Like City Lights, Receding: Ansi Artwork and the Digital Underground, 1985-2000
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Like City Lights, Receding: ANSi Artwork and the Digital Underground, 1985-2000 Michael A. Hargadon A Thesis in the Department of History Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (History) Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada March 2011 © Michael A. Hargadon, 2011 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY School of Graduate Studies This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Michael A. Hargadon Entitled: Like City Lights, Receding: ANSi Artwork and the Digital Underground, 1985-2000 and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (History) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: Dr. Matthew Penney Chair Dr. Norman Ingram Examiner Dr. Rachel Berger Examiner Dr. Elena Razlogova Supervisor Approved by Dr. Norman Ingram Chair of Department or Graduate Program Director 20 Dean of Faculty ABSTRACT Like City Lights, Receding: ANSi Artwork and the Digital Underground, 1985-2000 Michael A. Hargadon The rise of the Internet has obscured knowledge of the modes of mass online interaction that preceded it. Foremost amongst these was the Bulletin Board System (BBS), whose unique technological constraints encouraged the development of the art form known as ANSI. Through an examination of the economic paradigm shift that permitted mass adoption of microcomputers, the technological operating environment of the 1980s and 1990s and the ethos of the software piracy scene of that era, this thesis explains why this species of art took the form that it did, why artists chose to express themselves in this medium, and how ANSI defined the aesthetics of the online world between 1985 and the turn of the century. Far from a mere form of expression, the production and display of ANSI art on BBSes served as a signifier of and route to the acquisition of status within the sub rosa branch of autonomous dial-in computer systems that comprised the pre-Internet digital underground. iii Acknowledgements qx9, Nitefowl, Tektite, Jupiter8 and the SYMBio.sys Crew, Lupus Yonderboy, Ashes and the CPS Crew, Flight, MoleQL and the Root Crew, Pantheon, Frozen Spirit and the WhirlWind Crew, Shot Gun, Epoch, Red Hornet, The Yowler, Triffid, The Shillingi, many forgotten users, and Cott Lang, Darkened Enmity and Tim Strike – none of whom I ever met, but whose software made worlds and offered solace. iv Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Objective ........................................................................................................................ 1 First Thoughts .......................................................................................................... 1 Art and the Digital Underground ............................................................................. 5 Categories of Analysis .................................................................................................. 12 Category I: Constraint ........................................................................................... 13 Category II: Paradigm Shifts ................................................................................. 16 Category III: Operating Environment .................................................................... 20 Category IV: Ethos ................................................................................................ 23 Problems of Historical Research in the Reconstruction of Online Communities ........ 26 Digital Ecology in Evolution: Paradigm, Operating Environment and Platform .... 33 The Microprocessor Revolution ................................................................................... 35 IBM PC Dominance: The Rise of the Clones ........................................................ 49 Ma Bell and Modems: Network History through to the 1980s and Early 1990s ......... 54 The Bulletin Board System.................................................................................... 64 Software Distribution and Software Piracy .................................................................. 72 Mosaic in Text-Mode Miniature: Technological Constraint and the Development of Form ................................................................................................................................. 83 The IBM PC and Periodization .................................................................................... 87 The Scale of the System ........................................................................................ 91 ASCII, Codepage 437 and ANSI.SYS: Foundations of the Form ....................... 100 Sixteen Glorious Colours..................................................................................... 107 Commoditized Hardware and the Open Market: Drivers of Technological Development ...............................................................................................................114 Text Mode, VGA and Drawing Programs ............................................................115 Modems and Networks ........................................................................................ 120 Sought Goods and the Speed of Data .................................................................. 125 Flow, Ebb and Die: Electronic Ethos and the Expressive Impulse .......................... 129 Growing Up Elite: Status and the Underground ........................................................ 131 The Mask of the Handle ...................................................................................... 138 New User Passwords, Infoforms, and New User Voting: Keeping the Lamers Out ............................................................................................................................. 144 Putting It All Together: Elite Systems and the “Config” ..................................... 156 Grouping Up Elite: Membership and the Competition for Status .............................. 165 Genre-setters: ACiD and iCE .............................................................................. 174 The Internet and the End of the Form ........................................................................ 185 ASCII Reborn ...................................................................................................... 193 Final Thoughts............................................................................................................ 194 Works Cited ................................................................................................................... 198 v List of Figures and Tables "Silent Service," Eternal Darkness, Silicon Dream Artists ................................................. 1 Paragon Menu Prompt, Oblivion/2 BBS Software ............................................................. 7 BBS List, Charisma BBS Software .................................................................................. 10 Matrix Logon Menu, Lord Jazz, Oblivion/2 BBS Software ..............................................11 TV Typewriter, Don Lancaster, Radio-Electronics Magazine .......................................... 40 VisiCalc, Software Arts ..................................................................................................... 44 Model 5150 Personal Computer, IBM .............................................................................. 49 Smartmodem 300, Hayes Microcomputer Products ......................................................... 63 VT-52 Terminal, Digital Equipment Corporation ............................................................. 64 CBBS, Ward Christiansen and Randy Suess .................................................................... 66 Login Screen, All American BBS Software ...................................................................... 67 5 ¼" Floppy Disk .............................................................................................................. 76 Syndicate FILE_ID.DIZ, Razor 1911 ............................................................................... 78 Eye of the Beholder Trilogy FILE_ID.DIZ, TRiSTAR .................................................... 80 Detail from "Huma," Lord Jazz, ACiD ............................................................................. 83 "The Evil Palace," Chips Ahoy, Aces of ANSI Art ........................................................... 84 "Nicotine," Sensei, ACiD .................................................................................................. 85 Black Lamp Cracktro Loader, Woodo, Fairlight............................................................... 89 Table 1: PC-Compatible Platform Capability, 1980-1996 ................................................ 92 "More Power to the Person" PC XT Advertisement, IBM ............................................... 96 Chart 1: Increase in PC Compatible Capability, 1980-1996 ............................................. 98 Codepage 437 Character Map, IBM ............................................................................... 102 Table 2: IBM Text Mode Block Drawing Characters ..................................................... 103 Renegade BBS Software Main Menu, Stone Angel, UNiON ......................................... 104 Telix, DeltaComm Development Inc. ............................................................................