Hi Musashi9, and happy new year!!! It may seem strange to some people that I’m busy writing and responding here during that period when I should be with family and friends, The reason is I’m sick and quarantined. As soon as I’ll get better I’ll be much longer to respond, if I respond at all.
For now, your questions are mostly relevant and they won’t take much time for me to answer. Let’s take them one by one.
<i>Can you walk us through the process of supplying originals, from the moment you had it in your hands to the moment of release by a group.</i>
Having supplied more than 70 games to a lot of groups, well, there were a variety of situations and I can’t say that it was always the same process. This said, the most often the efficient standard process was the following:
>>>1. Knowing that I was about to get the original, called either the organizer or the cracker (according to the group’s internal processes) in order to have a/the cracker ready and prepared to do the job, b/ the group’s organization oriented towards gathering intelligence, planning & operations tasks.
>>>2. Called the organizer when the original was nearby in the shop, before buying it (in case I wasn’t friend enough with the salesperson to have it for free). This step was necessary in case we were late and another group had just released it, in order to avoid any unrequired expenses. Called again when I had the original in my hands, for a get ready. Here please take notice that we had to go to public phoneboxes, there was no mobile technology at an affordable price at that time (only satellite phones with really huge costs).
>>>3. Ran to the closest modem available, either at my place or at a friend’s place (according to the period/year). Then immediately called again, for the go, launching step 4 at the same time and making comments on the fly (about the way it loads, the sound it made while loading, if there was password protection, how many disks, etc.).
>>>4. So, checked first if the original was running well (even if it was possible to test it in the shop, you never know if something may happen during transport, or due to the computer/chipset), and tried to copy it (each disk) with XCopy in order to have a preview of good/bad tracks. If it seems something it’s most likely what you see. Rarely used better tools, hex editors, etc. to have a closer look. This was valuable information to help choose the appropriate warp tool and give information in advance to the cracker/organizer.
>>>5. Warped the game with the appropriate tool and sent it directly to the cracker. I didn’t like when groups required to send the game to a BBS. It could be unsafe (BBS gets down or a user connects, BBS is attacked by competition or worse, the original is stolen), and a likely loss of time (me uploading, then cracker dowloading, then repeat the process in case of bad warping, in hoping that the BBS is still working).
>>>6. While the upload was proceeding, unwarped the game to a new disk to check if it was working. Non-working was not always as bad as it seemed. Data was sometimes wrongly unwarped but was here for the cracker to sort it out. I had the cracker on the phone and through questions he had and my answers, and then what he saw by himself after receiving the file, it was possible to determine if a second warp using a different tool or parameters was necessary. In some cases, with particular protections it was mandatory to call another cracker. Also according to software companies we were sometimes able to anticipate if it was going to be easy or difficult.
>>>7. While the cracker was making progress it was highly preferable to remain available, just in case a problem would arise later.
<i>How did you get it to the cracker? How long did it take to get it to the cracker?</i>
Already responded. In somes cases we had a local cracker so skipping the modem part, I immediately flied to the cracker’s place.
<i>Was it frustrating when another group released the game before your group?</i>
Yes of course. And the level of frustration was proportionate to a/ the time and energy devoted to the entire procedure and b/ the importance of the release (minor or major game).
<i>Did you meet other suppliers and if so was there a hostile rivalry between you all?</i>
Hehe funny question. I can only speak for myself. If you mean meeting other suppliers at the shop, then it depended on several case situations (all happened in real life):
>>>1. I was first and the other original supplier showed up. Well, good luck dude. Sometimes we exchanged greetings on a courteous basis, sometimes a little more provocating words. We never fought nor acted loudly, or at least I was never involved personally in such acts. There was work to get done.
>>>2. I came and saw another original supplier already there. I immediately tried to hide while keeping an eye on him. Good thing if he thought he was the only one or the very first in advance with the original, then he and his group wouldn’t feel the need to hurry – so it could give us a competitive advantage. And on my side a 5-minutes wait wouldn’t change much the course of the things.
>>>3. >90% of the time I didn’t see any other original suppliers at the shop. According to the shop I could ask the salesperson if I was first or if someone else came before me. Also knowing that I would have hidden if I came and see a competitor there, I was prepared to the fact that others could do the same. Thus, I always did fast and left quickly, not losing any time.
In addition:
a/ I knew where most of the other original suppliers were living, how long it took for them to get there, and sometimes even the same for their modem friends.
b/ If “competing” with a fellow supplier from the same group as me, we co-ordinated and decided who was best placed/located to go and get the original. So if internal, it wasn’t competition.
c/ Outside of real-time supplying situations I was generally friend or at least ok with most other original suppliers, and even if not, rivalry was not something worth fuelling. Once again I was not competing for fame, but to be the best according to my own judgment. Beyond me, I know that certain suppliers were hating each others to the point that they might have come to blows if both were present in the same room – but it was not my problem.
<i>Did you have any problems with difficult protections or bad originals?</i>
Not something which couldn’t be solved, from my point of view. I can’t remember having had any bad originals. For difficult protections we had good warp tools. It also happened that Blackhawk at Paradox developed a warp tool especially for the original in question and it worked. Then the problem of difficult protection was not mine anymore, but that of the cracker.
I did have another kind of problem, but with some inside games. I remember a huge blockbuster I had 6 months in advance of its release in shops. The game had no protection. I told the organizer to be very careful and to ask the cracker to inspect and remove anything which could look like a serial code, then to wait for two weeks before release. He said “yes” to me and promised but he didn’t commit and the game was released one or two days later, not even after a quick look and clean-up. My inside provider was caught and I was very, very upset. The group organizer acted very stupidly, he killed months of preparation of my contact on my side for him to trust me, and we didn’t get any insides for a long time after this.
<i>What did you do with the originals once you had sent it off to the cracker?</i>
1. Kept the originals for myself, as souvenirs.
2. In some cases I had to bring them back to the shops where I borrowed them (if I was in good terms with the salesperson).
3. More rarely, I screwed the disk, went back to the shop and managed to obtain (through negotiation) the next original I had to supply, for free.
In any case I didn’t like when the group asked me to send them the original for me to have reimbursement. I did this only once before I said “enough” and required to be paid in advance for multiple supplies, while being allowed to keep the originals – whether I paid them or not.
<i>What is the game you are most proud of supplying?</i>
Both games which made possible for Interpol and Paradox II to be born. Do a little research… should be easy for you to find.
<i>Who was the best cracker you worked with?</i>
1. The best on every kinds of protections including the hardest possible: T.I.C. (Australian)
2. The best overall for a crack group, very smart, always available, very friendly: Blackhawk. Ex-aequo with Phil Douglas, for the same reasons.
3. The best trainer maker and one of my best friends: Blackbird
4. The fastest possible (saw him crack three games in a day!) but sometimes not 100%: The Surge
5. The most underrated and a very talented one, also one of my best friends: Babydock
I also worked with many other crackers, and I knew dozens more, who surely had a lot of qualities, but I just had less experience with them, so my list is obviously quite subjective.