Hi Annatar! I may be able to answer some of your questions.
_OK, how did these cracking groups pay for the hardware?_
They paid their Amiga themselves, for the most part I think. Vast question, a lot of people, a lot of possible hardware, a lot of situations…
_Where was Quartex headquartered, and how is it that after 1993. it just up and disappeared?_
1988 born in Germany (fusion of The Champs-Bitstoppers) with Robin (ex-Dynamic Duo) as cracker, and in the U.S.A. (Waremonger, Bigfoot…). A few members from various countries joined over time.
1991 became in majority a French group with members all over Europe, the U.S. and Australia, when Paradox renamed into Quartex. End of 1991 I was busted with a lot of other French members.
1993 for me Quartex was in minimal service. 1991 was the last year they were very productive. Years later they were reactivated with some ex-Prodigy members. During all this time Waremonger/Steve (sysop of Link to Perfection) applied his motto about lifetime membership. He and Bigfoot remained loyal from A to Z.
_What started happening to PaRaDoX after 1993.?_
I left Paradox in 1993 but remained friend with Max. He got busted for Nintendo copiers in France at the end of the year, then fled to Majorca/Spain. As far as I know they did less Amiga, more consoles. More business, more money. Me not taking part in anything related to this.
_Why does Mouscron 1 and Amay show up consistently in a lot of cracks, what was magical about those two locations, and please let us get to know the people behind them – as people. Who were they? Where are they now?_
Thanks to Subzero you already have the answer about Amay. For Mouscron 1, there are several PO Boxes… Duncan (The Band, Paranoimia, etc.) was behind at least one of these.
_Did you know anyone from Skid Row?_
Me, among others 😉 But although I appear in 1992 memberlists I was in the outskirts of the group, as supplier. Though, I knew a few other members…
_They also resurfaced a year or two ago on the PC, in what seemed like a powerful demonstration that a true cracker will always crack on any platform. Then it seems like to me, that they suddenly disappeared again. Why, and what happened?_
Cannot respond to this. Since I have a PC (1995) I never had any pirated software, neither on PC, nor on consoles.
_I am also fascinated by the fact that most, if not all of the titles by SSI were cracked by Skid Row. What is the connection? How did it work?_
Some groups also had suppliers in the U.S. and SR was one of these. I guess also that you can find SSI games cracked by other groups. Looks like a coincidence. I don’t see any conspiracy theory.
_Which tools did the likes of PaRaDoX, Skid Row, Crystal an PRESTiGE use?_
Tools available for everybody. Plus special monitors, helpers, warpers, etc. developed by the crackers themselves, depending on the crackers – some had more and/or better tools than others. Plus phreaking Tools, AmieXpress Tools, etc. some publicly available others not.
_What kind of hardware did they have?_
Their Amigas, harddisks, blablabla 🙂 – oh yeah, USR HST modems of course (or some older stuff in the 80’s).
_Prestige:_
Cannot say anything. Didn’t have anymore Amiga and it was years after i had left the crack scene. There are late 90’s BBS dumps somewhere on the Web or on some FTP, where you may find a few answers.
_What happened to Hellion and Corsair?_
Hellion: last time we heard about him he was in Diamonds & Rust with Bob Duncan. In 1992 I think.
Corsair: stopped everything in 1991, like his brother Mr Video. A nice burnt smell was floating in France, enough to fear some of the toughest. Only Agile remained a little active here at year’s end, then they joined Quartex to not be so active.
Plus, I guess, studies are more important to build a life than doing crazy things with pirated software.Â
_Who WERE the people behind Betrayal?_
Mainly SCSI. Also look for FICA if you want more information. And a bunch of dudes like Xag, Caddie of Defjam, also English and Italian people.
I think one of the reasons why people ask about Betrayal is that SCSI lived in various countries (first Italy, then Germany, NY/USA, Germany again, Switzerland…), so it made complicated for people to locate him and put a country name as home for this group.
_What about Anthrox? Were they U.K. based?_
Anthrox had U.S. roots (see the group Power from which they were born) and a lot of U.K. members. Power itself was more or less a spin-off of Punishers which was mainly an Australian group also with a lot of U.K. members. You find all three continents well represented in Anthrox, which also opened to more countries in Europe.
_So many questions, so very few answers…_
I don’t have all the answers but I hope this helps you now have less questions.
_I would really, really love to know how many of these people went into a legitimate career in computers? Where are they now? What are they doing today?_
Most of them do have legitimate careers, some in Computers, others not (cf. Strider/ex-leader of FLT in US politics for instance). But I’m not sure they would like you and other people to know. In addition they also have wives, children, and Amiga is far back behind them. Let’s wish them happiness.