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[keasy]

I was thinking.
Computer games, once the realm of the kid, bed room coder and enthusiast professional motivated by love more than money.
Famous games made even more famous by the fact people like Anthony Crowther (Wanted : Monty Mole) could produce a full professional game in a matter of weeks.
Software houses like Bug-Byte were prolific amongst gamers because of a respect and love. A familiarity existed akin to coming home at lunch time from school to a bowl of warm tomato soup on a cold winters day . Gamers were a community not in the sense they existed on-line with a virtual avatar for a face. Gamers communities existed on the playground, in the swing parks and around shops like 'Boots' or 'John Menzies' where everyone tampering with the on display Zx Spectrum's and Commodore 64's would engage in mutual chat and wonder in awe at the latest release, believingly comparing coin-op versions to home releases. They existed in school computer clubs where printed games listings were swapped and heads banged together to iron out misprinted lines in the printed script.
We weren't pirates though, we were 'gamers' who play ground swapped and copied tape to tape, we would engage in actions such as speeding our tape recorders up or down by tightening or loosening the torque or moving the magnetic head alignment to a higher or lower position trying to emulate the master copy position. We would buy fancy datassettes that allowed us to engage a higher tone ph button and increase that ever so slim chance of not sitting for 10 minutes watching a mish mash of multi coloured lines and zany noises to miss the last 'beep' and have to re-try.
To me this was the age that spawned the 'gamer' as an identifiable person who could easily copy a game and did but would buy a cassette every now and then at an affordable price. We weren't pirates we were gamers and we helped the industry grow, not destroy it, the proof ? well it's quite obviously in the pudding.
But it soon changed, homely cottage industry (it felt that way) gave way to corporate multi national business. Software houses became detached and unfamiliar. They  started to accuse and point fingers making the play ground swapping gamer villanous and nasty, saying we were destroying their industry, we were kids for goodness sakes, not the devil. They invented elaborate protection and alienated many a gamer.
From the seed that was sown the crack group was the harvest.
The gamer who would buy a cassette game was now buying floppy disks and the lucky elite few installing them to hdd.
Games became more of a luxury for the young man (women were rarer then in gaming) with disposable income, the gamer kids were left out.
So now a gamer who wanted the latest release would visit a local market, or computer shop with a behind the counter folder or 'list'.
We became familiar with ' cracktro's ' and groups. In this day of gaming and games sales out selling that of Hollywood movies we are presented with the fifty pounds console game, hardly the realm of the kid.
The groups became the pirates or crackers the new rock and rollers.
They weren't out for a freebie, they were gamers, angry at the turn around of their beloved hobby turned corporate and pushed into the just out of reach tantalising shelves of the shops.
They were rebels, anti-antidisestablishmentarianism was the agenda. Rebelling against a system their voices to be heard, falling on deaf greedy corporate ears.
As protection became more elaborate the crack groups became more elaborate even warring against each other in motivation for proper releasing of cracks and circumnavigation of copy protection systems.
Crackers became like rock and rollers, making a noise on their own 'scene' with superstars emerging and socking to to the man. they had their own record labels in the form of ascii art and would even have release charts in their own private elusive irc chart rooms (I am informed).

Piracy ?
The new rock and roll, quite possibly.

[corroded]

Except the punishment for Rock and Roll was never 10 years in Jail!


(which could be the case in the uk soon for piracy)




Though, i might add that if people are denied piracy i might as well just go start driving along pavements and running over people etc, you know since gamers are all dangerous criminals who if they don't get their GTA fix will cause massive problems.

[Vasco]

Nicely written Keasy have a +1.

And thus came the easy step from cracker to hacker and the establishment was threatened by its own malcontented former customers.

[Wooster]

Maybe some have gone too far though..

http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,24405230-5014117,00.html

[Ctulu]

[Gator]

I gave keasy a keasy for that post. It seemed only fitting. Having recently been introduced to the marvels of a certain demonic site, I have been having a fiesta getting some of the old stuff that I have been unable to locate for some time. Chuck in with that three seasons of The IT Crowd that I never would have watched otherwise and you get the picture. I have my favourites on the site already and these guys have legions of admirers for their work. The names are well known on the site and the thanks they receive are plentiful.