zenassem Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 hmmm... I was just thinking about some of the popular software crackers that I remember seeing on "Pirated Disks" in the early & mid 80's. Always wondered who they were, the tools they used, and if they are still in the 8-bit scene. I remember seeing "Cracked by Killroy" or something close to that, on alot of disks. I'm trying to remember the others. And perhaps some of you know the history behind them. Was C.H.A.O.S. another one? (I don't think it was actually the C.H.A.O.S. computer club out of Germany.) ~zen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artlover Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 Good old days of 8bit pirated software. I don't think I personaly ever gave too much thought to the individual people involved, but I always loved the intro screens those guys would create. More often then not, the intros were better then the games themselfs, atleast on the C64. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenassem Posted October 24, 2004 Author Share Posted October 24, 2004 More often then not, the intros were better then the games themselfs, atleast on the C64. Very true! Same for the Atari. In fact some of the disks I only loaded up to watch the intro, Not to play the game. I am trying to research this topic, and I guess these early crackers were the start of the DEMO scene. Eventually, rather than cracking games, the "crews" devoted their efforts to creating those awesome demo disks, and pushing the limits of graphics and sound. ~zen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted October 30, 2004 Share Posted October 30, 2004 Aaahhhhh... The golden age of pirating... where pirates were proud of their work, when games were spreading across bulletin boards literally overnight on games that were still weeks away from being released in stores... Yes, the proud display of the crackerz names in the titles were what made for great message postings and built up the myth and the legends were born. This was also an age (within Atari owner circles specifically) of such legends of revolutionary sofwtare for telecom and BBS' from the famous Keith Ledbetter, when the Michigan Atari Users Group was at the heart of much of the on-line activity, JACG (Jersey Atari Computer Group) was another big group here on the East Coast... Man those were the days!!! Fido-Net was also connecting BBS' together and exchange message postings around in the middle of the night so you could call your favorite local BBS and see what was happening all over the country and somethings even in Europe too if you were lucky. Sig*Atari on Compuserve was at its peak with regular roundtable sessions hosted by Sig Hartmann having everyone from Sam Tramiel to other Atari noteables giving public talks on products. Then over course the old Atari BBS, running on several telco lines, originally being run on 1400XL's/1450XLD's in a closet room, they were quickly replaced by Atari ST's Ahhhhhh............ the good old days! :-) Damn I'm git'n old! Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted October 30, 2004 Share Posted October 30, 2004 hmmm...I remember seeing "Cracked by Killroy" or something close to that I've checked my archive and this is the list of well known crackers I can remember: AB-Software ASA Aura Bandits Bit Cruncher Byte Breaker Clever People Codecruncher Copy-Rites copywizard Coyote CSS DICK Ghost Genius Glenn Happy Hero Heist Network Homesoft Jerrysoft Kilroy Kloey Lionsoft Lord Falcon Lord of Darkness LPS MACE Madmax Max the Fiend Mister Fixit Mr.Bacardi Mr.G Mr.War MSI NAPO Neon Knight Nova Prime PCS Pirate Piratesoft Rob Rob C Rupper Space Cadet Star Pirate Steve&Bruce The Burton Bandit The Frog The Master The Polar Bear The Roemer The Sahdow Tir-Soft Webbed Sphere Wzab Yogi Some of them are fairly unkown other are best known for every true atarian. Would be cool to build up an archive with intros, logos and statistics about the cracker activities in the 80s !! rgds, twh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Smeghead Posted October 30, 2004 Share Posted October 30, 2004 hmmm... Was C.H.A.O.S. another one? (I don't think it was actually the C.H.A.O.S. computer club out of Germany.) ~zen Just for the record, there was C.H.A.O.S. here in Lansing Michigan, as well. It was the Capital Hill Atari Owners Society. They had one of the largest and most respected software libraries in the Atari community. It was all Public Domain stuff, though. They did absolutely no pirating. I'm still friends with Guy and Malcolm (I'll see them in a couple weeks...we have a birthday club and it'll be my turn 11/11 for dinner and a movie! ) and to this day, they're still against getting non-original copies. I'm not sure how I feel about it now. At the time, being young, stupid and poor, I was overjoyed when a friend would go to the trouble to make cassette copies of some of his disk games. I actually laughed when I heard that "Behind Jaggi Lines" and "Ball Blaster" made it around the world before "Rescue at Fractalus" and "Ball Blazer" were offically released. Now, I realize it helped to doom our beloved Atari. But, ah... I just sold off 176 floppies for $100, and only a few of them were originals. A bit late to feel guilty now, I suppose. Come to think of it, though, I don't think very many of those games had loader screens. A couple of them did, but apparently, they were nothing memorable. A BBS name and number, and a handle. It was the ST that had the extravagant pirate loader screens. Laughing skulls and the like. Smeg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Smeghead Posted October 30, 2004 Share Posted October 30, 2004 Bit Cruncher Glenn Lord of Darkness Piratesoft Webbed Sphere Wow, I do recall those names. Glenn the 5200 man, I believe. Seems like Piratesoft had changed the copyright © to (p). What an interesting post this will turn out to be, I'll bet... Smeg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenassem Posted October 30, 2004 Author Share Posted October 30, 2004 twn/f2, Wow! Thanks for that list. It sure brings back some memories. It would be fun to post some screens of the games they cracked. Anyone who can help establish a list of cracked games to each of these individuals/groups, please share. I wish I had all of my disks from back then. @Atari Smeghead, thanks for clarifying C.H.A.O.S. and their activities. I knew they played an important role in the Atari scene. ~Zen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted November 7, 2004 Share Posted November 7, 2004 Ahhhhh good 'ol fido-net.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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