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Written by Penguin and M.C. of ANIMAL MINE on the 3rd of August 1992
Well , guys , we will tell you the whole story of ANIMAL MINE from the past to the present to the future, so get attention here !!!!
So , PENGUIN was the first member of ANIMAL MINE , his history was quite funny . He was alone and called himself PENGUIN , coz he is really PENGUIN-crazy ( at his home , every free piece at the walls is pinned up with Penguin cartoons ) anyway ... Before he owned an ATARI ST, he got hold of these 8 Bit ATARI comps, like the ATARI 400 and later on he bought an ATARI 800 XL ... At this time , he was not interested in coding , just playing (HI MIKE, ON THE SAME LEVEL TODAY, AS PENGUIN WAS). In 1985 as the ATARI ST has seen the world , PENGI was really astonished of this wonderful machine , so he jobbed and bought the ATARI 260 ST ( HUH ) ! As you all know , there was nothing except a few games on this machine at the beginning ... The so called ST BASIC was something for the trash and so , PENGI played .... In 1986 as GFA BASIC was born , he bought an exemplar of it and tried to do something with it (unsucessfully) ... So , games became more and more interesting for swapping and PENGI joined the guild of swappers ... The first time , just with friends and later on with contacts aroun' the world ( like today ) ... Coding became more and more interesting as he saw the UNION DEMO ( still quite good ) !!!!!!!!! PENGUINS thoughts were : What is that ?? I could do this with GFA BASIC too... And another time, PENGI started to code something ... and finally , his first screen was born ... in pure GFA BASIC ... From now on , he coded and coded and one day , the first GREAT STUFF COMPIL was born ... he thought that this was not enough and so another sort of COMPILS had to be created ... the TOOLS-DISK (today, we don't make them but they are available up to the number 11) ....................... With swapping he made a contact to SCORPION , and both formed the crew ANIMAL MINE (because their names were that from ANIMALS) .... So , ANIMAL MINE was formed ( that was around spring 1991 ) ..... One day , Penguin got hold of an invitation to a lame copy-party . As this was the first party for him, he drove to it and met SCORPION the first time ( before that, they had phone calls only ) . At this time, I was at the party too ... and now follows the history from me , M.C. : My first comp was an Commodore VC 20 ( whoow ) with 3.5 KB and a very bad BASIC ...That was around 1983 ... after this , I bought an ATARI 800 XL too and used it for playing and later on for coding in TURBO BASIC ... A few never released games ( were that games ?? ) were done ... In 1988 myself bought an ATARI 1040STFM with two packages of 10 disks... At this time I was at school , and there I swapped new games with friends ... One day, police knocked at my door and they fucked me up ( bastards !! ). From this day on , I had to stop swapping ( I didn't want to have them another day in at home ) and so I formed a crew , you probably never heard of, called THE BYTE BOYZ (there we were 3 guys , who tried to code a demo) ! In fact , I was the only active member coz the others were lazy as hell... Then , I made a few contacts just for demo stuff swapping, and also me got hold of the mentioned invitation to the copy-party (lame !). To the time , I was very glad to get an invitation to something like this and I bought two tickets for train ... As I arrived there , I met PENGI the first time , in fact , he just lives 15 Kilometres away from me ... There , PENGI and SCORPION asked THE RUNNING MAN and M.C. to join ANIMAL MINE ... Without thinking about it , I said yes ! TRM joined ANIMAL MINE too ...... So ANIMAL MINE got 5 members ... as there joined a lamer our crew, too ! As time goes by , the first member was kicked , because of his own crew and loads of trouble we had with him ( when you got hold of GSC 15-30 , you know from whom I am talking ). At the end of August 1991 , SCORPION asked PENGUIN and me , if a guy , called SNAIL , could join ANIMAL MINE. He would have the task to be a hardware specialist ! Well , we both had nothing against this and so ANIMAL MINE rised up to 6 members ! Also in August 1991 ( to be precise, at the ATARI Fair ) we released our first "MEGA"-Demo which was called FAIR DEMO ( what a name ) . The story of this demo was funny as well . As PENGUIN visited me 1 week before the fair, we talked about MEGA DEMOS and he came of with the idea to code a mega demo specially for the fair . And again , without thinking about the sleepless nights , I would have , I said : "WHY NOT , COOL IDEA !" . And so , the rush-up-in-only-one- week-mega-demo was created (with a load of heavy bugs) !!! The main part of it was coded by PENGUIN in pure GFA BASIC and two screens where coded by me in Assembler , off which one was only put in the demo ! At this time , I asked PENGUIN if he wants to code in Assembler , but his words were: " When I see you debuggin a screen , I could vomit " and so my idea to help him coding in Assembler rised to ashes. Then , during the time , we got two new members who are called DOMM and LUKE, DOMM is a musician and LUKE is another coder ( he is responsible for the MAIN MENU in our new mega demo ) . ANIMAL MINE became bigger and bigger, so that we are by the time 8 members. A few weeks later IFD joined in and his work is making cool Modules and paint some nice GFX. At the beginning of November 1991, we got hold of an invitation to the MEGA FUN CODING PARTY 2 organised by TSB . Of course we drove to it ( we , that means : Penguin , Luke and MC ) . There , I had my first sucess with getting the second place at the coding convention ( whow ) PENGUIN had loads of fun making new contacts and LUKE was quite satisfied too . During the time after this PARTY, I became very active in coding for our real mega demo ( which, by the way , isn't released by now ). and so a few more or less cool screens were created . Some of them were too lame for the demo and their ideas had been thrown away . Anyway , we hope , that we will release it to the ATARI FAIR 1992 . Let's get back to the time I talked about : In January 1992 , PENGUIN phoned me up to say me that ANIMAL MINE got two new members called KMB ( a french member ) and SHADOW MASTER a quite good gfx guy ... Through the time MC made another try to learn PENGUIN Assembler coding and this time he accepted it ... So he throwed his GFA BASIC into a corner and learned Assembler ... Perhaps you got hold of Great Stuff Compil Number 9, this intro is his first one in pure machine code . In December 1991, SCORPION invited us to his home to make an ANIMAL MINE-ONLY party at this weekend , SCORPION asked us to let join the VULTURE BROS. to ANIMAL MINE . We accepted them , but as we found out what lazy bastards they have been, we kicked them only 3 weeks later. To the time, nothing important had happend except the regular releases of Great Stuff Compils . One day (can't remember !) SICE joined Animal Mine and he is responsible for GFX and swapping ! At the end of March The Robo Bitch joined Animal Mine ! He is from Iceland and is responsible for GFX and swapping, too ! At the end of April 1992, XENEX died and joined ANIMAL MINE , what an honour for us to get to new members ( and they are coders !! I say this because coders were really rare at the moment , just PENGI and me ) A few weeks later 3 dudes from Zodiac joined in, too: They are : Zaxx (Coder), his Brother NO MORE (GFX, Musax) and Foxe (Swapper .... the 2nd best in Germany ... HE HE !) Again some weeks later Sethos phoned me (Pengi) and aksed, if another man can join in ...... his name is JMS and he is a GFX-Man ! You may ask you, why there are so much people in our crew ! As we are doing compils at the moment we need people to swap to stuff and need many GFX (coz all Intros change) and other stuff ..... so you can call us a social club (HEHE !). No ..... no ..... it's only cool to be presented everywhere ! Then , by the time , in May 1992 , we got an invitation to the BMT Party called : BLUE NIGHTS PARTY . Which was held by BMT over whitsuntide ANIMAL MINE drove to it with : PENGI, THE RUNNING MAN , SETHOS , TITAN and SHADOW MASTER and of course me ! For this party , I began to code a screen for their mega demo , just one and a half week ago .. But you should have a look to it by yourself .. To the party, I just have to say : It was really cool .. There we met ILJA of LEVEL 16 who promised us two guest screens for our mega demo (isn't that great ?) and AURA released their HIFI Dream Demo which you should have by now , it is worthwhile to own it !! NPG tried to complete their mega demo and release it there ! Also LIGHT did something there ! To put in a nutshell, it was really cool ... Not to forget the coolest action I have ever seen ! From the night of Saturday to Sunday, we bombed ( and I mean bombed ) the first ORIGINAL of the game (no name here !) which was coded by xxxxxx of xxxxxx !!!! Well , now , we reached the point of the PRESENT , and I am typing this text here ! Yesterday , I coded a bit , but I have to say , that ANIMAL MINE is really lazy by the time ... PENGUIN has "NO BOCK" to copy the whole day and I am in full work with my driving permission , so there will be the usual GSC's but nothing else .As DOMM said us, he makes a summer pause you know that there will be not so much activities by us in the near future except working for our mega demo ( remember , we want to release it at the ATARI FAIR in August 1992 ) ... There is only one big problem ! The guys who promised us their guest screens , won't come out of their caves .......... Anyway , we are quite hopefully by the time to release our mega demo in time !! A few words to the future : As almost every ANIMAL want to buy ATARI'S new flag-ship called "FALCON", PENGUIN promised to code more on this machine as on the ATARI ST , as he is very active in swapping here ................. So let us hope that you won't give up the ATARI Comp !
Bye Bye from PENGUIN AND M.C. of ANIMAL MINE at the 3rd of august 1992 10:20 A.M. | Nah ... not Animal Mine, lamer! <--
P.S.1: Excuse any typing-bugs, but this was done in a great hurry, coz it should be in Amazine II !
P.S.2: Buy a Falcon 030 and NO Amiga or PC-Shit !!!!!!!!!!
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by SEWER POSSUM formerly of Sewer Software
Several years ago when the ST hit the scene it's future looked rosy. The 8 bit machines were in decline, the C64 being by far the most popular machine. Amstrads Z80 based units never really made much of a dent in the Australian market, despite the fact they were (and continue to be ) a better all-rounder than the C64. The Atari 8 bit machines had a small but loyal following. Enter the 16 bit offerings from ATARI and COMMODORE AMIGA. Both were released with much fanfare and a hell of large advertising expenditure. Both were touted as excellent in all areas - not only great games machines, but very competent as a home and small business computer. It didn't take long to find that the ST was better at some areas (ie: MIDI)than it's rival - and despite what Commodore said, the AMIGA (without a lot of money spent on peripherals)was a pain for most 'serious' applications. The AMIGA benefitted however from a vast user base of C64 users eager and ready to part with their cash for a replacement machine for the ageing 8 bitter's! They found the AMIGA was an excellent games machine...great ! thats just what they used their C64's for any way!! Those C64 owners that bought ST's were a little dismayed that the sound wasn't as good as their mates' Amigas.. no custom chips in the ST mean't games didn't scroll as neatly either. They consoled themselves with the fact that the ST could do a whole lot of things better than the AMIGA anyway. At this time IBM machines were ex- pensive, 'orrible EGA and the games sucked! (the sound was truly AWFUL too) the only other real option the APPLE MAC (grossly expensive, and mono!) was not really a consideration. For a couple of years the ST and AMIGA sold modestly well here in Aust- ralia. Many primary schools bought either ST's or AMIGA's (sometimes both) and software and hardware slowly became more available (although often very ex- pensive as it all comes from overseas). AMIGA's aquired a reputation for unrel- iability (I know cos I owned one for 2 years!), but cemented it's position as a games machine par excellance. Support from COMMODORE wasn't good - but in the meantime some small hardware companies (ie: PHOENIX MicroTechnologies) having seen a demand for locally produced per- ipherals started making Accelerator Boards, IBM emulators etc. Specialist businesses dealing with Desktop Publish -ing and Music pushed the ATARI ST. The STE a nd other ATARI developments were eagerly awaited - but rather disappoint -ingly didn't manifest as the 'AMIGA Killer' that was hoped for. ST prices (for the computer unit) were low... but peripherals ( monitor, external drives etc) remained high. Worse still, prosp- ective buyers realised that you really need 2 monitors ( mono and colour ) to view all resolutions-the 1084 monitor for an AMIGA allows you view all resolutions, including hi-res inter- laced. Furthermore you could use your AMIGA monitor as a TV. Other deficits began to become more apparent...little things like upgrading RAM. At this time ATARI's lacklustre support almost completely evaporated. Rumours abounded of ATARI's exiting the Australian market and several companies dealing primarily in ATARI ST's folded. As all this was happening the IBM scene REALLY started to take off. VGA and SVGA screens became the norm -these new breed IBM clones had Hard Disks as standard..not as a fantastically pricey accessory. The widely vaunted 8-16 mhz clock speeds of the ST paled before 386 and 486's up to 10 times faster! Suddenly games that occupied not half a dozen 720k floppies - but 20 meg of disk space !! were available on the IBM, not in 16 but in 256 colours! Supply of new ST programs wained as stores now were tending to stock AMIGA and IBM s/ware. Competition between INTEL and AMD lowered ( and continues to lower) the price of 386 and 486 chips. 286s were being sold for little more than an ST with monitor, but the PC clones offered a 40 meg hard disk and a vast user base of software. At this stage Amstrad and a few smaller Asian companies entered the fray.Really heavy saturation advertising persuaded those still uncertain. Although what they were offering wasn't great value - and is often just a tarted up 286, now the new buyer could walk into a department store and go home with everything in one huge box ( even a printer, software, training course etc). So thats the situation in Australia as it stands now. The ST is no longer advertised- only a few remaining stores sell them. The AMIGA continues to sell steadily -the vast majority of software available for it is games based, and it is generally acknowledged as here to stay. Consoles have never really sold well here in Australia-although thats slowly changing. Nintendo, Sega etc advertise quite heavily and software can be found quite readily. The ST is dying. It's been withering through lack of support for a long time Those ST's being sold are being done so (inevitably) to finance new IBM clones. I myself got sick of the general state of apathy and malaise that afflicts the ST scene here. SEWER SOFTWARE has reflected whats happening with the ST scene here no longer do we produce DOC DISKS etc, there's no demand for them here -and no support either. I am now the proud owner of a 386 with a 130 meg Hard Disk. Do I regret making the move to IBM ? Well, it's hard to leave some of my favorite ST programs & applicatio~s but there's a wealth of new software out there in IBM land. And for the future ? Maybe ATARI will pull out all stops and REALLY support the ST family ( you have to wonder when they produced awful little PC clones a couple of years ago... hardly inspires confidence). They'll need to market a cheap, power-ful alternative to the IBM. It'll need to have a hard disk and good sound. It'll also need to be 100% compatible with existing ST software ( or else simultaneously release a huge base of developed s/ware!) The chance of this happening, going on ATARI's track record is minuscule. The ST is dead, long live the IBM clone!
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by DEF KLF of MAD VISION
I had a dream of a new computer called FALCON with a 68030 of Motorola, a DSP 32 mhz, 10 voices stereo 50 khz, with 256 colors on 320*200 or 640*480 with 32768 colors among 262144.I had a dream that this Atari computer with a HD- drive and 1 meg of memory would cost about 400£/4000ff.
I had a dream that the whole ST scene tired of their old-fashioned computers would buy a Falcon & cohabit in peace.
I had a dream that the most talented Amiga musicians, artists and coders would join us, to do demos which could be enjoy not only for their technic achievement by an elite, but also for their artistic look by everybody.
I had a dream that these demos could be shown on big screens in discos or in any raves.
I had a dream that this computer would be able to emulate PC with ease, and would be able to counterbalance the leadership of PC compatibles.
I had a dream that with this computer we would be able to do video FX,telecom patches,real music,virtual reality...
I had a dream that this computer would kill the market of Japanese consols thanks to awesome games.
I had a dream of an European scene but also of bands from U.S.A., Australia, Canada, India, or Japan.
I had a dream that all that bands would communicate thanks to their integrated modem.
I had a dream of births of new indy software companies which would propose great softwares for decent prices thanks to huge market and intelligent management.
Sometimes dreams come true...
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Write us and explain us what do you expect from the Falcon, whether you expect something.
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by Gansgter of Mad vision
I write this article because I feel that D-Bug are a crew who have been overlooked by most people. Few people have heard of them outside of the U.K. In fact, not many people have heard of them in the U.K. either. Even worse is the fact that few people have got any of their menus.
Let me explain about D-Bug. They are more or less 3 people. Firstly, there is Hot Knife. He is the main cracker,filer, trainer etc. He is better known as Vapour of Automation (R.I.P.). This is a name that most people will have heard of. In his time he has cracked hundreds of games, and taken part in the production of over 600 cd's !!! He is one of the most experienced of the cracking guys on the ST, and is something of a veteran, or perhaps one of the reminders of the good old days of the ST. Either way, there is no doubting the talent that this guy has. He has been around since the birth of the ST scene, and he is the person who invented the idea of a menu/cd/compil. His cds for LSD were the first of their kind in the world. So all the cd crews must thank Vapour / Hot Knife for his idea. Since Automation died, Vapour has largely been forgotten by the majority of the ST scene. But he is still here with us, all these years later, and he still continues with his productions.
Then there is Cyrano Jones. He is also a cracker,filer,trainer etc. but he is also a good coder too. He is better known as The Law of The BBC and also of the Unnameables / Automation. He has cracked many games too, and is capable of doing all the usual bits to a game (Filing, Linking, Training etc.) But these days, his role in D-Bug seems to be more that of a coder than a main cracker. He has cracked some games for D-Bug, but these are fewer than you would have imagined from someone of his capabilities. Apparently he has a bit of a problem getting hold of originals and also he is studying at a university currently, so he does not have much time to do cracking. Most of the D-Bug menus were put together by him. I am informed that Hot Knife cracks games and trains them and all the other bits, he then passes them down to Cyrano who proceeds with putting them onto compils and releasing them.
The third member of D-Bug is Iceman. He was formerly known as Apollo of the Guardians Of Logik / Automation. As you may have noticed, they are all ex crew members of Automation. He is a cracker, filer, and has coded a few intros for his former crews (BBC, GOL). He also supplies originals for the group. Most people overseas will not have heard of this guy since he was very inactive in the last couple of years, though to his credit, I must say that he is the only person to have cracked, filed a game called Moon Walker 100% on BBC menu 52, he also coded the full screen intro.
Other people associated with the crew are ;- The Pup, Slammin Mac Daddy. The Pup is their main original supplier and has supplied over 70% of the games on D-Bug productions. Slammin Mac Daddy is the tester for the group. He insures that the menus are working fine. He was also a member of Automation (The Flavor Fave and Stan The Man).
D-Bug always use games that they have cracked themselves. They never use cracks from other crews. But they do use Shareware and PD to fill the space on their disks. All games work 100% and are usually trained and have ram disks too. Bearing this in mind, it would appear to be a big surprise that not many people out in Europe have heard of them. Let me explain. This problem is mainly due to the fact that D-Bug dont care if a game is old. They will still crack any originals they get, no matter how old they are, just as long as they have not been done previously for Automation This leads me to believe that it is the aim of Vapour to crack EVERY game that has ever been released onto the ST. This is a great idea, but unfortunately not many people are interested in cds that contain games that were released many months ago. Most D-Bug cds contain games which are a little old, but which they have cracked recently. These days, most people dont give a shit if a game is 100% and is trained and ram-disked and all the other stuff, they just want new games, and VERY fast too. So they dont care if D-Bug do a version that is much better than everybody elses. Only because the game is now quite old. All the spreaders in this country dont send D-Bug stuff across the English Channel because they know that the menus will have old stuff on them, and that the guys in France will not be interested in swapping them. This is a big shame, when you consider just how good D-Bug stuff is. I for one always send D-Bug stuff to all my contacts. I am one of the few who has had EVERY D-Bug cd. So if people bothered to load up the games on a D-Bug production, they will surely be amazed by the quality, and be safe in the knowledge that everything will always work 100% all the time.
At the time of writing this, D-Bug have made over 70 cds.
I hope many more of you will keep any D-Bug disks that you have, and will try to spread them to others too. They are worth keeping.
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by DEF KLF of MAD VISION
The first ST freaks consisted of crackers and swappers. Demo coders didn't really exist, even if Tsunoo Rhilty for example coded little boots and demos. Tsunoo Rhilty has been for a long time the first french cracker. But shortly afterwards the first two cracking band appears the S.T.C.S. ( S. T. Computer Service ) with Tsunoo Rhilty(the Lord), the CSH ( Cracking Service Havrais) and also a bit later RB/CG with Ratboy, and a few swappers whose Atariking who was in fact a ripper of German cracks. But in reality all the little bands hovered around the STCS.
The ST sales begin taking off. A few new bands and crackers appear... HOFA, A-Team, The ninja, DMA... The first intros are coded.
RB/CG join the STCS which join the Blade Runners.
A real competition begins between the bands.
Finally HOFA join forces with A-Team and The ninja, their new name is THE REPLICANTS.
The Replicants join the Union, and the STCS begin running out of steam.
Little cracking bands appear Spectre, The Black Panthers, Les Nuls, ST cnx. But they enjoyed only a short-lived.
The Overlanders are created. At the time of their birth, the Overlanders were an asociation of little unknows bands. It consisted of more than 70 members, with a few good coders but a majority of rippers ( code rippers but also crack rippers ).
Equinox are one of the best cracking bands thanks to Illegal & to some good intros.
The french Alliance is created. We discover bands like Pendragons, or the black cats...
The Replicants are on the top, S.T.C.S. splits up.
Then, Spectre changes his name for V8 because of troubles with many french freaks who slagged them off.
Several new bands appear: Phenix,HMD, Mad Vision,Fusion...
The Empire (V8, Equinox, Fallen Angels) compete with the Replicants. Impossible to say who really rules.
An ephemeral Alliance is created. It's called The StranGlers, the members are Hemoroids, Fuzion and Impact, they released a few menus.
'The Overlanders'are now 'the new OVR'. They stop ripping, and aren't anymore an association of bands, but a big group with many coders. They are the most famous french coding band, but not yet the most respected.
The cracking scene is fucked up. Every body know how to crack games.Many bands crack games: VMAX, FUZION, FACTORY, BASTARDS, SUPREMACY, RADIATION, ICS... and Snake + R.al of the REPLICANTS are still active !
But nobody can claim to lead the scene.
Active coding bands are countless... LEGACY, OXYGENE, NAOS, UNDEAD, new HMD, DNT crew, VEGETABLES...
In all likelihood, that generation will be on Falcon. That is what we expect.
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by Alpina of TPN
Hi there! After I have read the articles about the French and British Scene in the great first issue of AMAZINE. I also created a report about the scene in Germany. I very hope that I have not forgotten a crew. So please don't blame me if so. I also hope that all I've written is right. No more talking, let's start the show:
At the beginning they cracked games. But then they stopped that, and now they are only doing legal stuff. They have done four good Intro Compils. Then there was their first Megademo called "Bloodsucker". They have also done many Screens in Demos by The German Alliance. After they have released their second Megademo called "Just Buggin". Now, they are one of the best Democrews on the ST!
Their "Great Stuff Compils" are well spread above Europe. They are producing their GSC's very fast. Nearly every week there's a new one with the latest Intros on it.Also they have done more then 10 Disks called "Packer and Tools" with the latest Utils on it but they have stopped producing them. In August 1992 they want to release a Megademo, better to call it Giga-Demo because from what I know it will be on four Disks with many Screens and also a Mag might be included !
"Alexander the great", he has done a normal demo and one Megademo. They are really nice for only one man. I don't know if he's still active.
They have changed their name from Axxis into Aura. Under the old name they had done a Demo called "Symic Demo".I don't know if they had coded more Demos under the Axxis name. After they have changed the name they have released "The World is my Oyster", a very nice Party-Demo. They also release a very nice Musicdisk and it's called 'HIGH FIDELITY DREAMS'.
T'Pau of BAC has done some nice Music Demos called Techno Trance 1+2 & James Brown is dead. That's all I know about them.
The only thing I know about them is that one of them is named "Skinhead" wich I think is not a nice name. I also know that they are from Berlin (good, he?).
They have done many great Screens in the Megademos of the Alliance. Also a Guest-Screen in DF's Punish your Machine is very good. In the past Ford Perfect also has cracked many Games,but now he's only coding great Screens.
I think I must not write much because everybody knows them. After they have stopped cracking they have done two brainblasting Megademos called "Syntax Terror" and "Punish your Machine". Also very important that they have created the famous and best Graphic program called, as everybody knows: "Neochrome Master". Now they also publish Maggie Mag. I heard that they are now working on a Game.
They have done some Gfx-Disks (the last one I have is number six). They are in war with Animal Mine and also we (TPN) are now joining D.I.D. (Detonator is dead).
They are newcomer & will release their Demo on the Atari-Fair this year. Memberlist: Rat, Tramp, Algomyles, Bouncer, Innocence and Udo. Their Theme is: Digitizing at its best! FOXX
R.I.P - They are now working for a software firm. Their last work you can see in the Mindbomb Demo where they have done a Guest-Screen.
I don't know if he is still active. I only know that he left The Union after they have stopped cracking and changed to MCA. Perhaps he's still cracking for them.
R.I.P - I don't know why they are dead. They have released some Font-Compils & coded few Intros. Ex-member Roadwarrior is now joining Zodiac
They have coded many great Screens for Alliance-Megademos. Also they have done many Guest-Screens in other Megademos (f. ex.:European Demos).
Also not much to talk about them as there was an article by TGA in the 1st issue about the history of the crew. They have done nice Compils(but stopped that now) and few nice screens in Megademos. I don't know if their own Demo is released or when it will be released. As I know they split up the crew after the BMT-Party.
They are only STE Coders and have done really nice Screens on it. As you can see above they are also a member of Electricity. They are working on a Megademo.
I only know that they have done a cool screen in "The Year after" Demo by the German Alliance. That's all..
They have done a Party Demo and many other cool Screens. Look out for the Vectronix crack of Trex Warrior.Mr Bond has done the exellent Intro for them!
First they have done some cracks (Bat, Gobliiins and some other). Now they are only coding Demos.They are working on a Megademo.
They have released some nice Demo Compils (more than 15 till now). They have done some Screens for other crews. They are working on a Megademo (Hey Matt! don't kill me that I have written this).
They have done some nice Intro-Compils and Sound-Compils. They have two good Coders and some other guys. Before Freddy joined them, he has done Intro Compils by his own.
Yes! Axe and Jabba of Superior are from Germany! Everybody knows them anyway. Axe has done the famous and best Packer called ICE. Before they founded with FOF Superior, they were well known under the name of Delight.
They are the best! Now they are working for Thalion. There they have done many good Games. I think many people don't know that they are working for Thalion because there are still some people who are cracking their great Games.
They have produced a Logo Compil and a little Demo. You guessed it..they are from Berlin.
They coded nice screens in Demos by the German Alliance.
Yeah ! They have done the very cool Public Enemy Demo with a "Fight the Power" Sample in high quality. Also they have done some single Screens.
They have done some Screens in Demos from the German Alliance. Chris one of the founder is now in ULM.
They have also done some Screens for the German Alliance. I don't know if they still exist.
They coded very good Screens in different Megademos ( Ohh Crickey.., Hackabounds and some other). They are working on a Megademo!
They coded great Screen for the German Alliance. Most of them are done by Cpt. Headcrash.
Yep, that's my group. In December 1991 we've released a little 2 screen Demo. There will be Guest-Screens in the Quartex - Megademo (I hope it will be released?!) and in Impact's Town and Country Megademo. Till now we've 5 members. In the future there will be perhaps (really only perhaps!) a Megademo. Also we've some plans on ATARI's new machine, but I can't tell you more because ATARI kill me if I do.
They are new cracker from Germany. They have cracked Lethal Excess,Trex Warrior and Das 12 Jahrhundert.I think its good that there are new cracker, but I find it's not so good to crack Thalion and Eclipse Games.Please continue your good work, but better not crack Thalion and Eclipse Games (Lethal Excess is done by Mark Rosocha and in the past he was a member of The Gigabyte Crew of TBR!).
They have done a GFA Demo called "The Big Megademo". Now they are coding in Assembler. On the Ce-Bit this year they released a really nice Messe-Demo called "Whiteless Rement".
They have done many cool Screens. One of the best might be the Guest-Screen in ACF's Megademo called Just Buggin. It's a very good Screen! Also they have done some Sounddiscs.
ZODIAC A quite new group. They have released their first product named as "Techno Disk 1" for some weeks. There are Techno-Modules on it. They also want to do a Megademo. Yesterday I recieved a great Party-Demo by them!
That's all. In the end I must say that it was much work and I very hope that nothing is wrong & no crew is missing. And excuse me if there are some English spelling mistakes.
If there are any questions, critics or if I forgot your crew then please contact me under exactly this adress:
TPN POSTLAGERND 3280eleased a little 2 screen Demo. wich I think is not a nice name. I also work, but better not crack Thalion and working on a Megademo! you more because ATARI kill me if I do
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The situation in
In Ireland, most st users have no knowledge of what a rom chip is,or what an assembler is. And most of them can't get a hold of new menus. You see, there is this club ( the only club ) in Ireland situated once a month ( yes, only once a month ) in dublin city centre. Loads of people gather there with their sts hoping to get the latest menus. However,there were only 3 people out of the average 50 who actually had contacts, & they were to scabby to hand out the stuff to new starters. One particular individual goes by the name of blurr and he is head of a group called gravatics. All he does is take other peoples menu code, change it and put other groups cracks on his disk.sometimes,if a game is crap but is really wanted, he'll put it on his own menu and sell it(yes,sell it).one great example of this is final fight. He used ancient menu code and a few coverdisk demos and put the Replicants version of final fight on it. Alright so far...you think. He totally screwed up one level of it during his `brilliant' (ahem) packing but then he sold it to some innocent sod for £2 !!! in fact , not one of his disks he has spread has been perfect.Lemmings (bbc version)crashed every second level Lotus 2 ' s ( Replicants version ) graphics on level 3 crashed beyond belief. On super space invaders ( Replicants again ) you could spend an hour playing it but blurr forgot to put the final file in and guess what ? the ending sequence wasn't there. On his a.d.s disk, he failed to mention it was a meg only, and all half meg owners got a disturbing 8 bombs & the disk rarely worked again once this happened ( a.d.s was an empire crack ( for a change ). on his cybercon 3 ( Elite crack ) disk, it Just did not load. On titus the Fox ( Bastards version ) he blanked 2 levels. But the worst, the absolute lamest menu he ever did was his disk 66 It was on 2 disks. On the first disk there was knights of the sky (Factory). disk a & siegemaster.On the second disk there was vektor soccer ( Factory as well ) & knights disk b. vektor soccer worked once in a psycadelic moon and knights of the sky's world war one,only worked by correcting some different things on the disk. but for the average punter,correcting these things would be like automation's ressurection.
Practically impossible. Now that our group,conspiracy is out, we hope that no-one will ever have to see the crap he has dished out ever again. I have pity for all groups cracks he has used & abused on his menus and pity for all the sods who copy them or pay for them. Things will be different from now on. Conspiracy is here.
Maybe one day Blurr might get his act together. Then again, maybe one day disks might fly.
The other 2 people who are mega scabby to beginners aren't as bad at all as blurr. They at least won't screw around with menus or paste their own name on them or worse, sell them.
I do hope you other groups getting this issue of amaZine have found this file interesting and if you would like to contact me, or the rest of the worthy members of Conspiracy W h o ? (the great),Roz,Slash or Shadow write to this address Belonging to a good friend & basically member of the group:
J.Carton Macetown Mulhuddart Dublin 15 Ireland.
See you next issue ( hopefully ) on the latest news from ireland.
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By COINCIDENCE OF IMAGINA !
Huuhhmm... The Norwegian ST-SCENE, ok one thing is for sure. It's far to small. Anyway, the big groups in Norway are really good. Groups like O.U.C.H (or U.S.C.H. Sorry, an inside joke.) and IMAGINA!!!! ( That's us! )
NASA is also a Norwegian group, but they are very innactive at the moment (So are many other groups in Norway.)
Since the Norwegian ST-SCENE is so small (It's a small country too.) I'll write a little about O.U.C.H and IMAGINA, the main crews.
O.U.C.H is the oldest group. (I think..) O. U. C. H has released a BUNCH of nice demos. They were the best group in Norway........... The visualizers ( The same guys that is in O.U.C.H ) had a screen in the classic SO-WHAT DEMO. That screen was pretty nifty. Besides that they have recently released a music disc featuring Wizz cat's great playrout. Sad for O.U.C.H that Wizzcat and Hackbear joined DELTA-FORCE. O.U.C.H has also released a whole bunch of demos that hasn't been that well spread. But never underestimate theze guys. They'll come when you least expect it. Ok, IMAGINA (YEAH!)is the current no.1 group in Norway. Things have been getting better and better from the day we released our first demo . Kultur- melk. This was a KAOS kind of demo. (You know, the kaos demo in BUDBRAIN 1 on the AMIGAARGH.) Anyway, this was a very original demo when it was released. That was before ZONK\OCWS. This demo should bee very well spread. (If not you can blame our swappers!!! ) After that IMAGINA released a small old source compile called ..STINK.. A very suitable name. Nahh, it wasn't that bad. These two demos wasn`t that good. After Kultur melk i (Coincidence) decided to make one of the best STE demos in Scandinavia. So i, Lt . ear- wax and Djan did. Coincidence-code. Lt. earwax-musix and Djan gfx. The result was X-PLOTION. A really ok\good demo. We got a hell of a lot good responds on it. It really warmed our hearts. At the same time, we released a CUTE christmas demo. Both of these demos should be very well spread. If you havn't got any of our demos, write to the address way down in this text. IMAGINA has arranged one party. This was a fairly successfull party with about 100-120 people atten- ding. The next year we held a party together with O.U.C.H. Not many people attended this party, just about 60-70 people. But everyone after the party agreed that it was one of the funniest party`s ever held.We had a great time. This year IMAGINA and the Norwegian part of Delta Force (Wizzcat etc.) will hold another party. Thiz time at the 7.th to the 9.th of August in Norway. For this reason Imagina has released 2 party invitation demos. If you want them you can write to the address down low. This year we have gotten some very good responds on our party. Many big groups will attend. We have gotten answers from Norway, England, Sweden, France, Finland and Germany.
Well, maybe i have written a little to much about Imagina, but who cares. Anyway, i must say that you should try to get a hold of OUR next demo. The demo is called "Cozmic Jam" and will be released sometime in June or July. It'll come to a mailbox near you. (A 100% STe demo!!!!)
Ok, i know that there are a couple of new ST-groups in Norway. Why can't we all join up and make one hell of a UNION???? It would be great to have a strong Norwegian DEMO UNION!!!!!!!!
If there are any Norwegian groups out there wanting to contact us, please write to the address below.
Ok, i have a feeling,this is enough. Allright then, HASTA LA VISTA BABY!!!!! (AMAZINE RULEZ.)
Write to: Coincidence of IMAGINA Schweigaards g.54. 0656 Oslo 6 Norway.
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written by Redzone/Syndicate
A new organisation called SIMP, which translated to english stands for: Game-distributors interrest-unity against software-piracy, or in Swedish Spelprogramleveratorernas intresse- forening mot piratkopiering.
The unity will cooperate with the Swedish police, and they have already gained success in their point of view by busting Sweden's most famous board Guru's dream, sysoped by Snuskbuske of Dual Crew, on the Amiga. Also some other commercial and non-commercial boards have been shut down or busted.
The unity will also inform the swedish police about the copyright laws, as crime against these laws are not in high priority. (It normal common sense to put crimes against copyright in second priority when there are crimes as armed robbery, assasins, raping etc. etc. Me personally see no reason of why we shouldn't keep crimes against the copyright laws in 2nd hand in the future too...)
The unity mainly conmcentrate on commercial pirates, but it seems like they are also interrested in the bigger non-selling swappers. Hopefully they will not pay any bigger attention to the Atari ST crews, as there is no real bigshots in this scene, compared to the Amiga scene.
They've also got two telephone lines, on for information about the unity: +46 (0) 8 236(censored by AMAZINE) and a second one for informing the unity about software pirates: +46 (0) 8 642(censored by AMAZINE)
The unity says that they are ready to give out some kind of reward to the ones who give enough information in order to get any software-pirate busted. They also seem very sure of success and are very sure of that they will limit the software-piracy in Sweden a lot. There will be information sheets in all software shops around Sweden, and a top to bottom translation will be available as soon as I get my hand on that info sheet.....
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by REDZONE / SYNDICATE
THE CAREBEARS is now three guys only ( Nick, An Cool and Tanis )... Tanis did quite nice graphics for some screens in Punish Your Machine, and I suppose you all got An Cool's throw-up demo, M3 DEMO.. Which is well... ODD ! But nothing more...
OMEGA may be considered as no.1 in Sweden, as they've won the demo- compo at all major parties the past 2 years... They won the TT at the Electra Mega Leif party in example. They WILL make a megademo, and from what I've understood, it will be STE only...
ELECTRA did a quite good comeback with their screen for Punish Your Machine, and their last production on the ST(E) will be an STE 1 meg only demo.... They are in the Union now, if anyone missed it....
UNIT 17 is a group with members from the swedish cities Sundsvall and Vasteras.. They are great MIDI and hardware freaks ( like your eproms !! ) They only make stuff on the STE and TT and are maybe most well known for their EPSS player, and the Dynamite demo (present on Syndicate #67)...
FINAL SPACECODERS is a part of the GRC alliance, and Mr. Fletch their main coder, is now working on finishing making their demo... They also have a swapper named Loonie, who enjoys to drink ethanole AND methanole... (Dar fick du allt KANEL-ORJAN hehe...)
SOTE is a young group, you've maybe seen their screen in Punish Your Mach. Lobo is good gfx-kid, and Illegal Exception is their best (?) coder... The group seem to have a lot of members, none of them above 15...
FLEXICHRON is an alliance, and there are members like FRONTLINE ( Hi Raz and Nero ! ) who make STE demos, INVIZIBLES ( the ones that made the maggie 8 v2.0 intro ) and some other not so wellknown swedish groups.
I.C.E is a group from the same town as Omega, Gothenburg, they are mainly making STE demos.... The members seem to be very few and young.
LYNX is known for some earlier screens which have been quite well spread on the bbs over the continent, seem to be inactive for the mo. but we all hope that ya will release something cool someday... ( When BigMac's learn how to speak )...
Then on to the delight... SYNDICATE... The most northern group of all in Suede and maybe the best too ( hohoho )... We are currently working on the last big product on the ST from us, our demo called 'If pigs could fly'. Even though we are considering renaming it to 'If frenchies could play football' Hah! (Just joking Spy 3 !)...
Well, this article is going to make a sum up of the swedish illegal scene... Even though it is quite small there is still some braindamaged bastards who is cracking and packing games..
The oldest now living group in this scene is THE SYNDICATE.. They've made well over 82 compact disks, some of them are also legal, like 75, 80 etc. And the DELICIOUS DISK pack serie is one of the most odd ones around.. And they are also brewing our delicate 'Syndicate cider' (8%), which is very good to get drunk on. They rarely crack anything, and our latest crack was Populous II, so you maybe get it.
The (mainly) Swedish section of ELITE called SCSI ( or... Swedish Cracking Service Incorporated )... SCSI is also the name of a harddisk interface, and that prooves some things about the imagination that the founders got. They have mainly ex ICS members in the crew like KRS ONE ( original supplier ), ZAPHOD ( hardware phreak, pyromaniac, ex - Syndicate member, and a not so good cracker.. ) , TROED ( also known as RED FOX of SYNC ), who seem to help Zaphod with cracking, but he has now be kicked out. ZODIAC, who spread one of their intros, which were not supposed to be spread. He's also been in the Syndicate, and the reason of why we kicked him, may seem understandable. PRIMAL SUSPECT is another cracker, and is also known as Illegal Exception of S.O.T.E, and WtP is another Syndicate ex member who is without no doubt the best cracker in the group, but Zaphod wants all the fame for himself so he doesn't seem to want to share the originals with him I think there is also a danish modemtrader and some other dudes, but I am not sure..
| Amazine: They finally changed their | | name for SECTION 1. |
Deflect is a one member (!) group, and the only member is Emling, ex Syndicate ( Onixus ), ICS , Awesome etc. etc. Anyway he's released 5 cd's but don't seem to have bothered to spread them very much....
G.R.C is an alliance of a lot of not so good swedish groups. One of the better is T.F.S. ( Final Spacecoders ) and they've released the GRC pack disk serie which up to this date contains of 10 disks, but always seem to have mainly old stuff on the disks, so none of them are very well spread.
Force 69 is the last group, which is the same guys as in Tripple H, mainly the 3 or 4 Hammarin brothers and their papa... Most known of these guyz should be Mr. Terry (ex ICS member) etc. at least known by most of the modemtraders.
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The History of the group...
by REDZONE/TSC
Once upon a time when I ( Redzone! ) bought an ABC80, it was a superb computer, with a delicious cpu called Z80, yes the same as used in cool computers like the ZX Spectrum series, the SVI318/328 a nd the MSX series. But what the helvete has this to do with the history of the Syndicate ??? Well, during my period as an ABC80-wacko I got in contact with an guy with a big stomach and a lot of cassettes with GAMES!!! He will later on be known as 'MAVERICK' ( But the stomach seems to slowly disappear! Magic! ). Anyway I had some games too, and we exchanged software ( swapping wasn't invented then!).
Time passed I massacrated my ABC80 and bought an MSX compu called SVI728 which I liked quite a lot, even though the cassette recorder was a pile of camelshit, and after loads of nervous breakdowns due to loads of alignment problems with the tonehead I finally bought a....
ATARI 520STFM! 21 games was included in the package... Classix as Wizball, Ranarama, Arkanoid, Populous II etc. (Subtract the last one, I was only fooling around a little bit while peeling an apple between the.. ehrm..) Wow and I also tried to copy Summer Olympiad with the GEM. Everybody who have tried to copy a game with GEM must know that the attempt was doomed to failure. I got to know an other ST owner, who will later be known as 'FRAZER'. I copied Xevious from him. Shit game in my opinion, but thanks for the fish anyway!
Well well well, somehow I got to know about that 'MAVERICK' was an ATARI 520STM owner, with loads and loads and loads and loads of disks filled with games, utilities, demos ( not so many demos though). I called him up and visited him. As I had drawn some fonts, which I then thought was quite good, I brought a gfx disk of mine... 'MAVERICK' told me about a group that was going to be f ormed and mainly do compact disks.He introduced me to a guy who was a coder named 'QJO',and another 'swapper' ( storager in my opinion ) called 'CYBORG'...
Then we formed the REANIMATORS...
Members were 'CYBORG', 'ICEMAN', 'QJO' and me 'REDZONE'.. 'MAVERICK' wasn't included because of sum personal misfit between him and 'CYBORG'. Anyway we started to make compact disks, but the first ones weren't very well spreaded as 'ICEMAN', the main swapper in the group had only 3-4 contacts.. ( in ex. the good old M.C.A, Svensson and TRIPPLE H). Anyway we got in contact with 'THE REPLICANTS' ( thru nExT ), which, at that time,were the dominators of the cracking scene. We got some fast supplies of hot warez, and consequently we got more spreading of our compact disks. Through different channels a french cd crew ' IMPACT' got hold on ICEMANs addy and they were the first ones who wrote us. We was then contacted by an english crew called 'F.O.F.T' which once upon the time was a real great group. ( But not when they contacted us..). After a while we got very sick of CYBORG who was acting more and more like as he was some kind of superior of us.So we kicked that mother out. Instead we asked 'FRAZER' who was doing music in the ( at the moment available ) musicprograms called 'NOISETRACKER' and 'TCB TRACKER'. We also asked 'MAVERICK' to join, and 'ICEMAN' changed his handle to 'DR WEZ' The production was rolling on and so on and in the winter of 1990, a crew from sweden called PUBLIC ENEMIES contacted us as they wanted to make a cooperation between them and us. IMPACT was also interrested in the cooperation and we decided to call the cooperation 'THE SYNDICATE'. When this did happen an old friend of mine who called himself 'MIG' had bought an ATARI ST, and started coding on it, so he joined of course. Another guy who joined was BEAST, at dis moment he was a skateboarding freak who made tracker music. THE REANIMATORS was still a group, but in under the Syndicate label, but we stopped our own pack-serie at the number of 26. Instead there were a pack-serie for THE SYNDICATE, called Delicious Disks. We also started on some other projects as INTRO PACKS and STOLEN DATA DISKS. The first DELICIOUS DISK was the BIG BOOM for the groups. Never before had we got such a response. Giants as 'AUTOMATION', 'BAD BOYS' etc. contacted us !! Well, this disk was containing the fastest releases from us so far, but maybe more important, it had a VERY stylish menu, it wasn't advanced but very cool anyway.
The SYNDICATE cooperation grew bigger and later some crews called 'VMAX', 'TCR' and 'MJJ PROD' joined too. But first we had to kick out IMPACT who were very good at messing things up. They were releasing disks too early etc all the time. During a short session we had a dutch member in the REANIMATORS called METALION,but he went over to the PC (hrmpf!) so we lost him.Anyway 'TCR' splitted and in the same time 'VMAX' left, and 'MJJ PROD' was kicked out. Now even worse,the PUBLIC ENEMIES died, as there was too many inactive members, but out of the ashes rised HORIZON, a 3 member crew who joined the SYNDICATE.. But when the only coder in HORIZON, called 'WTP' left, HORIZON died. ONIXUS of HORIZON joined THE REANIMATORS, but now there were only one crew in THE SYNDICATE. Quite a strange cooperation, eh? We desperately searched for a crew, which had got a cracker in it, and we found T.L.T (or THE LIGHT TEAM). So now there were two crews in the SYNDICATE anyway.. One of ONIXUS friends called RATON joined the gang a little bit later. However ONIXUS became more and more dodgy as he had got some real important contacts and didn't want to share his software with the rest of us, so we kicked him out,and as he was one of the founders of the SYNDICATE he was really shocked.(BUT IT WAS FUN!!). But.. A lot of members of T.L.T left, some joined S.O.T.E, so TLT died, and OMNICHRON was formed out of some of the exTLT members OMNICHRON joined the ranks...
However,as ZAPHOD of OMICHRON/SYNDICATE was a very good phreaker, he made the first bluebox on the Atari ST,and as we was calling worldwide for free,we got 3 support boards in the United States, which was very valuable for us! During this time we got VERY many members, including the Sysops we were upto 20!!! Anyway RATON got inactive so he was kicked out,and after a while I got very disappointed with the support we was given by the boards. So when we reached DELICIOUS DISK 50, we made a real member-razzia. Earlier QJO had decided to stop coding ( sniff sniff ), DR WEZ stopped due to the birth of his second child, unt so weiter.
When releasing DELICIOUS DISK 50, we had kicked all sysops, all OMNICHRON members, etc. and we finally closed down THE REANIMATORS and continued as THE SYNDICATE - the crew edition -. 1 frenchie 'ANTIRIAD' joined us, and one of my friends 'NIBBLER' joined more or less officially. And we was at this moment 6 members... Who was.. MIG, REDZONE, BEAST, FRAZER, NIBBLER and ANTIRIAD. DISK 50 was intented to be our last ILLEGAL release,but somehow it changed.Later ZAPHOD rejoined the group . Jebbla engelska. Anyway, another frenchie called 'ZAK'joined to continue the DELICIOUS DISK DEVELOPMENT, and so he did.. After some time WTP rejoined, I don't know why, but he did. We are now mainly working on demos,and we have made screens for a forthcoming mega- demo, by INNER CIRCLE Da screen we made is the same as we used for the democomp at the TCB party '91.We're also working on an demo by ourselves that should be out in the end of August. ECSTASY, a well known ex-member of the Replicants (note from def klf: You mean Ruthless?) joined our group, and he was our first Uk member and the only one so far. He had to leave later due to some internal problems. At the moment. 'ZAK' was also member of the LIGHTNINGS, a sleepy french crew, but under the handle 'SLAYER',and finally he decided to have the same handle in both groups.Later on a friend of SLAYER, called "BABYDOCK" joined as a cracker. And finally 'RICARDO DA FORCE' another french mate joined. And a couple of days the SYNDICATE released our first intro on the commodore amiga, coded by the NIBBLER. We made this because 4 of us has got amiga-burkar. jebbla engelska. And we though it would be a good way of getting some more contax on that crazy computer. Nowadays... NIBBLER got inactive in the scene and left, so did SLAYER, BABYDOCK and OGGE.. CRIONICS a french guy joined the group 2 pack some and swap a little.A friend of the group named WITCHDOCTOR joined the group to produce the first diskmagazine on the PC.
SUMMARY OF WHAT WE'VE MADE DURING THE SYNDICATE ERA
.. We're upto DELICIOUS DISK 82, And I am planning to put more and more demo stuff on them, instead of illegal stuff. There is actually a couple of 50% legal and 100% legal disk out already...Like 67,75,80,82
.. The main force is the four from the north.. also known as...MIG (code), REDZONE (graphics), FRAZER (music), BEAST (music). Without us in the group there wouldn't be any group.
.. 3 Demoscreens has been made. ('2 fill or not to fill' - first vectordemo, will be included in INNER CIRCLE's forthcoming megademo named 'GENETIX' ) ('2500 dots circlescroller, will be in the (maybe) forthcoming ARMADA megademo named 'WHOCARES') - This project is CLOSED! But the screen is finished ('Plasmania' - a plasmademo, were supposed to be in our cooperation demo with HOTLINE uk), but the project is closed! But the screen is finished... Perhaps it will appear in some other megademo.... .. INTRO COMPILATIONS/PACKS(Almost 4got 'em as we've stopped at 10, as said the future DELICIOUS DISK may be containing more demo stuff.)
.. STOLEN DATA DISKS (An old chapter, stopped at 4...)
.. A COUPLE OF CRACKS ( Gods, Robotz, Populous II,at the mo. less than 5.)
MEMBERS ARE NOW...
Sweden....
.. MIG - coding
.. REDZONE - gfx and organising, swapping too. .. FRAZER - music
.. BEAST - music
.. MAVERICK - swapping and a little koding
France...
.. CRIONIC - packing and swapping.
.. ANTIRIAD - swapping (on the amiga)
.. R.D.F - swapping (on the amiga)
and maybe a german dude soon... (or wottya say yazelph?)
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by GANSTER / MAD VISION
First of all, thanks to Time Warp for getting in touch with us.
Also a message to Special FX :- Hey guys, just because you did not get a mention on the last issue, does not mean that you have to get sarcastic. All you need to do is to get in touch with me (Gangster) and tell me about your crew. Look at Time Warp - Dr Bad Vibes made the effort to contact me, so there is no excuse for you not to do so either. You read the article, therefor you know the address to write to - so go for it ! I'm waiting for a response, so don't let me down - okay !
Okay, here we go again...
This crew has now made about 20 cd's. Unfortunately, due to a personal tragedy, their most active guy was taking a rest from the scene. Other guys are carrying on the work. Main coding is done by The Monster Beetle. Recently a cracker joined them - he was known previously as Matrix from Thunder Force. He has already cracked a couple of games for Adrenalin. This crew has a lot going for them if they can utilise their new member for doing some filed versions of raw data games - something which their nearest rivals seem to be incapable of (Hello Matt!). If they can step up their operations, and get hold of a quality intro coder, then they can go all the way to the top and start knocking on the doorstep of D-Bug and the Pompey Pirates. They kicked out a member called the Eskimo recently. He is better known to you all as Ruthless!
An average menu making crew. I have not seen many of their productions. Could M.Thompson please contact me again, as I've lost your address.
Nothing known - Get in touch if you want a mention guys !
Quattro of Cynix is the main dude behind this crew. Now that he has joined Cynix, I have not seen any more productions from them. To their credit, I must say that they are the only crew I've seen who managed to get 'Vengence Of Excalibur' onto a menu. Hey Neil, give me some info !
Yes the best British cracking crew are still alive about 10 months after their birth. They have 3 crackers who are ;- Sky Walker, Super Nova and The Milky Bar Kid (Or which ever name he has chosen currently). They are one of the best cracking crews in the world because their stuff always works and is always cracked well.
See elsewhere in this mag for a more detailed look at this crew. But let me just briefly state that they have made nearly 70 cd's at the time I write this article. They still have the basic 3 members, with originals coming in from the usual 3 guys.
They make disks with PD and other (apparently) non-illegal stuff on them. Get in touch with me please guys !
Not a lot to be said about this bunch. I still dont know much about them. They wrote an intro for Special FX (Used on SFX #66), but thats all I know ! So get in touch with me guys !
They are now undeniably dead. The main coder (Gor) has gone on to the Amiga. Lawz was briefly involved with Mad Vision, but seems to be quite content not being in any groups now. The other active member - Remerez still has the drive and ambition ; but sadly lacks the manpower and assistance of the rest of the crew. They will still be in everyones memory for a long time to come due to that classic intro which involved Ruthless ; a piece of shit ; and several sheep ! In fact, Remerez has now joined Pure Energy.
Nothing known at all, so get in touch with me please.
Never seen any of their cd's but I've heard that they make menus of games. Get in touch.
The nearest and dearest rivals of Adrenalin. They have about 16 members, of whom only 3 are active !! this must be a world record (Even the Pompey Pirates have less inactive guys! -sorry Alien, just joking!!). Okay, on the whole, Pure Energy cd's look very nice - they have a good coder named Penguin (Not the same as Animal Mine), they have a quite good gfx guy. Between these 2 members, they produce great looking cd's. They have done over 28 at the time of this article. They are still the fastest menu making crew in Britain due to their contacts in larger cracking crews. Until Adrenalin came up with a cracker, they were virtually unchallenged as the 'best of the rest'. Now they must work harder and kick out inactive members, and get hold of a cracker/filer, if they want to stay at the top.
The best menu crew in the world. Every game works 100%, and there are full docs for them too. Quite interesting scroll texts and very nice piccys of aircraft too. The catch ? - well, you normally have to wait for one hell of a long time before they release a menu. They were getting very slow. Mind you - they released menus 100 -109 within 4 weeks of each other (which is a world record for them) so they are picking up a little bit now. They lost 2 members to the PC side of their group and are now left with just the one cracker/coder - guess who ? Fuzion are faster ; Syndicate have better intros - but the Pompeys have the one thing that counts more; quality
Otherwise known as the PDPC. They make cd's with purely public domain and shareware software on them. Very nice idea. They have currently made over 20 such disks crammed with more PD than you ever saw on an Awesome menu ! Unfortunately, the intros that they use are not usually STE compatible. They dont seem to have an intro coder, and they certainly dont need a cracker ! Basically, their disks are not very pretty to look at, and the graphics could do with a facelift, BUT the important thing is that the disks contain good stuff (even if it is PD), which is more than can be said for many 'main-stream' cd crews. Hey Grim Reaper get yourself a decent intro coder and gfx man, and then your disks will most certainly be appreciated by everybody !
Oh dear, oh dear! where can I possibly start writing about this crew? Who out there has not heard of Quartex? They are possibly the best known crew recently, due entirely to the exploits of one infamous member - Extreme. Need I continue with this ? Okay then ; they somehow 'cracked' many games which had NO PROTECTION on them (All Impressions games for example) and many games which had absolutely SHIT protection. Whilst in this sad crew, Extreme was also sending his originals to other crews like Cynix, Hotline, D-Bug, Fuzion, Superior, Pompey Pirates etc etc. I'm sorry, I just can't carry on with this article - I'm feeling really sick, and I feel like throwing up every time I try to write the name Extreeeerrrgghh hgggh!!! - oh shit, I've just puked all over the keyboard ! I definately can't carry on now !
Strange naming a menu crew after the name of a hip hop/house band. I have seen only one of their disks. It appears that they don't have a coder or a cracker. They just seem to make cd's.
A fairly new menu making crew. Their members are named after safari animals - Lion etc. Nothing much to say about these guys ; no coder or cracker. Get in touch please.
SFX, a crew known very well for their boot block ! - it has a kind of scroll text telling you that you are free of viruses etc. They make cd's with games, and the occasional utility too. I have to admit that the utilities that they put on their disks are ones which I (even) have not seen previously ! They made one particularly interesting intro with nasty comments to Truthless, and a sampled voice saying 'Truthless' ! Their cd's don't spread as well as the other two crews who are in their league (Adrenalin and Pure Energy) but, they are still pretty well known in the U.K.
Nothing known about this crew, except that Matrix (a guy who supplied many originals, first to Mad Vision, and then to Fuzion) has left and is now a member of Adrenalin.
Formerly known as Wild ! Boys, or The Wild ! Boys Cracking Crew. I can only presume that they changed their name because it 'clashed' with the demo crew of the same name. To be honest, I have only ever seen one of their really old cd's. But it had a nice intro on it that was coded by a group member - this is a welcome change from most crews who get their intros coded by someone in a demo crew or a bigger cd crew. Please contact me.
To summarise, in my opinion the best crews in Britain are :-
1. Cynix 2. Pompey Pirates 3. D-Bug 4. Pure Energy 5. Adrenalin
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