Propaganda 03 ch07

           DO YOU REMEMBER
           DO YOU REMEMBER...
           __________________
The computing scene in the U.K. has
changed dramatically over the past few
years. It is certainly not as prolific
as it was in the mid-late 198O's. Only a
couple of British based groups are now
on the cracking scene... TALENT and
XENTRIX. The remaining 'crackers' in
the U.K. are (like myself) attached to
other groups in Europe. We have no
regrets about this whatsoever,after all
these groups gave us the chance to be
members,a status we could not get from
the then prolific U.K. groups.





When I first started seriously on the
C64,big groups around at that time were
CLEVELAND CRACKING SERVICE (later to
become FUSION),ZENITH,LAZER,DCS,PULSAR
and TEESIDE CRACKING SERVICE...

As the 8O's went on,along came other
big names like IKARI,NATO,ROUGH TRADE,
TWILIGHT ZONE,YATTERING,PANINARO and a
lot more 'would be' smaller groups.
Now these groups are all defunct,as we
all know,probably IKARI was the last to
grace our shores,albeit they were in
the end a Danish group throughout.
Well,do you remember the guys in all
these groups?!?

I remember a lot of them well,
and some I still keep contact with.


Only recently a lot of you guys out
there have cracked "TWINKY GOES HIKING".
This game was released by FIREBIRD back
in 1986! The crack of this (that I still
have) was done by a guy called RASTA THE
MASTER GEE,on December 14th,1986. He was
in the WELSH CRACKING SERVICE for a
period,but then went on his own,during
the mid 8O's that guy was the most
prolific cracker in the U.K.
You all know TRIDOS,well I know the guy
is now away from computing for good,but,
boy!,did he put some stuff around!
He started up as TRIDOS,but between 1985
and 199O he was a member of most of the
big groups in the U.K. The first groups
he joined was ZENITH,then FUSION,IKARI,
DCS,YATTERING,and finally PANINARO.
He was not the best cracker around,but
he was a legend!

How about the OMEGA MAN from TCS?
He left the scene way back in 1987,but
his crack of "SUPERCYCLE" still remains
one of the best in my collection,he
regularly used the "VOPAL loader" in his
cracks,a thing you don't often see now.

I think CCS(FUSION) were certainly the
best group around at the time,they had
a good membership,and all were very
mature guys,even at the time their ages
ranged from 22-34,so they were no mouthy
upstarts,they got on with the job in
hand until they let a certain guy from
the south of England join their setup,
renamed the group to FUSION and this
'casual dude' started slagging off in
his intros,so the two joint leaders IAN
BEAN and GERRY KENNY killed off the
group to save hassle.

All eight guys from the former CCS group
are now on Amiga,but not in a group as
such,all are married with families of
their own but,take it from me,they still
do not go short of 64 wares,the interest
is still there.
There was also STEVE of ZENITH,some
thought he was a peculiar guy,but he was
ok,he did a lot for the 64 scene in the
U.K. But in his later years he would
have no contacts,but spent hours every
night on his modem... He is not now
computing (women again),but he still
has the interest there.
PAUL LEBRASSE and NICK TAYLOR were both
founder member of IKARI,extremly polite
guys,do anything to help anyone. PAUL
left the scene very early to go into
commercial computing,but NICK stayed
on until he went legal in 1989.

Remember MEGASNAIL of NATO?
Anyone who has been around for any time
could not forget the guy,in all honestly
that guy could have been really cool,he
was cool,but had it not been for his
mouth. He could have been amongst the
best in the world. Sadly he disappeared
completely from the scene suddenly just
over a year ago and no one seems to know
what he is doing now.
In late 1988 DCS almost died off but MIK
from PULSAR along with HENDY and NOSAH,
both from ZENITH,came along and reformed
the group. Though in late 199O only MIK
remained in the group,helped by JOG,MIK
started courting and the group un-
fortunately wound up. I still have good
contact with MIK,although now he has got
rid of all his tackle.


ROUTH TRDE was probably the most under-
rated group in the U.K. during this
period,unfortunately FIREFOX was too
idle to use his modem,otherwise they
would have had many good first releases.
Had DEEP PURPLE stayed on,or joined any
other group,he certainly would have been
a force to be reckoned with. His trained
cracks were amongst the best,ask TRIDOS!
Many times,when ASCII was not available,
he went to DEEP PURPLE for help,both for
trainers and start addys.









Well,to be honest,I cannot see things
improving in the U.K. in the near future
there are too many loudmouths around the
scene who cnnot crack or code,and there
appears to be no one around too assist
them,so naturally the interest very soon
wears off. I only hope that I am proved
to be wrong.
As I said earlier,we few dedicated guys
fortunate to be in Euro groups currently
do not envisage anything big happening
here in the near future,there again
stranger things have happened!!!






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