Foxy! (aka Dominator) of The Company, Dragons, FLT, SR and so on

[Subzero]

foxy is getting lazy’n’ old these days… i wish i could remember as much as he can! … hehe

[Annatar]

today’s warez scene is total crap compared to C64/amiga scene, as you mentioned the groups had at least some time to code a nice intro, and test their cracks properly.

Consider the situation, though:
back in the day, both the crackers and the consumers of their content were enthusiasts; even "lamers" were enthusiasts with some motive or another. Telecommunications sucked ass, but even if you picked any given BBS, you’d still find a community of enthusiasts.

Cracking software and anything related was relegated to the realm of obscure, and but for an occassional bust, nobody cared about that world because almost nobody but those from the community knew about it.

Also we as kids growing up back then did not have the same amount of brain washing that generation Y enjoys. We read a lot and loved to tinker and gain a deep understanding of how things worked. Today, in large part thanks to general population of generation X, a lot of really smart generation Y kids are completely dumbed down, complete with short attention spans.

Now contrast this with today: we have a modern telecommunications network, but the general population also consumes this resource. And with that, the network and those who built it and made it what it is today came to the attention of that general population, most notably lawyers, who then go on to become judges and various politicians – law enforcement.

What happens when someone without specialized technical knowledge begins to draw conclusions on removing protections on software and sharing information – sharing knowledge? You guessed it – if they aren’t brainwashed by the Windows-PC-bucket world already, they will form opinions based on misunderstanding or worse, ignorance. When laws are applied to the situation — laws being nothing but rules of a game to lawyers and courts, these two worlds, of technology, tinkering and gaining understanding, sharing knowledge, and the world of rules, "must not", "shall not", "are not allowed to" – are bound to collide viciously, under various dubious moral, ethical, and sociological pretenses from people who don’t understand technology and have no interest in knowledge even if their life depended on it.

So the telecommunications are great, but the world at large sucks because any idiot now has access to it, and they abuse it through their ignorance.

My point being simply this: do not wonder that the shitty scene today cannot compare to the halcyon days of yore; that was the dawn of modern computing, now there is a lot more attention on that environment and it has become much more riskier, so it is no wonder it sucks so bad.

I dream of a day when the general population will have enough knowledge to make the next logical step and gain insight, when the general population will not be so primitive any more so as to empower systems that censor and prohibit and which are solely focused on profits.

I dream of enlightened humanity as described in "Star Trek next generation".

[Annatar]

Look at the Skid Row guys for instance. They plain sucked (really). But still they’ve set a low standard (like china does in our days) so to stay into competition, other groups lowered down quality of their releases.

Dude, I loved reading your recollection, but now you’re starting to seriously piss me off.
I have NEVER seen a Skid Row crack that did not work, or that was not a high quality release. Ever. And believe you me, I have played pretty much all of their releases. Skid Row was #1 until they vanished. Nobody could beat them when they were active.

It is said that Skid Rowdies must not have slept and were working in shifts, because Skid Row was churning out so many releases so fast. And I’ve played any and all releases I had from them to completion, and am happy to report that they all worked!

DISCLAIMER: I was not, nor am I now, nor have I ever been affiliated with Skid Row in any way.

[Rob]

Annatar;

Skid Row messed up Shock Wave and for sure others too. Hardly any group did ALL 100%

Edit:

They also messed up The Spy Who Loved Me, which I really don’t understand, not very complicated.
Shock Wave is more understandable.

[Annatar]

Annatar;
Skid Row messed up Shock Wave and for sure others too. Hardly any group did ALL 100%

Edit:

They also messed up The Spy Who Loved Me, which I really don’t understand, not very complicated.
Shock Wave is more understandable.

I’ve never seen those games, because they would not be the types of games I cared for. All the SSI games I ever played from them, Street Rod etc. were working perfectly.
Especially impressive to me was the crack on Eye of the Beholder, considering that was one of the first games that had a protection nested deeply in the code which wouldn’t show up until one was three levels down in the sewers… and they made it work. Subzero-Selim-Rudi were always working overtime, they were the ones that earned Skid Row the reputation that they never sleep because they were churning out cracks faster than anyone else. Nobody could compete with them. And that in and of itself is impressive, not to mention quality releases.

[WayneK]

Lots of groups competed with Skid Row, mainly Crystal & Fairlight, during their ‘glory years’. But there were quite a few dud-releases, usually games that were rushed out because another group was known to have the original… they would release their version on the boards either knowing it didn’t work or simply upload disk 2 of 2 everywhere to buy them time to finish a working disk 1, and release a fix later if required – a scan of any old BBS file-listing from a major scene board of the era will show you this.
Having said that, there was a good 1-2 year spell when 75% of the major games were released first by Skid Row in a working state 🙂 A group that had the best suppliers in Europe (SSR) and a collection of very good/fast/sometimes-both crackers (Eurosoft, Blackhawk, FFC, Special Agent, others that I forget) was always going to be a force to reckon with!

[Annatar]

Twice the fun – double the trouble
THE LEADING FORCE

I love Skid Row. They inspired me to learn coding on the Amiga. I don’t think any group on the Amiga besides Skid Row and PaRaDoX had that much influence on my desire to better myself through learning.

And in the end, I think inspiring others is an even greater achievement than being the #1 cracking group. Motivating others I think is one of the greatest achievements anyone can accomplish, because that is so hard to do, and they did it inherently, naturally. I am still amazed at that, 21 years later.

[Subzero]

feels good somehow, reading all them posts overhere… lol.

@Annatar

also we in SR back then had games fukked up, mainly due to the hassle, because other groups were working on the same title. it was all about “who is fastest and first”…
that was one of a main reason we did have (ssr) created groups such as
Ministry, Crack inc, and Dynamix later, due to quality reasons. we liked more the idea, to have less releases, but more working ones! 😉 … ahwell, the good old times… wish there would be still copy-parties, lol… reaaaal fun back then!. god bless the good ol’ time

[Annatar]

Hello Subzero,

How about writing a series of recollection essays on the topic of Skid Row?

I would love to also read about PaRaDoX, Quartex, Anthrox, PRESTiGE, Crystal and especially Betrayal, so if there is anyone that used to be in those groups back in the day, it would be awesome if you could take us (or me at least!) on a "behind the scenes" whirlwind tour of the past.

[Loki]

Yo Sub0 would kinna like that too … I ll get the beer! 🙂

[Subzero]

well guys, you definatly are crazy, no doubt, hehe, well i wish i had the time to do, but i dont have, besides time, my english is not good enuff, for writing stories and shitness. too bad foxy doesnt comes and writes his bollox, loved it back in the days, and do it nowadays, even when there are alot fo hate in his post’s agains certain people, but thats how it was and always will be, hate and business. there is no fun like copy parties, post-swapping, stamps faking or such anymore, i also loved to meet people at parties, peoples like BS1 (greetings eric, incase you are still living!). trsi freaks, we had always fun with, Phil D. also another kool dude back then… besides them many uncountable other freaks we have had meet back in the glory days, anyhow, gotta go, ill be back , as soon as i have the time… 😉 greeeeeetings y’all.

Subzero / SSR / still kickin’ butts nowadays!!

[Annatar]

You can write as best you can in English, and I will work with you to do the editing and proofing,

or

you can write in German, and I will translate into English.

Let scene history live, let us treasure the traditions and memories.

HISTORIA EST MAGISTRA VITAE
"history is the teacher of life"

[WayneK]

So I have a question that I’m sure some of the guys here can answer:-

Who was HOAN?!

I was reading a scroller by PDX today where it says a lot of crap about ANGELS (around 1990-91 time I guess), but one of the main things it says is that it had been confirmed to them that ANGELS were buying a lot of their cracks from someone called "HOAN" (and that most of them didn’t work, hehe)…

I don’t recall anyone with this name from my time in the scene, so can any of you shed some light on who this person was?!

[Loki]

@Sub0 … that s a pretty lame excuse actually 😛 … Dafuer gibts mind. 3 Wochen Buechereiverbot und schonmal gar keine Flaschen Bier! Double the trouble, twice the fun? Well, stories untold tend to be forgotten my friend 😉

[Foxy]

Gotta end the next chapter. It is almost done somewhere on my HD.
However, Im afraid that it may hurt some SkidRow’s and Pdx fans.

@WayneK :
Hoan was a french cracker. As far as I can remember, he’s been part of "Black Monks" (french division) and "ACES" (short living group). At the time I was part of Angels (oh god, pardon me), they were not working with him. They worked with Mr C in Belgium (formerly cracker @ The Band. Always refused to sign his cracks hence the various rumors). He’s never failed a crack so actually, yes, someone probably messed up and Hoan was known to be … well "missing" some protections.

@ Subzero :
C’mon. There is no hate in my posts.

[Author]

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