An artpack is an archive of computer artwork which is distributed in a compressed format such as

ZIP Zip, Zips or ZIP may refer to: Common uses * ZIP Code, USPS postal code * Zipper or zip, clothing fastener Science and technology Computing * ZIP (file format), a compressed archive file format ** zip, a command-line program from Info-ZIP * Zi ...

RAR RAR or Rar may refer to: * Radio acoustic ranging, a non-visual technique for determining a ship's position at sea * "rar", the ISO 639-2 code for the Cook Islands Māori language * RAR (file format), a proprietary compressed archive file format in ...

. While most artpacks today contain either

ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organ ...

and

ASCII art ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable (from a total of 128) character (computing), characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 an ...

or ''hirez'' VGA, they may also include a combination of RIPscrip art, tracked or otherwise digital music,

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

and editorials, 3D

computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes ( still images) and dynamic images ( moving images), while computer animation re ...

and related software utilities. The first artpack ever was ''The Acquisition'', released by

ACiD Productions ACiD Productions (ACiD) is a digital art group. Founded in 1990, the group originally specialized in ANSI artwork for BBSes. More recently, they have extended their reach into other graphical media and computer software development. During the B ...

in the early 1990s. BBS: The Documentary, Episode 5: ARTSCENE. Artpacks were originally released on a monthly basis by competing groups in the artscene, naming their files accordingly, i.e. . Very few groups still carry on the tradition of monthly releases in this day, rather they opt to numbering their artpacks in sequence rather than by date, i.e. , releasing their artpacks without any defined schedule. In retrospect, artpacks are recognized as one of the primary reasons that the early computer art scene is so well preserved and documented in relation to other underground computer scenes at the time.

Notes

{{reflist, 2 Artscene Computer art