There is little that hasn’t already been written about SR ; suffice to say, they were dominating the scene in pretty much every aspect at a given time: they had excellent original suppliers ; dedicated crackers (though quality was not always consistent) ; plenty of “ways to communicate” (i.e. bluebox for the Germans and a steady calling card supply from Killerette & Phonestud) and some of the world’s fastest and/or biggest boards (Danse Macabre / Unlawful Entry to name just two in the US). At one point, they have the Europeans release pretty much every single game that was out there, whilst their Canadian (Devious Doze / also sysop of Akira Project) team was releasing all of the high-end (expensive) professional programs such as Scala / Lighwave / etc…
So, there isn’t a straight answer to your question but to say: SR had the ideal combination: right timing / right people / right tools and all of that brought about a pretty unique momentum that allowed them to dominate in the way they did. Just think of it this way:
– If no software is being released / there are no originals to be supplied
– If there are no original suppliers with plenty of time/money on their hands to pick up the software, there are no originals to be cracked
– If there are no dedicated (and skilled) crackers with plenty of time / availability, there are no cracks to be released.
– If there are no ways of communicating (BB / CC) and traders with plenty of time (and phone lines!! – Phonestud traded on 5 lines), there are no releases getting to the boards
– If there is no constant stream of releases, you don’t get the best & biggest boards to be your WHQ
– Without the fastest & biggest boards supporting your group, distribution of your cracks would be slower and less geographically stretched (at least in the early 90’s)
SR mastered all of these elements with a combination of coincidence and good planning. That allowed them to be more efficient than the competition and hence they beat them time and again. Sure SR got beaten too ; supplier was too late / cracker not skilled enough / technical problems / inside supplies / etc…
If memory serves me, the group was founded by Metallica in Germany and I think it is fair to say that without the “German backbone” (Including SSR / FFC / Magic Drummer / etc etc), the group would not have become the legend it now is and it most definitely would not have lasted that long. A few of these core-members were pretty seasoned guys that knew “their way around” ; had a good understanding of how to operate and how to beat the competition. Sure SR had members in Denmark but their contribution was mostly $$$ (from sales of software) and calling cards. I believe they may have had a cracker there towards the end but not so sure anymore (20 years ago!).
SR’s presence in Belgium was trivial. As far as I know, they really only had one official member: Wildcard and to this day I am not sure how he got it in or how we was contributing to the group? The infamous Pobox in Amay (near the German border) was operated by a non-scener (rumored to have been a Belgian army-soldier stationed in Germany) who couriered all the mail to Germany in exchange for free software. Other Belgians may have been in SR briefly or did some freelance work (Phil Douglas) but that is pretty much it.
What happened to them? I am guessing a number of elements coincided:
– They got arrogant/complacent and quality of releases went down (hence popular variations of their name Fix Row or Kids Blow)
– It grew beyond proportion and some people were craving for a smaller scale group
– Some people did not feel they were recognized enough for their contributions
– Busts (Akira Project in Canada / Unlawful Entry in the US also taking down an important supply of calling cards through Phonestud & Killerette)
– Competition increased efficiency and beat SR on a more regular basis (either in quality of crack / speed of releasing or “major titles”)
– Loss of interest –> what was left to prove? so some key-members left the scene or became less active
In the end, it just fell apart and some other (new) groups emerged though they were short-lived. Other members went to the competition and that was it…
Added 33 minutes later:
Prestige is a story in a somewhat different setting BUT you will find that there are quite a few similarities 🙂
By the time Prestige emerged, the scene was a different place. There were less releases and less (competent or internationally organized) competition. To understand this, you need to understand where the originals were released first: this was typically in the three main European countries: UK – France – Germany and each country had it’s fast distributors or shops (Centresoft in UK / FNAC in France and I forgot the name in Germany). In the early days of the scene, you’d have some stuff emerging first in the Nordics or North-America but beyond 1993, that had decreased significantly.
It was unusual for a group to be so organized & geographically spread out that they could “control” all of these sources of influx of originals into the scene. Skid Row (above) and Paradox being true exceptions but generally, most of the “major” groups were specialized in one or -at best- two countries and usually dominated that “source” for a period of time.
So back to my point: Prestige did an excellent job of controlling these sources. They had the best suppliers in the UK and France ; (I am not so sure about Germany as I seem to remember they got beaten by Hoodlum / Prodigy on quite some titles that were released in Germany) and they had the very best and fastest cracker with waaaay too much time on his hands: Mok. (granted – Samir/Groo did some cracks too). Adding to that is the fact they had the fastest board in the US as their HQ (Zion’s Hideout which they had stolen away from my group as WHQ — Grrr, still pissed about that! –). Not coincidentally, Zion’s Hideout was also the main source of calling cards into the entire scene at that moment in time. (the Sprint cards if anyone remembers?) ; Internet/telnet were emerging and steadily being adopted in Europe so in a nutshell, you see the same characteristics:
– Original suppliers [CHECK]
– Fast & good crackers [CHECK]
– Best in class distribution ; i.e. communication-media and BBS’s [CHECK]
– Seasoned “management” [CHECK] (Samir did a great job and learned a lot at Zenith)
Again, all of those components combined and that extra little dedication put them ahead of most of the competition, which -in turn- created momentum and this just creates a vacuum-effect for talent/skills. Everybody wanted to join Prestige and they picked the cream of the crop. The rest is -as they say- history.
In my personal opinion, I remember both groups differently. Skid Row truly dominated on an unparallelled scale and for a LONG time. Prestige also dominated ; perhaps in a less competitive environment but they delivered 100% quality. Either way, it was an honor to have been part of the scene in that era!
PS: You forgot the period where Fairlight was pretty much putting out every single release 🙂