This is, well, an as-complete-as-possible guide to the convoluted politics of the 604 (British Columbia, Canada) art/warez/coding/music/phreaking scene. This all started with a brief article by White Insanity, which continued with some additions by me, and then by Grateful Dead, who's been 'round longer than both of us. I suppose we'll be (unfortunately) releasing monthly updates. (As if we don't have enough groups already). The groups mentionned in this article go back around a year in total... anything older than that, is simply TOO OLD to be reckoned with. So, well, get ready for a LOO-OOONG read...
-Cthulu
MiST founder
September 19, 1994
Ok, here I am, i'm gonna speak my mind on the groups of the 6o4 the summer groups and well the spring groups, and the 2 day groups. I'll start off with well one of the best flops, whatever you want to call it except good things of the summer called:
since I have been in the art scene alot longer than those two I remember these art groups and can add a little to what Whitey and Cthuls put above. well here she goes.
CT: Newsletter published in august, explaining in detail an on-going rag battle between members of Sonic Equinox and White Noise, the death of ALE from the formatting of Morbid Grindoris' HD, and petty other articles. Author unknown, for his own security.
þ[ABi] Ansi Bums, Inc.
þFounder: Tzeentch
þDuration: 6 months, will live as long as 31i73++ness lives.
CT: Parody of art groups...don't produce anything but elite lists. '1i73! Members include most of 604's ANSI talent. Has lots of rules, though. Nifty- thrifty.
þ[ACiD] Ansi Creators in Demand
þFounder: er...Radman?
þDuration: several years, still going
CT: Well, no one ever expected this to happen, but several former imperial members who moved up to nation, have moved up even further to acid. 604 acid members include Asian Knight, Morbius, Vanquish, and Spirit of Illusion.
þ[ALE] Alien Legion
þFounder: SNS/NBL Merge (Hero/Napalm, then Soul Survivor, then Atomic)
þDuration: 0 or 1 Pack(s), A Few Weeks, Died
WI: ALE had talent but wasnt used to a good extent, there pack slipped out and it wasn't supposed to be out and was recalled and then all we heard was oh, ALE is dead, and well, thats that.
CT: The merge of SNS, NBL '94, and TsC produced this unholy group. Had two pretty good members (Prophet and Havoc), and the rest no-talents, it seemed. Died.
þ[BAT] Baron Artistic Talents
þFounder: Visionary
þDuration: Like the Energizer Bunny, packs didnt release any, '93, dead
GD: Well BAt never released any packs because that was their policy I guess they just did the work then gave it to the Sysops and stuff. This was another good group, never managed to match the quality of DOA but was pretty much the foundling of Imperial (if you trace Imp back through the GRiP/AD merger to the POiSON PAiN merger.. POiSON was BAt pretty much) Main members were Visionary, Atlanta, Tzeentch, Dr. Cpu, and Crimson Dynamo. The main limitation this group had was its size.
þ[BDA] BBS Destruction Alliance
þFounder: ???
þDuration: several small releases, on-going
CT: The gits in this group make sloppily written batch files to format people's hard drives... what a bunch of idiots.
þ[CAPiO] Conspiracy Against PcBoards in Operation
þFounder: White Insanity
þDuration: one month, on-going
CT: A group for all those who hate PCBoard. Yay!
þ[CARB] Conspiracy Against Ranma's Board
þFounder: Dr. CPU
þDuration: several months, will live as long as AC's up.
CT: A joking group dedicated to crashing Alpha Centauri. (Not really)
þ[CiA]????
þFounder: ???
þDuration: a while, on-going
CT: Popular LD art group with a few 604 members...Questor ... The Narccissist... and Scribble (who has since quit and moved to Victoria)
þ[CLAN] The Clan
þFounder: Grateful Dead
þDuration: on-going
GD:
þDuration: shit just started her! :>
CT: Recently formed group from Grateful Dead (who quit Nation to found this) He could have something special (and we may be competing with him in the very near future...) Looking towards a merge with MiST (hopefully).
UPDATE: Well, Patriot and The Clan merged...aww...resulting in...a RAiD revival! Woo hoo! Well, actually, these guys result in our biggest competition in 604...boo!
þ[CON]?????
þFounder: Nuiwanda
þDuration: a while, long time ago...dead
CT: Loader making group, headed by the anti-social Nuiwanda, an adept at VGA freehand... surprisingly talented group, considering the heavy use of Loader Creator 2.0..
þ[CON] Confinement
þFounder: Hype
þDuration: a year? two releases, on-going
CT: Anarchy/Scene texts originally intended to go to some e-mag or another... they never got published by the intended sources, so the author, Hype, decided to release them on his own. Second issue just came out.
þ[CVN] Coven
þFounder: Vectorman
þDuration: 6 months, nearing their first release.
CT: Game making team, including Darkforce and Illusionary Enigma. In the process of selling a game to EA. Preliminary pics and music files look great!
þ[D&C] dAzEd & CoNfUsEd
þFounder: minus
þDuration: 1 month, 0 issues, summer '94, dead
CT: E-mag started by minus...ended shortly therafter when he gave the interface to another group.
þ[DAX] Drawers of Artistic Xcellence(?)
þFounder: Dark Avenger aka Eternal Soldier aka Illusionary Enigma
þDuration: few months, packs: 2, summer of '93, dead
GD: Well this group was BAt pretty much, change of name and a so called merge were used to try and spark the artists enthusiam. This was due to the interest of some of the artists going downhill, but it did seem to rejuvinate BAt. A while later the name was changed back to BAt and Visionary was again the sole Prez I believe.
þ[DEVO] Damned Elite V? O?
þFounder: Bone Crusher
þDuration: on-going, a few years
CT: The ONLY couriering group in the 604. Releases games every now and then. (The slow trickle of warez has been the source of all these pie-rats deciding to start their own art groups. PLEASE get some warez in here, we're running out of artists!)
þ[DIG] Digitallusions
þFounder: Admiral Skuttlebutt
þDuration: several months, many many releases.
CT: .MOD writer group. Skutt is the only member, and now he releases under MiST! Features 4-track-only .MODs, with as many instruments as possible.
þ[DOA] Digitally Oriented Artists
þFounder: Six Pack aka Death Hawk
þDuration: Exact time span unknown but lasted a long time, packs at least 2,
Dead..same duration as BAT
GD: Well to me DOA was unquestionably the best group 604 ever spouted. You need to know the history of the group to understand it better, unfortunately I dont know its entirety either. This group was around long before I entered the scene, and when I did she was just dying off. Until one day it was announced DOA had sorta merged into iCE. Tatsu, Cid Vicious Banana Basher and Mascot that is, Stile the then Canadian Co-Ordinator had invited them all, the entire group to join iCE. This is why they are the best group we have ever spouted, completely local except for 2 or 3 LD sites.
þ[DTS] DeathStar
þFounder: Babar
þDuration: Still Going, No Releases to Date
CT: Small group that popped up around the death of iMPERiAL... their refusal to show any one their art has resulted in a lack of anticipation for when their pack finally DOES make it out...then again, they could be fooling us...
þ[DTR] Digitronics
þFounder: Nezgar
þDuration: new group, several small releases
CT: New .MOD group starting up. Yay. Looking towards merger with MiST?
UPDATE: Aw. They said "no", for now, at least.
þ[EPiC] EPiC
þFounder: Boba Fett
þDuration: several months, dead
CT: Dead couriering group. Warez were really flowing in at their beginning, when they were competing with DEVO to get status... then they died. Aw. No more warez. For a while they were better then DEVO, but, then school started, and it died. Too bad.
þ[EuX] EuphoniX
þFounder: Luminance
þDuration: a year or two, on-going
CT: Fresh techno/rave group from the coast. 4 members, is also a band in real life. Consistant releases. Great .MODs.
þ[fAD] Freelancing Artistic Designers
þFounder: Death Hawk
þDuration: 1 year, packs: 2 I believe maybe 3, semi-alive.
GD: Well this is another one of our strange wierd groups. I started my ansi days here so I actually know about the beginnings of this group. Some of the highlights of this group in the early days were Savage Dragon The Orkin Man(aka. Soul Blazer) and Mercenary(aka. Spirit of Illusion). All was going well until one day all the ansi artists just seemed to quit the group (me included). So from that day on fAD has been VGA only, but boasts one of the strongest VGA departments 604 has ever seen, Capt Kirk, Capt Riker and more I am sorry but I cant remember their names ..
CT: Apparently these guys've released a few e-mag style things recently... not dead? We'll have to wait and find out...
þ[ŸEAR] FEAR
þFounder: Vermin/The Sultan(Changed to Mad Cartoonist/White Noise)
þDuration: Not very long
MAV: After UTERO boke up, most went to FEAR which was taken basicaly Utero, but taken over by Vermin and The Sultan. Didn't last long.
þ[GAMEO] Grateful And Mavrik's Elite Organisation
þFounder: Grateful Dead
þDuration: a few weeks old
CT: A group so 31i73, only Grateful Dead, and Mavrik can be in it. Every one else just makes gameo appearances (bow) (duck).
þ[G00p] g00p
þFounder: Tzeentch
þDuration: g00p!
CT: g00p! g00p! g00p!
þ[HFR] Happy Fetus Records
þFounder: DJ Moses Risin'
þDuration: a year?
CT: Started originally as a tax shelter, Moses turned it into an alternative .MOD group. Looking into a merger with MiST...ooh boy...
þ[iCE] Insane Creative Enterprises?
þFounder: ?
þDuration: several years
CT: Well, after several 604 members left DOA to join iCE several years ago, they all dissappeared. The only remaining active 604 iCE member is Cid Vicious.
þ[iMP] Imperial
þFounder: The Narccissist
þDuration: 5 months, 5 packs, dead
CT: The result of the merger between NWA and GRiP/AD lasted 5 months, becoming one of the top 5 art groups in the world, according to Blur E-Mag. During its lifespan, and after the breakup, most of its more famous members left to Nation, including Asian Knight (who has since moved to ice, back to nation, and to acid most recently), Vanquish, The Masked Pirate, Suicidal Maniac, Grateful Dead, Young, and The Narccissist. MiST is the result of every one else who WAS in imp... so we're kind of their child... be kind to us 8)
þ[IS] Immortal Syndicate
þFounder: Nutcracker
þDuration: 6 months so far
CT: Demo group, with real talent. Looks real good so far!
þ[K0DE] K0de
þFounder: Evil Iggy
þDuration: One issue, dead
CT: E-mag on the scene in general written about november/december '93. Died after the founder stopped modemming.
þ[KOS] Kings of Spain
þFounders: Asian Knight, Spirit of Illusion, Vanquish, Darkforce
þDuration: 3-4 months
CT: Farectious group, started after AK, VQ and DF quit iMPERiAL.
þ[LAWAJ!] Lazy Assholes Without A Job!
þFounder: Grateful Dead
þDuration: a few months
CT: Group for lazy and unemployed people. Doesn't produce anything, but your computer must be so lame that you can only play DOOM on the credit-card sized screen if you wish to be a member.
þ[LoWD] Lords of Warez Distribution
þFounder: The Black Gem aka Nosferatu
þDuration: a few weeks, dead
CT: Attempted warez group started by the hopeful Black Gem. Unfortunately, seeing as the prez himself wasn't even on any good warez boards, it died soon after its founding. What a waste of a good name.
þ[MEPI] Mind's Eye Productions, Inc.
þFounder: Spyder
þDuration: several years, on-going.
CT: Collection of coders local and LD who write BBS utils and doors. Most famous works from members of this group include InterStellar Annihilation and Steel & Ice Hockey.
þ[MiST] MiSTiGRiS
þFounder: Cthulu
þDuration: Pack Released Soon, Still Going
CT: All right...where did you get this file then? Huh? Go back to the top and read it all again... 8)
GD: Ok well MiSTiGRiS has lots of talent as well, its just mainly in different areas than PATRiOT. MiST's strongpoints are her Lit division and here Coding section while Pat's are only the ANSi section. Its not to say that MiST's is lacking in the ANSi division, its just that her artists are all pretty new and have to touch up and hone their skills. In a month or so down the road their ANSi section should be going strong. VGA I cant comment on I dont really look at them, sorry guys. :>
þ[MoAtSGCoA] Members of All the Silly Groups Created On Atlantis
þFounder: Mavrik
þDuration: As long as Atlantis stays up
CT: Well, Atlantis, the spawning ground for CARB, CAPiO, GAMEO, LAWAJ!, and many more, has created yet another club! Congratulations!
þ[MWA] Modemers With Attitude
þFounder: ?
þDuration: about a year old...dead
CT: A "ragging" group created to raise the egos of the members. Lost several rag wars, then slinked away in disgrace.
þ[NATiON] NATiON
þFounder: Maestro?
þDuration: Longtime...dying?
CT: Though not a true 604 art group, it features several prominent 604 members. The Narccissist, The Masked Pirate (now Morbius), Suicidal Maniac, Spirit of Illusion, Asian Knight (just left for Acid), Grateful Dead (just left to found Clan), and Vanquish. The CHQ is also in 604, Holocaust.
UPDATE: TMP, SoI and VQ recently quit Nation for ACiD! Could this be the end for the esteemed group?
þ[NBL] NewBlood '94
þFounder: Napalm
þDuration: 0 Packs, A Few Weeks, Resulted In Merge, dead
WI: Refer to SNS and then ALE
þ[NWA] New Wave Artists
þFounder: The Narcissist
þDuration: 2 or 3 Packs, 3 Months, Merged With GRiP/AD (Not a 604 Group), dead
WI: Result of a merger between 2 local 604 groups, PAiN and POiSON. Great group merged with GRiP/AD and became Imperial, suprise ending to the best 604 based art group rated #5 in the world, dead, reason's still are a bit foggy to me so i won't go any further
þ[PAiN] + [POiSON] PAiN & POiSON
þFounders: lost in the mists of time
þDuration: coupla months, dead
CT: These two groups merged to form NWA. Members included young Tzeentch, TMP, The Narccissist, and others.
þ[PATRiOT] Patriot Art
þFounder: Pantera / Atomic
þDuration: several weeks, end of summer '94, dead
WI: Patriot is the strongest art competition for MiSTiGRiS and it will be a long and hopefully peacful battle =], nice to have good competition at least =]
GD: Ok well little do the others know but The Korrupt Organization (TKO) is PATRiOT. A name change was done dont ask me why, and then the group was taken from Atomic by Prince of Death and Fab One. So far we have yet to see the great talent in this group release anything but we can only hope. My only critique of this group is that all the great artists are in NATiON, UNiON or ACiD. There are some that are good artists as well that aren't in dual groups but they (or so I have heard) are not really all that eager(hmm stagnation period symptoms..argh!).
CT: UPDATE! WOO HOO: PATRIOT IS GONE, IT MERGED WITH THE CLAN AND BECAME RAID AGAIN. BLAH.
þ[PHUN] PHUN
þFounder: Captain America
þDuration: a while...ongoing...
CT: Phreaking/Anarchy group. Yay. Lots of texts for beginners.
þ[PiNiON] PiNiON E-Mag
þFounder: Magik Elvis
þDuration: 1 or 2 Releases So Far, Still Going
WI: Magik Elvis's PiNiON could become something, it yet has no .EXE but it would be nice to see a PiNiONViEW =] Great work.
CT: Neat-o poems, articles, etc. (I write for it. Woo) Actually, you can find the 4 issues so far in this month's KiTHE. Article submissions are to be made at Neo-Graceland.
þ[PiXEL] Pixel
þFounder: Hook
þDuration: 1 month, 1 pack (december-january 94?), dead
CT: Was a result of the combined remaining artists in the 604 to combat the rising NWA. Featured the rise of Asian Knight, Questor and others...
þ[RAG] Rag
þFounder: Jesus Bonehead
þDuration: several issues so far
CT: Texts on various topics, mostly farcetious. Amusing anarchy type stuff.
þ[RAiD] Rendering Artistically Insane Designs
þFounder: :gulp: Misery(aka Grateful Dead)
þDuration: 3 Months, pack: 2 (and a sample one), died but is alive again.
GD: Well this was a pathetic attempt of a group at a time when I felt 604 really needed a strong one. Unfortunatley I went away fer two weeks the same week I started it and all my members basically left to SUiCiDE (read on) anyhow I tried to keep the group alive because SUiCiDE never really did anything.
CT: UPDATE: Patriot and The Clan MERGED recently, and RAiD was revived! Unfortunately, Spirit of Illusion and Morbius didn't like the terms of merger and quit. Also Pestilence and Inquisitor left MiST to join this. Argh. Well, this release, on october 15th, shall determine which of our two groups is the better... unfortunately, they have a few acid members on their side.
þ[RCL] Recoil E-Mag
þFounder: Grateful Dead
þDuration: Still Going, And No Releases To Date (Sep.16.1994)
WI: Well, i'd only say good things because, well i'm in this group =], it seems we will have a release out pretty soon. Made to review all art packs.
CT: E-Mag being started to review all forms of art, every month, as many packs as possible. I'm in it..yay.
þ[SE] Sonic Equinox
þFounder: Darkforce
þDuration: Several months... a few small releases.
CT: A demo group featuring artists from Union, CiA, and iMPERiAL... Has some fabulous musicians, but suffers sloth...we don't DO much...
þ[SUiCiDE] SUiCiDE Productions
þFounder: Lord Extec
þDuration: 2 Months, packs: 0, dead
GD: SUiCiDE certainly had some talent to shine in one of 604's dull periods, but unfortunately the artists were unproductive and seemed to have the same attitude as everyone else, just plain bored of it all.
þ[SNS] Sensation
þFounder: Hero, Now Soul Survivor
þDuration: 0 Packs, A Few Weeks, Resulted In Merge, dead
WI: Sensation had some good artists and after a while of negotiations with TsC and NBL, where NBL and TsC's prez's had conflicts and would not merge, Hero, went to NewBlood (NBL) and you can read the story from ALE =]
þ[SPOON] Spoon
þFounder: Beatle
þDuration: 1 issue (#0), dead
CT: Humorous text written by frequenters of InterZone.
þ[TACC] The Anti-Celerity Conspiracy
þFounder: White Insanity
þDuration: on-going
CT: Something along the lines of CARB, while (coincidentally...) Alpha Centauri happens to be the only board running celerity in the 604. Hmmm...
þ[TKO] The Korrupted Organisation
þFounder: Atomic
þDuration: one week, turned into Patriot, dead
CT: Founded by the former prez of ALE...he then quit and joined Patriot. end of story.
þ[TsC] The Supreme Couriers
þFounder: Style
þDuration: 2 Packs, 3 Months, Name Change To ViLE, dead
WI: TsC had lot's of negotiations with NBL and SNS but ended up on there own, other than iMP/NWA were the only other group to put out a pack in 1994 (in the 604) before September. **Cthulu Note: PiXEL also released a pack** NBL and SNS merged into ALE, TsC changed names and then now go read ViLE.
þ[TUP] The Underground Pirates
þFounder: Cyberlord, Now Darkened Soul, Running/Formerly Runnin' Dark Sun
þDuration: 2 Days, dead
WI: The underground pirates to start off with was like a group where they couriered now this makes no sense to me as we have good groups like DEVo etc.. etc.. BUT thats Cyberlord, now Darkened Soul's idea, it lasted for (drum roll) 2 days until a controversial accident of of Darkened Soul's HD getting formatted after he found out everyones passwords on Rise Of The Midnight Sons BBS, which is a good board to say the least. The end of TUP
þ[UÅERO] Utero
þFounder: Annhiliator X-14
þDuration: 1.5 months, no packs, dead
MAV: Created by new artists, never was expected to last long, and didn't. Conflict in the senior staff caused it to break up, and change into FEAR. A few people left to PiXEL.
þ[ViLE] ViLE Art
þFounder: (Style/Sliver)
þDuration: 0 Packs, 1 Month, Died
WI: ViLE could have prospered, due to no support from their coder, Freejack, the group couldn't continue, all members left to other groups. The main disorginazation of TsC in July while Style was in a different country didn't help the group. Dead
CT: TsC under a different name. Still stunk.
þ[VR2] Virtua Reality 2
þFounder: The Dark Knight
þDuration: 2 months, dead
CT: Demo group founded in the spring of '94... Never did much. Dead?
þ[WaRP] Western aRea Pirates
þFounder: ????
þDuration: short time, died, about the same time as DAX
CT: Attempted warez group founded and staffed almost entirely by members of DAX. Failed pitifully.
þ[WBT] WiLd BuFfAlO tAmErZ
þFounder: Tanaka
þDuration: just started
CT: New group. Just for fun, not much real talent or effort. A bunch of sig-grabbers have adopted this as their battle cry, however.
þ[WC] Wizard Couriers
þFounder: Vision Courier
þDuration: 2 months, back in dec. '93, dead
CT: Couriering group with talent died after many releases of homemade fakes and re-releases, and even one or two REAL warez. Aw. No more warez.
þ[WiZE] Wize
þFounder: Chaotic Soul
þDuration: 0 months..never got off the ground
CT: Was a later result to duplicate Pixel's efforts...never got past 2 members. Undergoing a revival... honest.
þ[Zone] Zone E-Mag
þFounder: Beatle
þDuration: Still Going, No Releases To Date (Sep.16.1994)
WI: Beatle will definately have something good here, it will be released on a weekly basis and will be a good laugh, but serious too, it will cover all aspects of the 6o4, from Public Domain to Warez and everything else (yes nearly every thing =])
WI: Ok, I'd like to say good work to all groups that survived 5+ Months and/or are still going and havent released much, lets erase this bad history and get a finally good 6o4
oh one last note, the reason RECOiL hasn't produced anything is due to the fact that I shut her down in August and have just restarted her due to the fact that I had no time to run her so look for a release pretty soon :>
gd.wasnt that just so fun? :>
Well, the big moves in the scene this month were the death of imperial, the petty squabbling which followed resulting in the formation of mist and patriot, the clan being formed and then merging with patriot into raid, and talk going around to REALLY get some work done, now. Recoil's starting up, and so're Zone and Pinion. Yay. (Cthulu contributes to all of them). Next month....ah...who knows? Wait and see!
UPDATE: hee hee. well, i suppose the BIGGEST move of all was the breakup of nation and all the 604 members going to acid. Yay, good for you.
But until then...
Blub blub
-Cthulu
MiSTiGRiS Founder
September 23rd, 1994
Happy As A Clam
Neck-o-phile