Superior Art Creations
Encyclopedia
Computer art scene
The phrase computer art scene, or artscene for short, refers to a community of individuals and groups that are both interested and active in the creation of computer-based artwork.-Early computer art:...
group which caters primarily to and is well known within the warez scene
Warez
Warez refers primarily to copyrighted works distributed without fees or royalties, and may be traded, in general violation of copyright law. The term generally refers to unauthorized releases by organized groups, as opposed to file sharing between friends or large groups of people with similar...
.
Origin and brief history
SAC originated as a GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-based art group, founded in December 1994 by six members: Dream Design, Kaethe, Raiser, Toxic Trancer and the two artists Hetero and Roy, with Roy acting as the primary organizer of the group. The first SAC Art Pack was released the same month at "The Party" Demo Party in Herning
Herning
Herning Municipality is a municipality in Region Midtjylland on the Jutland peninsula in western Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 1,336 km² and a total population of 84,208...
, Denmark.
During the mid to late 1990s most of the notable ANSI art
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...
scene groups had distanced themselves from the warez scene, rather creating art for the sake of art, or for bulletin boards
Bulletin board system
A 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...
that were purely artscene related. Seizing this opportunity, SAC moved into this vacant territory and quickly became recognized as the leading group of warez scene artists. SAC was also able to establish credibility and respect from non-warez art groups and also demogroups of the broad and diverse computer art scene
Computer art scene
The phrase computer art scene, or artscene for short, refers to a community of individuals and groups that are both interested and active in the creation of computer-based artwork.-Early computer art:...
that was already established at the time.
SAC organizational structure
From the very beginning SAC had a very loose group structure. Members worked mostly independently with little if any direction from the group leaders. Every member has the freedom to decide for himself which art requests he is willing to fulfill and which not. Seniority was achieved by being an active member for an extended period of time. Exceptions were made occasionally for outstanding contributions to the Group. New member applications were accepted or rejected by a simple majority vote of the existing members. It was never the decision of a single person (regardless of the status of that member). All new member applications and artwork samples were published in designated member-only areas at the SAC World Headquarter BBS "Closed Society" which was located in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The applications were also made available on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
at SAC's IRC Channel #SAC on the EFnet
EFnet
EFnet or Eris Free network is a major IRC network, with more than 35,000 users. It is the modern-day descendant of the original IRC network.- History :...
and SAC FTP Server HQ's.
The role of the leader
The role of the leader was primarily the task (which wasn't always simple) of collecting the new artwork produced by members and assembling the new SAC Art Pack, updating the group's NFO.nfo
.nfo is a commonly used three-letter filename extension of ASCII or extended ASCII text files that accompany other files and contain information about them. Such NFO files can be viewed with text editors or dedicated NFO viewers...
file and releasing the Pack. This was not a problem because the leader of SAC Roy/SAC was also the SysOp
SysOp
A sysop is an administrator of a multi-user computer system, such as a bulletin board system or an online service virtual community. It may also be used to refer to administrators of other Internet-based network services....
of the SAC World headquarter BBS
Bulletin board system
A 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...
called "Closed Society".
The job of the artists, musicians and coders
- SAC artists created and still create today ASCIIASCII 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...
& ANSIANSI 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...
Text art (.NFO release info file logos.nfo.nfo is a commonly used three-letter filename extension of ASCII or extended ASCII text files that accompany other files and contain information about them. Such NFO files can be viewed with text editors or dedicated NFO viewers...
, file id.diz logosFILE ID.DIZFILE_ID.DIZ is a plain text file containing a brief contentdescription of the archive in which it is included.It was originally used in archives distributed through bulletin board systems ....
, BBS artwork) and VGAVideo Graphics ArrayVideo Graphics Array refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread adoption has also come to mean either an analog computer display standard, the 15-pin D-subminiature VGA connector or the 640×480 resolution...
pixel artPixel artPixel art is a form of digital art, created through the use of raster graphics software, where images are edited on the pixel level. Graphics in most old computer and video games, graphing calculator games, and many mobile phone games are mostly pixel art.- History :The term pixel art was first...
for other computer groups, BBS's (bulletin board systems) and FTPFile Transfer ProtocolFile Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...
sites, websites and more. - SAC musicians created "MODMOD (file format)MOD 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”...
" and later also MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
music; just as a standalone piece of art or to be used in "Intros", DemoDemo (computer programming)A 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...
and other programs such as "Installers". - SAC "coders" or programmers programmed BBS ads, CracktrosCrack introA crack intro, also known as a cracktro, loader, or just intro, is a small introduction sequence added to cracked software, designed to inform the user of which "cracking crew" or individual cracker was responsible for removing the software's copy protection and distributing the crack...
and Intros using most of the time graphics and music created by fellow SAC Members.
SAC/PPE
For a brief period, SAC also had a PPE (PCBoard Programming Executable) section; this was eventually separated out from SAC and became the PPE Group "Peanuts" (Abbreviation: PNS).PPE's are programs written in the proprietary PCBoard
PCBoard
PCBoard was a bulletin board system application first introduced for DOS in 1983 by Clark Development Corporation. Clark Development was founded by Fred Clark. PCBoard was one of the first commercial BBS packages for DOS systems, and was considered one of the "high end" packages during the rapid...
Script Language PPL (PCBoard Programming Language). They could only be used for PCBoard and no other BBS Software. PCBoard was very popular at the time and was used by over 90% of the warez BBS systems that were running on a PC. The introduction of PPL in PCBoard Version 15.0 boosted the popularity of the until then fairly unknown BBS software by Clark Development. Up to this time the PC (warez) scene did not have a powerful BBS software that could compete with the Amiga BBS software Ami-Express (Short: Ami-X or simply /X). Almost all warez BBS systems running on Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
s used /X. The PC adaptation of /X called PC Express saw a brief period of widespread use but was soon replaced by PCBoard 15.x.
All SAC PPE's and SAC Art Packs are available for download at the SAC founder's website. The official SAC website is currently under development.
SAC today and tomorrow
Towards the late 1990s, a good majority of NFO.nfo
.nfo is a commonly used three-letter filename extension of ASCII or extended ASCII text files that accompany other files and contain information about them. Such NFO files can be viewed with text editors or dedicated NFO viewers...
file ASCII art
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...
was created by various members of SAC. In 1999, lead ASCII artist ferrex ascended to the role of senior staff and leader, continuing to control the group to this day.
Now a globally operating organization, SAC employs approximately 40 artists and programmers worldwide and continues to be one of the groups creating art for the warez scene.
External links
- Official Superior Art Creations website at SuperiorArtCreations.com
- SAC Art Packs available for download, with file id.dizFILE ID.DIZFILE_ID.DIZ is a plain text file containing a brief contentdescription of the archive in which it is included.It was originally used in archives distributed through bulletin board systems ....
's, comments and NFONFONFO may refer to:*National Farmers Organization, a producerist movement founded in the United States in 1955*Naval Flight Officer in the United States Navy*New Fund Offer, a term used in mutual funds in India...
files viewable on-line - Official homepage of the 1st SAC founder and group leader Roy
- Dark Domain The ACiD Artpacks Archive on DVD (ISBN 0-9746537-0-5), contains all SAC Packs until 2005
- Video Captures of Cracktros created by SAC (YouTube.com playlist)
Offline websites via Archive.org
- old Superior Art Creations website - superiorart.org snapshot on archive.org
- Official homepage of the 2nd SAC founder Hetero (offline, via Archive.org)