úú[intro]-------------------------------------------------------------------- And thus the arrival of a new dawn approaches. The era of expansion, learning, and advancement. The dawn brings not the light of day, but the cold of night. Let your fear and hatred spawn from your inner self to your eyes and hands. Let it overwhelm and seep into every pore and cell of your body. Tendrils of electric blue void spark and sizzle, not ever burning, but freezing whatever it touches...  ...let the darkness begin. úú[extended explanation]----------------------------------------------------- Let the Six Pack begin! We welcome in 98 with a new style. Continuing with the excellence our artists are known for, we decided to add a little twist to their craft. Each member was requested to expand into a media type not yet mastered to themself. Ansi artists are experimenting with vga, while vga artists are mastering programming just to name some of the quirky moves. With artists grumbling in the background we swifty defeated their armies of complaints, only to snicker and laugh at their newly (de)formed art. Perhaps in time our artists may in fact release media outside of their own native waters on a regular basis. But perhaps in time, cows will rule the world. Artistic talent is sometimes needed to be expressed differently and released differently in order to fully understand what you do. Doing the same task over and over again tends to drive boredom into the thoughts of those who turn into slaves at the mercy of their art. From a chaotic state into nirvana, from uniformity into frenzy, we have created something extraordinary. Though most deemed this merely as an excercise in 'fun', many stood with arms wide open to the thought of a challenge. Of course, no one would ever call what we've done a challenge. It's strange to realize but all we ever have are victories. However, this pack is not an excercise. It's more like someone opening another window to us and showing us the new view.  - oxygene [head coder] úú[personal reflection]------------------------------------------------------ With Acidic Soap bumbling about programming in his ear, oxygene prowls over his other windows in his irc client. A writhing flow of text fills his buffers. Artists throwing their hands up in frustration. The low murmur of questions and comments being volleyed to and fro between the departments. his escape. His friends. His family. He knows now what he has to do. Needing a swift influx of pepsi, oxygene contemplates an idea which occured to him while driving to see his counterpart. Listening to squarepusher he relaxes into a state of bliss. A release of internal energy flows into the words he composes on the screen. The thoughts pour like sand through an open hand yet fall into place in a seemingly perfect crystaline formation. Unable to keep up, his hands ache with the fury his nerve impulses fire at them. No end is in sight. His words quickly dissipate as eagerly as they began. Feeling like a new found stranger in an even stranger world, he hears the calming voice of her. He stops, notices her presence, and quickly closes his file, eager to talk to her. He turns around, only to see an empty room. Very long, and very wide. A massive expanse with a tiny spec off in the distance. Time for a walk. úú[dark news]---------------------------------------------------------------- We have recieved numerous comments and suggestions about the reduction of our pack size. The issue remains up in the air currently as discussions still produce points for each side. The idea would be to release an ansi only pack, and a separate multimedia pack (vga/music/coding), while allowing the option to grab the whole deal. Work on the WHQ continues after taking a small break for some of our members who are doing the design of it. No opening date is set, however, it is rumoured that it's done, with the only effort right now being placed to serious modifications of the layout, and additions. A massive release from our coding department is slated tentatively for a February pack release date. Seeing as our coding department has been wrapped up in this production, we know that we will not disappoint. This will be an addon release to the regular pack only due to the size of the program and associated files. The web site will contain more information about this when the time comes, so keep your eyes open! Remember folks... Tentative ;) Feel free to check out some of the amazing addons to our web site at www.darkillustrated.org, which is running better than ever we might add. Obtaining our own server, and administration rights, we have expanded our resources to such exciting things like DarkView/NET, which is our newly developed online pack viewer. Also feel free to check out some of the members pages. úú[special note]------------------------------------------------------------- We'd like to thank Mistigris for their inspiration in this idea we called the Six Pack :) Look out for their annual April Fools packs! Tsk finally released something. *applause applause* úú[member updates]----------------------------------------------------------- We lose two very special members from the ranks of Dark Illustrated this month. As sad as we are to watch them leave, we offer them the best with their new directions in life. Burnout steps down as VGA head in order to take care of personal matters. In his place he leaves Acidic Soap, who will do an excellent job. Burnout does intend to return to the ranks once his life is sorted out. No doubt he'll come back better than ever, as well as slightly heavier... *snicker* One very important and age old member leaves us too. Xypher Matryx bids a fond farewell after 5 long years in the ranks, both as a member, and most noteably as Senior Staff. Taking matters in his own hands, Xypher Matryx intends to tackle the world head on. Hope he has _lots_ of asprin :) Take care punks. As some leave, some rejoin. We welcome aboard The Green Hornet from his time away from us. uvel0city, Alla Xul and Grindstone also join up in the ranking. Of course we'll see some amazing work down the line from these artists ;) And we welcome back Holocaust. The cheeky thunder monkey himself ;) Look for some ruff artwork from him soon... A minor clerical error was found in last months member list. moomin13 was regretfully misplaced in our vga department list. Apologies from the staff. A late addition also failed to notice our beloved Warpus for the past few months too. Err... *** oxygene sets mode +asskick  úú[dark site list]-----------------------------------------------------------  To Be Announced DARK World Headquarters Unknown  Neosporin DARK Western HQ Rage  Mad Cows?!? DARK Member Board Night Stalker  Abraxas/Diabolic DARK US Support Site Megga Hertz  ABCB Cafe DARK Support Site Kyo úú[DARK filenames]-----------------------------------------------------------  Filename Conventions...  Filenames work like this: XXXXX-##.*  XXXXX is a five-letter abbreviation of the artist's alias.  (Should the alias fall within five characters or less, the  entire alias will be used.)  ## represents the current number of pieces the artist has  produced the year of release.  * can be any valid extension for images, executables, data  files, or musical compositions. The most common are DRK for  ansi images including JPG/GIF/BMP/etc for high resolution graphic  images, and MOD/S3M/XM/IT/etc for music data files. úú[miscellaneous banter and thoughts]---------------------------------------- And again, #dark seems to provide, at the very least, some place where you can laugh at people. Not with them ;)  Hey, we got to watch a TCBY store burn to the ground the other night. Not that I had anything to do with it.  It's just like OJ Simpson and women. Sometimes you just have to slap the shit out of.. er, I never said that. <_Epitaph> sinned: I guess my sense of humour is based around parodies and/ or wacky things, whereas yours is in the embarassment of others.  bingo  And now i'm taking off my pants... Oops, wrong channel...  Quake 2 at sinned.acid.org  Castle Wolfenstein at pbreaker.fatty.com  all i have is a dx2/80  jeriko: rest assured that I own 3 computers faster than yours. :) <_4thds> I think my dog runs faster than your computer  4th: your dog runs that fast only when it sees that gleam in your eyes... * _4thds screams like a little girl and runs off  see the little button on the left of the keyboard that seys: caps lock? press it. now.  "Violence errupted last night after an unprovoked verbal attack on a well-known member of the "Dark Illustrated" gang. A turf war began after name-calling escalated to kicks, and finally, full-scale nuclear warfare. More on this at the 6 o'clock report."  The chicks downtown always complement my choices of cds but they never discount for me ;) (or dance naked for that matter)  I AM BOOBYMAN  :)8-8==D  look, I'm a hermaphrodite.  Shit, it's snowing tomorrow.  This could make drunk driving treacherous.  i really believe that the essence to design is the ability to successfully convey ones idea in relation with space.  i guess it all depends how you look at it. <_4thds> hmm... and in english: I like to dewdle *** |^-ZiP-^| (xxx@ham-2313.netrover.com) has joined #dark <__megaman> pkunzip |^-ZIP-^| c:\hamilton-sucks\ <|^-ZiP-^|> ?! <|^-ZiP-^|> I don't get it  think hard. úú[conclusion/dedication]---------------------------------------------------- Another yearly chapter is written, and another is begun with this month's pack. We've reached a focal point in DARK's history. Continuing with the tradition of our previous years, DARK Illustrated will remain as a pillar of strength from the North. "we've made it this far..." This is dedicated to you (you know who you are) regardless of where you stand. I know where I stand.  - oxygene [head coder] úú[end of info file]-----------------------------------------------------jizz SAUCE00Dark January 98 Memberlist Dark Staff Dark Illustrated 19980131Û/Pù