What's New in iCE Recently

0) Howdy!  The Untimed here.  This is my first pack so if you happen
upon a mistake or two, it must've been the way you unzipped it. :)

1) CyberCrime is back!  While Cavalier set up as the new CCi hub,
Net Distortion took over and held the fort.  Cavalier is slowly
getting CCi back under control, so the iCE subs will be picking up         and the iCE NotSo and Private subs will be more secure than ever
before. iCE sysops are encouraged to pick up the CyberCrime network.
More information is available from Cavalier on Network News 54.

Coming Soon . . .

Network News 54
CyberCrime International Network WHQ
3o5.949.5427

2) This month we witnessed the departure of two valued iCE members, STiLE
and Quazar.  STiLE, formerly an iCE Director, has taken leave of the
entire scene and his board, Silicon Vortex, is no longer running.  He
was an excellent member and will be missed.  Quazar, formerly an iCE
Director and our resident ANSI LoGoD, has taken a leave of absence
from iCE to hone his ANSI skill.  We wish him luck and hope to see
an improved Quazar in the future.

2a) Also, Lemming of iCE Euro has been asked to leave the group.  It seems
our Euro President, Genesis, believed Lemming to be signing his name
to works generated by a GIF-to-ANSI converter. Hopefully this matter
matter will be resolved soon.

3) Lord Mischief is back and he's staff. :) Praise be.

3a) It's an honor and a privilege to welcome to the iCE crew, VindicatioN!
Formerly of the Valiant crew, VindicatioN is an accomplished ANSI and
VGA artist and we all look forward to working with him in the future.

4) Hi, this is Metal Head.  I just have a few semi-quick things to
say.. Well, not all too quick but oh well...

4a) First, I want to explain to you the changes that have occoured in
our VGA section.  One of those changes is that, from this point on
all VGA artwork will be released in the sam way that ANSI Artwork
is... Uncoded.  Why you ask?  Well here are the reasons:

#1 - In my personal opinion, VGA artwork could use some
improvment.  So, by having all of the VGA artwork released
uncoded, VGA will need to stand on thier own 2 feet.  And
hopefully more well-rounded pictures will be produced,
(Meaning Foreground picture, background, etc) rather then
just "foreground" pictures.

#2 - Loaders (Meaning VGA pictures that fade in then out)
look bad and are not something which our coding talent
should be focused on.  Which is what happens in months
like june (i.e. iCE-693.ZIP).  So this will also free
up our coders to work on other projects.

#3 - It will make the iCEPACK's considerably smaller, meaning
no more 2.6 Meg Packs.

#4 - In the Advent of RIPTerm, uncoded VGA's would become
"postable" while a coded VGA would not.

The other change is that all of our Coded work (Intros, Mini-Demos,
eventually Demos) will be released on thier own, separate of the
iCEPACK.  If you have any questions or complaint feel free to
InterNet E-Mail me at "metalhed@phantom.com".  Or mail me on
The Prototype, 301-294-9334.  Just send Matrix Feedback or feel
free to apply.

5) The iCEMAG _will_ evenually happen, at the moment our coder has been
on vaction for what I think is 2 months.  He will be home to begin
the school year, so the mag will begin being worked on again at
that point.

6) I would like to apologize for the mistakes in the last pack.  They
were my fault, but I would like to leave a note to Iridium
Magazine about that, as they were the only ones who wrote an
article containing a paragraph about it.  The pack was given to
me to make up in the last week of the month.  So the pack was rushed.
but I couldn't help that much.  Also to Iridium Magazine, about
STiLE.  He was _a_ director, not _the_ vice-president.  And
as a closing note, Alters of Madness was _NOT_, and never was taken
from the CHQ position.  (Contrary to the article in Iridium 1)

7) And last but not least for my portion of the .NFO file.  I would like
to announce that this is the 1st Anniversary of the iCEPACK.  It
has changed a LOT in the last year, as has iCE.  Take a look at the
August '92 iCEPACK sometime (ICEPK-08.ZIP) and compare.  Now back to
The Untimed..

8) Included in this pack you'll find the new version of MasterView.  It is
2.1 and it's got a number of improvements: VGA Smooth Scrolling in the
text mode, Preview Mode, Pop Up Help Window, and Pop Up Status Window.
Big fixes from version 2.0: resets screen mode upon exit and it will
now let you exit when viewing many ANSIs.  Special thanks to Master Com
for a job well done.

8.01) Well there you have it.  See you next time.

8.1) Ahh, actually, not so fast. Cavalier here, in what seems to be a
NFO file writer version of musical chairs. First off, if you have
not gotten ahold of your copy of Iridium issue #1, do so now. It's
finally out and is a fine publication by Raistlin [iCE] reporting
on everything in the art scene today. A few of my articles/reviews
got a littled messed up in the conversion, but such is life eh?

8.2) It sometimes becomes aggravating to work in a scene where you
sometimes end up competing with some rather immature brats.
After ICE01-TU.ZIP circulated, it seems a certain one by the
name of Kronos decided to do a well thought out and intellectual
reply to TU's letter. We wish this was the case, but instead Kronos
thought his best reply would be that of an ANSimation that both
wasn't funny and wasn't done very well. As you can see, there are
no "rebuttal" ansimations in this pack or in any future pack, for
those cheap shots are the work of immature kids with nothing to do.
While you might think differently, as iCE we don't lower ourselves
to petty rag wars, we just make some of the most excellent artwork
in the scene today. Immature artists, if you find this 8.2 note of
the NFO file angering, please address your arrogant ANSimations to
"Cavalier" and not the rest of iCE. (stepping off soap box)

8.4) Well there you have it. See you next time.

- Just wanted to thank Denizen for the large amount of work he's done
for the group, Necromancer for his latest art, Cavalier, Raistlin,
Denizen, & Genesis for their organizational help, as well as Lord
Carnuss for his exquisite ansi this month.   And a special apology
to the ANSi artists in Finland for last month's omission.  -TT

- The Untimed [iCE] Sr Staff
Metal Head [iCE] Sr Staff
Cavalier [iCE] Director
Tempus [iCE] ZZZzzz

Greets to:  Tempus     - In the Lyne of Phire?  (what does that mean? -tt)
ST & QZ    - Good luck in the future, it's been "phun".
Elminster  - Thanks for the help.
Denizen    - That'll be $1.20 :). <click>
Raistlin   - What do you mean no one ever greets you? :)
TeCH       - So, who wanted to get polled?
P. Slasher - The MAN with the PLAN!
CHAOS      - Total Chaos #2 was great, getting better
every time... Hi Ron!
R. Noble   - And then Mirage ruled the world..and malls..
and small children..and TheDraw.
Cavalier   - Hey! My Mitch impressions are GREAT!
Everyone   - Thanks for supporting iCE.

And last, but not least, thanks go to the artist's and member's of iCE who
contributed this month.

[ The following is the documentation for MasterView v2.1 ]

Master View 2.1 coded by Master Com [iCE]

MV (MasterView) is a full screen ansi viewer.  Alot of ansis made
by ansi artist groups are 50 lines or longer, so using the type command
dosn't give you a chance to look at them long enough for you to appreciate
them.  Someone decided that we should have an ansi viewer, the first few
ansi viewers I saw were basically pathetic attempts to make them selves
known.  All it did was your basic dos TYPE command followed by a INPUT ":",A$
or something similar (getch() for you C programmers).  The next few would
let you slow it down or speed it up, but that was basicly the equivalent of
hitting CTRl-S or screen pause for me.  Then I wrote this one, this one
will load the entire ansi into memory and let you scroll through it so you
can get a good look at it.  You can also change the video mode in the middle
to 50 line mode to see more of it (most look better in this mode BTW.)

New in 2.1:  .  VGA Smooth Scrolling in the text mode.
.  Preview Mode
.  Pop Up Help Window
.  Pop Up Status Window
Bugs fixed from 2.0
.  Resets screen mode upon exiting
.  Lets you exit if you have many ansi's.

CGA Card Owners:
The VGA smooth scrolling option is defaulted to on.  You should have
no compatibility problems with your CGA card.  If you do however, just press
'V' when you first get into View Mode to turn off the VGA Smooth Scroll.