Mamba 23 ch04 The Interviews
From C64 Diskmag Wiki
two europeans, that we bothered with
stupid questions, two europeans that
gave us nice (and looooooong, alex)
answers in return.
cosmo of dominators
and..
antitrack of legend will show up...
> = mamba<
>:tell us something about yourself !
p:my name is peter and i'm 20 years
old. i live in karlslunde/denmark
and i work in copenhagen with
accountancy. i'm also taking a
business degree simultaneously with
my daily work. height: 193 cm
(ed. 6"5) and i weigh 70 kg (154 p.)
i have blond hair and blue eyes.
>:what about your computer career ?
p:i got my c64 in 1984 and lamed
around till 1986 when i formed my
first group, the infiltrators with
some local friends. during that year
we got wellknown and got contacts
all over the world. in 1987 i formed
dominators.
>:you are the only original dominators
member left in left in your group ?
when was dom founded, and by whom ?
describe the changes your group went
through in that time !
p: yes, i'm the only original dom-
member left as the 3 guys i formed
the group with left the 64 scene in
mid 1989. viking, matrix and i
formed dominators on the first of
february 1987. dom was a fusion of
the infiltrators and d.i.t. both
groups were trade groups at that
moment and our goal was to begin
cracking and to become one of the
best cracking groups. dom cracked
their first game on the 13-06-1987
and during that our group got
established and recognized as a
first class cracking group. up till
1989 dom delivered quite a lot
cracks to the scene in a steady
stream. during the beginning of 1989
the group went through some big
changes. zoolook left and tricket/
macro-nit and dogfriend/animal re-
inforced the group. dogfriend
cracked tons of wares and dom
released more wares than we ever did
before. that was also the time when
dom entered the modem scene for real
around august 1990 dogfriend's
activities slowed down, but our
english members kept dom wares
running and have done so since then.
the years 1989 and 1990 have
definately been doms most productive
years.
>:what do you think about the present
scene compared to the time when you
just started ?
p:before: back then there were more
groups and more stuff. now the few
elite groups left (max 10 in all)
are fighting hard firstreleasing the
few wares that come out.
back then there was more friendship
between the groups than war. now it
is opposite. a first release is more
important than it was before.
back then groups/individuals entered
the scene. now they leave. back then
many leading groups were only mail-
trading. now you can't be a leading
group if you do not modem trade, and
i could continue, but one thing is
sure: the scene has changed and not
for the better.
>:did you ever get in trouble with the
cops ?
p:no, only with the post for stamp-
cheating.
>:what are your hobbies ?
p:hobbies (how i spend my sparetime):
girlfriend, parties, cinema, skiing,
exercise (weights, running) video,
music
>:what are your favourites ?
p: food - beef
movie - back to the future serie
book - pet semetary
c64/amiga game - zak mc kracken
music - all kinds
>:give us 3 adjectives that describe
yourself the most appropriate way!
p: 1. engaging 2. conservative
3. a good sense of humour
>:who are your best friends/contacts
in the scene ?
p:i seldom talk to people in the scene
besides dom-members, but my best
mailcontact is joe cool with whom i
have swapped for more than 4 years.
>:if you could change 1 thing in this
sick world, what would it be ?
p:i would change all the environmental
damage the civilisation has done to
mother earth!
>:what do you expect from life ?
p:experiences-joy-fun-freedom-love and
knowledge
>: brainstorming...
future...find an appartment and
move in with my girlfriend.
war...the war in the gulf.
girls...getting laid.
denmark...rain.
books...it takes too long to finish
one.
environment...birds in the blue sky
and fish in the blue sea.
c64 scene...cards.
americans...funny'n'weird.
death...it sucks.
faith...religion sucks.
>:what is the scene also about ?
p: reaching ones goal...
solving problems...
making friends/contacts...
having fun...
challenges...
>:a last word to your fans...?!
p:don't worry - be happy !
some say antitrack is the best cracker
ever, although living in austria he
doesn't get that much of a chance to
crack, but when he does you are sure
they will work, the only one to
successfully remove all the timers
from speedball, and cracked shadow of
the beast from cartridge getting it
down to one side. he is someone that a
lot of people admire and here he is in
person:
>:hi antitrack,to start this interview
let us know a little about yourself!
a:alright, my first name is alex, i'm
22 years old, 188cm tall (6"3),
i've got a weight of 90 kg (yes, it
is too much, you got it), green eyes
and brown hair.
>:previous from legend, let us know
the other groups you have been
involved in!
a:my first group was called delta
force and started back in 1985 or so
it only consisted of local people
who were mainly mailtrading, but
despite of that, one of them already
got over 70 contacts, and this
included even some famous people,
like nepa in the states. it took 2
years up to 1987, till i could join
a decent austrian group, tsk. in 1988
most of them formed cosmos, which died
in fall 1989. then i joined 711, but
they stopped at the end of 1989! so i
tried to build up cosmos again with
some new guys but i failed. in fall
1990 i joined legend and that's where
i gonna stay as long as possible i
suppose.
>:you've been around for a while, what
was the hardest crack you've ever
had to handle ? (describe it)
a:well, there were several hard ones,
but i best remember a word-processor
called 'paperback-writer' which i
cracked from a burst-backup that i got
from radwar in 1987. today, with all
the equipment and experience it's a
lot easier to do, but in 1987 it took
me 3 weeks or so, every day a few hrs.
the loader is very weird, the disc-
routine uses a strange format with
only one sync per track. the main prg
is spread among the whole memory, it
is difficult to extract from the
loader ("is this the loader or is this
already the main prg?") and checks
soundchip (!) and many timers in a
very clever way, using zeropage-
pointers. this description helps, i
hope ?!
>:how do you think protections in
games/utilities have improved over
the years? do you think there ever
will be an ultimate protection ?
a:well, what basically happened in the
past is the following back in 1982,
most protections must have been really
bad: read error checking etc. in late
1983, they slowly began to get aware
of the disk drives' capabilities,
so some remarkable tries against soft-
ware piracy started. datamost and ea
were quite fast in developing protect-
ions for example. and the englishmen
like anirog started with some nice
tape formats, as far as i know. the
protections were getting increasingly
advanced over the years. in 1985 and
the following years, no company would
dare to release anything without a
protection. i think that between 1985
and lets say 1988, the biggest fights
between copy protections and crackers
have been fought, because in this time
most of the hard protected software
was released for the c64. in 1986,
nobody could play 'elite' without the
instructions, so the password protect-
ion came up and is still popular up to
today, especially on adventures, role
playing games etc. but even a game
that requires quick reaction might
bother you for a password after half
an hour.f1 gp circuit to name a recent
release as an example.in late 1988 and
today, something strange happened!
software companies probably got aware
of the huge amount of money protect-
ions cost them and simply dropped many
of them! many smaller companies
dropped the c64 and the big ones are
often not flexible enough to make a
new one. best example is ocean and its
freeload 4.0 in 1989 and no time!
nowadays ocean failed to attempt to
protect their software by putting them
on cartridge.
>:who is your favourite cracker of all
the time ?
a:there are many noteorthy guys,
especially from the past, but if i had
to settle down for a single person,
i'd say i got most impressed by mister
zeropages' work. he has cracked many
of the hard protections in the past
days in 1988, also paperback writer.
i admit i'm a bit biased, for i met
him in venlo in 1988, to point out
some more guys i'll just write down a
few names : 1103, antiram, mr.z, mitch
esi, janitor, conan/sf, omega man/tcs,
mr lee/711 and some more.
>:does that make your favourite all
time group ?
a:no, actually it must be eagle soft,
they simply ruled from their start to
their very end. but there are high
chances that legend will rule as much?
>:what do you think about the scene
these days ? if you could, what
would you change ?
a:the scene is overcrowded with too
many lamers nowadays. they crack
budget shit only, they never get real
originals if they've ever seen one
anyway.they're getting their so-called
originals (non working back-ups) from
other groups anyway, which means that
it is already quite old. they avoid
to crack anything that might have a
rral protection. they are simply
getting too nervous when they realize
they didn't release anything for a few
months, so they think, now we have to
put something out to show we're still
alive, and then another terrible old
budget shit follows. i hate it! i'd
brainwash them all so that they sell
their computer to someone who doesn't
try to make those stupid cracks.
>:do you like demos ?
a:yes, if its style is original enough
but i can't see no more 'record dycps'
and shit like that. that's a waste.
>:cartridges are beginning to be used.
what do you think about them in
general. how hard to you consider
such a protection ?
a:usually they are very easy. they
might improve, but i guess the people
working at ocean will be too lazy (or
stupid?) to do that. the irony is that
if they' do it in a more clever way
it could be difficult. if a program is
long enough to need all the c64 memory
(0200-ffff) and the extra cart memory
from 8000 to a000, and the game needs
both of them simultaneously, using a
lot of bankswitching, it should be
uncrackable. there's no way for a
cracker to put the extra rom anywhere.
i wonder why they haven't found out
yet. i had that idea in 1988 already.
but as long as they are using the rom
just as a disk drive replacement, we
are able to load it from rom, save it
to disc and install a disc-loader.
which is all you need to crack a cart.
in shadow of the beast there was a
complete 'flip the disc' routine left
in the rom memory, do i have to say
more ? (ed. please nooo!!)
>:have you ever programmed for a
company ?
a: nope (ed. good, short answer!!)
>:what are your other hobbies ?
a:i like to read, listen to music,
visit friends, travel, play chess,
play billiard, watch tv and sleep!
>:what's your favourite
food : (cheap) pizza
(expensive) salmon
drink: (cheap) orange juice
(expensive) whisky, champagne
movie: naked gun; terminator 2,
life stinks (mel brooks)
kooyanisquatsi
woman : virginia madsen
game : encounter, elite, hattrick,
stunt car racer, wing
commander (pc)
>:do you want to say hello to anyone ?
a:damn it, the list would get too long
and still be incomplete...never mind
i'll try to get them all...
all fellow legenders, all in sharks,
dogfriend, cosmos and karate kid of
dom, all in enigma, all in cosmos
designs, all in the voice, horizon/
nei, markus wiederstein, alexander
ernst, darkforce, walter konrad,
all x-711 dudes, rich and (yoyo)
extremist of empire, rockstar,
scratch/triangle, kronos, hermes,
soma, seen, idefix, yon, jeff smart,
nemesis, dual one and that's all for
today!
>:is there any bits you'd like to add
before you say bye ?
a:(ed. here antitrack comes up with
a long long rag-story about a rather
unknown guy. unfortunately this is
not the place for that kind of
stories, especially that it is quite
long, sorry alex)
...the end!
