Interview with Hijack of Arclite
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o1.  When did you make your first Ascii attempts?

     My first ascii attemps...  I guess it was about 10 years ago.
     I tried to make some "logos" with C-64. It has so nice chars...
     I made my first Amiga logos in 1992, first anims in 1993.

o2.  Do you know how many Ascii-productions have you released?

     Yes, not that many actually. Well it kinda depends what you count as
     ASCII productions. If you count all ASCII/ANSI SCENE related releases,
     I've released 11 ascii collections, 2 ansianimation collections,
     1 ansi collection, 1 ansi manual and an iff2ansi converter.

o3.  What's so damn special with Ascii?

     Dunno. I prefer ANSI.

o4.  Have you got any special idols from the Ascii-scene?

     I guess I could say that RED DEVIL/DEZIGN is my idol. He was
     the reason why I started to make ansianimations. He was also ahead
     of his time in ansi logos. He knew how to use ITALIC, BOLD and
     UNDERLINE. To him ansi logos were not just ascii logos with
     colours. I've got 65 ansilogos by him, all made with different style.
     How many of you can compete with that? None.
     I also love the work of ARCLITE dudes, their logos always inspire
     me to make cool animations.

o5.  What's your opinion about the Iff2Ascii-Art?

     I think it's ok to convert iff pictures into ascii, I've used iff2ascii
     in some of my anims (in ascii morphing for example). Everything that
     LOOKS good IS good in my opinion. Another thing is that how many
     percent of the converted stuff actually LOOK good.
     I prefer "pixel perfect" multicolor iff2ansi converters like
     Ansi Hijacker.

o6.  Are dot's more stylish than 'regular' Ascii?

     Humm. Are circles more stylish than 'regular' ellipses?

o7.  Do you read every single collection that is released today?

     Hell no. I have enough trouble checking out all the collections
     that my friends release. BTW: IRC is an EVIL place. How can you
     say NO to some poor ascii artists face when he dcc sends you
     his latest collection?-)

o8.  Do you answer requests made to 'All Available Artists' ?

     Nope. I think I have never answered other requests than the ones
     which were addressed to me. (To be honest, even the ones who
     write directly to me don't have a very good chance to actually
     GET a logo, since I'm a damn lazy person)

o9.  How should a request be written to be guarantied a answer from you?

     I answer all the messages I get, but if you want to be sure that
     you get a logo from me, noticeable money donation would assure it.

1o.  Are there more Ascii-groups than there has to be?

     Yep, I think so. There are also way too many "artists", but I guess
     every artist has a fan somewhere. I mean even some of the most
     popular artists are pretty lame in my humble opinion, but I won't
     say any names here. To make the world a better place, I decided
     reduce the number of lame ascii artists, and I quited making
     asciis. I hope many people would follow my example.

11.  What do you think of the attitude in the Ascii-scene of today?

     I think the ascii scene is a bit too hostile, people are fighting
     about everything. For example, it was quite weird how everybody
     reacted when Shapechanger joined us. If we say somebody has joined
     ARCLITE, you better BELIEVE it's true. We have no reason to lie
     about our memberlist.

12.  What do you think about the idea of having special magazines
     dedicated to the Ascii-scene?

     I think it's a nice idea, but I think the QUALITY of ascii magazines
     could be much better.

13.  Is there a big difference between Old-skool Ascii and Ascii of today?

     Humm... I guess there isn't THAT big difference, but somehow most of
     the ascii dudes I respect have been in the business for a really long
     time. I guess it's quite hard to amaze me anymore, since there are so
     many artists out there. The competition is quite hard nowadays. It's
     hard to be original, and that's actually one of the reasons why I
     decided to make ansianimations.

14.  Have you any special projects going on that will be released in a
     near future?

     Yes indeed. I've been working on my next ansianimation collection
     for 8 months now, and it's almost finished. Mop/Essence has coded
     a nice GUI for it and Cyclone/Illusion & Mistral/Parallax have
     pixeled me some real gfx. It's going to have some cool music too,
     and EVERYBODY from Arclite (except G.E.M.) are involved in this
     big COOPERATION. All anims are for BBS usage (download, upload,
     and so on...), so I guess many sysops are going to jump for joy.
     There is also going to be an amazing ansi intro in it, including
     many nice effects (true 3d was just beginning) like glenz ansi
     morphing and animated iff2ansi stuff.

15.  What would you be doing instead of Ascii if you suddenly quitted?

     I have suddenly quitted making asciis, and I'm making ansianims
     instead. There are better ascii artists than me, so I decided to
     concentrate on ansianims.

16.  Do you have a horny snoop doggy dogg?

     Nope, but I've got a TI-92 with no batteries.

     P.S. Everybody, feel free to contact me via e-mail: rt3097@tutech.fi
          And remember: ANIM A DAY MAKES YOU INSANE!