@TCB!
Interesting presentation which is mostly accurate and insightful, but I’ve seen many exceptions to your rules where alternative ways proved to be better than the classical reasoning. In addition some of the strategies you have described could sometimes backfire against the organizers, and there is proof from historical facts. I have been original supplier for no less than 20 groups (of which 17 elite ones), founder and global organizer of Delight (1991), co-founder of Interpol (1992), co-founder of Paradox n°2 (1993), etc. so I propose to share my views, notably about your friends SR. Please read and let me know what you think.
1. You seem to be pro-Skid Row. Yes they were good, but starting from 1993 and on, Paradox was even better. With Maximilian (and Kimble) it was a matter of millions. Virgin CC’s were flowing by 10,000’s (I saw the thick listings at Max home, he told me to pick some here, pick some there, from any pages I wished…), Nintendo copiers were selling by thousands, etc. Selling software/games? Well, it couldn’t be as powerful as a cash-machine, so why bother? Skid Row was good at that, i.e. they were not playing in the same league. About Max there are quite a lot of articles from official sources which are documenting this. Fairlight was not bad also, with Strider at the top of the organization. So, for me, Skid Row was only third. I don’t know for you, but I’ve also been an official member of Skid Row, before we left with Max to create Interpol. Never joined Fairlight, despite Strider tried to lure me out of Paradox through some of his members I knew quite well. But I was loyal, and close to retreat.
2. Wildcard (hi Fred!): he was one of the best hackers/phreakers around, so yes he could be useful.
3. What happened to them?
– Quality of releases had always been low. Re-read Foxy’s post on another thread. They were kings of the cheap tricks. And arrogant, well, they had always been so, since World of Wonders/Paranoimia. In all regards I won’t argue/say it’s bad/whatever. I’ve seen this everywhere on the crack scene. I’ve been like that, too, and I won’t fire a shot in my foot. But sure it tired some of their members and there has been many spin-offs, say, Ministry, Hoodlum, Crack Inc., to quote only some of them. Creating your own competition is not very clever.
– The second Paradox was the next-generation group and Skid Row could not compete.
– For the rest, I like your analysis, it’s rather exhaustive.
4. Prestige / “To understand this, you need to understand where the originals were released” i.e. “fast distributors or shops” “FNAC in France” … Well, an original supplier who would have only relied on FNAC would have been on a strict par with low-life competition, which means it would have been like playing lottery. One day you’re first the next day you get beaten. Of course I did this in the beginnings i.e. for Paranoimia, Vision Factory, and even for Crystal, and Quartex to a lesser extent (I already had other tricks then). Through hard work and experiment I learnt the difference between being just an original supplier and being a good or a top original supplier, something which I finally achieved in 1993 in supplying 7 of the 10 best games of the year (and countless others).
By that time, I had a special address book set apart, entirely dedicated to original supplying. It contained the names of all the salespersons in more than 20 specialized retail brands in and around Paris, their preferences when it was possible to bribe them, on which day and at what time they received the originals, from which wholesalers/distributors, the itinerary of the trucks, etc.
In addition I had insides in French magazines. I had passwords to a few game developers’ BBS’s. I used social engineering techniques and called software companies to obtain English versions of the games which were released only in French. I also had an inside whistleblower at Innelec, the wholesaler who was supplying the FNACs and other similar outlets. So, it was a real job, not a lame “go to FNAC on a daily basis”, and I was most of the time on the phone, not having to run between shops. I was just out when needed, and it left me with plenty of time to attend university, organize Delight, make music, go out with friends, etc.
Other tricks were that I didn’t have a modem at home. I did have three modems at different friends’ places in and around Paris. Friends who did want the zero-day warez from the BBS’s for free, and who were either trustable or truly unknown from the scene. Also I didn’t have any pirated software at home. And at last, I changed handles many times in the intro credits, sometimes mentioning UK instead of France, etc. Ok it wasn’t good to appear on top of the charts, but it was good enough to be the best – and I didn’t want fame, just success.
That said you were talking about Prestige and if I’m not wrong the French suppliers were Bomberman and Willy. Not FNAC-runners but also top original suppliers with style and close relations whom I want to take the occasion to greet now.
5. “Skid Row truly dominated on an unparallelled scale and for a LONG time.” – Maybe depending on which BBS’s you had access to… When I had a modem at home, and I flowed through 4-5 elite groups including Skid Row (in fact, I’ve been twice a member, in late 1991 between Oracle and Crystal, and in late 1992, with two different handles, and they never noticed) over a short span of time, I kept my unlimited accesses everywhere. I was unlimited VIP on more than 50 zero-day elite boards! Thanks to this on that period Delight’s WHQ and USHQ were also zero-day, even better than most of the source BBS’s as I had everything combined, hehe!
So what did this teach me? That the casual modem trader who is generally present on 4-5 boards has a distorted vision of the reality. When I frequently accessed all the elite WHQ’s and multinodes, and when I compared to the so-called text charts, they were wrong on many aspects. What I want to say is that Skid Row often released games which were already cracked by others. They were simply not the best in reality. They were just cheating, and above all what they wanted was their intros ahead of any games, so that their customers would remain loyal.