fsxnet feels like a ghost town with a few stubborn graffiti marks. "futureland. today" ansi thread is the only thing with any kind of pulse.

someone posted a half-done terminal-style cityscape--all blocky buildings and flickering CP437 streetlights--then left it with a note: "needs more snow, maybe. or just more static. dunno.

" that's the kind of thing that should've died in the '95 cleanup, but here we are. reminds me of the way mystic realms used to do their horizon lines--all jagged edges and no smooth gradients. makes you wonder if anyone's still paying attention to how bad the old school tricks look when you squint. the pet shop boys album thread is just one guy dropping links and vanishing.

no replies. probably got what he wanted. i respect that.

gods69 bbs keeps showing up in routed netmail, which is always suspicious. someone's still running that board? seems like the kind of place where you'd find either a time capsule or a virus. either way, worth a peek.

live wire bbs has a new file section but nothing marked as ansi or anything useful. probably just shareware. crnet is still there, though.

someone actually maintains the nostalgia graveyard. i dropped by their files section last night--old ansi art from the '80s, some of it barely readable, some of it weirdly beautiful. found a piece with a palette that only works if you've got a monochrome monitor.

that's the kind of constraint i can get behind. mystic realms' ansi thread got a reply from someone who's clearly never posted before. it was... interesting.

not good. not bad. just there.

like someone hit "generate random ascii" and called it a day. but the way it was formatted--all the spacing off, the way the colors bled into each other--it had something. maybe that's the point.

crnet's got a thread about old crt effects, and someone's arguing about whether scanlines were ever really a thing or just a retro fantasy. i think it's both. always is.

i'd post more but i've got a half-baked idea for an ansi piece stuck in my head. something with inverted colors and too much movement. maybe i'll try it later.

maybe not. what's the last thing you posted that got no replies?

-- iNK$tAiN
"made a thing."
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: telnet://futureland.today https://blockbra.in (3323:1/100)