Roy/SAC Does NOT Automatically Mean SAC

I had once more some email back and forth with a fellow scener about my OSDM stuff, which seems to create an issue for some folks out there. I never understood what the problem is with my fun releases that I only create for the sake of them while enjoying doing it and showing it to other OSDM fans who are able and willing to appreciate it. I then throw the stuff simply out there that anybody who might be interested in it can look at it too. It’s not a secret “hobby” of mine. I am pretty open about it all the time.

I already posted about my thoughts about the issue of using a tool such as OSDM in general, the few at what coding is today and what is today different than it was 10-15 years ago. So I won’t go into that subject again right now, because I think that I understood today what the other issue is what some folks seem to have, which does not seem to be about the use of such tool as I believed it to be, but about who creates it and how it is presented.

(What Appears to Be) The (Real) Issue

It did not occur to me that people would mix my personal OSDM stuff with official SAC productions and releases, something that I also not knowingly encouraged to do.

I avoided to reference to my OSDM stuff within the official SAC content on my Website, which resides in its own section at RoySAC.com/sac and can also be accessed from SuperiorArtCreations.com.

The user always remains in the SAC section while he browses the SAC Packs and official SAC Galleries on the Site. You can tell this by looking at the top navigation on the site. Not only is the tab “Superior Art Creations” highlighted, but also the top header image is different and shows “Superior Art Creations”  instead of the typical “Roy of Superior Art Creations” that is used for all other areas of my web site. Only one page referred to the '”Art Galleries” Section instead of SAC and that was the SAC VGA Logos collection, which I changed today.

URL to full sized version of this screen shot:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4364417256_48277e4272_o.png

Am I considering my OSDM stuff to be official SAC releases? No, I don’t, certainly not after my chat with Scour this January. In my blog post that followed that conversation, I stated explicitly that my OSDM stuff is NOT appropriate for an official SAC release. I was referring particularly to the SACtro that I prepared for the SAC Pack #36 release.

Can’t Blame

Despite all this are some people still doing the association of my OSDM stuff with official Superior Art Creations business and I cannot really blame them for doing so. They would probably realize their error, if they would take the time to look closely enough and really cared, but I cannot expect doing that from everybody out there who is involved in the scene and sees my OSDM stuff.

The problem is that I use Roy/SAC in the credits of my productions and not simply ROY without the /SAC. Using Roy/SAC is obviously enough for some people to automatically see it as an official SAC production. I am not aware that I ever used in any of my OSDM production the words “official SAC production” or “Superior Art Creations Release” all on their own without the restrictor and refinement “Roy of …” before that.

Also, an intro or demo production is typically defined by its coder(s), or at least that used to be the case. I never claimed that I programmed any of the OSDM intros/demos myself and always gave the appropriate credits to the person who deserved it, in the case of OSDM to Peace/Testaware and Epyx, who wrote the FXLib library for Pure Basic where OSDM is based on. So by this standard, my productions are more like a “Testaware Production” or an “Epyx Release” or something like that, because my parts were “only” the overall design, direction, concepts, choice of music and in many cases the pixel graphics and vector object definitions as well, plus the scripting of the demo maker to control, adjust and blend the individual effects as well as the transitions between them.

Okay, some start with a big “Roy/SAC presents” or “Roy of Superior Art Creations presents” and none with “Testaware presents” or something like that; Granted. Why not drop the /SAC from Roy and why did I use it in the first place? Good question and if you are long enough around then you will probably also already know the answer to this question.

Why, Why, Why, What, What, What?

“Roy” and “SAC” became throughout the past 15+ years inseparable from another. The vast majority of my artwork bears the signature “<Roy/SAC>” or “Roy[SAC]”  or “Roy<SAC>” and since 1995 onwards my IRC handle (Internet Relay Chat, specifically the EFNet) always has been “Roy[SAC]” (which does not seem to be allowed to be used anymore, at least by the IRC servers that I used recently) and my fall-back nick-name was “Roy_SAC”. It was never ROY without the SAC. Also the domain for the web site is RoySAC.com and not Roy.com, which is more due to the fact that Roy.com is kind of unavailable and unobtainable these days. I had my shot at SAC.com in 1995 and missed it, which haunts me to this day, but that is a different story.

When got in touch with other oldskool sceners for the first time, it happened that just “Roy” only triggered thinking and digging in old memories, with some being able to make the leap and fill the missing gap themselves and others keeping thinking and thinking unable to make the jump until the needed hint is provided to them… “SAC” …. “ah yes, Roy/SAC, the ASCII artist. The NFO logos for XXX and YYY.”. Now they remember and know. Well most folks have not seen my name very often or not at all just by itself without the descriptor “/SAC”  next to it.

This was a process that took many years and I cannot change that now anymore, even if I wanted to. I did not realize that this would happen and thus were unable to do something to prevent that from happening while there was still a chance. Okay, I cannot change it anymore and won’t even start trying to so today; so what else can I do? This blog post is a start and a good place to refer to in a discussion with anybody who does create the wrong connection and assumption about whether or not something I do is an official SAC release or not.

 URL to full sized version of this screen shot:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4070/4364430236_f13268752b_o.png

Defusing Attempts

But I cannot stop there. I added also a disclaimer to the OSDM section homepage on my web site stating that none of the productions are official SAC releases. I will also add a similar disclaimer to the individual production pages. Then I will also start slowly updating descriptions of video captures of my OSDM stuff on sites like Vimeo, YouTube and Facebook. Also made a design change to the loader image that I used in virtually all of my OSDM productions since the end of last year. It looks like this and will be used for my future productions.

I also started the re-assignment of all OSDM related pages from “Art Galleries”, which is used for my personal art galleries, but also for generic art galleries with artwork by SAC as well as non-SAC members or even not by somebody from the underground art scene at all. I began assigning those to the “Roy/SAC” section (see, even there it says “Roy/SAC” instead of just “Roy”), to make it even more clear, that this is something that has to be associated with me personally and not with ”SAC” or anything else.

Conclusion

For the folks who hoped that I will abandon having fun with OSDM altogether to avoid all trouble that it causes without having much to do with it to begin with, sorry. I do not intend to do you this favor. Just ignore it, if you cannot stand seeing it. Just use the keyword “OSDM” for any filter that you are using to remove content associated with it. I am pretty sure that I use the word at least once with everything that is associated with it hehe; or you just get over it and see the stuff at what it is and not what you used to make out of it in your own head. Warning: You might even start enjoying them too! :)

I hope this post clarifies things for some and that my other done and still to do actions will also have the desired impact as well. If anybody claims a connection between my personal OSDM releases and official SAC business, point him to this post to correct his false statements.

For the folks who actually like my oldskool OSDM stuff, check out my latest and to this date best releases in my own opinion, but also in the eyes of some who have seen most of my other OSDM releases as well.

• NWO – New World Order Multi-Part OSDM Demo
• Only 16-Colors Short Oldskool ANSI Demo for Windows

or my Cracktros:

• TOaO – The One and Only #3
• TOaO – The One and Only #2
• Giana Sisters Intro

The short-cut to most of my past OSDM releases is downloading my 2 Mega-tros intro Packs releases to-date:

• Megatro 1 from last year and
• Megatro 2 from this year

Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC