Hello! I've searched Youtube but can't really find what i'm interested in. As a kid or rather teenager, I often played pirated games (rips) that were released by the warez groups like Class, Paradigm, Razor 1911 etc. I remember reading their NFO files and wondering what that's all about. On Youtube I can find some documentaries on the Demo scene, hacking, Defcon etc., but not really on the game rips (releases), warez and the groups. I'm more interested to see, hear or at least read about the feelings that those people felt, not so much the technical aspect, so more about why they did it, for pride, competition etc., I find it really cool. I'd love to see an interview with someone from "the scene", maybe from the 90s or whenever, that's be really cool. So, if anyone knows where I could watch or at least hear or read on the subject, please link me. Thanx!
Many teams got hit by raids (Operation Buccaneer, Operation Fastlink, Operation D-Elite, Operation Site Down) A lot of identities came public after that. Some of the people (post prison time) gave interviews - I remember one by DrinkOrDie who explained what happened on the day of the raid when feds turned up at his work place. He was in the middle of FXP'ing some stuff at the time. Most of the bigger groups got hit at one time or another. A search in google may find some reads you might find interesting.
I can post something about pre-warez time... I can post about the commodore C64 and Amiga 500 'cracking crews' since I was a member of one. I still have the stickers somewhere we had spread all over the school yard and elsewhere. I dunno about .info (nfo) and there was no internet yet. I suppose it was something that had the same representative function as our self made stickers. (emblem) We always had an own self made intro which every cracked game had got in front of. Since there was no internet we shared physical copies. When we had managed to break a real tricky copy protection we released the game with our stickers on the disk. Important was to mark the territory...but we also had friends with cooperation... Nobody ever wanted an interview...we were not 'officially' popular since we avoided the public. And we also got trouble with the police. I had to carry all the school books and stuff of my friend because he carried all the pirated copies (we were worried the police might find them when we were on the way)...lol If you want to know more I can post....we were only locally known in the scene (no internet), but some of the 'masterpieces' spread through the entire country.
I did manage to find this. https://torrentfreak.com/interview-with-a-warez-scene-releaser/ Hopefully, this will help you to find other stories.
Yes. The most active period was 1986-90. Later then I only collected the stuff. I guess the story of warez started with releasing games which could be copied. The first really popular 'PC' here was the C64. The first simple games were released on paper. Yes one had to type the code into a hex-like interpreter. One of the first storage method was datasette. One could store data on compact-cassette (actually it's a tape).. Later then the 5.25 inch floppy disk came out. With that we had an item which could be copied and shared and the games were complex enough already. There was already the possibility to connect to a remote server (via acoustic coupler), but there was no internet yet. So there were local 'cracking crews' which released games. Those floppies were shared on school yards and some particular 'dealers' were known as to have the first releases.... The 'cracking crews' mostly stayed at the background..the 'users' did not know who they were (personally). But everybody playing games knew all their names. One of the most popular was the "dynamic duo". When launching a cracking crew one had to start from the bottom. Through knowing the right people one then got more and more established and respected. Also you could have the internal tools which are never shared with the public. We only did copy games. No movies, no music. The important part was to be first when a new blockbuster game has been released. One went to the store and purchased the original. Then we either repacked it to a single file by making a memory dump or we copied the entire disk as it was. The most important thing was to have an intro before the game starts. The code of the intro then sometimes had a 'trainer' inside, code which allowed you to train (exercise) the game by having unlimited life or other 'features'... The respect of a crew came by the intro and how fast they had been...and which games they had 'released'. The cooler the intro the cooler the crew. The German scene was very active. Here is a collection of C64 intros: And here is a German interview with the dynamic duo This was an exiting period of life. Pirated material when found was severely punished. The reason why we did that..well I guess you have to be like that. A rebel and somebody who wants to circumvent something others have determined. Also the fun with tech and creativity how to break a copy protection. The emblem and intro had a function like being in a gang. To show that this is our territory and we did that. And of course to show off...with assembly. Within the crew each one had a different job. Usually we asked some un-involved to buy the game to have the original. We paid for the game and for all the floppies, our 'salary' was free games in return and to be 'somebody' in the 'scene'. Somebody was specialised making a single file or a proper dump or a copy without bad sectors and another one was specialised with arts and graphics (sprites and marquees). We dumped the memory once (a game that did not load anymore during game play) or 'created' a copiable copy somehow. Then we made the intro. A basic intro has been changed for the particular game. We also mostly stole the 'soundtracks' from the games.... From time to time we made complete new intros. We also introduced measures which can prevent stealing our code. All of us had learned assembly therefore. My primary 'job' had been to circumvent the copy protection and to dump memory, though. Later then I have lost interest and I turned towards Chemistry.... I think one has to have the personality and some attributes like to be an idealist and bit of rebel, or like to have an own idea of a particular law, lol. A freethinker.... To become criminalised played a role yes....but nothing more than money fine. (And immense trouble with my parents) Nowadays being much older I like it quiet...but I have not lost some of the attributes
That was a really cool read! Thank you very much! My "time" was in the 2nd half of the 90s. Still into it a bit. I remember buying a CD-R(W) burner in '98, I was 16yo at the time. I copied, ripped, repacked etc. a couple of games myself and have sold some burned CD-Rs at high school. It was great fun!
i remember uploading and downloading games for credits of a mainframe using my C64 and talk to my buddies that also has C64 and amigas 128 using that crappy 300 baud modem so that was internet then well more like a intranet but that is what it was in does days and copy thousands of does games on does soft 5.25 floppy's...wow i just realize how f**king old i im
You should check out http://www.pouet.net/index.php They have all the retro stuff for all platforms including C64 demos/loaders/etc...
I started with the vic 20 then went to the c64 then the 128 then the amiga those were the fun days 64 k games , getting the 1 meg hard drive , watching pictures download one line at a time LOL . we used to go to meetings and swap wares talk about coding fun times , I think i had about 4-5 copyright infringement warning's since then had to swap isp's but as we get older we kinda back off the risky stuff I still like to play some of the older games , some wont load on the newer systems any more but then again I don't ride motor cycles any more im almost 80 LOL
Wow what a cool trip down memory lane... I started with Vic20, C64 , Atari400/800 with fake cartridges and datasettes ... then on to apple IIe ( Karateka..LOL. ) pics downloading one at a time .. ah the good old days It wasn't a secret .. my year book even had friends writing that I was going to become rich copying computer games... I was young , cocky and stupid .. SB7
The scene was started do the early demoscene days when the first "cracktros" and "credit scenes" came out. The warez scene started to compete against each other with better demos. To the same time some of them started to bypass certain things and the scene was born.
don't copy that floppy, that's only stupid thing i remember about piracy oh and the you wouldn't steal a ... videos on dvd's. i used to use dc++, edonkey, emule, napster and other now crappy download managers by todays standards. those were the days....
I remember playing donkey kong in a comercial Arcade for free with these : https://www.amazon.co.uk/MasterClass-Electronic-Gas-Cooker-Lighter/dp/B002AT1F6C back in the early 80s.