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There really is a very Groundhog Day quality to it. The world itself disappoints us, with crises in public health and capitalism undermining scientific literacy (and, more acutely felt, escapism in cyberspace) and the entire planet perpetually, it feels, on the verge of very underwhelming backslides into fascism, feudalism, or indeed complete ecological collapse. (I take back what I said about the SF downturn: I don't want to live through Parable of the Sower!) So with the stage set, here we are in 2024, the year of Highlander 2: The Quickening, doing our best to meet or exceed its high-water mark. Standout creators in this collection include the obligatory Blippypixel hirez and teletext futurescapes, Darkman Almighty (doing a Star Trek victory lap around the flaming wreckage of Star Wars, now diminished to mere background radiation in its cultural impact, bringing the scope of his ANSI art fandom all the way up to Voyager now), some ANSI surprises (by which I mean even I haven't seen them yet, a Mist pack release isn't just a chance to wow outsiders with previously uncirculated work -- last-minute submissions are a creative way of giving the same experience to insiders such as the artpack packager! basically it's an exercise in trust and faith... not the most scientific approach, but I can't argue with the results!) by LDA (recipient: longest parenthetical introduction award, 2024), a suite of original cyberspace ANSI works by Mavenmob (did I mention that 2024 is also the timeframe for the Inception of 1999, The Thirteenth Floor?) and a tight run of ANSI screens by dedicated guest Nitron. Between them you also find quality teletext work by AtonalOsprey and TeletextR, ANSIs by DosDoc, another typewritten screen by Lord Nikon, and a design pastiche from a real time traveller, Thanatos, who just emerged from a chrono-rift direct from the mid-'90s where he was the head of Mist Classic's high resolution graphics department. (Just his cruddy luck to beam ahead in time directly into the lead-up to the Bell riots!) (Could be worse: his coordinates could have been sent to the Downunder biosphere, I suppose. That would be fun... until suddenly it wasn't!) ... and of course it's rather unlikely you'll be overlooking Polyducks' submission! We should be dropping another collection of unthemed computer art late next month, so if you feel moved to contribute, send your work in! There will be more later in the year (indeed, we'll have to do something special to celebrate our 30th anniversary this fall), but recently I've felt almost like describing specific prospective releases in these infofiles is almost jinxing them (our schedule still looks worryingly a lot like the alternate histories explored in last year's SF pack infofile), so we'll have to keep you lot in at least as much suspense as we ourselves are in. (One sure thing: there's another Blender competition coming up the weekend of July 20-21!) Thanks to Darkman Almighty for the header art atop our list of contributors! Sadly I was forced (by myself) to inflict a grand (guignol) experiment in outsider art smallscale on you for this infofile, but at least I can say that I got it out of my system! (Apologies to Chris Achilleos for my take on Taarna -- if I ever try to draw her again I promise I'll try to fit in her nose next time!) The FILE_ID.DIZ is the handiwork of LDA, late-breaking but very much appreciated! In any event and despite everything, yesterday was Towel Day, so in keeping with the odd strain of optimism running through the otheriwse often rather cynical Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I found Zaphod Beeblebrox quite a bit more charming before the era of Trump and Musk), we'll leave you with this upbeat message: ÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ ßÛÜßÛÛ ÛÛÛÛßÜ ÛßÜ ÞÛÛ ßÛ ÜÜÜÜÛÛÛÝ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÜßÞÛÛ ÛÛßÜÞÛÛ ßßÛÜßßß ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÞÛÛ ÛÛÛßÞÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÞÛÛ ÛÜßÛÛÛÛ ÛÛ ÛßÜÛÛ ÛßÜÞÛÛ ÛÛ ßÛÛÛ ÞÛÛ Ü ÛÛÜß ßÛÛÛÜß ßß Ûß ß ÛÛÛ ÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ ÞÜÜ ÜÛÛ ÜÜÛÜ ÛÛ ÛÛÜßßÛÛ ÜÛÛ ÛßÜ ÞÛÛ ßß  ßßÛÛÛÞÛÛ ÞÛ ÛÛÞÜßÛÛ ÛÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÞÞ ÜßßÞÛÛ ÞÛÛÜßßÞÛ ÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÞÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÜÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛßÛÛÛÛ ÛÝ ÛÛ ÜÜ ßß ÛÛ ÛÛ ßÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÛÝ ÛßÜÜÛÛ ÜÜ ÞÛ ÛÛ Üß ÛÛ ÛÛÛ Þ ßßßßctßß SAUCE00MIST0524 infofile Cthulu Mistigris 20240526XP‹IBM VGA