An interview with Subzero of Skid Row
Subzero was the main original supplier for the cracking group Vision Factory, and more famously known to the Amiga underground scene as one third of the trio known as SSR (Subzero, Selim and Rudi). SSR were famous for supplying games for the famous Amiga cracking group Skid Row from Germany in the early 1990s.
Vision Factory
I don't recall the name Subzero being mentioned as a supplier on Vision Factory cracks. Did you use a different handle back then?
During the early BBS days, I supplied incognito because I was active in developing and producing Amiga games for my sister's company. I am guessing without my originals, there would not have been a Vision Factory!
Were there times that multiple new games were released the same day, and you had to get them all cracked?
Yes I remember there were days where we got more than 2 or 3 originals, like in the earlier days in Vision Factory. We started from Cologne (by car to Holland) with 3 games in our package, 1 we just uploaded and released, and 2 which were unreleased, and got released at our party in Venlo. The games were Kick Off and Microprose Soccer. I do remember because I still own those originals pahaha! Ahwell time flies by?! At that time most of the freaks still did post swapping, because modems were expensive and all.
Can you please elaborate a little on what happened with Vision Factory?
Well Vision Factory was closed, because the original founder Marco Polo (who did most cracks) left the scene, and at that time, only FFC was cracking. He learned a lot from Marco Polo but was far away from his abilities...
Anyhow, we tried with a couple of co-op releases with The Company (as they had a paycracker called Ralph) and their leader was also a local dude. But that didn't work out well, they missed too many originals coming from me and a lot more. Also Marco Polo wanted to have Vision Factory closed, so we closed, and I started something new - Skid Row!
Skid Row
Who were the original members in Skid Row when you formed?
That was me together with The Hellion and Metallica (still a good local friend!), and we had FFC and Eurosoft at the beginning cracking for us, as well as the very talented dude from Denmark, Blackhawk, who also did a lot of quality work.
What does FFC actually stand for? Some scene members have told me it's Full Fat Chicken, others Fuckin' Fast Cracks. Are either of those correct?
Full fat chicken we called him when we met, because he was fat, and mostly like a girly (chicken even lol), but FFC stands for Full Force Cracking.
Did you all live closeby?
We were all locals except for FFC. Myself, Metallica, Marco Polo, Brainwalker etc - all lived just a few kilometers away.
Where did all the original suppliers obtain their games from? From what I've heard, it sounds like many groups used the same place.
They all got 'em from LeisureSoft, and another distributor in the UK called GEM. We (SSR) Germans also got 'em from LeisureSoft (and others). The Germans were often faster, or more accurately, got it 1 day earlier because my girlfriend (at that time) worked at LeisureSoft, and also my sister had a software company and store. Therefore, it was mostly just a couple of calls, like checking out if something is new, if yes, calling Rudi/Selim to pick it up from the distributor, and from the distributor he directly delivered the originals to FFC.
When you have the original disk in your possession, it's a huge advantage over only having a disk image due to the fact that some games had tricky protections that could not be written back to disk. What happened in cases where FFC was unavailable (or had too many tough games to crack at the same time) and the remote crackers would not be able to write a working version of the game back to floppy disk?
If there was more than one game released per day, we warped the other one to our other crackers. If there were tricky protections, we had Eurosoft; he wrote a warper for them in no time!
A rumour was spread that Eurosoft had some special floppy drive which spun at a slower rate than normal Amiga disk drives, and this allowed him to write back longtrack protected games without any problem. Any idea if that was true?
Haha, total bollocks, can only be a rumour!
What kind of job did FFC have that would allow time to crack the games, tack on an intro and upload it before other groups? (I can only imagine that unemployed people would be able to do such a task, unless Skid Row had crackers on standby all around the world in different timezones etc!)
Well he didn't have a job at that time as far as I can remember. Also he didn't have much to do with intros. The intro texts were mainly edited by myself while he was cracking the game, or even while Rudi was on the highway to him. I wrote the intro texts and sent him the intro. That way he didn't have to care about such things, only cracking, putting the intro in front, and uploading; that was mainly his job. We also had a cracker in the USA (he only did the US originals except for a few, which were heavily protected!) Also one cracker in Denmark, and two in Germany.
How did you organise who would be available at all times to crack a new title? Did any of the crackers have their own dedicated phone line just for you suppliers to send the games to?
They did not have their own dedicated phoneline, but they had a phone, and that was enough back then. If they were busy, I called the next person, or posted a message on one of the US BBSes...
Once the games were cracked, were they all sold off to try and recoup some of the costs or did you keep them for a while in case the crack needed a fix?
Once they were cracked they got sold due to the store!
There's an old interview with 2tuff/Crystal that explains how he sourced games and transferred them to the supplier. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but if you believe 2tuff, "Skid Row were easily destroyed". Do you have anything to say about that particular interview?
Well, there is not much to say about him, he got beaten by us many many times, a few times he was faster, but he always acted like a little ADHS child on the BBSes.
Back then, I never saw him as a competitor.
From a New Zealand perspective, it appeared that all the new games came out first in the UK. Therefore it seems that supplying originals for UK games from Germany would be a nigh on impossible job most of the time when speed is of the essence. But based on the number of cracks of UK software that says "supplied by SSR", how on earth you guys manage it?
Well, distributors released their games the same day in Europe or at least mostly in the UK and Germany, so while 2tuff was riding his BMX bike and had to warp the games to the cracker, Rudi had already arrived at FFC's place having delivered him the originals. While FFC was already looking at the protection, the others were still uploading to their crackers. The other advantage I had was that my girl was working at LeisureSoft Germany, so she told me one day earlier what was coming out and so on. She made it possible for us to be that fast!
When there were multiple games released the same day, did Selim/Rudi deliver the whole lot to FFC and he'd quickly work out which were the easier to crack titles? And presumably he'd send those easier to crack titles off via modem to the other crackers while he worked on the ones that were more difficult to crack without possessing the original disk?
Well FFC was like a machine, for example, while Eurosoft cracked and worked at the harder protections, FFC concentrated on the others. Many times when a title was important (let's say a Psygnosis game being more important to deprotect than any other as it was a major release) we also knew which rival group may have had the originals as well. That was our advantage, due to my girlfriend! ;)
The other thing was, we didn't need a BMX bike to grab the games from distributor, lol!
Back to FFC, he also did many heavy protected games back then, if he needed help, he called Eurosoft by phone, and they sorted things out together, and if there were really heavily protected games, Eurosoft got the whole warp to check in and work at.
Having original suppliers in Germany, the UK, and the USA, how did you co-ordinate who would source each game to prevent duplicate purchases of the games?
We just called each other, since we in Germany never paid for any original I supplied, we of course chose the German original instead of the UK one if they came out the same day.
If there was a really massive release (something like Lemmings, SWIV, Turrican 2 etc) would you concentrate on getting the big name game out the door and leave all the other games to the other crackers?
Major games got priority, and if a major title had heavier protection, Eurosoft took care of it. For the rest, FFC or our others crackers.
Did you guys read the same computer magazines as everyone else did to find out the big games that were coming out or simply bought new games as they were released?
I always got all the mags due to the companies I was working for, my girlfriend also got lots of stuff, and information (no wonder eh!?). Then there were many shows we visited. That way I also gained new connections and stuff.
Did you guys try and obtain every single game, or only concentrated on the big games?
We got everything that was new, and I also gave originals to friends in Alpha Flight, TRSI, and others, mainly German ONLY games.
When you ended up buying crap like Tiertex games or budget titles etc, did your sister's shop have problems selling off these titles?
What wasn't sold by the store after a while got sent back to the distributor! :)
Was your girlfriend at Leisuresoft interested in the whole original supplying/cracking scene or was it just a job for her and she didn't really care what you guys were doing? Was there ever any chance she would have gotten in trouble from knowing you guys or did she keep clean by only telling you about the games and you simply bought them?
Yes it was very risky for her, and she didn't know many of us at the beginning, but she told me who else tried to get originals from them! Not even Rudi or Selim knew it was my girlfriend! Imagine them picking up originals from my girlfriend, and didn't know she was mine lol...
Since we were all living in other cities, after a while (I think it was about 8 months) Rudi/Selim were informed about her, who she really was and all. Other than that she didn't care much for the scene, she didn't even really understand why we did all that lol.
I've heard of some games released by cracking groups sometimes a week or two before being available to purchase in the shops. Was your girlfriend able to "borrow" a copy of these titles so you could release the games before the shops even had them for sale?
Yes indeed! She got some titles earlier (so called press releases, finals with a special serial number in, which was removed before releasing of course!). And I also got some from a known German magazine. While they were testing the new games coming up, I sometimes got a copy! ;)
They were also getting the games from the company I worked for, for testing and reviewing and stuff. So it was like one hand washing the other ya know.
Did you maintain any kind of master release-list text file detailing every single Skid Row release during that period, or a list of all the games you supplied?
Nahw, I wish I had!
Lemmings
The French original supplier Foxy wrote an interesting post about the Skid Row release of Lemmings. According to his post, the group Sprint was going to make their appearance on the scene by releasing the game Lemmings as a world first. The original had been sourced, an intro was ready, but none of the crackers were answering his calls. He was convinced by other Sprint members to trust FFC to crack the game for Sprint, despite 2 other games also being released via Skid Row. The Skid Row leader Metallica caught wind of this, money changed hands and in some kind of double cross, FFC cracked the game and released it as a Skid Row crack yet again! What do you recall about this?
Well Metallica never paid FFC, that's for sure, and I knew both personally and have met them often. The thing was, that French frog wanted money for the game as he got it earlier. He tried to fool us before, so we said, alright, we'll pay you and FFC, while FFC said he will send bucks to the frog dude - which never happened, and that pissed him off of course, lol... (The frog dude trusted FFC more than Metallica or myself ya know).
There are many rumours around where people claim that Skid Row was a money based group, or made money by selling stuff, cards and what not.
That's not all true! Of course our card hackers sold their cards (what else are you going to do when you have thousands of AT&T cards lol). And if they made some members a few bucks, then they ended up re-investing in things such as getting a modem to other members, or visiting important people.
Keeping an eye on the competition
Did most of the original game suppliers in the underground scene know where their rivals were obtaining their games from? Did you know what 2tuff was up to, where Fairlight and Paradox got their games from etc?
Well I sure knew every step from 2tuff, that's for sure, as he meet our suppliers in UK many times. I was also informed who had picked up stuff from LeisureSoft Germany due to my girlfriend. I do not know much about the French guys, where they got their stuff, but I remember we also got a lot of Ubisoft stuff out first. The US boys were also fast, god knows how they managed all those major releases!
And I'm also unsure if people knew where we (especially SSR) got our stuff from. They may have known the distributors, but these were not the only places we got originals from ;)
Life after Skid Row
Can you tell me what happened in 1992 to make you leave Skid Row? According to some sources, you formed Crack Inc, is that correct?
Indeed, I founded Crack Inc together with my local intro-coding friend, Brainwalker. Crack Inc did not have many releases - about 30 in all. It was planned to be my last journey on the Amiga, with quality stuff and releases.
Then there was also Dynamix, founded by SSR, but also didn't last long... But we got good (and nice) people as members such as AmoK, Paso, Mok and SS, which was a great experience, but short!
Then after a while, I was asked by Zelnik, Action Man, N.O.M.A.D. and some others who came from Crystal to start something completely new together with them all. We created Ministry, starting out really well with some quality releases (which was no wonder, as we had the best crackers - N.O.M.A.D., Mok, Eurosoft etc). We also had enough originals for everyone to begin with, but somehow the new Amiga stuff became less and less, people lost interest, and others got PCs.
At that time I was a total Amiga lover, and absolutely hated PC, learning a new system and all, and I noticed it was coming to an end on the Amiga, so I left for good, and started shitty real life, wife, family, own company meanwhile (nothing computer related!)
And I tell ya, it wasn't easy for someone like me, saying goodbye to the scene from one day to the next. Well I didn't really say that, I just didn't call the BBSes anymore.
But after a few days, all was fine, life had been sorted and things like that. And meanwhile, I am more or less enjoying life, as I worked my arse off for long enough lol!
Wrapping Up...
Do you have anything else you'd like to add?
I would like to sent some greetings to...
Metallica, FFC, Eurosoft, Onyx, Nomad, Mok, Phil D., Blackhawk, Galahad, Strider, Zelnik, ActionMan, TheWhiteKnight, Micro, Marco Polo, Rudi and Selim, Relayer (and the rest of our old US sysops), Brainwalker, Amok, SCSI, Paso, Shut Berlin, Ramses, all Vanish'ed Boys, all at TRSi (especially Irata+Hardy), all from HQC, all at IBB, Tristar Guys, my friends in Bamiga Sector one, all at Factor 5, and to all I have forgotten. Special thanks to you Codetapper, for having this interview with me, which brings back a lot of memories... cheers!
Thank you for your time, it's been fascinating to hear about what went on behind the scenes!
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Comments
thanks to that guy and his weird comments, i have always a great laugh when seeing your nonsense...
Subzero 18/08/2024 8:52pm (3 months ago)
thanks for removing the spam!, much appreciated
Subzero 02/03/2023 6:55pm (21 months ago)
2tuff please get some professional help. I really mean it.
AmigaUser 08/10/2022 2:00pm (2 years ago)
Let me enlighten you, Skid-Blow SSR, on your own verbal/written imprisoning words, in this case 'kids.' It seems like you prefer to call young 'children,' the offspring of man/mankind, 'kids.' Is it possible that my assumption is correct? I'd want to remind you that a child is the offspring of a man/woman, and children are the offspring of parents. A kid is an animal that would be the offspring of a goat. Man is a mammal with significantly higher powers than an animal, if he wasn't so pavlov dog trained aka educated (what we really need is an erudition).
AmigaUser I was exposing what is happening now, as well as what happened twenty-two years ago in 2001. I had the similar reaction back then, but at the time, things were less evident. It's amusing how many people who questioned correctness back then are now doubting much more while pointing out that I was correct and way ahead of my time. Is it possible to get some fresh air? What planet or toruse located dimensional 'now time; do you call home? For decades, primarily due to the Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering/Injection, there hasn't been any fresh air. I recommend that you undertake some research to determine the source of many of today's problems.
I'm from England, but not from Britain, so I'm not British; nevertheless, I am English, so I have all of the privileges that an Englishman has. Brit-ish is Hebrew meaning Covanant man, implying a promise of payment and hence a slave. I am not interested in anything related to the Britain and the United Kingdom Public Limited Company. I'm of Caucasian ancestry (kind of man/hybrid aka mankind) [learn the differences between the two, don't just use words without understanding there own true meanings and origins]. I completely agree that England should be seen as a sovereign nation governed by Common Law rather than a vessel controlled by the Bacharach family and the 0.0000002% cabal in London. I'd want to notify you that the European Union was founded by this cabal (which I can name) and that the EU is not governed from Brussels or Frankfurt. I can notify you that this group controls the EU and does so through one of their organisations, the Institute of International and European Affairs, based in Dublin, Ireland. Please research their other institutions, such as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the Club of Rome, the Trilateral Commission, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Please request any Sars-Cov-2 virus isolations from the CDC/WHO and see what kind of answer you get, if any. Then consider why you're even using the name 'covid' instead of Sars-Cov-2. If you knew anything about legalese (fiction, colour of law change), you'd understand why, in the event of repercussions, they specifically replace one with the other. I shudder at the prospect of how many other lunatic collective gatekeepers, like yourself, who lack the brains or common sense to question more and utilise their own thinking. You're just like the other lambs heading to the slaughterhouse. I really hope you got Pfizer CEO Israel-Abraham Burla's killshot (okay, he tells you his fake name, but I don't). Please keep falling for the constant fake news in the global media, which all has its origins in Cambridge, England, and the CPU Media Trust.
Some members of the Amiga scene appear to have lost their path and are now following the system, revealing their actual objectives as imposters. The purpose of the cracking scene, according to some of us genuine people, was to share software with others for free and remove system limitations such as cost. This was always the difference between me and SubZero or Skid-Blows, for example. Those types of organisations and cretins were only interested in the funds and hardware, not the actual spirit of the game. Yes, I enjoyed the fame of being the world's leading supplier of originals to Crystal at the time. I've never been interested in funds or hardware. I can envision you and all the other phonies on here professing to be part of the Amiga scene but actually using Apple, Microsoft, or Google's proprietary surveillance operating systems. I doubt you've ever used GNU/Linux, let alone a piece of independent hardware. You're all fakes, as I suspected, but your gatekeeper remarks exposed this all along.
Crystal: Accept IMITATIONS are not permitted. We're the best in the world, and Fairlight isn't far behind
2tuff 29/05/2022 3:10pm (2 years ago)
Why am I not surprised that 2tuff is a covid denier? Not surprised in the slightest. Let it go, kid. Let it go. I agree with Stu here: Go outside and get some fresh air. Or did Brexit also cut off your fresh air supply? Good grief, what a cringelord.
AmigaUser 18/02/2022 3:26pm (3 years ago)
Well, dont be so harsh to kids. Stu.
Subzero 21/08/2021 9:30pm (3 years ago)
bloody hell, this 2tuff cringeposts are gold... what are you, like 15 mate? the bloke seems kinda stuck in 1992 or something like he hasn't been able to get over this scene drama after almost 30 years... go outside and get some fresh air lol
Stu 27/06/2021 2:00pm (3 years ago)
guess who has coded the software in yer copy device.and once more, iam not discussing anything anymore here. as i said. you da hero. iam 50+ and iam not discussing things with you moron. get a life
NOT2tuffENUFF 30/12/2020 6:03pm (4 years ago)
The Super Nintendo scene was not founded by the two guys that you've mentioned unless you're mixing up some sort of SNES demoscene which is something entirely different. I'm talking about the piracy and sharing of SNES video games not demos/intros. I was one of the earliest users of copy devices for the SNES even before my connections with MD (Mick/Dean) Consoles. Let me remind you that MD Consoles was the main importer and exporter of SNES and Megadrive copy devices. Mick actually lived in Hong Kong for a period of time sending these devices back to Europe. I will also inform you that MD was so well known even Virgin Atlantic did a deal with them for copy devices for the SNES (MD were also the first in the world to export the 3DO (Amiga pt2 for gaming) straight from deals with Electronic Arts. So when you sit on an old Virgin Atlantic Airbus aircraft playing Super Mario World just remember how it's being loaded to your screen. Virgin Atlantic of course paid Nintendo for licences of the titles but they ran the games using copy devices from MD Consoles.
There were no console titles (either Sega Megadrive, PC Engine, SNES or SNK Neo-Geo) on any of our Amiga/ST/C64 bulletin board systems. I was the one who went around pleading with various sysops to put on their boards a SNES (console) area and list various SNES titles. Some of the first titles were in the vile Doctor format and then the more popular Super Magicom format. I left the console scene just before the Nintendo 64 arrived with it's doctor copy-device. So if hardly anyone had a copy device for the SNES and no bulletin boards were sharing titles then where was the scene? So when I managed to coax sysops into taking on the titles doesn't that mean I'm a founder of the SNES and console scene? I pushed for SNES, Megadrive/Genesis and of course the PC Engine as I was a Griffin user. I was going to dabble in the Neo-Geo but hardly anyone had a Neo-Geo and the title sizes were so huge it put both me and sysops off due to upload/download times plus storage space (remembering that back then many people only had a few megabytes of hard-drive space way before even the unreliable Stacker compression later came out). So no I'm certainly far from misinformed and as I said before I supplied a handful of SNES titles way before release date for Crystal, Sneakers and Fairlight. Do you remember how big Sneakers were on the SNES? I forget the titles now except for one which was Super Mickey Mouse that I had direct from an insider aka magazine reviewer and thanks to MD Consoles.
Now tell me why would you be in both Crack and Ministry if you were forever SkidBLOW? (a group named after a homeless dirt-hole on the West Coast of Amexem which you would wrongly call the United States). So now it comes out that you claim the Danish side of Crystal left for Ministry well that's ever so exciting isn't it folks? The Danish side of Crystal, WOW leaving for Ministry. What Danish side? What did they ever do? The only Danish being who did anything of worth for Crystal was IBM our main cracker. Did any originals come from Danmark? NO! The only thing Danes did for Crystal were our intros and those were created by Melon Dezign. So unless you're referring to Melon for intros then your new Ministry members were nobodies. If you had some kind of Danish former Crystal bulletin boards then big deal? No one really cared about European bulletin boards as most were focused on the Amexem (US) and the Blessed Isles of Albion/Patmas (UK) with the odd exception of maybe Germany. I cannot recall myself ever dialling up a Crystal BBS outside of Amexem/Patmas and why would I since ours were the creme-de-la-creme especially with the phone phreaking.
2tuff 28/12/2020 6:46pm (4 years ago)
you are very misinformed. and you write too much nonsense. and 'bout snes scene , well for me are paninaro and twk for example the people which brought us the snes scene. and for all other things. you are way uninformed. all i see is your jealous like mad. but thats ok for me. we all know without your supplying and what not else... we all wouldnt be here.. there wouldnt be a scene probably...
you da king, now leave us alone. and crawl back to your Mum's hole. here are the groups i was part of or i have founded , only for you mongo...to answer your question quote" how many were you part of? one?)"
here are mine, from 1986 counted... OKS,Vision Factory, Paranoimia ,World of Wonders, Crack Inc. Dynamix, Ministry (including danish members of csl),and forever ever Skid Row.
SubHERO
SubHERO 23/12/2020 3:29pm (4 years ago)
SubZERO (yes you're a ZERO not a Hero) let me tell you something about Ministry. You speak of ex-crystal members in Ministry? You're not talking about true Crystal members of my time. If you're referring to NOMAD and company then they're not true Crystal members. Why? They're more Angels members because they left early on in Crystal's history thanks to another looser/troublemaker like you who was known as Zelnik. Now if Ministry was so good then why did Crystal still dominate? We dominated even with NOMAD also being in Birmingham and cracking. I don't know if during my era if NOMAD ever visited Centersoft but I know he had in the past with Scrote. If NOMAD had supplied some originals and still lost then what does that tell you? I supplied from Birmingham and used a foreign cracker (IBM) over in Danmark. I doubt anyone of the Angels crowd even said anything at all to you and why would they.
2TUFF 04/12/2020 3:23am (4 years ago)
The modern interview with myself still hasn't been published! So AmigaUser you've not read any interview of mine that's not around twenty-nine years old. I'll not let it go when it comes to Skid BLOW and this Sub Zero as he's always been a deception artist. Sub Zero headed a group called Skid BLOW which lost on so many Amiga cracks (especially during my few years at Crystal). Skid BLOW were always known for their poor quality and crashing cracks not to mention their additional disk cracks (so if a game came on just two disks then the Skid BLOW crack would be either on three or four disks and then crash). All the people I distributed to locally and nationally, they all didn't want Skid BLOW cracks and instead opted for Crystal (most releases) and the odd Fairlight crack. Why? Crystal and Fairlight cracks were reliable and correctly sized.
Ministry? Give me a break, you all wished I was supplying your weak groups. Yes that's what original suppliers do and that's pick up originals. So if being an original supplier is stupid then why did every damn cracking group need one? You could have a cracking group with just an original supplier and a cracker. You couldn't have a cracking group without either a cracker or an original supplier. Those cracking and supplying could even be the spreaders of the software and run a bulletin board. I was a spreader, bulletin board organiser, original supplier, manual/doc writer. For a while I was a sysop of an Amiexpress bulletin board called Bright Star under my Power Distribution group (thanks to Crisis International for my old IFF logo). I helped found the console scene everything except the Neo-Geo (size of the files were too much in them days). I worked with many console groups and the Amiga (how many were you part of? one?), I also supplied some PC titles. So please don't speak such utter nonsense.
What Coronavirus? You mean the gene sequence theory? The SCAMdemic, PLANdemic, CONvid? I guess you're muzzled like your Mortal Kombat hero that you're named after! It would seem you've fallen for even bigger deception artists than yourself thus you're a good muzzled slave for Bill Gates, Fauci, Klaus-Schwab. All of the deception artists of the ANGLOphile British Empire 2.0 Imperial Socialist Globalists under Unum Sanctum Inquisition operations 1302.
2TUFF 04/12/2020 3:07am (4 years ago)
Lol, so funny to see the old flamewar still going on in the comments. I just read the interview with 2tuff and that guy is still 14 years old in his head, it seems. Who still uses the spelling "kewl"? That shit stopped being "kewl" in the early 80's.
2tuff, just let it go man. You are making an ass out of yourself.
AmigaUser 13/07/2020 8:44am (4 years ago)
Funny Interview ! Greets to Crystal Dude and all old Paranoimia Members ! Malzem ( Reign in Blood )
Malzam 22/05/2020 7:08am (5 years ago)
greetings Slaine
SubHero 14/05/2020 8:33pm (5 years ago)
Nice to see Zodiac backing me up (see first comment). Not to be written out of the script! I busted my balls for you Deutsche Volk. What stories of old, greetings to the boys, especially the very, very clever one from Konrad Ardenhaur strasse, Koln & Bernd/Onyx.
Slaine 11/05/2020 9:40pm (5 years ago)
hahaha, listen people this happens when corona gets you, so stay healthy and safe!. @2tuff ... dont tell me anything , you used to be an original nigga for them, someone whos stupid enuff (you sure are) to pick up stuff, thats what your ex.members from crystal told me as we have build Ministry at the end of amiga ... you stoopid assfuck , crawl back to that weird hole you came from .... -eom-
SubHero 02/05/2020 8:22pm (5 years ago)
There will never be an ending to the war between myself and this liar Sub-Zero. I will always be the fire/fever/YANG QI in order to break down the pain/restriction/cold/Yin Qi of this sub-zero a negative by his own calling. This devil seems to think he can now lie in the hope that the readers will not be from the time in question or in-the-know. Those people back then who were from the modem bulletin boards know who were the first to release titles. Whilst many loved Crystal's constant fresh releases they started to get bored of just seeing the 'ACCEPT NO IMITATIONS WE ARE THE WORLDS #1' cracktros dominating releases. I don't know why we bothered putting our ANSI graphics and titling in the file descriptions on the numerous AmiExpress boards as it was obvious where the titles constantly were coming from.
Now who in their right mind calls their group Skid-Row? Have a laugh when you Look up the meaning of the two words. Do you know what happens at Skid-Row? It tends to have defecation in the streets and disease. How fitting for that devil of an Amiga attempted crack group who I helped destroy. If it wasn't for me and my fellow team then the Amiga scene would have been forced many more Skid-Row releases of zero credibility or reliability. Thank god for Fairlight as they were the only other group of the quality of Crystal. Now our group was named after an item of magnificence both in looks and use but especially on the metaphysical body and for data storage, timing and with lasers etc. The storage medium of the future will be crystal as hinted to by the predictive programming Superman movie.
2TUFF 26/04/2020 11:24pm (5 years ago)
I enjoyed the "products" of all the names mentioned in this article as a little kid. A very nice read. Basically every kid in my school had an Amiga, before that a C64. As a very little kid Ive thought all those games are made by the crackers so my favourite "game Company" always was "EAGLESOFT" because theyve released pirates. :)
Anyhow, the Crackers of the 80ies have been our real world heroes when we where Kids, thanks a lot for all the games! :)
Roman Adler 14/11/2018 4:35pm (6 years ago)
Oh The Days of Supplying Psygnosis Originals :)
coaxial 08/06/2018 8:57pm (6 years ago)
@subzero
LOL. Maybe. I mean if we grew up in the 80s and 90s. And that was really the golden era ( to me) We are all the same age band I guess. I still want to punch people everyday in real life. Age is no barrier. We are all boys at heart.
spy vs spy 25/11/2017 10:28pm (7 years ago)
@spy vs spy
dont you think this would be a lil unfair ? ... he being still one of those gangsta rappers, that's sure not so easy to beat the shit out of him... lolz
Subzero 27/10/2017 9:03am (7 years ago)
@subzero @2tuff. you cunts are grown men now. maybe you should just have a fist fight, winner takes all. Atleast one of you surely can beat the shit out of the other, and the arguments will no longer matter. Peace to the old skool! :^)
spy vs spy 27/09/2017 11:49pm (7 years ago)
Blackhawk did quality cracks? Somone has some mixed up memories here.. :D
Arndt 14/09/2017 7:37pm (7 years ago)
@Lamiga, shut up if you dont know any of both, i for myself can say that i know Subzero, and the other thing i can say who has Released "almost every" Game first. that was sure not Crystal, now you may see who the Childish one of them is!. 2tuff is known for his stupidity and childish behaviours. enough said.
a Fan 26/09/2016 9:31pm (8 years ago)
Seems Subzero is just a bragging lamer. I don't know this dude, but it's obvious who of the two, Subzero and 2tuff, is the childish one.
Lamiga 25/09/2016 9:12am (8 years ago)
Who wrote the music that came with the crack team screen , before the game launch ? Hardcore aside its probably the reason I love techno , anyone know who produced the music ?
Sapien82 19/02/2016 11:18am (9 years ago)
the problem is, you are not worth more than one sentence... besides this, everything has been told back in the days about you... so iam not in the mood to do it all again in 2015... since iam busy with other stuff... releasing games makes more fun , than reading you nonsense... once more, have a nice day, and keep on dreaming... > Twice the Fun - Double the Trouble! ;) cheers mongo
Subzero 14/10/2015 6:49pm (9 years ago)
I just viewed Subzero's poor and non-informative reply to my factual comment. Anyone today who's not damaged by the linguistic minimalism agenda and thus who can write more than one sentence at a time will always end up being attacked in a non productive manner.
2tuff 14/10/2015 4:03am (9 years ago)
i see you still being the same fool like back in the days haha... ahwell have a nice one dude. you are still very childish, how comes ? adhs?...
Subzero 13/10/2015 4:53pm (9 years ago)
This guy is a liar. First of all I supplied almost every Crystal release there was going back as far as Jimmy White's Snooker and further. Crystal was first to the post on almost every release. In the end Skid Row and others decided to change the rules and remove fairness by double releasing after Crystal had already won the race. What does it tell you when I had to travel to a distributor then send images to our cracker(s) and still beat all the others to the release? Anyone who was around at the time knows who released first.
Why did Skid-Row and others often try to bribe me away from Crystal? I had loyalty to my group and unlike their suppliers I didn't ask for money and I certainly wasn't second rate like the rest who did. Even today these people cannot stop their games.
Now I might remind people that Skid Row members were forever ringing my phoneline playing pranks early in the mornings and sending threats. I might also remind you that NOMAD and others were not the best crackers and instead people like IBM, Phil Douglas and Ringo Starr amongst others were the true greats. Most of Skid Row's releases didn't even work and on top of that they took up more disks than the original. Crystal releases were always the most reliable.
Now if Leisuresoft or any German distributor were any good then why did I and Centresoft always dominate? Reminds me of how the German side of Commodore manipulated their sales figures and couldn't admit that Commodore UK was the dominate force. Notice how all these people knew of myself and ask yourself why! Crystal - Accept No Imitations. We are the World's #1.
2tuff 28/08/2015 5:12am (9 years ago)
http://www.portoscuso.com/codef/intro/21/ << Working Fine using Chrome!.
.
XMAS Greetings to all SkidRowdies Worldwide, and
to all Friends of the Family and honorable Rival Groups!.
.
We wishing you some great Days, and a Happy New Year...
Subzero 05/12/2014 10:41pm (10 years ago)
WXMAS Greetings to all SkidRowdies Worldwide, and to
to all Friends of the Family and honorable Rival Groups!.
.
We wishing you some great Days, and a Happy New Year...
.
http://www.portoscuso.com/codef/intro/21/
Subzero 05/12/2014 9:14pm (10 years ago)
REMEMBER SUPREME, SHUT BERLIN, TARKUS TEAM, PARANOIS, QUICKSILVER, SKID ROW
WIR SIND ZURÃœCK AM 15.11.2014 In Hannover "Fuck the Salafisten"
FUCK Sachsen-Anhalt VS Preußen
skid row 05/11/2014 4:28pm (10 years ago)
Sup dude, Xavier Madison giving a shout out.
Xavier Madison 15/10/2014 7:37am (10 years ago)
NOMAD, MOK, <-Never for SKID ROW cracked.
Posted by sun68
nobody claims they cracked for skidrow. you may read more carefuly the above! ;). they did for mns,dnx,crc.
Subzero 11/05/2014 9:44am (11 years ago)
NOMAD, MOK, <-Never for SKID ROW cracked. (außer MOK später)
Busters in US are fast, never be in.
THE PRUSSIA (PREUßEN)
sun68 10/05/2014 10:24am (11 years ago)
@Loki, they came from UK, had no cracker, but got fast originals, thats why we've done some co-op releases with them. after awhile they joined!. as FAR AS I CAN remember...
Subzero 01/05/2014 5:06am (11 years ago)
Hey Sub0, what was that Skid Row & Valhalla thing all about? (Where did they come from or how did you know them etc.). Sounds to me you guys had everything you needed by yourself. Why Valhalla and why did they disappear after only a few releases ... ;)
Loki 28/04/2014 2:43pm (11 years ago)
Thank you for the interview! Nostalgia <3
bluntman3000 01/04/2014 8:18am (11 years ago)
AmoK .... how could i ever forget about you nor that fon call we've had, especially the one about the oldschool music, great to see you being alive!, time for a fon-call... ;)
Subzero 28/03/2014 7:36pm (11 years ago)
Eric, BS1 was way before SkidRow was, and yes, you were fast!. in VF you were faster with them usa and uk stuff, but this has been changed later(see SR).
Subzero 28/03/2014 7:29pm (11 years ago)
NEVER DIE
SKID ROW 27/03/2014 9:07pm (11 years ago)
Haha.. so you still remember me? It just brought a smile in my face reading my Name here.. Remember us sitting on the fone listening to all the Oldschool HipHop? ;) Shoutouts from good old Berlin! -Stefan
AmoK 22/03/2014 8:49pm (11 years ago)
Swapping is all.
Ohne Uns, die wir Eure Spiele Cracks verteilt haben. [Translation: Without us, who would have distributed your game cracks.]
sun68 22/03/2014 6:18pm (11 years ago)
Good old days, nice to see gfx made by our guys
MicDair/Complex 19/03/2014 4:13pm (11 years ago)
Interesting read. Brings back memories from the good old Amiga scene. Loved the crack intros and demos of early 90's. It was wonderful. Wish you could have talked more about how the cracks were actually done. Was it just removing a piece of code or replacing with other commands? Was it really hard or quite easy actually? I know the Amiga hardware and assembler well but never attempted to crack anything myself. More interested on the demo stuff and programs. The BBS scene was crazy back in the days. The competition for 0-day releases and calling international. Wowz. Did not have a modem myself but a buddy had a BBS back then and saw what it was like. Amiga was greatest !
Nutti 18/03/2014 4:58pm (11 years ago)
LOL, I had a BIG laugh here!
ALL our originals came from the UK and the US of A, none from Germany ... and we were also fast.
About the "tricky protections that could not be written back to disk" (or track 83 errors), we simply removed them.
And out of the context, all crunchers I've seen (without any exception) were based on Lord Blitter's Byte-Killer.
BamSec1 (Ermida from BS1) 17/03/2014 2:06am (11 years ago)
Zodiac, this was later , as we got suppliers in UK / France / USA, but at the very beginning, vf got <nearly> everything from me (beyoners too), and ofcourse, this was more meant to be sarcastic, they would be ofcourse, with or without me...
Subzero 15/03/2014 3:52pm (11 years ago)
Und wieder einmal liegt das Glück der Männer in den Händen der Frauen ^^ Thank you for this Interview.
DOCPatient Zer0 09/03/2014 8:08am (11 years ago)
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