__NOTOC__ A crack intro, also known as a cracktro, loader, or just intro, is a small introduction sequence added to cracked software. It aims to inform the user which cracking crew or individual cracker removed the software's

copy protection Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, is any measure to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found on vid ...

and distributed the crack.

History

Crack intros first appeared on

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

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 dump In computing, a core dump, memory dump, crash dump, storage dump, system dump, or ABEND dump consists of the recorded state of the working memory of a computer program at a specific time, generally when the program has crashed or otherwise termin ...

s of Commodore 64 software, ''

Ahoy! ''Ahoy!'' was a computer magazine published between January 1984 and January 1989 in the US, covering on all Commodore color computers, primarily Commodore 64 and Amiga. History The first issue of ''Ahoy!'' was published in January 1984. The ...

'' wrote that such intros were "in the tradition of the true hacker". Early crack intros resemble

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

in many ways, although they invaded the

private sphere The private sphere is the complement or opposite to the public sphere. The private sphere is a certain sector of societal life in which an individual enjoys a degree of authority and tradition, unhampered by interventions from governmental, economi ...

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 of the software itself. Crack intros only became more sophisticated on more advanced systems such as the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

, and some

IBM PC compatible An IBM PC compatible is any personal computer that is hardware- and software-compatible with the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and its subsequent models. Like the original IBM PC, an IBM PC–compatible computer uses an x86-based central p ...

s with sound cards. These intros feature big, colourful

effects Effect may refer to: * A result or change of something ** List of effects ** Cause and effect, an idiom describing causality Pharmacy and pharmacology * Drug effect, a change resulting from the administration of a drug ** Therapeutic effect, ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

, 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 The demoscene () is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off computer programmi ...

. Crack intros and other small software created by software crackers such as keygens and patches that remove protection from commercial applications often use

chiptune Chiptune, also called 8-bit music (although not all chiptune is 8-bit music), is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video gam ...

s in the form of background music. These chiptunes are now still accessible as downloadable '' musicdisks'' or ''musicpacks''.

References

External links

World of C64 Crackintros
– A large collection of C64 cracktros in native "prg" file format (supported by most C64 emulators)
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
Amiga Music Preservation
– Thousands of cracktros in all tracker formats.
Chiptune.com
– A chiptune dedicated website containing thousands of chiptunes from Amiga and other formats. The website itself emulates the Amiga Workbench 1.3.
THE AMIGA CRACKTRO MARATHRON
– A large back-to-back collection of Amiga cracktros.
Docsnyderspage.com
– Hundreds of C64 crack intros re-coded for the web. Demo effects Copyright infringement Software cracking de:Demoszene#Ursprünge in den Heimcomputern der 1980er

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links