Where the C64-piracy really came
Black disks, and selbstgelocht stuffed with pirated games: for millions
of teenagers in the eighties schoolyard number one commodity exchange.
But where did all the cracked games come from? Christian Stocker
explains - in his book "Nerd Attack". An excerpt.
I got my Commodore 64, C64 briefly, on my eleventh birthday, 1st
February 1984. He received an honorary place in the corner between a top
to bottom with advertising stickers adorned wardrobe book and the gas
heater in our old childhood room table with its scratched and painted
pine board. My computer corner looked like a brightly colored children's
room version of one of those cubicles in which to spend those modern
open-plan office workers their working days. Above the television hung a
painted picture of the robber himself Hotzenplotz with seven knives and
a pistol in his belt.
Arithmetically was in 1994, the last in which the C64 has not yet
produced in more than one tenth of a German household, he has sold in
Germany alone, about three million times until today, the computer is
the best selling computer in history. De facto, should the density in
West Germany, much higher, in the then actually have the new federal
states in the east it must have been considerably lower - though garage
sales at Aldi and other discounters in the early nineties, ensured that
the children of the former East Germany could still get a C64 if they
wanted. Karstadt sold a "Terminator 2 Edition", including joystick,
drive, play the movie and image of Arnold Schwarzenegger on the box for
600 D-Mark. And the "Action Box" by source campaigned more or less
explicitly with the possibilities to quickly buy a pirated games. In
addition to the drive and a few games, you were ten blank disks at - and
a lockable box with space for hundreds of floppy piece.
Illegal sub-culture, founded by teenagers
Copies were then also at the source and Karstadt. Because the children
who did make to the time of the devices were already much experienced
than any salesperson, it was to load no problem for them, from one
brought disk copy program in the computer's memory and then from the
copy released, "cracked "versions of the game to copy from one disk to
another. This had to be original and blank floppy disk into the drive
repeatedly pushed alternately, also rattled and hummed the floppy disk
drive 1541 clearly audible. The seller, however, either do not
understand what was going on - or they did not care.
The illegal subculture of crackers and copiers, which developed quickly
in the environment of the C64 was almost completely carried out under
exclusion of an adult public. Neither parents nor sellers could really
imagine what these eleven or thirteen-year-old boys because actually
hired - and that it sometimes copied in a single afternoon games on the
retail value of more than 100 D-Mark.
(Crack of "to crack"), the term cracker was built in the early eighties,
to denote someone who was so good with computers, he could also copy
software, which was not released for copying. We, the beneficiaries of
this scene, spent long afternoons, and the groans of tacking to listen
1541st
Elite crackers with white socks and fuzz on his upper lip
How many crackers and Swapper it was actually in Germany is not to be
reconstructed. Presumably there were only a few hundred, maybe a few
thousand. Of their voluntary work but benefited millions. On almost any
of the millions of German households in C64 was played. On almost every
occasion, at least one black copy on most of little else.
According to current law, the cracker groups, organized criminals.
Copyright law prohibits the deliberate removal of vehicle now explicitly
technical copy protection measures. In the eighties, the legal situation
was less clear, and hardly felt really threatened one of the crackers or
the beneficiaries of cracker activity.
Looking at photos of the scene meeting of the eighties, it can not
detect a hard hitting techno-avant-garde with elite status. The 16 -, 17
-, 18-year-old boys in the pictures, some of them were already
international legends look like, how nerds looked in the eighties just:
they wear spandex pants, as well as white socks and slippers or
sneakers, they have blow-dried styles and fuzz on his upper lip, they
smile nicely at the camera. The first of the now legendary parties of
the cracker group "Radwar" in 1988, which took place in a disco, came on
a professional Michael Jackson and an amateur Prince impersonator, also
organized by the local jeans shop, a fashion show. The party still
available on-line report noted, the amateur was the better of the two
and have been invited to several encores were.
"Dynamic Duo", "Eagle Soft" - and why they painted Stamps
At the same time took place in London first acid house parties in the
United States dismantled bands like Sonic Youth and the Pixies rock 'n'
roll into its components and paved the way for grunge. Hip pop culture
in the sense of the crackers were never - and yet they were on their way
to the vanguard of her generation.
The mass of C64 owners who were so far away from the seemingly
inexhaustible sources of free software like games my friends and I knew
just the strange code names and acronyms with which these groups and
their members decked. The "Dynamic Duo" consisted of the "executor" and
"The Dark Angle", the "Deutsch Cracking Service" (GCS) from "CAHO",
"MAM", "Snoopy" and "UGS". The nickname should be the respective sound
cool and mysterious, they also offer some protection from persecution.
Many consisted of only three letters, because so many could usually
enter into the high-score lists of games.
A good crack was better than the original
Names such as "Dynamic Duo" or "ABC cracking" became miniature brands
with their own look. The extremely active group "Eagle Soft
Incorporated" (ESI) from the U.S. knew about cracked games for a while
with an image-filled logo, the head of a bald eagle holding a 5 ¼-inch
floppy disk in its beak. Any C64 owner knew the eagle's head, he was a
seal of approval.
In many groups, there was soon a clear division of labor: The copy
protection cracker here, the demo-maker there. The latter developed the
often computationally very expensive opening credits, which were placed
before the copy protection from liberated games. A "high-quality crack"
had to offer besides a nice demo and a flawless copy also other
advantages, "coach" for example: it offered the player the opportunity
to make his character invulnerable or to give unlimited ammo. Today,
such "cheats" built into some of the game companies themselves. They
were invented by the crackers, which provided so that their copies
actually offered more than the original.
"The receiver sends back the stamps to the sender"
Over time, additional roles were added: "Supplier" were responsible for
the emergence of new creative originals, "swapper" for the sharing of
cracked software via mail and later via modem. To "fixer" programs to
fit the TV standard on both sides of the Atlantic, PAL and NTSC, so real
professional work performed. Free of charge, of course. Many top teams
were also "copy slaves", who took over the tiresome swapping diskettes
to copy cracked games.
Because all of the many sending envelopes full of money went into the
fast disks, the contrived Swapper ways to save the postage. A typical
method of describing the Australians with the scene name "annual
rendez-vous": "It covers pasted the stamps with a thin layer of glue
Wait until the dry, they open the envelope and throws it on the receiver
sends back the stamps to the sender.. ". The glue and thus the printed
postmark could be easily removed, then re-use the stamps.
There were also a number of other tricks: instead of glue used some hair
spray Swapper certain varieties, other tinkered with high postage stamps
themselves by cut-outs from the low-order zeros machine stamps and other
aufklebten. Swapper received a certain risk, because stamp fraud is a
criminal offense, of course, and in many post offices began to be
quickly aware of the "painted" or counterfeit trademarks. Many a German
swapper landed in front of the prosecutor, because had accumulated
sacks, in his local post office addressed to him too-slick broadcasts
with stamps.
The cracker scene around the best-selling computer of all time was the
first international techno subculture, a complex, decentralized, highly
efficient system, formed and maintained largely by impoverished
teenagers. This took an amazing amount of the advance, the Internet was
later brought into the mainstream. They created concepts, categories,
and sign systems, which are still in use today - even if hardly anyone
knows its origin.
This text is an excerpt from strong Christian Stocker Nerd Attack! A
history of the digital world from C64 up to Twitter and Facebook - A
MIRROR-book. DVA, 320 pages, € 14.99.
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