Propaganda 22 ch06
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+S------------------------------+ |Some of the coolest groups that| ___| ever set foot on the C64. |____ +-------------------------------+ Over the following 3 chapters, you will take part in the biggest overview of successful illegal names in history of the Commodore 64. Some will probably miss a group or two, and believe me when I say it is often based on individual taste. We have however tried our best, to gather information and groups in a juicy mix, trying not to leave anybody out. To avoid a complete holocaust, we are dealing with illegal groups only. Have a pleasant 3 chapters of reading. +---------+ |1001 CREW| +---------+---------------------------+ |One of the absolutely biggest groups| |ever on the 64, rooted in Holland. | |When they developed the ESCOS and | |launched their Borderletters, they | |not only releses good pieces of code| |- they wrote history when removing | |the border. One said it couldn't be | |done. HONEY, the leading profile of | |the group released some memorable | |cracks. 1001 later on worked on sev-| |eral smaller games for CODEMASTERS | |and MASTERTRONIC before heading to- | |wards eternity. | +------------------------------------+ +----+ |1701| +----+--------------------------------+ |was born in 1982 as a result of 2 | |people working in a softwareshop | |selling VIC2O-software. As they con-| |tinued and headed for the 64, they | |came to fill several disks and tapes| |with their software. Never any intr-| |os, but always a 1701-sign somewhere| |in the game, be it a sprite on the | |mainscreen - or in the game itself. | +------------------------------------+ +------+ |2000AD| +------+------------------------------+ |Out of many Danish groups came 2000 | |AD, late 1987. With a slightly mod- | |ified, but goodlooking rip-off of | |TRIAD'S intro, they rose quickly. | |In 1989 they also organized an app- | |reaciated party in Denmark, before | |the last few members came to join, | |and form BONZAI. (SONNY & TRAP) | +------------------------------------+ +---+ |711| +---+---------------------------------+ |A very successfull German, Austrian | |and Swiss project with ANTITRACK, | |BIG BEN, MR.LEE and other classic | |names in the frontline. WALTER later| |on formed CP VERLAG, the famous bud-| |getgame-company. 711 always started | |their scrolls with "..only 23 left".| |What it meant? Only 23 releases left| |until they would quit. | +------------------------------------+ +---+ |ACE| +---+---------------------------------+ |COCO, GENE, FIRKIN and other legends| |made the scene shake by the found- | |ations as disks were starting to | |flood by autumn 1987. COCO was at | |the time the fastest cracker in Ger-| |many, and GENE as always one of the | |most hated - and respected. They al-| |slo arranged the "Cracker-Of-The- | |Year-Award" in 1988. Check their al-| |ways classy intros. A personal favo-| |rite of Propaganda-staff. | +------------------------------------+ +------+ |ACTION| +------+------------------------------+ |German group born out of the popular| |XADES SOCIETY. SPITFIRE, CRISP and | |HOK were cornerstones and combined | |quality with speed. A-MAN became a | |respected musician and his work can | |still be heard in several intros and| |demos. | +------------------------------------+ +--------------+ |AEK! CRACKWARE| +--------------+-----------------------+ |Strong German force that took on the | |world in 1985/86. They were also on | |good terms with J.Kimmel (RED/JUDGES)| |which let them take good part inside | |the softwareindustry, and of course | |releeases. Check out their version | |of the German game THE BIG DEAL. | +-------------------------------------+ +-----+ |AGILE| +-----+-------------------------------+ |Swedish boardfocused group born in | |1988. ELRIC was the man steering the| |ship, and was hated across the scene| |for his rude methods. LIGHT, CENSOR | |and TRIAD have had several of their | |members rooted in AGILE. Check out | |QUEL HOMME (by former VIKING-members| |AZE&TRINITY) and all their Bah!- | |scrolltexts. Their traditional intro| |can be found on among others IO from| |FIREBIRD, which was one of their | |fastest releases. | +------------------------------------+ Scenetown . The soap of the scene. _________ +------------+ |ALPHA FLIGHT| +------------+------------------------+ |was born in Germany in 1985 and were| |battling with the top instantly. | |They headed for an early career on | |the Amiga and did so quite gently. | |Since then, they have been reborn | |twice on the Commodore 64, once in | |1989, and once in 1992. The latter | |one, is still the best to come, and | |are currently the absolute German | |top. Their magazine RELAX has foll- | |owed them since the rebirth in 1989.| |The intro-collection released by | |XENOX in 1996 is a good look into | |the traditional ALPHA FLIGHT-style. | +------------------------------------+ +---+ |ATC| +---+---------------------------------+ |An American group that was popular | |in the early 9O's. Even though they | |had their glorydays when American | |wares were on decline, they still | |delivered a good supply of releases.| |Also PUDWERX, most praised NTSC- | |fixer of all time, started his some-| |what trembling career in the staff | |of A TOUCH OF CLASS. | +------------------------------------+ +----------+ |AVANTGARDE| +----------+--------------------------+ |Born out of the remains of ILLUSION | |as well as other members in 1993. | |Set up the classical boards FORUM | |and TERMINAL OBSESSION again, boards| |we thought were gone forever. AVANT-| |GARDE came to be the last supergroup| |ever on the 64 and dominated the | |charts for 3 years. PBXELLENCE was | |in fact EVS/20CC and TRICOM made so-| |me of the sexiest intros ever seen. | |Look at their meetingdemo from fall | |1995 for a classy glanceback - or | |any of their intros and always acc- | |urate scrolltexts. Biggest release? | |We'd have to say the NTSC-fix of | |MAYHEM IN MONSTERLAND - by PUDWERX. | +------------------------------------+ +------------+ |BEASTIE BOYS| +------------+------------------------+ |came strongly in 1987. The cracking | |duo THE SYNDICATE was among others | |one of the most profitable insti- | |tutions for making money on their | |piracy. AXIOM was another great sup-| |port for the group, but as MOSKWATV | |entered the squad, faith faded and | |the scene was harsh in judging the | |group - MOSKWATV is probably one of | |the most wellknow routinerippers ar-| |ound the globe. Check out all sple- | |ndid cracks done by CAPTAIN FUTURE. | +------------------------------------+ +----+ |BROS| +----+---------------------------------+ |With a name taken from a popular | |one-night-wonder, logo included (re- | |member "When will I be famous?"), | |legendary names like PACO, BAMBAM, | |GENE and COCO took BROS to the top | |in 1988. Check out CircleTwister 1 | |and 2 as well as their early imports.| +-------------------------------------+ +---------------+ |BYTERAPERS INC.| +---------------+---------------------+ |Today the Finnish group is known as | |the leading demoproducers of the wo-| |rld, with a past in the WORLD-OF-CO-| |DE-series. Before MR.SEX started his| |crusade, late 8O's, BYTERAPERS was | |also a fast, competitive cracking- | |group on the mailmarket. It is one | |of those groups, that never really | |went away, even though they had | |their slow phases over the years. | +------------------------------------+ +-----+ |C64CG| +-----+------------------------------+ | | | | | | | Insufficient Information. | | | | | | | | | +-----------------------------------+ +-------------+ |CENSOR DESIGN| +-------------+-----------------------+ |As BOB, one of the biggest 64-coders| |of all time was kicked from TRIAD, | |he took PSYCHO and parts from PARA- | |GON with him created Sweden's fast- | |est crackinggroup ever. Their cra- | |cks often bugged, and they were cri-| |ticized for it, but they were still | |popular among the people. When the | |non-Swedish-section members joined, | |MIRAGE and SKATER, they had success | |at their hands with the magazine | |SHOCK. SHOCK became the biggest 64- | |magazine of all time, but what gave | |the group all respect in the hall of| |fame was their demos. Check out all | |their WONDERLAND-demos, SPASMOLYTIC | |and the SHOCKMAGAZINE. | +------------------------------------+ +---------+ |CHROMANCE| +---------+----------------------------+ |An interesting group, as they were | |born out of the FBI-CREW in Hungary. | |CHROMANCE were among the first groups| |to come along, even though communism | |still reigned in the Eastern parts of| |Europe in the late 8O's. Today CHRO- | |MANCE stands stronger than ever, and | |have to admired for going their own, | |silent way. In the early 9O's, they | |also published the magazine ARE WE | |THE BEST?, a magazine focusing on | |legal matters. The group has been | |running under MR.WAX since the start.| +-------------------------------------+ +-----------------+ |COMMANDO FRONTIER| +-----------------+--------------------+ |The first competetive Belgian group | |was run by the popular profile MADALL| |and they share a peculiar affection | |to EDDIE, the popular mascot from | |IRON MAIDEN (See PEACE OF MIND among | |other releases - good ROCKMONITOR- | |conversions of songs). MADALL also | |wrote several intelligent, apprec- | |iated articles about the scene for | |ILLEGAL before the group disappeared | |in early 1989. | +-------------------------------------+ +--------------+ |COMPUTERBRAINS| +--------------+----------------------+ |Swedish legens who have been said to| |invent the trainier. Their classic | |and wellspread version of GREEN BER-| |ET didn't offer infinite lives, but | |a possibility to choose the starting| |amount of lives. 256, was naturally | |the maximum choice. | +------------------------------------+ +------+ |CONTEX| +------+-------------------------------+ |A group with good cracks, but also | |dangerously sexy demos. Many said | |that the group had some of the roots | |in GENESIS*PROJECT, and parts of it | |was true, considering that SCRAP of | |CONTEXT and ANTICHRIST/G*P cooperated| |on almost every field. When CYCLE- | |BURNER came along, classics like TOP | |PRIORITY and YOUTHQUAKE were made. | |Also check SIGN O' THE TIMES from | |NOP/WEIRD SCIENCE, who is the same | |guy. DRAKE and other Danes quickly | |came to dominate the crackingcharts. | |With full rights, people should say. | +-------------------------------------+ +------+ |COSMOS| +------+-------------------------------+ |An intense career was started by far-| |mers in Austria and Switzerland back | |in 1989. The roots came from the un- | |fortunately forgotten TSK-CREW. With | |COSMOS, success was at hand. BIG BEN | |, COPYRIGHT HUNTER, ANTITRACK and | |others made it memorable. A classic, | |traditional intro, with classic mus- | |ic, all to be seen in their peak re- | |lease - NEW ZEALAND STORY. | +-------------------------------------+ +-----+ |CRAZY| +-----+--------------------------------+ |A terribly fast group, that took the | |trend by the throat. In 1989, the | |American boards had become the ult- | |imate source of releases, and that | |in mind, CRAZY focues almost 1OO% | |on that very market. When releasing | |MAMBA, by many regarded as the best | |boardmagazine ever (along with SHOCK)| |success was a fact. CRAZY was an | |outlet for several legends, among | |them DEFF and STINGRAY, but above | |all, do look at GOTCHA'S incredible | |art, appreciated all over the globe. | +-------------------------------------+ +-----------+ |DANISH GOLD| +-----------+-------------------------+ |Founded in Denmark, 1985 on close | |terms with RED SECTOR and also FAIR-| |LIGHT. The group disappeared in late| |1987, heading for the Amiga. | | | | | | | | | +------------------------------------+ +---+ |DCS| +---+----------------------------------+ |Founded by THE BREAKER (who later on | |made a very notable comeback in RED | |SECTOR in the 199O's), MR.ZULU and | |other legends. What started out as a | |local outlet for friends, became a | |global concept and when the UK market| |was at its peak, youngsters were di- | |vided up in three camps - PRO-IKARI, | |-FUSION or -DCS. Check their very ea-| |rly releases with great intros. | +-------------------------------------+ +-------+ |DECIBEL| +-------+------------------------------+ |A Dutch strong label rocking the cha-| |rts in 1987-88, with roots in | |HCS5005(HIGHER COMPUTER SCIENCE). | |Their most notable release was pro- | |bably LOVE OVER GOLD, a neat sample | |from LEVEL42, while DECIBEL showed | |off in intros with big sprites and | |music by RED/JUDGES. Several members | |were later seen in HOTLINE. | +-------------------------------------+ +----------+ |DOMINATORS| +----------+---------------------------+ |Denmark, 1986. The situation is stab-| |le, but the DOMINATORS - ROOZE, ZOO- | |LOOK, COSMO and others shake the pla-| |net by the balls. Their crusade con- | |tinued for a long time, even though | |they have suffered from weak periods.| |DOGFRIEND, MACRO NIT and KARATE KID | |to mention a few who took the group | |stateside, when America exploded. The| |magazine CORRUPTION, edited by DEFF | |and JACK DANIELS was also a release | |under the same flag. A papermagazine | |called BUSINESS also saw light of | |day, as virtually everybody was try- | |ing to replace the popular ILLEGAL. | |Who can forget the King of cracks? | +-------------------------------------+ +----------+ |DREAM TEAM| +----------+---------------------------+ |A group, long gone into history. They| |were known for both smaller product- | |ions and cracks - still, the most | |credible release is still the ROCK- | |MONITOR-conversion of "IT'S A SIN", | |by PET SHOP BOYS, commonly used in | |many of their intros. | +-------------------------------------+ +--------------+ |DUTCH USA-TEAM| +--------------+-----------------------+ |A widely popular team, who besides | |cracking developed the great ROCK- | |MONITOR, a program that allowed 4 | |channels of sound (3 Sid, 1 Digi) and| |came to be frequently used despite | |the rastertime-consuming routine. | +-------------------------------------+ +-----------+ |DYNAMIC DUO| +-----------+--------------------------+ |The duo of myths. Who were they? | |Whatever they were, they undoubtfully| |are the most legendary of all pirates| |on all platforms. Public favorites in| |1986, flooding your drives and tapes,| |busted 3 years later and from there | |the story is untold. Check out the | |rare sample-file circulating from a | |phoneconference: "Are you the really | |from the DYNAMIC DUO?, "Yes", "Who | |are you then?", "I'm the second guy".| |Not only Germany's, but the world's | |trademark of a true veteran. | +-------------------------------------+ +-------+ |DYNAMIX| +-------+------------------------------+ |A German-based group that came as a | |fresh vitaminpill in a group-stagna- | |ting scene. ROY (RADAR) took the | |group to another level, establishing | |ragging as the number one way to com-| |municate. COOCOC, the small diskmag- | |azine developed originally by SHAPE, | |came out under the DYNAMIX-flag dur- | |ing a short period of time. DYNAMIX | |later appeared on the SNES, with some| |of the original members knocking down| |software for the people. | +-------------------------------------+ +----------+ |EAGLE SOFT| +----------+---------------------------+ |In the USA, the battle of America was | |won by ESI. Legendary cracker MITCH | |and friends took the group to success | |and came to totally dominate their ho-| |memarket during 1985-1988. Who will | |ever forget their intro, with wonder- | |ful (and slowed down) music by TONY | |CROWTHER from the crappy game R1-D1? | |Somehow, ESI always managed to beat | |the crap out of their opponents, UCF | |(UNTOUCHABLE CRACKING FORCE) being the| |most obvious. The war resulted in sev-| |eral interesting scrolltexts. For a | |ressurection with ESI, check the best | |software ever to appear from America: | |DEFENDER OF THE CROWN, PIRATES, MARBLE| |MADNESS or any other great American | |title. ESI later on moved to the Amiga| |and did quite well, until joining for-| |ces with legendary QUARTEX. | +--------------------------------------+ +-----+ |ELITE| +-----+--------------------------------+ |A product of STRIKE FORCE/MOVERS, | |that even though a fairly short aff- | |air, came to dominate the ILLEGAL- | |charts while at it. The group was | |launced with much hype as people from| |STRIKE FORCE/MOVERS were busted and | |the affair came public in a note. | +-------------------------------------+ +------+ |ENIGMA| +------+-------------------------------+ |Out of ILLUSION and other labels came| |ENIGMA in 1991. The group was comp- | |etitive, but people slagged down at | |them for an uninspiring name - keep | |in mind that musicgroup ENIGMA was at| |this time numberone all over Europe. | |They also took the popular MAMBA- | |magazine to their label. ENIGMA was | |qualified, good and fast - but not | |terribly exciting. | +-------------------------------------+ +-----+ |EXACT| +-----+--------------------------------+ |SNACKY(GP), MR.PRESIDENT(RSI) and | |NEWSCOPY(F4CG) all come from the ro- | |ots in the German-based EXACT from | |Durern. Fast, good cracks, but also | |two interesting demos - JUICY and | |HEADS. The latter was produced and | |developed by DELTA who later on coded| |the RSI-demos on the Amiga. Check out| |their first megademo, with a tremend-| |ous EDDIE-loader. EXACT died in 199O.| +-------------------------------------+ +----+ |F4CG| +----+---------------------------------+ |EFFEQUATTROCIGI was born in Ferrara, | |Italy 1983, making it the oldest gro-| |up on any platform to date. Leader | |MAO passed away in a car-accident in | |1994, but the group has continued | |success since. SOLAR, a Belgian vet- | |eran also responsible for the classic| |papermagazine PIRATES has led the gr-| |oup since 1989. During the 9O's, F4CG| |recruited the remains of legendary | |GENESIS*PROJECT and AVANTGARDE - a | |move appreciated and hated. Co-leader| |NEWSCOPY also publishes the magazine | |PROPAGANDA, while their intro-divis- | |ion has been praised for work across | |the entire field. Also on the PSX. | +-------------------------------------+ +---+ |FAC| +---+----------------------------------+ |FEDERATION AGAINST COPYRIGHT was born| |in Germany 1985 and were quick to be | |using intros with spritelogos and sc-| |roll. Good friends with almost every-| |body, and came to be pioneers on the | |American market. Imports by them, | |were done in masses. | +-------------------------------------+ +---------+ |FAIRLIGHT| +---------+----------------------------+ was born in 1987 (not 1986 as the new| |generation of FLT-members claim) when| |WCC split into two groups. The first | |group RELAX did quite well, but FAIR-| |LIGHT established themselves as a | |soon to be dominating force. NO.1 org| |anized the group, but changed his ha-| |ndle to STRIDER after only 3 releas- | |es. FAIRLIGHT has become the biggest | |group ever, over all formats dominat-| |ing both Amiga and PC. STRIDER left | |the 64 in 1989 (did a shortcomeback- | |release in ACE2088 from CASCADE, then| |heading for Amiga and PC for real) | |Unfortunately, the real competitve | |FAIRLIGHT we saw battling with TRIAD | |and IKARI in every chart, 1987-89 is | |far from its original core. Their | |most successful cracker GOLLUM later | |on produced the game RUBICON from | |21ST CENTURY SOFTWARE, a game that | |was stolen by GENESIS*PROJECT.(GOOD | |WORK!) STRIDER moved to the USA after| |a brief visit in Belgium where he has| |FAIRLIGHT TRADING, a company working | |with import/export. Check out their | |classic intro, with music from DRUID | |2 & the LEGOLAND-DEMOS (developd by | |the new FAIRLIGHT). BACCHUS, who took| |over after STRIDER has done some gre-| |at cracks, but also caused interesti-| |ng debates on the scene. | +-------------------------------------+ +----------+ |FIRE EAGLE| +----------+---------------------------+ |A Dutch/German group that became tre-| |mendously popular as they teamed up | |in the cooperation FE+G*P in 1988. | |The group later on passed away, but | |left us with great memorable pieces | |of work through the audial chambers | |of SOEDESOFT as well as a great coop-| |eration demo with SPHINX. | +-------------------------------------+ +---------------+ |FLYING CRACKERS| +---------------+----------------------+ |Perhaps one of the oldest groups in | |history, formed by the legendary Dane| |SODAN. SODAN left the scene for the | |Amiga in 1986, leaving us with sple- | |did releases. His admiration towards | |software resulted in the highly app- | |reciated CRACKER'S REVENGE 1 & 2. As | |SODAN headed for bigger formats, he | |launched SWORD OF SODAN - a game that| |became the first really big title on | |the 16-bit format. He is today res- | |ponsible for the immensly popular TV-| |character HUGO that can be seen daily| |on Television in Scandinavia. (also | |features in several games on the PC).| |Check out his first commercial game | |THE VIKINGS (and read his personal | |message to his friends in DYNAMIC DUO| |in the memory), his goodbye-file and | |the introcollections. | +-------------------------------------+ +------+ |FUSION| +------+-------------------------------+ |When the brits were at their best, | |FUSION came along out of the ashes of| |the quite anonymous CCS. Leader IAN | |spent an incredible lot of hours with| |the group disappointing his family a | |great deal. FUSION was rumoured to be| |freezing their cracks, and the issue | |was widely discussed on the boards, | |the scrolls and the ILLEGAL. Even | |though there was a sense of truth in | |some of the accusations, FUSION held | |the world in its hand for almost a | |year and with that in mind - their | |slogan MAN AND MACHINE will be with | |us forever. | +-------------------------------------+ +---------------+ |GENESIS*PROJECT| +---------------+----------------------+ |born in Aachen 1985, lead by one of | |the most controversial characters on | |the scene, ANTICHRIST. (then called | |TIMELORD). There was a storm of de- | |bates when it came clear that ANTI- | |CHRIST also was OMG/AMOK, editor of | |the first diskmagazine ever - SEX N' | |CRIME. SEX N' CRIME later on ceased | |and devloped into PROPAGANDA, still | |published. SNACKY, the cracker of | |the group came be the most praised | |cracker of all time, and his jewel- | |versions deserve a note in history. | |ANTICHRIST eventually fell in love | |with SORCERESS, sysop of the GENESIS-| |board MYSTIC CAVERN. In 1993 he de- | |cided to marry her and moved to New | |York and left over the leadership to | |NEWSCOPY. The demosection developed | |celebrities like BIZZMO and DEEK, | |producers of classics like PARADISE | |'91. Also check out the controvers- | |ial release RUBICON, stolen by GEN- | |ESIS from FAIRLIGHT as SNACKY and | |TYGER were hired to make the prot- | |ection for the game, the GP+EMP LOVE | |NEI-hate demo or any of the classic | |jewelversions by SNACKY and GOBLIN. | |GENESIS*PROJECT ceased as the active | |remains continued in F4CG. | +-------------------------------------+ +-----------+ |THE GOONIES| +-----------+--------------------------+ |A Danish group that came to represent| |their country in the very early days.| |Also among the first groups to sniff | |on the Amiga-market, as the Amiga1OOO| |was launched in 1985 - a market where| |they later ended up for good. | +-------------------------------------+ +-------+ |HOTLINE| +-------+------------------------------+ |A glorious group with roots in Holl- | |and. Cracker POPEYE made sure to fill| |people's collections with essential | |software - especially big programs | |from the states. HOTLINE were later | |reborn in several forms, but never as| |strong as in the early days. Surpris-| |ingly enough, the Brittish legend | |BOD was part of HOTLINE, before he'd | |end up in TALENT. To take part of a | |typical HOTLINE-release, check out | |SKATE OR DIE, released week 43, 1987.| |If you have a decent collection, it | |is most likely, that is the version | |you have. | +-------------------------------------+