Ymgve at 19:28, 18 June 2007

2007-06-18T19:28:56Z

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T I
The Interview

________________________________________
Who will face the wall this time?
Who is interesting enough for you guys?

Well, tough question, but as I began
to gamble with idea, I realized it'd
come better our digging up oldies,
having them reflect on today's scene.

So I dug, made a few phone calls to
some of my old friends, far back.
I talked to them, and this one was
the first to slip away from my fingers.

________________________________________

P - STATE YOUR NAME AND WHAT YOU HAVE
BEEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THROUGH YOUR
YEARS OF EFFICIENCY.

S - First of all, in a way I'm very
grateful for being interviewed. In
a way it gives me a chance to let
out air that I've had with me for
a long time. I go by the name, or
should I say went by the name
MR.PINGE and I have been in a few
Swedish groups since my start early
1986.

My years of effiency, haha, were
during 1986-1989 I guess, and I
started as a solo-guy, under my
handle, doing small demos that

were spread locally. Fortunately,
I had good contact with a few im-
portant people here in Sweden at
that time, and my work was spread
nationwide. One day, early 1986
I was located in one of the local
computershops, when I saw this
suspicious guy trapped over a 128,
trying to hide what he was doing.
What he actually was doing, was
cracking games, right in the store,
only to take them home and pollish
his work. This was NOBODY, one
of the talented crackers at that
time. We started talking, and before
I knew it, we were starting up a
group, a cracking one of course,
that was going to be named into

WCC - WEST COAST CRACKERS. A very
wellknown Swedish group called
WASP - WE AGAINST SOFTWARE PRO-
TECTION teamed up with us, and all
of a sudden names like LANCELOT
and SIR GALAHAD were in the group.
One of the most active guys in the
group, concerning cracking was of
course NO.1, who later on became
STRIDER of FAIRLIGHT. We were
cracking a lot, and TRIAD, the
biggest group of all hated us,
as we really threatened them. We
had a lot of originals, as many
of our members were working in
computershops throughout Sweden,
and we were getting along terribly
well with people outside Sweden.

Oh boy, I had a great time in WCC,
but things came to an end in March
1987 and we shocked the whole
country by splitting up into two
groups. NO.1 formed FAIRLIGHT (and
he in fact made his first cracks
for the group under his old handle
before changing to STRIDER). Me,
I did not join FAIRLIGHT, but I
formed RELAX together with JANITOR
(who had joined WCC in its latest
days). All of a sudden we were
competitors with some of our old
groupmates, and they were beating
us. We were struggling with only
one original a month, while FLT
seemed to be getting hands on al-
most everything being put out.

Then JANITOR made the cracks that
put us ahead of many, being ROAD
RUNNER and THE LAST NINJA, that
were considered very good by many.
At this time I had gotten myself
a modem and I was getting along a
lot with the Yanks, that wanted
all wares possible. Haha. I re-
member JANITOR really hated them
Yanks, while I found it pretty
funny exchanging wares and so with
them.

Anyway, we were having a hard time
surrviving somehow, while FAIRLIGHT
did not. When TRIAD gave us an
offer to join, everything seemed
to work out. It was pretty strange

since TRIAD had been our competitors
and enemies during the WCC-days, but
it seemed like those days were gone.
It might have been an easier way
to join one of the biggest groups
in the world, but looking back now,
I know things couldn't have been
done better, so by September 1987
we joined up with TRIAD. Being in
TRIAD was fabulous. Not only were
they the biggest group in the world
but it opened whole new dimensions.
I had been coding a lot for both
WCC and RELAX, and had put out a
few demos, but now I could con-
centrate on the modemworld, that
was quickly growing. I met a lot
of nice people through the modeming,

some that I still keep in touch with
some that I don't. TRIAD was a dream
but when JANITOR decided to leave
and did so with a demo put on THE
SARGE'S game "Tiger Hell", it some-
how lost a lot of the magic for me.
Not very long after that, I said
farewell to the scene, taking a
lot of good memories with me, and
apperently putting a name in the
history of cracking as I got to do
an interview like this 5-6 years
later.

P - COMPARING THE SCENE YOU EXPERIENCED
TO THE ONE OF TODAY, WHAT IS YOUR
COMMENT?

________________________________________

S - Oh God, it is pretty hard to com-
pare the two entirely different
scenes that have appeared. I loved
the scene back then. We had a lot
of fun, even though things were
very primitive. I mean, apart from
ILLEGAL there were no other mag-
azines, and it was always the event
of the month when it showed up.

Today's scene seems to have dev-
eloped into a more businesslike
thing, but it sounds pretty ex-
citing with a lot more competition.
This fixing-thing and boardstuff
was slowly taking shape when I
quit, but as it looks now, it is
plain fact that a firstreleased

game should be working both PAL
and NTSC. Also I find it good with
a lot of magazine being released.
I mean, not only does it cover a
lot more of what goes on, but with
many magazines, competition will
appear and with that, better mag-
azines. As I understand it, they
are very proffesional and give
very accurate looks at the scene.

When we were around, we cracked
for the mere fun. Sure, we had our
quarrels with SCC (SWEDISH CRACKING
CREW) and TRIAD, but it was never
at a very serious level. Ehrm.
It was a naive friendship with
a lot of devoted 64-people, and

fortunately things worked out very
well for us.

P - ANY PARTICULAR EVENTS YOU CAME
TO MEMORIZE?

S - Man, I have tons of memories. Like
the one I told you about the guy
in the shop. I remember the meetings
we had, especially a WCC-SCC-TRIAD
meeting Christmas 1986. Everybody
was pissing each other off, as the
none of the groups liked each other,
but still we had a jolly good time.
(that is the first time I met you
by the way, Per, and that was an
event speaking for itself wasn't
it? Haha!). After that meeting I

sat down for 3 days coding a "FUCK
SCC-demo" that featured screens from
the cool game "Blood n' guts",
where I could chop the heads vis-
ually of the members. God, did I
laugh doing that! Even though
I really liked both WCC and TRIAD,
I liked RELAX the most. I mean,
RELAX was my group, built up by
me and JANITOR and we were doing
such a good job. Oh yes, one great
memory was when IAN & MIC joined
TRIAD, since they were always my
favourite demoprogrammers.

P - WHAT DO YOU THINK OF TODAY'S
TRIAD AND FAIRLIGHT, CONSIDERING
THE ORIGINS OF THE GROUPS?

S - I think it is shit that two old
names can still be around without
the original members. From what I
heard STRIDER should still be
taking care of FAIRLIGHT on the
PC or something, and I guess that
is OK, but all these people on the
Commodore 64 don't have a clue. I
mean perhaps both TRIAD and FLT
are doing quite a job, but it is
still not what it once was.

Funny thing that you tell me, that
FAIRLIGHT turned out to become
quite some demogroup. I mean back
in the early years I remember
them only putting out a demo
or two from VODOO.

P - ANY COMMENTS ON THE AMIGA SCENE
AS IT TURNED OUT?

S - Yeah, I was very interested on the
Amiga, back in the days when they
still were producing the Amiga 1OOO.
I remember RELAX having an Amiga
section back in 1987, and I was
pretty impressed with the games I
saw. My smaller brother, SNOOKIE,
who formed THE SILENTS on the 64
and then brought the group to the
Amiga was active quite a while on
the machine, and I grew very fond
of the demos that were coming out,
and I guess they are still im-
proving. My brother quit when
things got out of hand on the

Amiga, and rightly so, as money and
all come to corrupt the whole shit.

I've been told the PC-scene has
become quite some place, bearing
resemblence to yesterday's 64-
scene, but I doubt I could find
anything in it for me now.

P - WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDERING DOING
A COMEBACK ON THE COMMODORE 64?

S - Hell no! As far as I'm concerned
I've done my share on that machine,
and I probably wouldn't find an
empty space for me to fill. I could
probably not crack, and I think it'd
take some time adapting to the new

scene, with all the different rules
that are created as time goes by.
I'd probably just be another old
veteran coming back for people to
look up to, and that is not really
edible in my eyes. I was considering
doing a comeback back in 1989, as
many were pushing me to do so.
(thanks Per!) When NOSAH published
it in IGUANA that I was thinking
of putting RELAX back together, I
somehow lost track of the project
and never let it see light of
day.

P - WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE YOU CON-
SIDERED GOOD BACK THEN? ANYONE
PARTICULAR?

S - Well, I remember a lot of good
friends that meant a lot to me.
SNOKIE+DEZED+NEWSCOPY/THE SILENTS,
ARTWORX, HONEY/1001, NSC (NON
STOP CRACKER), THE LIGHT CIRCLE!,
IAN&MIC, ALL IN THE SUPPLY TEAM,
PLUTONIUM CRACKERS, SODAN/TFC
(Heard he is programming games
for the Megadrive in the USA),
MATCHAM/NETWORK(Great Crunchers!),
EXPLORERS, COMMANDO FRONTIER
(Somebody say hi to Madall!),
THE PAPILLIONS, JUST ICE+NIK/IKARI,
RED SECTOR, MR.Z, all in WCC
and of course the rest of old TRIAD.
Speaking of RED SECTOR, I heard
IRATA had returned to the 64.
Great! Always nice hearing that

old people are coming back. What
if I should restart WCC. HAHA.

P - ANY LAST WORDS TO THE PEOPLE?

S - Not really. Keep up the work and
the spirit of the best computer
ever made. I'm proud to have been
part of it, now take history
further. Never get seduced by
the Amiga or the PC. The Commodore
64 started it all.

________________________________________
Footnote: MR.PINGE started his career
on his own, formed WCC along
with WASP and other freaks,
then moved on to RELAX and

most recently TRIAD as they
were the biggest group of
all. In Sweden, he, among
many of are looked up on as
legends that have encouraged
the Swedish scene as it is
to day, and it is true, that
few groups, like WCC have
meant so much for the
Swedish Hacker Culture.

He's made several demos,
among those "WCC-demo I-IV"
and "FUCK SCC". If you want
to obtain these, or simply
drop him a letter saying hi,
you can do so through me.
Address in Editorial.
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Propaganda 13 ch04 - Revision history

Ymgve at 19:28, 18 June 2007