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This is dense. I skimmed through hoping to see examples of the “aesthetics” with screenshots of old school installers (like the ones from Razor 1911, Class, D

by milchek 16d ago

This is dense. I skimmed through hoping to see examples of the “aesthetics” with screenshots of old school installers (like the ones from Razor 1911, Class, Deviance etc) - it looks like these are scattered around the web, though. If anyone wants to relive some of the old chiptunes from these installers there’s https://archive.org/details/codex-installer-music-5-2018-03-192kbit-aac https://archive.org/details/codex-installer-music-5-2018-03-...

9dev 15d ago
Razor 1911! Now here’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time, but teenage me was very grateful to. The .nfo files alone, distributed with most releases, carrying the most elaborate of ASCII art. I distinctly remember the aesthetics you mention.
- nikanj 15d ago
  Remember realizing it’s 0x777, one better than 666?
  - mmanfrin 15d ago
    Probably more a reference to total file permissions.
    - bitwize 15d ago
      That's 777 octal tho
  - 5-0 15d ago
    I believe this was the case, as there was a lot of 666 going around at the time.
    - shinymark 15d ago
      6-7 had yet to be discovered.
- th1234987 15d ago
  > The .nfo files alone, distributed with most releases, carrying the most elaborate of ASCII art. I distinctly remember the aesthetics you mention. See their 40 year retrospective demo for a lot more of that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dybkLM-1eQo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dybkLM-1eQo :)
- bitwize 15d ago
  I still refer to 1:37 pm (13:37) as "l33t o'clock" and 7:11 pm (19:11) as "Razor o'clock". They seem to come up remarkably often when I glance at the time, like 11:11 for normies, but I think all of these are some sort of pareidolic/selection-bias effect wherein your brain is just more likely to remember/notice times that it considers significant.
- 5-0 15d ago
  If you ever need to scratch that ASCII art itch: https://asciiarena.se/ https://asciiarena.se/
suburban_strike 15d ago
Some of the chiptune musicians are still active. Dubmood made it onto the Hotline Miami (2012) soundtrack.
gravitronic 15d ago
Be sure to check out keygen music, still updated https://keygenmusic.tk/ https://keygenmusic.tk/
- ValdikSS 15d ago
  There used to be a large site called keygenmusic.org, but it's closed now. There's a dump of all of its tracks on web archive: https://archive.org/details/key-gen-music-music-pack-2020-03-full.-7z_202403 https://archive.org/details/key-gen-music-music-pack-2020-03...
- kristofferR 15d ago
  Cool, will be spending hours today listening to it! Frankly .tk domain is as much of a nostalgia hit as the music, weren't aware it is still around.
0123456789ABCDE 15d ago
> I skimmed through hoping to see examples of the “aesthetics” […] aesthetics is an umbrella term for the "[…] norms and rules of participation, […] forms of sociality, and […] artistic outputs." — think: sociology, culture, customs, and less visuals. reading chapter five (aesthetics), perhaps unsurprisingly the chapter where the author dives deeper into the topic, is certainly advised.
hobofan 15d ago
NFO files (both image and text) for current releases and ones going way back can still be found on xrel.to

by milchek 16d ago

9dev 15d ago

Razor 1911! Now here’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time, but teenage me was very grateful to. The .nfo files alone, distributed with most releases, carrying the most elaborate of ASCII art. I distinctly remember the aesthetics you mention.

nikanj 15d ago
Remember realizing it’s 0x777, one better than 666?
- mmanfrin 15d ago
  Probably more a reference to total file permissions.
  - bitwize 15d ago
    That's 777 octal tho
- 5-0 15d ago
  I believe this was the case, as there was a lot of 666 going around at the time.
  - shinymark 15d ago
    6-7 had yet to be discovered.
th1234987 15d ago
> The .nfo files alone, distributed with most releases, carrying the most elaborate of ASCII art. I distinctly remember the aesthetics you mention. See their 40 year retrospective demo for a lot more of that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dybkLM-1eQo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dybkLM-1eQo :)
bitwize 15d ago
I still refer to 1:37 pm (13:37) as "l33t o'clock" and 7:11 pm (19:11) as "Razor o'clock". They seem to come up remarkably often when I glance at the time, like 11:11 for normies, but I think all of these are some sort of pareidolic/selection-bias effect wherein your brain is just more likely to remember/notice times that it considers significant.
5-0 15d ago
If you ever need to scratch that ASCII art itch: https://asciiarena.se/ https://asciiarena.se/

suburban_strike 15d ago

Some of the chiptune musicians are still active. Dubmood made it onto the Hotline Miami (2012) soundtrack.

gravitronic 15d ago

Be sure to check out keygen music, still updated https://keygenmusic.tk/ https://keygenmusic.tk/

ValdikSS 15d ago
There used to be a large site called keygenmusic.org, but it's closed now. There's a dump of all of its tracks on web archive: https://archive.org/details/key-gen-music-music-pack-2020-03-full.-7z_202403 https://archive.org/details/key-gen-music-music-pack-2020-03...
kristofferR 15d ago
Cool, will be spending hours today listening to it! Frankly .tk domain is as much of a nostalgia hit as the music, weren't aware it is still around.

0123456789ABCDE 15d ago

> I skimmed through hoping to see examples of the “aesthetics” […] aesthetics is an umbrella term for the "[…] norms and rules of participation, […] forms of sociality, and […] artistic outputs." — think: sociology, culture, customs, and less visuals. reading chapter five (aesthetics), perhaps unsurprisingly the chapter where the author dives deeper into the topic, is certainly advised.

hobofan 15d ago

NFO files (both image and text) for current releases and ones going way back can still be found on xrel.to