ÜÜÜ Ü°°°°°°°±ÜÜÜ Ü±°ßßßÛÛ±²²ßßßßÛÜÜ ÜßßÜ ÛÛ° °Û°² ÛÛ ÜÜßßÜÜ Üß ßßß ßÜܱÛÛÛ°ÜÜÜÜ ßßß Ü Ü ÜÜÛÛÛÛ²²±±±ßß ßßÛÜÜ ßßÛÛ°°±²ÜÜÜÜ °±²ÛÛÛÛ²²²±±°°°ßßßßßßßßßßÛÛÛ°±±±ßßßÛÜ ßßßÛÛÛÛÛßß ÜÜÜ°°°ßßÛÜÜÜÜ ßßÛÛßß ßÜÜÜÜÜÛ²²±°°ÛßßßßßßÛÛ°°±±²ÛÛßßß ßßßÛÛÛ±±ÜÜÜÛÛÛÛÜÜÛÛÛ°°°Ûßß ßßßßßßßßßßßßß ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ Ü±±°°Û²²±±°°Û²²²ÜÜ ÜܲÛßßßßß±°°°Û° ßßßßÛÜ Can I make Jabba cute? idk ÜÜÛßßÜÜ Û° ±°Û ° ±²ÛÛ ßÛÜ ÜܲßÛ ÛÛ² ßßÜ°±±°Û ÛÜÜßß ß ÛÛÜÜ ÜÜܲ²²°ÜÜÜÜÜÜÛßßßÜ°°ÛÛ ßßÛÛÛÛÛÛ°°±±²Ü ÜÜÜÛ²²±±Û²±±°°ÛßÜÜÜÜÛÛÛÛ²²ÜÜÜÜÛÛÛ°°±±²²ß Þ±Üßßß°°²²±±°°ÛÛßßß ßßßß°°°ßßÜÜ Û±±°°ÛÜÜ ß °° ÜÜÛ ßÛ°°²²±°°ÜÜ ÜÜÜÜ Üܲ²Ý ßÛ²²±±±°°ÛÛÜÜÜÜ ß²±±Ý ÜÛÛ±±±±ß ßß²°°°°°°Û²ÛÛÛ²²²± Þ°°Û Û°°°°Ûß ßßÛÛÛÛÛÛßßÛÛ²²± Û°ß ÛÛÛÛß ßßÛÛÛÛÜÜÜÜÛÜÜÛÛß ZII ßßßßßßß° A little story about this pack's infofile. Over the course of the day, in spare moments on and off for hours, I described the state of the world. I talked about the global pandemic, and how it made for rather shabby science fiction -- the topic of this month's artpack -- not because it was low-grade dystopia but rather because it was derivative of creative material already exhausted last year. (Then I speculated that the variety of SF story we were living might be of the "Cause and Effect" or Groundhog Day variety.) I groused that the year 2021 had inspired a lower-quality calibre of SF in the popular consciousness, noting how in previous years we'd caught up to and surpassed such cultural touchstones as Blade Runner and Akira, while this year all we had to measure ourselves against was William Gibson's Johnny Mnemonic, which was a little too on the nose. I complained that with the Skywalker saga wrapped and the MCU having a small-screens fallow year, with the fragmentation of the streaming services it was hard for there to even be a consistent SF canon for us nerds to all be conversant with, with Netflix offering fake versions of Predator, Robocop and Total Recall to lead newbies astray. I hypothesized that after this much stifling lockdown in the midst of confusion and misinformation, it was surprising we hadn't yet spontaneously broken out in Death Race 2000, Rollerball, Death Tower or Running Man leagues. I concluded that we'd simply have to make our own SF art, clarifying that what I meant by that was that we'd all have to sit back eating popcorn while watching Blippypixel mint literally hundreds of SF artworks, with more coming in even as I was writing the infofile. I speculated whether we had cloned an entire room of him, or outfitted him with illegally overdriven cybernetic implants, or perhaps spliced his genes with that of a cheetah. There was a throwaway gag about a notoriously crappy NES cartridge, and a sadly lost bit of poetry about the similarities and differences between a fresh idea emerging from an artist's mind and a fresh chestburster emerging from a space jockey's sternum. Then having performed the requisite mastery of SF, I went on to actually discuss the contents of this artpack. I asserted that it wasn't ENTIRELY Blippypixel -- slightly under half of it is by old friends and new hands. I pointed out that we covered the obligatory touchstones of Star Wars and Star Trek and plenty of other fandoms besides, all the way down to a send-off to Sean Connery in his greatest role as Zed the Exterminator. (Really, if I can recall enough of my gags, I can nearly reconstruct the entire newsletter, a very niche species of stand-up comedy.) ÜÜÜßßÛÛ°°ÜÜÜ Ü²²±±°°ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ°°Ü Üܲ²±ßßßÛÛÛÛ²ÛÛßßßÛÛÛÛÜÜ Ü²²Ûß ßÛ °°Û²Û ±ß ßßÛÛÛÜ Ü²²²ß ÛÛÛÜ ± °°Û° ÝÞÛÛÛÞÜ ß² ÛÜ Þ²±ß ÜÛÝÞÛÛ²ÝÞ ±±Û° ²ÛÛÝÞÛÛ ÞÛÛ°Û Ü²°ÝÞݱ²² ²±±ß ²²±Û°Û ß±± Þ²²Þ Þ°ÛÛÛ Þ±°Û ± °°Ý ß Ü±²²°ÛÛ²²Ü ß ±±ÝÞÝ ±°ÛÛÝ Û°ÛÛÛÜ ß Üܲ±±²²±°Û°Û²²°ÜÜ ß ß ±±Û°Û Û²°ÛÛ°°°±±²²²²²²±ßßÜÛÛÛÛ°°°°±±±²°°±°ÛÛÛÛ plz i can haz frog from jar? Û²²°°°ÛÛ°°°±±±±ßß Ü°ÛÜ ßß Û°°°°°Û°ÛÛÛÛÝ Û²²±±°°°Û²ÛÛÛÛÜÜ°°±±°°°°ÛÜÜÜÜßßÛ°°°°ÛÛÛÜÝÛÝ Û²²Û²²±±°°°°ÛÛ°°°°°°°ßßßßßßßßÛÛÛÛ²Û°°°ÛÛÛ Û ܲ²ÛßßßßßßÛ²²±±±°°ßß ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ßßÛÛÛÛÛÛß ÜÛ Û ßßßß ÜÜÜÛÛÛÛÜÜßßßÜÜÜÛÛ²²²±±±°°°°ÛÛÛÜÜßßßÜܲ²²ÛÜ ßÜ ÜÜÜÛÛÛÛ²²²²²²²²ÛÛÛÛÛÛ²²ÛÛ²²²²±±±°°°ÛÛZIIÛÛÛÛ²ÛÛÛÛÛÛÜÜÜÜÜ I extended congratulations to Alpha and Veni, Vidi, ASCII for bringing their textmode art creations to an artpack -- this one -- for the first time, and thanked LDA and Zeus II for providing the Rather Whimsical illustrations gracing this infofile, CoaXCable and Veni, Vidi, ASCII for illustrating the memberlist, and littlebitspace for coming up with such a swell Blade Runner FILE_ID.DIZ for our use. Then I descended into Mist Talk, evaluating our progress in our New Direction, advised fans to look for us to release another unthemed pack in July (a month also featuring the next Blender compo Jul 17-18) and noted a few recent developments -- an MS-DOS PabloDraw fanpage, the master memberlist of all post-revival Mistigris artpack contributors, our ongoing campaign to bug TikTok users with brief video clips of vintage computer art older than its users are, and ... I don't think I actually fingered anything else, merely gestured vaguely toward ~more~. ___  | | ._|___|_.  . / . . \ |`-._,-\\ `---' //\ ``-...._____________\  jabba with a hat = habba  littlebitspace Then instead of attaching this infofile to myself to finalise at home, I somehow managed to mislabel the OTHER monthly newsletter I had also written earlier today for the monthly (virtual, in pandemic times) get-together of my local community of accordion and squeezebox enthusiasts, and sent that one -- possibly overwriting my artpack infofile -- instead. It seems there are a lot of accordion videostreams going on this Friday, my artscene dudes, but you may want to simply take my word for it. In retrospect it's a little hilarious -- probably more transparently hilarious if you aren't me -- but you have to take my word for it that it was really a nice, action-packed infofile, well-balanced between pertinent information, cunning thematically-apropos references, and genuinely funny asides. It'll have to be my Jodorowsky's Dune of infofiles, because I'm not going to delay the pack release in an attempt to recover it. Enjoy the pack! Thanks to all the contributors -- Blippypixel, and the rest of them -- and to our patient fans! Do keep your eyes on our social media, because we should be sharing some worthwhile SF selections there that were deemed unsuitable (for various reasons) for artpack inclusion. Be seeing you!  ÜÜÜÜ Ü±±ß~ÛÛÛ~°°Ü Û°ÛÜßßßÜÛÜßßÛÛÜ Û±ßÜÛ ÛÛ Û ÛÜßÜ Û°ÛÜÜܲÜÜÛÜܲÜÜ Û± ܱÛÛþßßßþÜÜÜÜþßÜßÛ  Ü ÜÛÛ±Ü,ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ°°ßßÜ ±ßÜ ßßÜÜÜÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ±Ü ßß ßßÜܲ°°ÜßÛ²²ÜÜÛÛÛÛ°±Ü ÜÜÜÜßßßßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ²þ ÛÛ²Û ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜܱ±ß lda ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß SAUCE00MIST0521 infofile Ct, ZII, LDA, lbs Mistigris 20210503¶0P‘IBM VGA