Author Topic: Cracktros Are Back.  (Read 545 times)

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Offline Shockwave

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Cracktros Are Back.
« on: September 17, 2009 »


As was speculated a while ago by Widowmaker and Myself, there were rumours abound that Razor 1911 and Skid Row were two teams working on cracktros.

The speculation was that one day crack intros would again become part of the exe file on the PC.

This happened today, Skid Row released a game with a built in cracktro;

http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=53849

To me this is utopia, I don't condone piracy but I do condone those lovely little intros because they formed part of my adolescence and it's good to know that some of the old guys can still remember the times of the C64 and Amiga and want to preserve old traditions.

Hats off to Skid Row.
Shockwave ^ Codigos
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Offline WidowMaker [retired]

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Re: Cracktros Are Back.
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2009 »
The tide has turned :)


Offline TinDragon

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Re: Cracktros Are Back.
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2009 »
This sort of thing was speculated about before, its nice to see it happen and would be good if other groups follow suit.

The downside is that lamers outside the scene will still just download it for the wrong reasons and never view the intro. Atleast in the old days they had to see it even if they just clicked the mouse when it appeared.

Offline benny!

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Re: Cracktros Are Back.
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2009 »
Yeah. I saw this on pouet too. Nice oldschoolish cracktro indeed!
[ mycroBLOG - POUET :: whatever keeps us longing - for another breath of air - is getting rare ]

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Offline padman

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Re: Cracktros Are Back.
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2009 »
First of I like the idea and from the remake lover's point of view it's nicely done.  :) Not that I really cared though since I am not a gamer anymore and buy my stuff. But on second sight: 200kb eventhough it's UPX(!?) packed!?  :o Didn't real crackers always obfuscate their exe's better!? Especially if it's illegal stuff. I mean every kid can unpack that file and put their name in it with a hex editor. Plus it uses SID music, there are things like TitchySID which only is 12kb!? I don't know, but that's all a bit fishy...  :-\
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Offline spitfire

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Re: Cracktros Are Back.
« Reply #5 on: September 18, 2009 »
Off topic rant:

Personally I feel nuscene's obsession with size optimisation has gone too far. There are still plenty of things which can't be done in realtime for which clever hacks can be invented. I wish people would spend more time on effects and algorithms and less on completely invisible stuff like editors, size optimisation and frameworks.

How many times are you willing to look at the same effect, just because the number next to the filesize is slightly less? At least when scene was about speed optimisation you could actually see and feel the difference, and it opened up new posibilities. What is the practical value of size optimisation, other than bragging rights?

Offline padman

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Re: Cracktros Are Back.
« Reply #6 on: September 18, 2009 »
Umm, actually I don't care how big it is.  ;) It just doesn't appear to be a legit SKID ROW release to me. That's what I wanted to point out...
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Offline Shockwave

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Re: Cracktros Are Back.
« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2009 »
I really think that the size issue is moot. Who cares, seriously?

Size used to be important when an intro had to fit on a bootblock or in the spare space on an 880kb disk, these days it does not matter at all.

The real point here (and why I raised the topic) is that the intro is once again integral to the release which forces people who downloaded the game to look at the intro and pay heed to the group that released it.

Umm, actually I don't care how big it is.  ;) It just doesn't appear to be a legit SKID ROW release to me. That's what I wanted to point out...

The release is legit, you could go to any dupechecker site to verify it.
I heard rumours of this development beforehand through some friends I am just pleased that a group has decided to go against the current trend and try to revive an old tradition, without which there would be possibly no demoscene today, even though most of the people in todays scene are keen to distance themselves from any of this kind of stuff (understandable as many have jobs in the industry and rely on private companies to sponsor demoparties).

I just hope that the tactic is adopted by more groups and that the intros become more advanced to make todays game players aspire to be part of the larger demoscene.
Shockwave ^ Codigos
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Offline padman

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Re: Cracktros Are Back.
« Reply #8 on: September 18, 2009 »
Well, I saw a similar screen at RR (so it's more a remake of a remake and not of the original), which got me confoozled. If you say that it is legit I believe you. Little do I know anyways... ;) And I fully agree that it is a nice idea to revive the old style of built-in cracktros. I wonder, why this hasn't happened earlier.
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Offline Dr.Death

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Re: Cracktros Are Back.
« Reply #9 on: September 18, 2009 »
Oh man i am in love again these type of into's are what mad me buy my Amiga i really hope the other groups do copy skidrow & bring back the good old days..

Is the intro so big because its the loader for the game maybe??
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