Mamba 23 ch04 The Interviews

  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!