Crack intro

Crack intros first appeared on Apple II computers in the late 1970s or early 1980s, and then on ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC games that were distributed around the world via Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) and floppy disk copying. By 1985, when reviewing the commercially available ISEPIC cartridge which adds a custom crack intro to memory dumps of Commodore 64 software, Ahoy! wrote that such intros were "in the tradition of the true hacker". Early crack intros resemble graffiti in many ways, although they invaded the private sphere and not the public space.

As time went on, crack intros became a medium to demonstrate the purported superiority of a cracking group. Such intros grew very complex, sometimes exceeding the size and complexity{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalekultur.org/files/dk_whatisthedemoscene.pdf|title=The Demoscene|publisher=Digitale Kultur e.V.|access-date=2010-10-25}}

{{better source|date= June 2015}} of the software itself. Crack intros only became more sophisticated on more advanced systems such as the Amiga, Atari ST, and some IBM PC compatibles with sound cards. These intros feature big, colourful effects, music, and scrollers.

Cracking groups would use the intros not just to gain credit for cracking, but to advertise their BBSes, greet friends, and gain themselves recognition. Messages were frequently of a vulgar nature, and on some occasions made threats of violence against software companies or the members of some rival crack-group.

Crack-intro programming eventually became an art form in its own right, and people started coding intros without attaching them to a crack just to show off how well they could program. This practice evolved into the demoscene.

Crack intros and other small software created by software crackers such as keygens and patches that remove protection from commercial applications often use chiptunes in the form of background music. These chiptunes are now still accessible as downloadable musicdisks or musicpacks.

• Hacker subculture
• List of warez groups
• Replay: The History of Video Games – The book describes the Dutch demo making as a major influence on video games in the 1980s.
• Warez scene

{{reflist|2|refs=

{{cite thesis |title=Computer Demos – What Makes Them Tick? |last=Reunanen |first=Markku |date=2010-04-23 |publisher=Aalto University |url=http://www.kameli.net/demoresearch2/reunanen-licthesis.pdf}}

{{cite conference |url=http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/Publications/burbano_MAH2009.pdf |title=The Forgotten Pioneers of Creative Hacking and Social Networking – Introducing the Demoscene |last1=Carlsson |first1=Anders |date=2009 |publisher=Cubitt, Sean & Thomas, Paul (eds.) |book-title=Re:live: Media Art Histories 2009 Conference Proceedings |pages=16–20 |location=University of Melbourne & Victorian College of the Arts and Music |isbn=978-0-9807186-3-8}}

{{cite web |url=http://chipflip.org/dox/kotlinski_(2009)_amiga_music_programs_89-95.pdf |title=Amiga Music Programs 1985–1995 |last1=Kotlinski |first1=Johan |date=2009 }}{{Dead link|date=June 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

{{cite journal |url=http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/96/94 |title=Endless loop: A brief history of chiptunes |first1=Driscoll |last1=Kevin |first2=Joshua |last2=Diaz |year=2009 |journal=Transformative Works and Cultures|volume=2 |issue=2 |doi=10.3983/twc.2009.0096 |quote=As the demo scene established its independence, chiptunes were carried out of the gaming sphere altogether to finally establish their own stand-alone format: the downloadable musicdisk.|doi-access=free }}

{{Cite news |last=Kevelson |first=Morton |date=October 1985 |title=Isepic |url=https://archive.org/details/ahoy-magazine-22/page/n70/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=2025-01-14 |work=Ahoy! |pages=71–73}}

{{cite web |url=http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=291159 |title=Linger in Shadows |first=Dan |last=Whitehead |date=2008-11-12 |website=Eurogamer |access-date=2010-10-23 |quote=Amateur coders busy cracking the copy-protection on the latest Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum games got into the habit of marking their work with an animated intro - or "cracktro" - inserted before the game began. |archive-date=2019-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924195029/https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/linger-in-shadows-hands-on |url-status=dead }}

{{cite web|last=Kopfstein|first=Janus|title=0-Day Art: saving digital art one torrent at a time - Net pirate provocateurs challenge the monetization of online works |url=https://www.theverge.com/2012/4/23/2961601/0-day-art-digital-art-torrents-piracy|work=TheVerge|date=2012-04-23|access-date=2012-04-26}}

{{cite web |url=https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/a-history-of-the-amiga-part-9-the-demo-scene/ |title=A history of the Amiga, part 8: The demo scene |first=Jeremy |last=Reimer |date=2013-04-29 |website=Ars Technica}}

{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.07/democoders.html |title=Demo or Die! |first=Dave |last=Green |date=July 1995 |magazine=Wired |access-date=2010-10-23}}

{{cite video |people=Jason Scott |date=2010-07-31 |title=You're Stealing it Wrong: 30 Years of Inter-Pirate Battles |url=http://vimeo.com/15400820 |format=mov |publisher=DEF CON 18 |location=Las Vegas, Nevada}}

{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Jeremy|title=Demographics: Behind the Scene|url=http://vimeo.com/1289141|work=Mindcandy Volume 1: PC Demos|access-date=2012-05-19}}

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• {{cite journal |first1=Markku |last1=Reunanen |first2=Patryk |last2=Wasiak |first3=Daniel |last3=Botz |title=Crack Intros: Piracy, Creativity and Communication |journal=International Journal of Communication |volume=9 |pages=798–817 |year=2015 |issn=1932-8036 |url=http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/3731}}
• Patryk Wasiak, [http://www.zeithistorische-forschungen.de/16126041-Wasiak-2-2012 ‘Illegal Guys’]. A History of Digital Subcultures in Europe during the 1980s, in: Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History, Online-Ausgabe, 9 (2012), H. 2
• {{cite web |first=George |last=Borzyskowski |date=November 1996 |title=The Hacker Demo Scene and Its Cultural Artifacts |url=http://greent.mindnever.org/demoscene.pdf |publisher=Curtin University of Technology}} Read online: [http://www.scheib.net/play/demos/what/borzyskowski/ http://www.scheib.net/play/demos/what/borzyskowski/].
• Hastik, Canan; Steinmetz, Arnd (2012a): [http://canan.hastik.de/science/cerc2012.pdf Demoscene Artists and Community] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212154444/http://canan.hastik.de/science/cerc2012.pdf |date=2013-12-12 }}. In Bours, Patrick; Humm, Bernhard; Loew, Robert; Stengel, Ingo; Walsh, Paul (eds.): Proceedings of CERC 2012, pp. 43–48.
• Driscoll, Kevin; Diaz, Joshua (2009): [http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/96/94 Endless Loop: A Brief History of Chiptunes]. Transformative Works and Cultures 9, 2009.
• {{cite journal |url=http://widerscreen.fi/numerot/2014-1-2/crackers-became-us-demosceners/ |title=How Those Crackers Became Us Demosceners |first=Markku |last=Reunanen |date=2014-04-15 |journal=WiderScreen |issue=1–2}}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.elektrischer-reporter.de/elr/video/85/ |title=Demoszene: Hollywood in 64 Kilobyte |language=de |date=2008-12-05 |format=MP4 |website=Elektrische Reporter}}

• [http://www.intros.c64.org World of C64 Crackintros] – A large collection of C64 cracktros in native "prg" file format (supported by most C64 emulators)
• [http://www.defacto2.net/cracktros.cfm Defacto2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051231045334/http://www.defacto2.net/cracktros.cfm |date=2005-12-31 }} – Hundreds of cracktros, loaders and installers for the PC
• [http://amp.dascene.net Amiga Music Preservation] – Thousands of cracktros in all tracker formats.
• [http://www.chiptune.com/ Chiptune.com] – A chiptune dedicated website containing thousands of chiptunes from Amiga and other formats. The website itself emulates the Amiga Workbench 1.3.
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50WWFEBsgfk THE AMIGA CRACKTRO MARATHRON] – A large back-to-back collection of Amiga cracktros.
• [https://www.docsnyderspage.com Docsnyderspage.com] – Hundreds of C64 crack intros re-coded for the web.

Category:Demo effects

Category:Copyright infringement

Category:Software cracking

de:Demoszene#Ursprünge in den Heimcomputern der 1980er