files and a player programmed by
Fatslayer of Fire.
Much of radianCe is still in the planning stages. Well keep you
updated in these newsletters as the planning progresses.
Those who are interested in joining radianCe should e-mail me at
silicon@hemi.com.
SiFire - silicon@hemi.com - fire music senior/mailing list coordinator
- ansi doOdlebOys update-
after all that fun with the skateboard, or the tent peg, or whatever
it was :, good ol halaster has still found the energy ? to write up a
little update on the undercover activities of our renowned ansi division.
hope your hands heal quick, jesse g ..
- mr. rogers on ansi -
AHEM. I am not mr. rogers, thankyouverymuch. Well! To start this
off right, I figure I should avoid talking about Fire ansi as much as
possible and jump right in to my irrelevant ? personal problems! woohoo!
I had a nice attack of real life this month. In short: Skating Accident,
Moving Back to School 1000 Miles away in 8 days, Neat Girl at Work that
I want to Do Something Im not sure what at all With, Brother Moving
Down from New Jersey to Atlanta and Being Very Sad About It. Olympic Games
In My Home Town. : Basically, these are all the excuses I can come up
with for why Surreal took over this month Thanks Surreal! Ill be back
next month with my usual flair, but I do need a vacation every once in
a while.. Ive been doing this for 2 years now! BTW: Last month was Fires 2 Year anniversary Pack. Kinda. Its been 2 years since Donut Hole and
Vendetta released the famous FIRE0794 pack. Greets to the original crue:
Mr Sinister / Sir Freaksalot / Neurosis / Donut Hole / Phusion
Vendetta / Prisoner1 / Agent Orange / Epitaph / Silence !!!!!
OK, Back to the present - Fire ansi picks up some rad new members this
month, most of which dont need introductions. Here they are anyway.
Unsane joins this month or did he change his handle? to spread his font
magic along with Argon of Persuit/iCE fame. I love Argon fonts!
Mavrik returns to Fire this month he made a guest appearance way back in our revival pack and kicks off his Fire membership with a cool pick
in this very pack! Vade 69 joins this month from CiA Sorry, Napster!
and brings his impressive Ansi talents to bear this month as well.
Deaccession, formerly of DARK ILLUSTRATED Sorry Xypher!, and Sorry to
Cthulhu for Mavrik! :P :P :P brings his impressive smallscale and unique
largescale style to help bolster our strength. Finally, Psychoholic
returns to us after the regrettable demise BWAHAHAH! of TOXiC. Just
kidding, pH.
A word on the new Legend: Legend doesnt exist without Somms,
Neurotic and Iodine. Leave well enough alone. Legend left the scene
with a reputation of being one of the best groups of all time. There
is no way that this new incarnation can hope to improve that image, and
can only cause more harm than good. Nice try fellows, but earn your own
reputation.
A word on Samsara: 33rie? B4mb00? Im done.
halaster fire
- fireweb update -
once again, the fire web division rises to meet whatever challenges
it might face in the harsh, brutal world of web development. with other
groups web divisions snapping at our ankles, we scale the Everest of all
web projects: fireweb. progress, as expected, is slow, but the undertaking
is immense, and it is the quality of the progress, not the speed, which
becomes the deciding factor. in the following info-snippet, Ill recap this
months fireweb events, and give you a whiff of where were heading next.
- almighty webheads unite! -
the unchallenged, un-bested, not-quite-lazy and altogether completely
unmotivated fire web division rises to the call once again! well, scratch
that. we arent completely unmotivated, were just busy as hell : well,
this coming month, you may actually glimpse a preview of the upcoming
pinnacle of our HTML dreams, fireweb! yes, its still under construction,
but were getting our asses in gear, so you should see something soon.
this month, weve been graced with a pair of new members, in addition to
the return of our old coordinator. wired, aka cybernary, has returned from
stasis in the now-defunct decades crew. a talented ansi fontist and well
known for his scene newsletter, cyberdata, wired has moved himself entirely
into the web design field, and brings us a wealth of knowledge, in addition
to endless help with netherwOrld and other projects. from within fire come
two other talents, gig and panacea. gig will be working on the fireweb
graphics, and panacea, a versatile coder, is learning HTML in order to help
our little division out. panacea will also be handling the brand-spanking
new fireweb complaint department, as he seems quite talented in that area
as well : ... look for new info on fireweb in the near future.
oh, yes. for all of you who still arent clued in, netherwOrld is
still serving as our temporary webHQ, until fireweb is up and running. it
can be found at:
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/kates/nwOrld/index.html
by the way, if youve noticed the 0896WEB.ZIP sitting in your Fire
dir, unzip it with -d directory structure. its this months HTML FireWeb
Memberlist, so be sure to load up your favorite browser JavaScript
compatible, if possible, preferrably Netscape Navigator 3.0bx or Microsoft
Internet Explorer 3.0bx and view 0896WEB.HTM. credits are commented out,
and listed in the HTML itself which means you need to view the code to
seeem.
on our current web front, netherwOrld is temporarily in stasis as
well, until I have time to finish the new, redesigned version this should
also be in the near future. at the same time, wired and myself are
currently hard at work on a new graphic design webzine, yet untitled. well
provide more info once its available, but other than some artist
spotlights, dont look for it to have any connection to the underground
scene at all unlike its counterpart, netherwOrld. for more information,
e-mail me, or my sub-coordinator, spark bhassard@intergate.bc.ca. well
keep you posted.
surreal logic fireweb coordinator dbouton@direct.ca
- closing -
ah, another tantalizing fire newsletter comes to an end, and you begin
to wonder why you find yourself panting in breathless anticipation of the
rest of the pack that has yet to pass in front of your coloured-block
starved eyes? oh, thats normal. but remember, the only way to fulfill that
rabid desire is to look closely and carefully at the rest of this sunny
augusts fire pack. hope you enjoy it, or Ill have to send Halaster and
his mighty army of skateboarding hospital workers to hunt you down and
stuff rest of the pack into your shirt. enjoy :
surreal logic the temp fire dbouton@direct.ca
- one more note from halaster -
THE REGENCY goes back online as of August 30th! Be there!
telnet://tregency.res.cmu.edu for the BBS and
ftp://tregency.res.cmu.edu for one of the best art collections
around!
All Fire members are expected to have accounts on TREG if at all
possible by the September pack.
- eof -