Illegal Issue 34
Typed in and presented by Fairlight!
Thanx to Strider/Fairlight for his great effort to save this brilliant masterpiece of valueable C-64 scene history, created by the legendary Jeff Smart ! No other magazine, published after ILLEGAL, should ever have reached the popularity of Jeff Smart’s unique Fanzine again.
ILLEGAL Issue #34
Released on January 16th 1989 - Circulation: unknown
WOSSUP!?
Yeh, wossup? Not much would be the answer. It seems as if the Amiga gets better and better in the last few weeks... Well, time will tell. We're approaching the worst time of year as only a very few titles are announced... and then only for the Amiga. Anyway, the RADWAR party was a huge success, and a good ending for the year 1988.
Well, I wish some warm underwear to IKARI (all of them, especially to JUST ICE and TRI-DOS), the DOUGHNUTS (NOSAH friend and Mistuh SULU), STRIKE FORCE/MOVERS (RAGMAN, CONAN, ZOFF, DRAGO, CAOS...), RADWAR (the whole crew, and a big thanx for the book Markus - my mom liked it!), GEORGE and the rest, PINGE and the rest, BEASTIE BOYS (AXION the FUTURE's CAPTAIN (PC Engine and then??) and ACCEPT), NBB (MR.LAZY.. err.. LAZER), FAIRLIGHT (hob-HOBBIT, best of his kind, STRIDER (when is the king at home?) and GOLLUM), COSMOS (BIG BEN, SSD and ATT), X-RAY (what about this parcel, Chris?), VISION FACTORY + THE BEYONDERS (this time I wrote the name in full), PITO and girl in Bonn (Ya!), WORLD OF WONDERS, RED SECTOR (MR.ZEROPAGE, and the Agima... err.. IRATA), MANIACS OF NOISE (Charlie!), ELITE (Woldgang), DAVE and his "NEWS", EAGLESOFT's Mitch (Amiga rulez!), dachdecking DEEJAY, some BITS of ZENO (ION), THE WANDERER GROUP, MR.CURSOR, F.A.R.T. err M.E, Modem'KAY my Sheila and the record company ROUGH TRADE for sending a prerelease edition of NEW ORDER's new album "TECHNIQUE" 3 weeks before it was released officially!
Sorry to all of you who have been coincidentally forgotten... L8R M8S! / JEFFO!
NEWS IN BRIEF
Yohoo, fried! This again is Pac.. err... RAGMAN telling you the craziest stories of and around the scene. Well here we go then...
- STRIKE FORCE/MOVERS is now 100% dead, but all Amiga members joined forces with VISION FACTORY & THE BEYONDERS. Amusing that there exists some lamers claiming they are the "NEW STRIKE FORCE", but that's pure bullshit, and it's only a question of time until we have eliminated them.
- THE WANDERER GROUP have quit all activities on the C64 as their main cracker IZEYESTOP is gonna join the Army soon.
- JEFF SMART and T'KAY left SCG, but are still busy writing their mega mega demo as they're working on it for more than 8 months now.
- There is a group called ELITE making the whole scene unsafe. Well their members are keeping themselves well isolated, but we should be finding out soon - I hope.
- GENESIS PROJECT and FIRE EAGLE are now making a cooperation together.
- Another cooperation, XADES SOCIETY made a cooperation with the Scandinavian BEYOND FORCE.
- Not only PACO (see below) is having a big war with THE MINDSLAYER of INC, but so have all other members of BROS. Now BROS feel proud to release old games under the name of MAYHEM to make them appear stupid and lame.
- Rumors from FAIRLIGHT say that they are gonna drop the C64 business soon and will now concentrate on terrorizing the Amiga market.
- Was anybody wondering who or what was that X-RAY? Well, here comes the solution; X-RAY consists of TYPHUS (ex-INXS), TIMOC and the Austrian CRACKOUT CREW. They mean that the procedure of "defreezing a game" is "of course" possible... Aha!
- SCOUSERS seem to be dead 100%, as WEETIBIX released his last crack. So we wish him good luck with his exams at school!
- HENDY, ex-ZENITH cracker is now active cracking for DCS. So that means that there are gonna appear at last much better versions from DCS.
- I, myself like to add that I passed my driving licence and am trying to kill all those damn pedestrians. Well I should be coming to Venlo with my own car, so Dutch lamers beware!
- RADWAR also announced after their great party that they are gonna drop the illegal work. Well another big loss for the cracking scene...
This ends the gossip for this month. Here goes my greetings to: IKARI, DOUGHNUT CRACKING SERVICE, SF/MOVERS (shit we're dead), THE WANDERER GROUP, SCOUSERS, JEFF, TK, ZOFF, NORMAN, WORLD OF WONDERS, VF+B and all the others... Farewell says... RAGMAN!
DYNAMIC DUE BUSTED AFTER 2 YEARS!
As strange as it might sound like... but this is, unfortunately, no joke! So it happened in beginning of January '89 that one half of the DYNAMIC DUO was caught by the police. "H.J." who no longer had a C64 was squealed on by some "Ralf Feigel" (if you ever heard about him let us know -ed) from southern Germany. Anyway the police took away about 130 Amiga disks...
It seems so unbelievable, but still it's the hard truth... Just as you thought it was safe... / MZP & JS
VENLO - MORE NEWS
Well as now everybody got to know, the bad apprehensions from last month weren't proved right fortunately... The thing, that the SHN officially stated, is that the organizers of the usual Venlo meeting stopped their work. So they had to find new people to set this job forth as the Venlo meeting always was the most popular. As the SHN is holding four meetings every morning throughout The Netherlands, the organizers of the Nijmegen meeting (every 2nd Saturday of the month) finally said to take care of the Venlo meeting. They say in their magazine "Nieuwsbrief" (hum - my Dutch knowledge isn't perfect yet);
-"The place is the best possible to find. It's very close to the city... There are some rules to prevent that we get in trouble again. Here are the rules for the Venlo meeting:
- Everybody HAS TO give their name and address to the people at the entrance - you'll then receive "Nieuwsbrief".
- Selling of anything is forbidden without getting a permission.
- Spreading of invitations to parties or anything else is forbidden without (again) getting a permission.
- If you buy food or drinks outside you have to consume it outside too.
- If you can't follow the rules: STAY HOME!
Huh, it sounds radical? Well people are not sure whether the Venlo meeting will still be that big success as before... Well as usual, time will tell. Anyway, for all abroad, note the new adress of the meeting: ZAAL STAAY, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, VENLO-BLERICK. /JS
SEVEN HONEST ANSWERS FROM MWS OF RADWAR
- Which would be the three things you would take with you on a lonely island?
A whole harem, a big box of Johnny Walker whiskey and a negro. - If you would win $1,000,000.00 what would be the first thing you'd be buying!?
I would bribe von Grafenreuth to work for the crackers. - If you could kill a person without being punished, who would that be?
Will Masolyn from HOTLINE, - What would be the best thing that could happen to you?
To get a computer that is able to do all the things a girlfriend can do (without cooking...). - And what would be the worst thing that could happen?
If there will never be such a computer... - If you could meet a person in history, who would you like to talk to?
Cleopatra (but not only talking...) - What was the best incident you ever had!?
Well it happened some time ago that a guy called FLORASOFT visited me with his girlfriend. He took 3 hours to copy all the latest games. I took 3 hours to take his girlfriend with me upstairs... I don't know, but FLORASOFT was very angry when he left...
A GLANCE BACK AT THE MAIN EVENTS OF 1988!
Let's take a retroperspective view of the most important incidents of 1988, which have been named in the monthly "gossip'n'news" columns of ILLEGAL ...
- JANUARY
- As a result of the war between CCS and TCS (Cleveland and Teeside Cracking Service/s), CCS have changed their name into "FUSION - MAN AND MACHINE".
- Rumors have been put against IKARI freezing a lot of their cracks.
- FCS, one of the very known German cracking groups, stopped activities.
- Many conferences made their way from the States to Europe.
- The "Cracker of the Year" chart looked like this; 1. TRIAD, 2. HOTLINE, 3. BEASTIE BOYS, 4. TEESIDE CRACKING SERVICE, 5. FAIRLIGHT, 6. SCOUSE CRACKING GROUP, 7. RDI, 8. EAGLESOFT, 9. UNTOUCHABLE CRACKING FORCE, 10. FANTASY CRACKING SERVICE.
- The RADWAR party on January 9th was a huge success...
- FEBRUARY
- FUSION started to be a real competitor for TRIAD, FAIRLIGHT and IKARI.
- IKARI successfully fights the critics about freezing.
- Some people see a danger in the appearance of modemtrading on the European market.
- MARCH
- PIRA-TED squeals on EAGLESOFT.
- FUSION climbs to No.1 in the "Cracker Charts" for the first time.
- JANITOR of TRIAD said he was gonna retire.
- In C&VG appears a photo of the Amiga game Dark Castle, showing "cracked by Lord Blitter for BS1".
- "System Four" goes on for the 1st time.
- APRIL
- SCOUSE CRACKING GROUP announce their comeback, but nobody seems to be fairly interested in that.
- TRI-DOS, after being kicked out of FUSION, reinforces IKARI.
- WINTER EDITION was finally fixed by THE PAPILLONS, TRIAD and MR.ZEROPAGE.
- The April Venlo meeting was one of the best yet!
- The Private Party (TRIAD, FAIRLIGHT, RADWAR) was quite a big success.
- MAY
- IAN, leader of FUSION, quit working on computers because, as he said "My family deserves more of my time than I have been giving".
- THE SURVIVORS, known American group, died after several members received horrible phone bills.
- English computer magazine "Commodore User" prints extracts from "ILLEGAL”.
- SCG appears in the "Cracker Charts" after more than 6 months of absence.
- JUNE/JULY
- STRIDER of FAIRLIGHT started to visit the US of A for 2 months.
- Four Danish JEWELS reinforced IKARI. They are EXCELL, FLETCH, GANDALF and DOC.
- SCG jumps to No.1 in the charts.
- For the first time in cracking, an Austrian group entered the "Cracker Charts", namely the TSK-CREW, and hasn't left it so far.
- JANITOR releases his last crack for TRIAD - Bard's Tale III.
- AUGUST
- The total disaster in Denmark, the IKARI-DOMINATORS-DANISH GOLD-UPFRONT party was everything else but a well-organized party.
- TRIAD finally dies after IXION and MR.PINGE leave the sinking mommy-ship.
- No ILLEGAL comes out, mainly because of the summer holiday.
- SEPTEMBER
- The gigantical meeting, the PERSONAL COMPUTER SHOW (also formally, and better known as the PCW Show) delighted more than 100,000 visitors from the 16-18th of September at Earl's Court in London.
- More and more people getting pissed off at all modem traders.
- The Austrian TSK-CREW changed their name into COSMOS.
- STRIDER is back at home in Sweden, but still talks like a Yank.
- DOUGHNUT CRACKING SERVICE, old fame from England, seem to be back after 2 long years of break.
- After JJ THE BREAKER is back from his stay in the Army, UNTOUCHABLE CRACKING FORCE announces their comeback, but fails already after 3 weeks.
- OCTOBER
- MR.ZEROPAGE, Germany's best cracker, was caught by the police.
- Mark Le-May, Englands piss-head #1, created PHOENIX, but drops it after 2 months.
- The English post strike makes the mailtrading in Great Britain difficult.
- SCG made a hattrick in the "Cracker Charts", as noone else did before.
- NOVEMBER
- A TOUCH OF CLASS appears as a very strong American group.
- MAD ALL, after being caught by the post, stops pirating.
- WEETIBIX announces SCG's retirement.
- IKARI again climbs to No.1.
- HOTLINE seems to be active in cracking again, after only importing for more than half of the year.
- STRIKE FORCE, in cooperation with THE MOVERS enter the charts as a very strong German group.
- DECEMBER
- SCG says farewell to the cracking circuit mainly due to problems at school.
- ZENITH is left alone, only STEVE and IRONFIST remain...
- TWG quits computing.
- STRIKE FORCE/MOVERS quit too.
- SHINING 8 quits.
- More and more people start to work for software companies.
- The RADWAR PARTY V2 was even better than it's predecessor!
TV SHOW "HIGH SCORE" - THE ULTIMATE DISCUSSION!
And there it goes then! On December 17th 1988 the WDR computer show called "HIGH SCORE" went for the third time on the air... The climax besides David Braben as a studio guest was a discussion meeting between;
- TP: The presentator
- VG: Lord von Grafenreuth - who is the lawyer representing the software companies on court against piracy!
- TW: Theuth Weidemann - he used to be KOTZBROCKEN and a member of the old JEDI, but works nowadays for RAINBOW ARTS
- MW: MWS of RADWAR - as "a guy who knows a lot about the crackers..."
Now imagine... The following was all LIVE on TV...
- TP: In general, why do people crack a game?
- MW: A game is cracked, mainly because of fun, hobby and let's say to get famous in the "scene".
- TP: Sir von Grafenreuth, is cracking punishable or just the spreading of pirate software?
- VG: Err, "the changing, destroying and surpressing" of datas is punishable!
- [AUDIENCE: LAUGHING!]
- VG: I could and did only repeat what the law says about it... So in general, yes, cracking is illegal when datas are attacked. If there are programmes protected by copyright laws, the it's also punishable after the copyright law, that can be a changing of any datas... For example, I can remember some cracker on my list "DR.MENGELE", Paraguay, you see they never caught him. (?? -ed)
- TP: Based on the law, there exist some different possibilities to protect a computer game...?
- VG: Yes, computer games have, like movies or records a copyright law.
- TP: Theuth, you changed sides. Are you now tracing your ex-friends?
- TW: No, of course not. We work together with those people. They're working for us and most of them went out of the scene.
- TP: How do you handle those people?
- TW: I persuade them to make money with programming, using their experience that they got through cracking... And they know what's going on.
- TP: What do you think, when one of your games is cracked?
- TW: The crackers are taking the copy protections from the games away and make the games this way available to people who would normally buy the games. So they're damaging our company, and we're not able to put more money into the games, so the quality of games is lower than it could be...
- TP: Marcus, is that right? What do crackers want?
- MW: Crackers want to improve their image in some way and spread cracked games to get known and the computer is mainly a means of communication, so that they can be in contact with others, worldwide. And I don't think that a cracker is cracking a game for money. That's mainly a software pirate, and that's not their preferred side... And additionally, I think the audience shares my opinion...
- [AUDIENCE: BIG APPLAUSE!]
- VG: Well, it's often difficult to clear up if we got a cracker or a software pirate... but we ourselves even caught crackers. GERMAN CRACKING SERVICE is not existing anymore.
- [AUDIENCE: BIG LAUGHING!]
- VG: Yes, GCS... Snoopy etc, the group was caught (exactly 3 years ago -ed), but we got also a lot of people offering and selling software.
- MW: Why did you, in one of your infamous interviews in the "ASM" (known German software magazine -ed) confuse the term "cracker" with "software pirate"? And you also said that there was a house search and you needed 2 cars and a lorry to take all the stuff and computers of that guy away?
- TP: To make it more clear, the only point for people being punished is they sell software!?
- MW: Right.
- TW: The crackers are the ones who start to spread the games, but the spreaders, err... or how you like to call them, are the ones making a profit of the crackers. They're selling the games, but without the crackers they couldn't even exist.
- MW: But, in the end, nowadays games are so expensive and this is up to the software retailers, that small kids who receive, let's say 30DM, pocket money every month and they find an advertisment saying "Newest games on C64 and Amiga for sale!". They're probably more interested in that than otherwise paying 59DM for a single game, but that is only due to the packing or any other things. And I think, a cracker is not interested in supplying those people with games. They're as we said "software pirates".
- TP: Can one differentiate between that? If, let's say, I myself would crack a game?
- [AUDIENCE: LAUGHING!]
- MW: Okay, if you want...
- TP: Okay, if I do that I would have my self-control about spreading the game or keeping it for myself.
- MW: Grafenreuth also said in his interview that it is already illegal to possess own cracked version for one's own at home.
- VG: Yes, that's right.
- MW: And you say that the interest of software companies are more worth than the interests of an individual person during legal preceedings...?
- VG: Not the software retailer, but the owning of copyright as the German law stresses the proprietary right and material guarantees, that means copyrights, so that the programmer who created something has a copyright and it's surprising to see that nowadays a lot of people who left the cracking scene and started to work for companies, who became top programmers get angry about others cracking their games now.
- MW: That is right, but if you say such a sentence like: "The companies are higher evaluated in front of the court than an individual", which occurs in your interview.
- VG: Not the companies, but the copyrights.
- MW: Okey, but that means, if someone only buys a game, he at one puts himself under the obedience of a software company, because if he, without knowing it, changes the datas of the program somehow with some other means, he commited a crime?
- VG: Well, perhaps I give another example as we had a BKA (special German police dept. -ed) decision about a changing of a roof, when someone else put another roof on it and...
- [AUDIENCE: VEEERY BIG AMUSEMENT & LAUGHING!]
- TP: We're not talking about roofs.
- VG: That doesn't matter... There is also a copyright law!
- MW: May I set an interrupt? You also have advertisements in some known magazines (not in ILLEGAL -ed) where your assistants pretend they're crackers and offer software.
- VG: No, not crackers...
- MW: But if someone writes in and likes to buy software, which is quite reasonable, then you catch him! Is that really legal?
- VG: If someone only writes in and is fairly interested in getting the games, of course nothing happens. But if somebody sends a list of games and encloses disks with software, then it is possible that something can happen.
- TP: It has proved up to now, that no protection is unbeatable...?
- MW: What do you want to do against things like freeze-modules which can be bought in every shop?
- TP: Yes such things are even offered by the industry and they help the crackers doing their job?
- VG: It's not... It happened that one of the leading software producers in Germany claimed to take away all those things from the shops, and exactly this freeze-module will be taken away soon...
- TP: But there is no doubt that something new has to be developed... Anyway, I'm sorry, but the time is up. Thank you a lot.
Well, I hope you got a big of imagination of what was running on TV. I had to add who was present in the audience (no joke!); BROS (BAMBAM), DCS (MR.SULU), DEEJAY, IKARI (JUST ICE, TRI-DOS), MR.CURSOR, MR.ZEROPAGE, T'KAY, THE WANDERER GROUP, WORLD OF WONDERS, STRIKE FORCE, MOVERS, ZENOBITS and a hell more...
"High Score" was only planned to appear on TV three times, which it did. Perhaps there'll be more in April, but nobody seems to know when the movie about the RADWAR party will be shown... All translation (yeuch!) by JEFFO!
GERMANY: WILL COPYRIGHT BE ABOLISHED SOON?
Open your eyes and believe it! The biggest parties in Germany, the CDU/CSU is planning to abolish the copyright law, at least in south Germany. It seems as this is no longer the dream of all crackers, but it could become reality (let's say a prayer), as the CDU/CSU are saying that all the money spent on tracing software pirates or any other of that kind, could and should (and will?) be spent on more useful (!) thinks...
And I think, they have a good point! So, hope for the best... Elect CDU/CSU next time! /MZP+JS
RADWAR PARTY V3!?
Just as the second party was over, RADWAR already announced the 3rd one!! It will be held in summer times, and will be run over 3 full days, including camping and barbecue!
"THREE DAYS STONED!"
WHERE HAVE ALL THE CONFERENCES GONE?
It's 23.30 and the phone rings, I'm just on my way to bed and think "SHIT", but wait, it might be a conference. My heart starts to beat faster and I hurry to answer the phone. I pick it up eagerly, but NO, it's just someone asking if I've got a fucking code!! A shitbox AT&T code. So I tell'em "GOOD NIGHT" and sob myself to sleep. So just where have all the conferences gone? Maybe it's just me, maybe I have lost my popularity and nobody loves me anymore? Well, I could always buy some razorblades!
Time was, you could guarantee to get on a couple of conferences a week. And they're great, I used to get most of my gossip off the conferences. Or you could listen to two guys who hate eachother having a verbal fight over the phone. I'll never forget the famous CHUNK & MEGASNAIL conversation, there were six other guys from all over Europe just listening to two guys slagging each other off, and I have to say that MEGASNAIL lost hands down.
But the problem seems to be that codes just aren't available anymore. Maybe the Yanks have now attrived their usefulness and I mean, in my opinion the only good thing Yanks have giving the cracking scene are PBX codes, AT&T codes and of course modems (but they only send 1 out of 10 they promise). So if they can't come up with the codes, maybe we should fuck 'em off?
I mean, last month I was getting phonecalls every night from Sweden, Germany, Denmark etc. From guys who were desperate for codes so they could phone the Yanks. Well I say, fuck the Yanks. If they ain't supplying the codes then we shouldn't supply the cracks. The great initiates of conferences seem to have gone quiet. PACO where are you? You used to be the conference King! Phone broken? Busted? ...or just NO CODES!?
I'm getting withdrawal symptoms, I miss the times when 6 or 7 guys on the line would speak at once and noone had a fucking clue what anyone else had said, but everyone had a laugh. Or the times someone would put his heavy metal music next to the speakers, and the guys who really had something to say would have to wait until DEF LEPPARD's drummer would shut the fuck up before they could carry on. Oh, happy days! So to you Yanks out there I say get your fingers out and start hacking some codes so that I can hear that lovely sentence "USA Direct, May I help you?" and we can start these late night conferences again... Written by NOSAH of DCS!
ADVENTURES OF A TRAVELLING AUSTRIAN BOY
First of all: It was great to see all contacts and friends in Venlo. But it was hard work to get from the fucking small Austria to the holy town of Venlo. Let me tell you some of our adventures...
What is the cheapest way getting from Austria to Holland? Right, the train. I don't wanna tell you how we came to Venlo, but it took 17 hours... Then we were there. A big room, a lot of guyz, but nobody we knew. After one hours of lonelyness a well known friend arrived. It was JEFFIE - the smart one. Then this was the time to be introduced to the most famous dudes present, so I met JUST ICE, MR.SULU, CONAN, MR.CURSOR, MR.ZEROPAGE and many more of these great friends...
Another hour later I head that there was a big TV show in Cologne. OK! How could I get to Cologne? I found a driver in the person of VEDA of G*P. After he found his lost key for the car, we were able to drive to Cologne. On a gas station, the car had some troubles with the electricity (after 10 minutes we could fix it!). 6 o'clock: We were in Cologne. But where is the TV studio? We found it after asking 20 guys for the way...
The TV show was then great (good job Markus). But now let's turn over to the RADWAR party in Heinsberg. We found it after 2 hours of searching. In the disco I had time to talk to JUST ICE and MR.SULU (they are really fine time, err sorry, guys). The party was really great!
The way back to Cologne was a disaster. Because G*P took the wrong way, we arrived after hours in Cologne and almost had a crash with an S-express. 2 nice and pretty girls helped us pull back the car on the street. We spent some drinks with the girls and then we searched for a hotel. We found one: only 120DM for a night (equal to 40 pounds -ed). We took it. Poor and tired we went sleeping. On the next day we then went back to good old Austria...
This was only a fast one to show you what is possible to happen when you travel to Venlo for the first time... but... IT WAS GREAT!!!! /BIG BEN of COSMOS
THE NEVERENDING STORY OF SYSTEM FOUR!
Aha... Well the good news on the phone turned a short while later into bad things... Well, I don't care that much. We then finally came all together drinking, dancing and so on. Better than good! Better than anything imagineable before! Back from the day at the opera, I find myself hanging around being not sure about how to continue...
A man and his machine, now a man and his magazine... We sat together and talked about the good old days and remembered what there was before, and GOSH! We had the brilliant idea to put some system together, and remain unknown... Well it then was my turn to set up the basics and get the people together, but it surprisingly looks damn good... The last year ender not that furious, but the new year began with unknown pleasures... It was the TECHNIQUE that arrived 3 weeks than I thought it would. 8 new masterpieces... The picture you see is no portrait of me, it's too real to be shown to someone I don't know, and as you're driving me wild it makes act like a child. Ha!
Well, I then see myself arriving at the vanishing point (you think I am crazy, but what can I do?), so I was again searching for some new ideas. There a lot of people raping my ideas a long time ago, anyway I think I am still strong... I took my fingers from the keyboard to the cassette tape and took off... Well, I am working hard and I still have to do quite a bit and we will see what it's gonna bring... Well people seem to be spreading false rumors, everybody else but the people themselves care!
I'm not that kind of foolish partner as I couldn't have taken it from any other one... Well the letter was written some good time ago and tomorrow will at last bring the long awaited decision... I don't know really. I thought about both possible consequences. One seem to be so easy, but it doesn't depend on me. SYSTEM FOUR anyway stays stronger than it ever was... It was a damn good launch even though some drunk pet shop boy claimed it was luck... Ha! The elite will be together to kick him in his ass... We now think about how to destroy the minor classes... It shouldn't be that kind og big problemo. Some other friends are riding on the wave of the rising modem but rather seem to fail, well again I don't know...
Well don't take it too serious as the decision will not really concern my SYSTEM FOUR activities, but if I think about it, it might... but just in the most positive way I can think of! So, what's the use in complaining when you've got everything you need? DREAM ATTACH, I can't really sleep... Anyway nothing in this world can touch the music that I hear, and that's probably the main thing for me, as without it, I wouldn't have been here. I again have to think about the letter. I come to doubt whether it was right or wrong, well tomorrow will tell me. I'm getting tired of everything. I try but I cannot find you, tell me what do I do!? My name is not MR.DISCO but still grown up by children suffer at the hands of one another. Ah, tomorrow will tell!! TO BE CONTINUED! /JEFF SMART
VOTE FOR THE CHARTS!
Hi friends! You can do me a favor and vote for the charts every month as the charts should be as representative as ever possible, so I need all of you! Okey, there are two possibilities...
You copy the list below, give up to 10 points to every group and send it to me immediately... or you can give a quick phonecall as it's much easier for you and me... (the number is on the last page)
- C64: IKARI, DCS, ELITE, ATC, BROS, FAIRLIGHT, DOMINATORS, COSMOS, X-RAY, BEASTIE BOYS, ZENITH, HOTLINE
- AMIGA: VF+TB, QUARTEX, WOW, FAIRLIGHT, ACKERLIGHT, MEGAFORCE, RSI/DEFJAM, ORACLE, BS1/QUORAM, AFL
WHERE ARE THE DEMO CHARTS!?
Yeah, you might be wondering where I put the "Demo Charts"? Well, I put them off ILLEGAL, as I only get my hands on a very few demos, so it's no longer any use to make a "Demo Charts". Well, nevertheless I'd like to draw your attention to two demos...
"MEGA DEMO" from DRIVE and "BABYLON 5" by MR.CURSOR, both would have surely been top hits in the charts... Anyways, later on... /JEFF SMART
JEFF SMART RADIO SHOW
New ideas save the country! Yes, the "JEFF SMART Radio Show" is available on tape up from February 1st 1989. Send an empty 60min tape plus 5DM to: RADIO SHOW, PLK XXXXXX X, XXXX BOTTROP, WEST GERMANY ...and you get your tape within 5 days! Let youself be surprised; jokes, interviews, music, strange noises, wild animals and lots of other crap...
Don't miss the FIRST EDITION of the "JEFF SMART Radio Show"... Available up from 01-02-1989, so... ORDER NOW! /JS
C64 GAME REVIEWS
- FIST+: Aha, after IK+ now FIST+, and it doesn't beat IK+, though it's not bad except for the horrible music. 87pts.
- SUPERMAN: From TYNESOFT, and except for the game itself the rest is very good. Great graphic, 81pts.
- R-TYPE: I guess all of you know the story about "KATAKIS" and "R-TYPE" by now, so I'm not repeating it again. Well the game is somewhat weaker than KATAKIS, mainly because the two programmers just got six weeks time from ACTIVISION to finish it. 79pts.
- STARBALL: Something like "KRAKOUT" for two players simultaneously. Weak gameplay, but still it brings fun, 82pts.
AMIGA GAME REVIEWS
- ELITE: Probably the best game ever made on computers, even better on 16-bit. The pure madness... 99pts! (highest ranking ever!)
- DRAGON'S LAIR: Yet there is no cracked version on the circuit, but luckily I got a look at the original. Great graphics, and nice gameplay. 94pts.
- ZAK MC CRACKEN: Aha, another superb conversion from the C64. I'm not sure if this was the first LUCASFILM release on the Amiga, but it's brilliant! 93pts.
- SWORD OF SODAN: Great graphics, but gets boring soon... 79pts.
- OPERATION WOLF: Best game from OCEAN on Amiga so far, 87pts.
CHARTS - JANUARY 1989
C64 GAMES
1. MICROPROSE SOCCER (1)
2. GRAND PRIX CIRCUIT (2)
3. FIST+ (-)
4. ROCKET RANGER (3)
5. KATAKIS (4)
6. SUPERMAN (-)
7. ULTIMA V (7)
8. R-TYPE (-)
9. THE LAST NINJA II (6)
10. STARBALL (-)
C64 CRACKERS
1. IKARI (1)
2. DOUGHNUT CRACKING SERVICE(7)
3. ELITE (-)
4. A TOUCH OF CLASS (4)
5. BROS (9)
6. STRIKE FORCE/MOVERS (5)
7. FAIRLIGHT (3)
8. DOMINATORS (11)
9. COSMOS (10)
10. X-RAY (-)
AMIGA GAMES
1. ELITE (-)
2. DRAGON'S LAIR (-)
3. ZAK MC CRACKEN (-)
4. SPEEDBALL (1)
5. SWORD OF SODAN (-)
6. OPERATION WOLF (-)
7. HOSTAGES (2)
8. TV SPORTS FOOTBALL (-)
9. BATTLE CHESS (4)
10. CALIFORNIA GAMES (-)
AMIGA CRACKERS
1. VISION FACTORY/BEYONDERS (6)
2. QUARTEX (2)
3. WORLD OF WONDERS (1)
4. ACKERLIGHT (4)
5. MEGAFORCE (7)
6. RED SECTOR/DEFJAM (3)
7. FAIRLIGHT (-)
8. ORACLE (-)
9. BAMIGA SECTOR 1/QUORAM (-)
10. ALPHAFLIGHT (5)
IMPRESSUM
ILLEGAL (C) by JEFF SMART
Issue #34 - Released on January 16th 1989 - Circulation: unknown
Editor-in-Chief: JEFF SMART
Co-Editors & Contributors: MAD ALL, T.A. / AMOK, MWS / RADWAR, RAGMAN / SF, MR.ZEROPAGE, F.C., BIG BEN / COSMOS, NOSAH / DCS, HOBBIT / FAIRLIGHT
Typed in by: STRIDER of FAIRLIGHT
(finally fortunately found in some Web-cache and saved to file by The Arrogance)
Preview of Issue #35: Interview with THE FLEET of X-RAY * Coming highlights of 1989 * Danish scene report
Comments: If you have any comments, you're welcome to write to us!
Address: ILLEGAL, PLK XXXXXX X, XXXX XXXXXXX, West Germany
