ASCII by Jason Scott

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Author Archive

A Very Big Sort, or The Epic of Deaccessioning —

This has been years in the making. When my living space looked like this photo. it was just vaguely problematic. Considering what I do and what is specifically needed day to day, this project and storage situation was an issue. But that was a while ago. Now we’re at this: See, that’s seriously out of […]

MindCandy: The Last Bright Star Before the Media Dims —

The MindCandy series got me started on this whole “get it down in a movie” trip. Created with a love of the demoscene, a dedication to capturing the demos as accurately as possible, and most importantly explaining the entire process from beginning to end, MindCandy was a refreshing breath of air. DVDs, which were still relatively […]

Rise of the Screen Shotgun —

Continuing the thoughts I had in the previous entry, I’ve been working on a side-project to improve access to all the software and console games I’ve been uploading to the archive. To some percentage of the populace, it is a simple and obvious thing, but that’s how a lot of efficient breakthroughs happen – doing […]

The Robot Army of Good Enough —

(I do not speak for my employer. I am just very loud.) Pretty much any organization of any size has certain themes, beliefs and outlooks baked into them. Some of them might be obvious from the outside. Others are so inherent that the members might not even notice they’re completely steeped in it. At the […]

Saved! Sort of. —

As time goes on, people begin to use phrases like “saved” when it comes to Archive Team projects. That’s not quite accurate. If a website or webpage is simple, utilizing only images and text, chances are pretty good that we can get a reasonable copy of it. If, however, it utilizes any strange scripting, access […]

Letter to David Stiles —

Mr. Stiles: I’m sure you get a bunch of these letters all the time, but I figured I’d add myself to the pile. I don’t know when I first got my hands on your Treehouse book, but based on the publication date, I guess it was when I was 10 or 11. This is the […]

A Few Words on DIE GSTETTENSAGA —

Some members of the art group Monochrom have gotten into the world of movie-making and I think you might just enjoy the living hell out of it. It’s called DIE GSTETTENSAGA. GSTETTENSAGA is the best kind of low-budget filmmaking: science-fiction collides with mythology and political satire, and a landscape both gray and filled with colorful […]

Five Unemulated Computer Experiences —

While I and many others work to turn the experience of emulation into one as smooth and ubiquitous as possible, inevitably the corners and back alleys of discussions about this process present people claiming that there are unemulated aspects and therefore the entire project is doomed. I thought I would stoke that sad little fire […]

My First Arcade —

This nondescript building, sitting on the corner of Highway 52 and Fishkill Hook Road, has the distinction of being my very first Arcade. Naturally, it hasn’t been an arcade a very, very long time. I doubt it stayed an arcade past 1983, in fact. In the interim 30 years, it has served a bunch of purposes […]