ST NEWS

Volume One, Issue Two, Published on Saturday, August 9th, 1986

ST NEWS is an independent publication of the Public Relations service of The Amazing Cracking Conspiracy, a section of the one and only Desaster Area. The information contained in this bulletin is believed to be free of inaccuracies; the views printed are not nessecarily the views of the authors. ST NEWS is published at irregular intervals and distributed by the Amazing Cracking Conspiracy's spreading service. With this publication we hope to serve all ST users.

Editorial:

 Chief Editor   :  Cronos
 Correspondents :  Antiware and Cronos
 Layout         :  Cronos
 Artwork        :  Antiware, Cronos and others
 Production     :  The Amazing Cracking Conspiracy
 Distribution   :  The Amazing Cracking Conspiracy

Copyright Notices:
This program belongs to the public domain (freeware), and may be copied and spread to anyone who wants it. The texts, however, can  fall under certain copyright laws, because the sources might be copyrighted. The graphics contained in this program may actually also be copyrighted.

MORE NEWS ABOUT THE AMAZING CRACKING CONSPIRACY'S SPREADING SERVICE by Cronos

In this article you'll find a full list of all ACC spreadings on the ST, including our latest offering "Winter Games" (yes, finally it's there!), together with the dates on which they were released. We also offer a new list of "soon-to-be-spread" software.

Program Name:           Date of Release:

Activision ST Demo      Saturday, March 29th 1986
ST Happy + Maxiform.    Wednesday, May 21st 1986
Intersect Ramdisk       Wednesday, May 21st 1986
Profi Painter V1.1      Saturday, June 14th 1986
The Pawn V2.1           Thursday, June 19th 1986
Sundog V3.0             Thursday, June 19th 1986
Graphic Artist V1.0     Thursday, June 19th 1986
Rogue                   Saturday, June 21st 1986
Temple Trilogy          Saturday, June 21st 1986
Flightsimulator II demo Saturday, June 21st 1986
1st Word Plus V1.16     Tuesday, July 1st 1986
Time Bandit V2.0        Tuesday, July 1st 1986
Major Motion V2         Tuesday, July 1st 1986
GFA Basic V1            Tuesday, July 8th 1986
Little Computer People  Tuesday, July 8th 1986
Hippo Computer Almanac  Sunday, July 13th 1986
GFA Basic V2            Thursday, July 31st 1986
Twenty_four             Thursday, July 31st 1986
Winter Games            Thursday, July 31st 1986

Public Domain software spreadings:

Driedim V2.1            Saturday, June 28th 1986
Oxygen Digi Sample      Tuesday, July 29th 1986
X-Tron demo             Thursday, July 31st 1986

Commodore 64 ACC products/crackings:

Basic Lightning         Thursday, June 13th 1985
Rambo Music             About October/November 1985
Super Sample I          Tuesday, Februari 11th 1986
Super Sample II         Thursday, Februari 13th 1986
Rob Hubbard Sample V    Wednesday, March 5th 1986
Super Sample III        Friday, March 7th 1986
Return of the ACC       Tuesday, August 5th 1986

Soon spread on the ST:

Biggles                 September 1986
Silent Service          August 1986
Midi Recorder           August 1986
Midi Player             August 1986
Leaderboard Golf        August 1986
Marble Madness          September 1986
Summer Games II         August 1986
Flight Simulator II     September 1986
Star Raiders II         October 1986
Colour Space II         October 1986
GFA Basic compiler      Januari 1986
Dungeon Master          October 1986
Speakeasy               October 1986
The Music System        October 1986
Goldrunner              October 1986
Jet                     not sure
G.I. Joe                not sure
Spitfire 40             not sure
Strike Force Harrier    not sure

We hope to live up to our promises (Silent Service, Midi Player, Midi Recorder and Leaderboard may even be in our possesion when you read this already!); the data mentioned are believed to be quite accurate, but for certian programs you should allow a certain flexibility (some of them are not yet published).
The ACC spreading department will of course spread any other new or good program available in the illegal circuit that is not yet included in the "soon spread" list. If you want to stay tuned to all new ACC products, please try to get ST NEWS' next issue as soon as possible.

SYNTH SAMPLE II by Antiware, Cronos, ICG and Gamecard

On Sunday, July 27th of this year, we finally managed to launch the long awaited for Synth Sample II. The finished version now contains 21 songs and 14 pictures go with it. Hereby we wish to thank some people who helped making the program (there wasn't room for a lot of thanks on the "read_me"): Edwin from Gamecard and Robert from the International Cracking Group.

Credits for the pictures:

ACC Presents: Artwork by Antiware and Cronos
              Text by Antiware and Cronos
Synthesizer + Diskette: Artwork by Antiware and Cronos
                        Idea by Antiware and Cronos
Greetings: Artwork by Antiware
           Idea by Antiware
Mouse: Artwork by Antiware and Cronos
       Idea by Antiware
Rogue Tombstone: Artwork by Epyx
                 Idea by Cronos
                 Text by Antiware and Cronos
Atari Hotnews: Artwork by Antiware
               Idea by Antiware
Desert Sunset + "Olds"-Mobile: Artwork by Antiware and Cronos
                               Idea by Cronos
Soon spread: Artwork by Antiware
             Idea by Antiware and Cronos
             Text by Cronos
Russians: Artwork by Robert from the ICG and Antiware
          Quote by Antiware and Cronos
          Idea by Antiware and Cronos
Tut-Ankh-Amon: Artwork by Edwin from Gamecard and Antiware
               Text by Antiware
               Idea by Edwin from Gamecard
Rogue Title: Artwork by Epyx
             Idea by Cronos
Cassette Deck: Artwork by Antiware and Cronos
               Idea by Antiware and Cronos
               Text by Cronos
Temple Trilogy Title: Artwork by Epyx
                      Ripping by Antiware
                      Adapting by Antiware
The End: Artwork by Antiware and Cronos
         Idea by Cronos
         Text by Cronos

Credits for the music:

All titles were written, composed and/or programmed by programmers from Activision Inc. and Audio Light Inc., except for:

Theme from Hotnews (second appearance): made by Robert from ICG
Theme from Russians: made by Antiware

All the musical compositions were fetched from The Music Studio, except for:

The two songs mentioned above.
Three songs that were ripped from Little Computer People by Antiware and Cronos.
Four songs that were ripped from the Activision ST Demo by Cronos.

It has taken three weeks to finish Synth Sample II, and we hope that you'll like it. The graphix were made using either Neochrome or Degas; the musix are all made with the help of he Music Studio. If you think we should continue making programs like this, please try to contact us and tell us what you think is best/worst about our samples. We are also looking for musical pieces that are made on the Music Studio, or astounding pictures in any drawing program format. Of course, we will have to know your name or cracker's name to put it in the credits of Synth Sample III. So let's start making nice pictures (color) and musics immediately!!

ALL ABOUT SYSTEM VARIABLES by Cronos

Like any computer system, the ST has certain variables somewhere in memory for use by the operating system. It is possible to manipulate these variables, or to look at them to determine certain values, pointers or vectors in your system.
But to do that, you'll have to know which variables are on which memory address. Therefore, I decided to write this article in ST NEWS, that includes a list of system variables with their functions.

This list of ST BIOS system variables, together with their functions, are based on the chapter about system variables in the booklet "Hitchhiker's Guide to the BIOS" .

etv_timer (long) $400
    Timer handoff vector (logical vector $100)
etv_critic (long) $404
    Critical error handoff vector (logical vector $101)
etv_term (long) $408
    Process-terminate handoff vector (logical vector $102)
etv_xtra (long) $40c
    Space for logical vectors $103 through $107
memvalid (long) $420
    Contains the magic number $752019f3, which (together with
    'memval2') validates 'memcntlr' and indicates a successful
    coldstart
memcntlr (byte) $424
    Contains the memory controller configuration nibble (the low
    nibble). Some popular values are:

         Memory Size                   Value
         128K                          0
         512K                          4
         256K (2 banks)                0
         1MB (2 banks)                 5

resvalid (long) $426
    If 'resvalid' is the magic number $31415926 on system RESET,
    the system will jump through 'resvector'
resvector (long) $42a
    System RESET bailout vector, valid if 'resvalid' is a magic
    number. Called early-on in system initialization (before any
    hardware registers, including the memory controller configu-    ration register, have been touched). A return address will be
    loaded into A6. Both stacks pointers will contain garbage
phystop (long) $42e
    Physical top of RAM. Contains a pointer to the first unusable
    byte (i.e. $80000 on a 512K machine)
_membot (long) $432
    Bottom of available memory. The 'getmpb' BIOS function uses
    this value as the start of the GEMDOS TPA
_memtop (long) $436
    Top of available memory. The 'getmpb' BIOS function uses this
    value as the end of the GEMDOS TPA
memval2 (long) $43a
    Contains the magic number $23769aa which (together with 'mem-    valid') validates 'memcntlr' and indicates a successful cold-    start
flock (word) 43e
    Used to lock usage of the DMA chip. Should be nonzero to ensu-    re that the OS does not touch the DMA chip registers during
    vertical blank. Device-driver writers TAKE NOTE: this variable
    MUST be nonzero in order to make use of the DMA bus
seekrate (word) $440
    Default floppy seek rate. Bits zero and one contains the de-    fault floppy disk seek rate for both drives:

              00     6ms
              01    12ms
              10     2ms
              11     3ms (default)

_timr_ms (word) $442
    Sytem timer calibration (in ms). Should be $14 (20 decimal),
    since the timer handoff vector is called at 50hz. Returned by
    BIOS function 'tickcal', and passed on the stack to the timer
    handoff vector
_fverify (word) $444
    Floppy verify flag. When nonzero, all writes to floppies are
    read-verified. When zero, no write-verifies take place. The
    default state (after system-RESET) is to verify
_bootdev (word) $446
    Contains the device number the system was booted from. The
    BIOS constructs an environment string from this variable be-    fore bringing up the desktop
palmode (word) $448
    When nonzero, indicates the system is in PAL (50hz video)
    mode. When zero, indicates the system is in NTSC (60hz video)
    mode
defshiftmd (byte) $44a
    Default video resolution. If the system is forced to change
    from monochrome to a color resolution, 'defshiftmd' will con-    tain the resolution the system will switch to
sshiftmd (word) $44c
    Contains shadow for 'shiftmd' hardware register:

            0              320x200x4  (low resolution)
            1              640x200x2  (medium resolution)
            2              640x400x1  (high resolution)

_v_bas_ad (long) $44e
    Pointer to base of screen memory. Always on a 512 byte boun-    dary. Always points to 32K of contiguous memory
vblsem (word) $452
    Semaphore to enforce mutual exclusion in vertical-blank
    interrupt handler. Should be "1" to enable vblank processing
nvbls (word) $454
    Number of longwords that '_vblsqeue' points to (on RESET,
    this value is 8)
_vblsgeue (long) $456
    Pointer to a vector of pointers to vblank handlers
colorptr (long) $45a
    Pointer to a vector of 16 words to load into the hardware
    palette registers on the next vblank. If NULL, the palettes
    are not loaded. 'colorptr' is zeroed after the palettes are
    loaded
screenpnt (long) $45e
    Pointer to the base of screen memory, to be setup on the next
    vblank. If NULL, the screen base is not changed
_vbclock (long) $462
    Count of vertical-blank interrupts
_frclock (long) $466
    Count of vertical-blank interrupts that were processed (not
    blocked by 'vblsem')
hdv_init (long) $46a
    Vector to hard disk initialization. NULL if unused
swv_vec (long) $46e
    The system follows this vector when it detects a transition
    on the "monochrome monitor detect" input (from low to high
    resolution or visa-versa). 'swv_vec' initially points to the
    system RESET handler; therefore the system will RESET if the
    user changes monitors
hdv_bpb (long) $472
    Vector to routine to return a hard disk's BIOS Parameter
    Block (BPB). Same calling conventions as the BIOS function
    for GETBPB. NULL if unused
hdv_rw (long) $476
    Vector to routine to read or write on a hard disk. Same cal-    ling conventions as the BIOS function for RWABS. NULL if un-    used
hdv_boot (long) $47a
    Vector to routine to boot from hard disk. NULL if unused
hdv_mediach (long) $47e
    Vector to routine to return a hard disk's media change mode.
    Same as BIOS binding for floppies. NULL if unused
_cmdload (word) $482
    When nonzero an attempt is made to load and execute
    COMMAND.PRG from the boot device (load a shell or an appli-    cation instead of the desktop). Can be set to nonzero by a
    boot sector
conterm (byte) $484
    Contains attribute bits for the console system:

             Bit:              Function:
             0                 nonzero: enable bell when ^G is
                                  written to CON:
             1                 nonzero: enable key-repeat
             2                 nonzero: enable key-click
             3                 nonzero: on BIOS conin() function,
                                  return the current value of
                                  'kbdshift' in bits 24..31 of
                                  D0.L
                               zero: leave bits 24..31 alone...
themd (long) $48e
    Filled in by the BIOS on a 'getmpb' call; indicates to
    GEMDOS the limits of the TPA. The structure is:
          struct MD
       {
                   MD     *m_link;      /* ->next MD [NULL]
                   long   m_start;      /* start of TPA */
                   long   m_length;     /* size of TPA (bytes) */
                   PD     *m_own;       /* ->MD's owner [NULL] */
       } ;
        The structure may NOT be changed once GEMDOS has been initia-    lized. In addition, there may be only ONE of these suckers
    (you can't use the 'm_link' filed in the first MD). Someday
    (with a better GEMDOS) these limitations may be lifted
savptr (long) $4a2
    Pointer to register save area for BIOS functions
_nflops (word) $4a6
    Number of floppy disks actually attached to the system (0,1,
    or 2)
sav_context (long) $4ae
    Pointer to saved processor context
_bufl (long) $4b4
    Two (GEMDOS) buffer-list headers. The first list buffers data
    sectors, the second list buffers FAT and directory sectors.
    Each of these pointers points to a Buffer Control Block (BCB)
    that looks like:

      struct BCB
      {
                BCB      *b_link;   /* next BCB */
                int      b_bufdrv;  /* drive#, or -1 */
                int      b_buftyp;  /* buffer type */
                int      b_bufrec;  /* record# cached here */
                int      b_dirty;   /* dirty flag */
                DMD      *b_dm;     /* -> Drive Media Descriptor */
                char     *b_bufr;   /* -> buffer itself */
      } ;

_hz_200 (long) $4bc
    Raw 200hz system timer tick. Used to divide-by-four for a
    50hz system timer
the_env (byte[4]) $4be
    The default environment string. Four bytes of $00....
_drvbits (long) $4c4
    32-bit vector, returned by the 'drivemap' BIOS function (#10)
    of 'live' block devices. If any floppies are attached, this
    value is 3
_dskbufp (long) $4c6
    Points to a 1024 byte disk buffer somewhere in the system's
    BSS. The buffer is also used for some GSX graphics operations
    and should not be used by interrupt routines
_prt_cnt (word) $4ee
    Initialized to -1. Pressing the ALT-HELP key increments this.
    The screen dump code checks for $0000 to start imaging the
    screen to the printer, and checks for nonzero to abort it
_sysbase (long) $4f2
    Points to the base of the OS (in ROM or RAM)
_shell_p (long) $4f6
    Points to shell-specific context
end_os (long) $4fa
    Points just past the last byte of low RAM used by the OS.
    This is used as the start of the TPA (end_os is copied
    into _membot)
exec_os (long) $4fe
    This points to the shell that gets executed by the BIOS
    after system initialization is complete. Normally, this
    points to the first byte of the AES' text segment

We hope to have supplied you with usefull information in this article. The system variables that are not mentioned are not certain yet, but as we get to know these, we will undoubtedly publish them in a future issue of ST NEWS.

DID YOU KNOW THAT..... by Cronos and others

....Biggles is already launched on the ST?
....Colour Space II and Star Raiders II are also announced?
....Leaderboard and Silent Service might be spread by us at the
    very moment that you read this?
....Cronos thinks about slowing down a bit on the ST?
....he decided to do this because we was called by a software
    house recently?
....they read his phone number in an ACC spreading?
....Cronos will now probably only spread Public Domain software
    in the future?
....he really was scared to death when talking to these guys?
....he is now looking for a legal advisor - probably one with
    good knowledge about the copyright laws?
....the software house threatened to call in nobody less than the
    SBS?
....you might see Cronos' face soon on a "Wanted" poster or on
    page one of your local newspaper?
....there is a bug in most BASIC versions (e.g. on C-64, but also
    on the Atari ST?
....you should try printing .09+.01 to prove it?
....the real answer should be .1?
....there are very little stunning things to say this month?
....we will therefore stop with this article for this time?
....you will be able to read more of this stuff next time?

ILLEGAL SOFTWARE - WHAT IS ALLOWED AND WHAT ISN'T? by Cronos

Since I've been in some legal trouble lately, I think it might be usefull for you all to know what is allowed and what isn't in the world of hackin' 'n' crackin'. I hope you will look out in the future - I know I will! I think I'll spread public domain from now on....

Allowed:

The possesion of one or several illegal copies of programs
Using illegally copied programs
Making copies of legal or illegal software for your own use
Selling or giving an original (legal) program to someone else
The ripping of music
The cracking/translating/manipulating of programs

Forbidden:

Selling illegal copies of programs
Swapping copies of illegal programs against legal or illegal software
Giving away copies of legal or illegal software
Buying of one original program with several people, sharing the costs, and then copying it to anyone who participated
Buying software, making copies and using them on more than one computer

Some usefull tips:

You are procecutable when officials can prove that you've copied a program for someone else illegaly
You can be caught when you copy programs illegaly in a public place (like a user group)
Nobody can do you anything when you copy programs for someone else in your own private home - only when they catch someone leaving your place with software that can be proven that is copied from your programs, you are liable for procecution
You shouldn't fear for an official entering your home and asking you for illegal software - even when you copy it for him, you aren't procecutable because he made you do it!
Don't forget that people need a search warrant to allow them to look through your home against your will
When officials get certain incriminating statements out of you (on the phone or so), that cannot be used as evidence - it's only of power when they've got your signature under it (a signed statement)

You see, SBS cannot really do anything against most computer freaks who have illegal software in their possesion. But you have no hand hold if they catch you in the act of selling software (even for small prices!), or if they catch you copying software illegaly in a public place or at a public meeting! Things like that have happened already in Den Helder and Purmerend.....
DISKMANIPULATION ON THE ATARI SF DISK DRIVES by Cronos

On of the most fascinating things to do with computers is communicating with external devices. These can be robots, miniature trains, other computer systems or disk drives. To communicate with most of these devices requires additional hardware, and some knowledge about how to communicate with them. Since most people have a disk drive with their ST's, one really cannot say that it is an additional device, and the knowledge needed is also fairly limited. So the disk drive turns out to be one of the easiest external devices to communicate with. That's what makes disk manipulating so interesting. With a little experience you might even be able to manipulate text strings in a program or data file, or even translate complete programs (what about a custom TOS or so?). In this article I will try to explain some of the basics of disk manipulating, to enable everyone to do simple disk manipulations. But look out, however, because manipulating disks can cause damage to your data!

The first thing you must know, is how diskettes are devided in parts. On a regular formatted single sided disk, there are 80 tracks (numbered from 0 to 79 from the outside to the inside), that are split up into 9 sectors (numbered from 1 to 9) each. The Operating System treats two sectors as a so called cluster. Somewhere on a disk is a space reserved for the Operating System to use to determine which clusters are used and which clusters aren't. The space that is reserved therefore is located on the first track of the disk, and is called FAT, which is short for File Allocation Table. In each entry in the FAT there are values that determine whether a block is used, unused of damaged (bad data medium). When it is used, it contains the value that points to the next cluster that is used by the file, or a value that determines the "last cluster in a file". More about specific values later.
The other part of a diskette that is usually very important, is the list of files included on it, called the directory. It contains information about file location, file size, date/time on which the file was created and file type. It is quite difficult to manipulate the directory, because the TOS uses calculations on bit-level instead of byte level. More about that later.
Another part of the disk that is very important to the operating system is track 0 sector 1: the boot sector. It contains information about cluster size, density, number of sectors per track, number of sides per disk, etc. It might even contain a small machine language program (boot code) to read in a program after system RESET (this is done on the original version of Brataccas). The boot sector is MS/DOS V2.x compatible, and it makes the ST computer system very flexible. It is even possible to put the directory on another place on the disk, to redefine cluster size, redefine sector size, etc. In theory the ST disk drive can read any boot-sector compatible 3,5" disk with between 1 and 83 tracks, that may each have between 1 and 11 sectors. Some disk drives (like the ones of many 1040 ST's) might have alignment problems so that tracks with number 80 to 82 cannot be read properly. And nearly all disk drives have problems when using a disk with more than 10 sectors per track. A very nice program to experiment with these values is "820 KB Format" from Sputnik-Horror soft. You can redefine even the number of directory entries!

In the next issue of ST NEWS I will explain more about exact values, positions, etc., and I will tell you how to produce your first successful disk manipulations. If you think you have had very nice/nasty experiences with disk manipulating, please contact me as soon as possible....

GFA BASIC by DSP

GFA Basic is a new basic interpreter for the Atari ST computers. When I first read about it in magazines, I thought "this is the best basic i've ever seen". Now I have it, I can assure you, It is just as good, maybe even better as they say in the magazines.

GfA Basic works with two screens. One is used to edit your program, the other one is for the output. There are no windows, (Altough you have commands to make them), so the editor and the output screen both scroll very fast. (Not like that f.cking ST Basic). The next thing that will catch your eye (when you load a demo) is that GfA Basic doesn't use line numbers. There's no need for  them, because you need line numbers only for two things: to put a line between two other lines, and as a label for GOTO's and GOSUB's. Well, the GfA Editor works just like a wordprocessor. You can at any time insert lines in your basic program just by pressing [INSERT] at the beginning of a line. The screen will scroll one line down, and you can type your extra line. If you press [RETURN] afterwards, the whole screen is scrolled again, making it possible to add even 100 lines between two others if you wish, without having to touch a single extra key. The "problem" of the label is solved very nice: for a gosub, you type "PROC ANY_NAME" in front of the subroutine. GfA changes this to "Procedure ANY_NAME" Now you can call your routine with "GOSUB ANY_NAME". I don't know how it works with GOTO, but I also never needed to know it, if you know what I mean. For there is ONE big minus on GfA Basic: They forgot (?) the BREAK key... I've tried every button on my ST, but the only button that succeeded in breaking my program was that little key on the back... But if you change your GOTO into a While..Wend or Repeat..Until loop, and you use for example INKEY$<>" " OR MOUSEK<>0 as a condition, you can quit your program by pressing space or a mousekey.
You can position the cursor with the cursor keys and the mouse:just like in 1st Word. The screen will scroll up or  down if you reach the bottom  or top of the screen. The bar with commands on top of the screen can be controlled by the mouse (by clicking on it) or with the fuction keys. (the lower bar normal, the upper bar with SHIFT). ESC brings you into DIRECT MODE. Any command you type now, will be executed immediately (just as in normal basic, when you type no line numbers).  ESC [RETURN] brings you  back  on the edit screen. Now about some extraordinairy commands in GfA Basic.
(But remember, I had a COMMODORE 64, So almost every command was new for me...)
 ALERT n,"TEXT | IN | BOX",d," Text | For | button",a
This command display an alert box on the screen, with "TEXT | IN | BOX" in it, with three or less "buttons" in it, of wich "d" has a thick border ("Default", can be "pushed" with return), with "Text" in button 1, "For" in button 2 and "Button" in button 3. The program continues when the user clicks a button, and the answer (1, 2, or 3) is in the variable "a" (can be any variable, of course).

Line X1,Y1,X2,Y2  Draws a line from X1,Y1 to X2,Y2.

Box X1,Y1,X2,Y2
Draws a frame with X1,Y1 and X2,Y2 as coordinates

Rbox X1,Y1,X2,Y2
Same as box, but now with rounded edges

Circle X,Y,R
Draws a circle with center X,Y and radius R. 
You can put a "P" in front of these four commands (Pbox for example). The shape will then be filled immediately.

Next time possibly more about GfA Basic..... 

WINTER GAMES by Antiware and Cronos

On Friday, July 25th of this year, one of the other members of the one and only Desaster Area (Arthur Dent) succeeded in cracking the long awaited program "Winter Games" from Epyx.

Back on the Commodore 64, this program caused quite some stir; it was announced as early as the beginning from 1985 by several crackers, but it finally arrived in September of that year. There were two versions: the normal version (that loaded very fast), and the cracked version from Megabyte. It was an excellent game indeed and both graphics and music were really stunning....
On the ST, we received the program on Thursday, July 31st. It only works on an ST with TOS in ROM or an ST+, together with a color monitor and a double sided disk drive. Even the sound was excellent (for an ST) and the graphics were better than on the good old Commie. Unfortunately it used up so much space that it had to be put on a double sided maxi-formatted disk! At the moment, Antiware's double sided drive is broken (and I have no double sided at all!) and we are waiting for it to arrive repaired. When it is, we will try to make it single-sided (two single sided disks - maxiformatted). Ofcourse, it will then still only work on an  ST+ or an ST with TOS in ROM, both with a color monitor, but you won't have to own a double sided drive! It is expected to be ready in half a month (but that depends on how soon Antiware's drive is finished!).
The program is very good; the best game around on the ST, together with Time Bandit. Since Epyx has also announced Summer Games I & II (Dr. Freud is supposed to get Summer Games II in about one week!), Impossible Mission and G.I. Joe, a lot may be expected on entertainment on the ST. We hope Epyx will continue making good software (and we also hope Arthur will continue cracking them!)...

HACKERS'N'CRACKERS ON THE ATARI ST by Cronos and others

I suppose everyone knows what I'm now going to talk about, as sure as I know that every computer owner has at least one illegal program in his or her possesion. On every computer system, there are many people who now how to deprotect programs - these are the crackers. Together with the muggers they take care that everyone who wants to have software can get it much cheaper then when they go to buy it in the shop!

The first machine to become really exploited by crackers was the Commodore 64, needless to say. There still are dozens of crackers on that machine all over the world (U.S., Australia, Holland, Italy, Germany, Norway, Finland, just to name a few). It all started in Germany, with crackers like Antiram and Antirom, soon to be followed by MAM, Snoopy, 1103 and 6502. Most of these people are said to be programming for software houses now; through cracking they gained a lot of knowledge about their computers, and the software houses started employing them rather then fighting them. But in about a year (I am talking about the beginning of 1985 now), crackers seemed to pop up at every corner of the street. Not all of them were very good, and some of them just cracked one program and then disappeared from the crackin' scene. The Amazing Cracking Conspiracy has also cracked only one program - Basic Lightning - and another cracker (666, now on the ST) is e.g. only known on the 64 from cracking Frontline. He has now cracked one program - again - on the ST (Hippo C Compiler).
But the really big and successfull cracking corporations started in the beginning of 1985, with cracking groups like ABC, later to be followed by the Flash Cracking Group (on a certain moment, they had over forty members!). Especially ABC was both quantitively and qualitively very good; it was almost a factory - they even had a software buyer who went to England and the U.S. regularly to buy new software. He is now a member of Softrunner. But when success grows, so do the different opinions. ABC split up (originally it was Antisoft, Bytebreaker and CSS) in ABC and The Professionals (they were the CSS part before,  existing of two members). They really hated each other's guts and said they hated each other in the programs they cracked. Later, even The Professionals split up: one of them went back to ABC and one of them became ADJ (he later bought an ST, but noone is really sure if he still has it - recently I've seen Megamax C with his name in it, so I am not sure either).
In the summer of 1985, The Professionals started ripping a few pieces of music - Shadowfire, Super Huey and Theatre Europe - thus starting a real wave of music rippers. I bet that there are now more music rippers than crackers on the 64!! The best known are ACE (now a member of the FAC - federations against copyright), The Mercenary Cracker (one of our best friends), the International Cracking Group and ourselves (It is difficult to be modest, now!). Now, there are many more; they even started making music theirselves - like the Jackal, Mighty Bogg, Psy the Hero and CRB. Together with nice graphic artists, they made lots of samples already.
But let's go back to the ST now. The first crackers on the ST were ADJ (he talked us into buying it in the first place, telling us the machine was really cheap at a computer shop in his neighbourhood) and Softrunner. The Destroyer (uuuggghh!!), 666 and ourselves were the ones that followed immediately (we wanted to make sure to be the first - or almost the first - on this new and versatile computer system). It was a rough time in the beginning; everyone was talking about that stupid Amiga and everyone was saying it was much better than the ST. It should be better for that ridiculous price one has to pay for it! Why don't they start buying Fairlights (the machines that Jean Michel Jarre and Kate Bush work on)? But now, fate has proved us right: the ST broke through and will establish itself as a computer for the ordinary people, much alike the Commodore 64.
When other people started to see normally (so not in 4096 colors) they also bought the ST massively; ICG bought an ST on our recommendation. Around that time the best cracking service on the ST developed: the Desaster Area, with leader Robin and chief cracker Ator. Ator cracked Rogue, Temple Trilogy, Hacker, Winter Games, and more.
There really isn't much more to do on the ST crackin' scene at the moment - the ST members of FCG are said to have sold their ST's for Amiga's as well. We, together with a few others, have been solid. We will not leave the ST alone!!!

NEXT TIME IN ST NEWS:

More about disk manipulation

The newest news and software spreading update

The latest little things everyone should know

All about the BIOS

(GFA) Basic Tips 'n' Tricks

Music on the ST's YM 2149 soundchip

and surely more....

GREETINGS TO:

Our fellow-members of the Desaster Area in Germany and Holland, Softrunner, 666, Irata, Mister X, Probyte, Pater Becker, LEN, Skippy, Gamecard, The Invisible Two, Wolfhook, Garfield, Berlin Cracking Service, Bitstoppers, International Cracking Group, Frogware, Active Cracking Crew, Fabulous Breaking Group, The Mercenary Cracker, Flash Cracking Group, 1001, 3001, Crackman Crew, Radwar, Goonies Cracking Group, The Olympic Cracker, MAD, Dynamic Duo, Conan, ADJ, Dr. Freud, GHS, Mario, Newlook, The Institute, Universe, Henksoft, Koala, Wodan, Sodan, R2D2, Federation Against Copyright (ACE), Master Genius, Cronos' mum, Fantasoft, Florasoft, Luco, Tosoft, Space Bert, Bozzuul, Sprinter, ESP, Impeesa, Stichting Bescherming Software (translation: Foundation for the Protection of Software; mean guys!!), SCC, Anselm S., Serjosja V., Hubert van M., Hans N., Peter V., Section Eight, Fred, Gerard, Adri, Robert, Paul (all five of a certain notorious computer shop in Alkmaar, Beverwijk, Haarlem and Amsterdam), Ed van de R. and his wife, Theo van B., Peter V., Léon O., Math C., Eddy S., Luke C., the man who called me from Wapenveld (I don't know his first name), Piet D., Rob G., Tom den D., Vincent van D., Engel G., Cyborg, Pippi (read why in either Synth Sample II or the Amazing Cracking Conspiracy Super Utility Disk Version 1.5), Jeff M., Rob H., Sven K., Peter M., Onno V. (alias Mr. Protect, the "Micro Master"), Theo P., Wim H., Wil H., Hans K., Frans van K., Eddie B, Nite Nat, Jos P., Wilfred K., NIC, MIKEL, THG, OTD, Ron R., Arthur Dent, Delta Software Productions, Faber Software Productions, ABA (for still greeting us on the Commodore 64), Psy the hero, Matt, Demon, PFF and all the people that liked ST NEWS Volume 1 Issue 1. Also greetings to Herman de V. & Alex S......

This was the second Amazing Cracking Conspiracy  version of  the bulletin ST NEWS, which will be published at irregular intervals. We hope you liked it.

© by The Amazing Cracking Conspiracy™, 1986

Idea, publication, production, distribution, layout, typing, setting, processing and data compiling by the Public Relations Division of The Amazing Cracking Conspiracy™

The Amazing Cracking Conspiracy is a member of the one and only Desaster Area (an International cracking group on ST and 64)...