Greetings, and welcome to the September Edition of "ILLEGAL". As you are probably reading this at the PERSONAL COMPUTER SHOW, we from the "ILLEGAL" team would like to say a big "THANKS" to everyone for attending this show and making it the best cracker meeting ever!!! We say special "Thank you" to:

• The JESTER of PUBLIC ENEMY NO.1 for use of a video camera and photocopier.
• All guys in England who let people stay with them.
• All the guys who made the trip from places all over Europe to be here at the show.
• All crackers and pirates across the world, who are each contributing their own little bit into making crackers an invincible force that the police and software companies (hopefully) will never beat!
• Mike Pattenden of "Commodore User" for writing correct and true things about us and not the bullshit that Ferrari owning rich bastard software companies told him to say.
• All dudes who made articles for us and made this issue possible!

WOSSUP!?

Hi doods! AMERICANS take over! This is the main theme every rational guy in Europe is seriously talking about, first consequences were drawn by Nik of IKARI who said he can't crack when lots of Americans are calling him and wanting games as fast as possible. Other groups lick the ass of every American calling 'em for trading, others produce bad quality cracks to be the first in the States, others recrack games and some others again release old games with new titles, 'cuz Americans do import every game they do not know! Now all rational guys see the big danger in this system and are going to change something if possible!

Strange state... Anyway, wake up! The best time of the year for us pirates is coming with loads of new games up to Christmas, so there is still something to look forward to... But OF COURSE there are still some good friends left in this rough pirate society of today, some of which are:

SCOUSE CRACKING GROUP (Georgie-boy and the rest! Liverpool's soing fine in the championship, eh?), BEASTIE BOYS (CF and Accept), IKARI (JUST ICE and Nik, gotta meet you big dudes), NEW BENCOR BROTHERS (Andy-Man, Mik and Caz - Thanx for all, Randy), EAGLESOFT INC. (THE BUTCHER + Mitch, one of the veeeeeery few decent Americans), FAIRLIGHT (the commie killer STRIDER and soccer star goalLUM, wossup with ya, Tony?), BROS (only the whole Dutch section), ORION (DSH and MR.DECIBEL), TRIANGLE (all at Triangle, especially SWYXIE babe), F.B.R. (Joe, how's everythin' goooin'?), I.N.C. (Dave dude), T.A.G. (Dave dude), COMMANDOFRONTIER (Dave du... err... Allan, Ny and the whole bunch! Nice tape recordinx!), RADWAR (Markus and the rest), T.W.G. (err... Markus and the rest), COSMOS (SSD, servus!), ASH and DAVE, HOTLINE (now...?)...

...KROMBACHER PILS, CARLSBERG, TUBORG, GATZWEILER, FRANKENHEIM (Cheeeriooo!), WIZAX, INXS (the pimple... err, PIMP), IAN dood (FC MBRO promoted?), 2000 AD (Apollie, guter Kollege), SPHINX, FIRE EAGLE, IAN + MIC, PUBLIC ENEMY NO.1 (Colin my man!), Dave E. mit (auf?) Angela, JL, SMITHS (for the new one), JOY DIVISION (also for the new one), NEW ORDER (where's the new one?), END OF CENTURY (Pet's Band dood!), J.C.S. (thanx FOZZey bear), REDLINE (sorry Alech), ZENITH (where's the mag, Dave?) and MR.PINGE (Stevie), 801 DC (Johnny), SARGE (Joe!), IXION (Studixion), JANITOR (ein guter Freund), TK (ganz ruhig, Thomas, erzΣhl noch mal von vorn'), Hi-Tec (Nein und Du?), ACU (Leerdisketten K÷nig), DEEJAY (Fottos Negatiwe?), FAME (noch sonn guter Freund, der Michael, nein, der muss Latein lernen... aber abends ficken...) ...I hope I haven't forgot anyone... if so, sorry! Hoping for better times... /JEFF SMART

MAD ALL'S MAILBOX!

Preeeeeeesenting the one, the only, the most inflated egg alive... here's MAD ALL alive!

• Excelsior, let's start off this month with a very strange fact that happened in Austria, the well known group TSK is no more. In fact the last months the TSK members were not satisfied with their leader TSK himself, you see it was after him that the group was named, now the other members decided that they would not stay in a group where the guy getting the most fame didn't do anything, so they kicked him out and formed the group called COSMOS, so COSMOS is in fact TSK but without TSK, can it get more confusing???
• Something very strange happened last month in Belgium which nobody can explain! On a local channel called "TELE LIEGE", where normally the TV logo should appear between programs, viewers were now treated to the intro that THE CHAMPS use on Amiga, the scrolly was filled with an opening message welcoming people to this TV channel and then was followed by greetings, very strange indeed.
• I was surprised to hear from the editor of "DELIRIOUS MAGAZINE" that both, myself and JEFF SMART were thought to by some of its readers to be the real after their ghost writer "EVIL EDDY".
• Well, I saw it coming for a long time, but it even went further than I imagined it would... what am I talking about? About the little people known by the pirate world as lamers, who wrote to COMMODORE USER after the piracy article appeared... for a good laugh just read last months letterpage where a 'cracker' called "TURBO" from the superduper world famous group FRONT provides us with a diary of how a real cracker spends his day... It's always the small people who have the biggest mouth...
• Prize of the month for the most pretentious scrolltext goes this time to KAZE of TST in his rather good demo called "NEW LIMITS", the coding and music are of a very high level but the scrolltext seems to be written by an even bigger egomaniac than myself...
• Rumour has it that the German music group called 'OK' who had a big hit with their houde hittrack called "OKAY", are in fact the same people who go under the name of AXXESS on the Amiga.
• Thankyouverymuchyouoldfriend goes to HOBBIT of FAIRLIGHT for a copy of his "CRACKIN' COMIC #3". News about him is that he's got a job at one of Belgium's biggest weekly comic magazines called "TIN TIN", I still remember seeing the first full comic he ever made and discussing the pro's and con's of marvel comics... seems like yesterday!

NEWS FROM THE INNER SECTION...

As we took a break over two months, loads of thinx took our breath away...

• Everybody's stoppin', after IXION and MR.PINGE from TRIAD quitted computers, PAPILLONS stopped totally and NIK / IKARI declared he's not gonna crack anymore, most of my very good friends are gone. Read "Do all crackers die?" for more info on this subject...
• German TRIAD is gonna quit activities for the TRIAD mothership, because the Swedish dudes can't offer cracks anymore as ROWDY left and joined HEPTAGON, and it seemed to us that nobody is doing anything, so we are about to leave...
• Austria's top act TSK CREW doesn't exist anymore in their full strength, as all active members formed a new group called COSMOS. I was always wondering why the group kept the name of its founder, though he isn't doing anything.
• Rumours that AT&T is gonna be closed for whole Germany made modem lunatix like STRIKE FORCE nervous. But, unfortunately it was totally bullshit... AT&T is working as fine as before.
• Dutch demo programmers BOYS WITHOUT BRAINS released their first game on the THALAMUS label, called HAWKEYE that features excellent graphics and sound fix. I was so lucky to have a look at the game at one of the previous VENLO meetings, and it's surely not their last top hit.
• Also JAYCE, editor of French fanzine "DELIRIOUS MAGAZINE" announced to make his last issue... now everybody of us wrote an article for his last issue, and JAYCE said (after getting all articles) he was persuaded to make some more issues again. Nice dude.
• Two days after DARK STAR left BROS and went to DRIVE, he was caught by the police, who confiscated about 140 disks. 40 Amiga disks were borrowed from SIR ARTHUR and he wanted to get money for his lost disks!!! This was the main reason why DARK STAR left DRIVE.
• Everybody knows that some of JEWELS joined IKARI, the rest reinforced WIZAX.
• Stunning, stunning... RADWAR seems to be back! With a (RADWAR) SURPRISE release of OCEAN's SALAMANDER (it was supposed to be a preview, but there is no big difference to the game) they went back to where they belong.
• What happened to good old ALPHAFLIGHT? After I was warned to be beaten up, because they misunderstood an article in an old issue, a letter to the editor was published in Germany's worst magazine "AKTUELLER SOFTWARE MARKT" by some guy called DR.MABUSE who wrote about the cracking scene, that BEASTIE BOYS are freezing (the only freezed game ever from BB was from ELECTRO (now in ROM) who was kicked out for that), TRIAD is programming for companies (I didn't know that!) and some other totally wrong thinx... I only see silly letters published, publishers take only bad examples of our guild.
• SUPERSWAP SWEDEN, excellent demo programmers and THUNDERCATS decided to join and for a new group, that is called HORIZON. I just wonder, why they took in some German lamer who can't program at all?
• Just a few days after I was told that the "DIGITAL NEWS", very well programmed German newspaper on disk, won't be produced anymore, DIGITAL MARKETING production manager told me they got a contract with RAINBOW ARTS and that a following issue will be released on the backside of new games from RAINBOW ARTS. Surprise, surprise...
• Cracking jokes on the phone seems to become a new sparetime activity of most Germans. They just put some handkerechief on the reciever and pretend to be Americans or anybody else and record their jokes on tape. So I advise you not to believe every American calling you up, there are some question which might clear the truth.
• STRIDER from FAIRLIGHT made a good old conference on his last day in the US of A, he had to return to Sweden one week earlier. Now he's back since 3 weeks, but I have heard more when he was in the Staids.
• Also returned had MR.ZEROPAGE from RED SECTOR, I remember his phonecalls in the morning when I had to go to work he said: -"Well, I wish you lots of fun at the work. I'm going now to the beach and drink a lot...!", that was real motivation for me...

MODEMS RULE...!?

God-oh-God, what happened to all of us? More and more groups only work to satisfy Americans, they produce any kind of shit release or just tell tales to get in contact with well known American importing groups. Americans do import everything they do not know, so if you just take a very old game and give it a new name Americans will import it, but if you make a better version of a game that has been released ten seconds before they refuse it. The only good thing that those little things brought about is that most of the guys trading by modem get all cracks faster than by mail...

But where are we going? I mean, see what it makes with groups who do have a modem? Take ORION, who were accused of recracking games, sent by express to them, which haven't been released before in the USA, but DSH said it's no recracking when he adds a trainer and forgets to mention the group who cracked it. Or MCG, who imported a crack by IKARI and put after the IKARI intro, and after the intro of the American importer group, they put a THIRD intro on it. I mean, where's the art of importing?

Everybody can import, but Americans (and some Europeans) handle it like cracking, they don't say "We imported it", but "We released it" and I asked an American guy where's the problem of importing after I was asked to make a chart "IMPORTER OF THE MONTH" he replied: "It's much more difficult, you have to have good contacts, have to make public relations and you have to get the E.S.I. stuff fast!". Give me a break! It's just the same as if "import" a game that I was sent by mail and put my intro in front of that...

Bad outlooks... /JEFFIE

WE ABOUT OURSELVES...

Finally I'm going to explain to you, dear reader, the basic things about the "ILLEGAL", its charts and how to order it. Okey, here we go...

THE WAY OF APPEARANCE: Normally an issue is released every month somewhere on a big meeting in Europe. It can be such like the PC SHOW or on a VENLO meeting or anything else... The problem is, that any meeting can be cancelled and followed by that, we have to cancel our release date. That means that any information given here can be wrong and may lead to total confusion. So, we thought it to be best to release a small coded program on disk which should inform you, so watch your screens to be sure!

HOW TO ORDER AN ISSUE: Nothing is easier... You just take an envelope, write your adress and put enough stamps on it and enclose either 2 Deutsch Mark or 50 English pence or 1 US Dollar. Then you send this envelope to: "ILLEGAL" ORDERS, PLK XXXXXX X, XXXX XXXXXX X, WILD WEST GERMANY ...and you shall get your copy within 2 days.

THE CHARTS: The "DEMO OF THE MONTH" chart and the two games charts are sorted out by the editors as it would be too complex to let others give their votes for it, but we handle it different with the "CRACKER OF THE MONTH" chart. To present you a representative and correct TOP 15, we let well known guys vote about the different cracker groups, but as conferences are rare and our phone bills can't be enlarged any more, we start this issue with a new offer!

THE POSTCARD! You cut this postcard below out, just fill it out, put the right postage on it and send it to us within 1 month after the current issue has been released. Among all postcard we will take out five, who will get their "ILLEGAL" for free.

HOW TO VOTE: You may give every group up to max. 10 points for the best one and even no points for the lamest one, you can add up to five groups that we may have forgotten, BUT PLEASE you aren't allowed to vote for your own group. You can even decide not to vote for a single group, no problem at all, because we count all points that a group gets together and divide them by the number of the guys who voted for this group. So we always get the average points for a single group, this seems to be the easiest way, but you're welcome to let us know about any improvements! /JS

MORE NEWS...!

Here is SSD of COSMOS again. Unfortunately nothing special happened in Austria to tell you about, except that we also crack on Amiga now. But I don't want to tell you any bullshit so I blow some titles which are gonna be released X-mas in your minds... Here it goes:

• ACTIVISION: HI-JACK, YETI, THUNDERBLADE, TIME SCANNER
• CASCADE: ENEMIES, RING WARS
• DOMARK: LIVE AND LET DIE
• ELITE: AQUABLAST
• FIREBIRD: G.I. HERO, DARK SCEPTRE, CROSSWISE, INTENSITY
• GREMLIN: SUPERSKILLS, NIGHT RAIDER, ALTERNATIVE OLYMPICS
• HEWSON: CYBERNOID II, STORMLORD, ELIMINATOR
• LOGOTRON: STARRAY
• LORICIELS: EDDIE EDWARD'S SUPERSKI, MACH III, SPACE RACER
• MARTECH: WANTED, PROGRAMWARS, NM GRANDPRIX, LE MANS
• MASTERTRONIC: AAARGH, DOUBLE DRAGON, RASTERSCAN, XENON, WORLD DARTS, KNIGHTTYME, MOTORBIKE MADNESS
• MELBOURNE HOUSE: BITS FOR BIZMO, ENTERPRISE, FIRE DRAGON, TERRORPODS, MYSTERY ARKHAM
• MIRRORSOFT: ROCKET RANGER, DONDRA, FIRST TENS, BLASTEROIDS
• OCEAN: QUANDAM
• RAINBOW ARTS: KATAKIS, DANGER FREAK, GIANA SISTERS II, DOWN AT THE TROLLS
• SOFTEK: SOLDIER OF LIGHT
• US GOLD: CHARLIE CHAPLIN, 1943, PSYCHO PIGS UXB
• VIRGIN GAMES: CHALLENGER

NORWAY'S NEW WAYS!

• RAW DEAL INC is back but neither LAFFEN or STEPPENWOLF is in it. They've cracked some stuff and I think they're gonna kick ass!!!
• MATCHAM / NETWORK told me that the long awaited V4 might be released pretty soon!
• JAZZCAT is going to release their AMIGA GAME in the nearest future! They've told me it's gonna be amazing and I can say about the music that I've already heard, that it's damn cool!
• After we (STARS) kicked out SMASH, he said he was going to join RAWHEAD (barf) but RAWHEAD is going to split, and some of them are saying they are gonna make a group together with JOHANNES BJERREGAARD called THE HACKERS ELITE, while the rest of 'em are going to form a group called THE KILLERS (barf barf!) (the worst name since "FRESH")
• ...and TRACK 7 (RAWHEAD) had to sell his Amiga due to a 1200 pound high phonebill (ha ha).
• A new group called FUTURE has started cracking cracking and making incredible demos!
• THE DEADLY FRIENDS got some problems getting originals and they're not sure if they will get previews anymore, anyway the war between them and us has stopped!

INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH: MITCH OF EAGLESOFT

Without any exception every American game is cracked by this dude MITCH of EAGLESOFT INC. and this throughout 6 years! No other group on the globe keeps itself so isolated, so I was one of the very few guys who ever talked to him...

• How old are you?
  20 years.
• When did you come into the computer business?
  In 1980 I bought a VIC 20, 'cause one of my friends wanted it.
• When was E.S.I. founded?
  Something around 1982, I can't remember all original members, some Dan and Jason, but the first E.S.I. cracker came from Singapore.
• Where did you get the name from?
  Dan had a poster showing and eagle above his bed, but the best about the name is that it doesn't say anything, it doesn't say "cracking service", we could even be an insurance company.
• What was your first crack?
  "RAPTON" by SERIOUS in 1981.
• Can you give any special reason for cracking games?
  Challenge and thrill of beating the programmers.
• Why do you keep yourself so isolated?
  We don't have to be open. We work as a family, don't compete among each other... it worked in the beginning, it works now, it works every single day.
• What do you think... Is there only you in the States who can crack games?
  The others even don't try to crack, just always say that they couldn't crack.
• What do you think about European crackers?
  Most of the Europeans (not all!) are a kind of scummy, but so are a lot of Americans, but they don't feel so bad.
• Who are your best friends?
  All the members of E.S.I., especially John. I've got lots of good friends, but I don't wanna put 'em in the "best friends" category.
• What are your favourite...
  Game (64): "Maniac Mansion"
  Music (64): An American demo called "Synth Sample" by some Canadian programmer
  Movie: "Return of the Jedi"
  Music: RUSH
• What are you doing when you aren't sitting on your computer?
  Working or playing RUSH tunes in my car.
• With all the connections and friends in the world you have, how come that you don't know any Ferrari dealership owners?
  I trade software for Ferrari, I go for that!
• How do you see the 64's future?
  It will be dead by 1991. Turn on your Amiga, let's transform "Maniac Mansion".

ANOTHER INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH: NIK OF IKARI

The big boys (remember looking up to 'em at those Venlo meetings) from the south of England are blowing out their cracks for a good while and became one of the few established cracking groups in the world. Now here you have CHIK, err sorry... NIK answering very honestly...

• How old are you, dooooood?
  Errrm... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ... oh fuck, I've ran out of fingers, hold on I'll take my socks off. 11, 12 ,13, 14, 15, 16, 17! Bingo!!! 17!
• When did you buy your 1st computer and why?
  Err 1982 I think it was a DRAGON 32! Great machine! Why? I was bored!
• When was IKARI founded, by who, and what's the present memberlist?
  It was founded in July '87 by PAL + ULTIMA. The member list is (not ranked, just in order of joining): MOI, JUST ICE, TRI-DOS (from UK) and EXCELL, FLETCH, GANDALF and DOC from Denmark.
• Can you find a special reason for cracking games?
  Not really, I just do it to get every game, no matter how crap it is, for free.
• Who are your best friends in this rough world of pirates?
  Other IKARI members, YOU JEFFIE!, MR.PINGE (sad to see him go), Colin (P.E.), CFR members, The Basildon Bunch, VOID.
• Do you have any enemies?
  Hah! Loads of fucking Americans! And I hate lamers that ring you and talk as if they are the biggest in Europe! I also dislike a certain arrogant English bastard that sets himself above the rest of us. However he's lamer than lame.
• What are your fave...
  Game (64): WIZBALL + GIANA SISTERS
  Demo (64): ASH and DAVE demos feat. Willy Warmstart
  Music (64): MOVIE 2 tune by D.U.S.A.T.
  Movies: BEVERLY HILLS COP 1 + 2
  Music: HIP-HOP
• What do you do in your sparetime?
  Fuck about. Go to hip-hop clubs and concerts. Slag Americans.
• What was the best computer incident you ever had?
  Probably the VENLO meetings. Haw! They were cool! Or will it be the PC show this month?
• Is IKARI going to be enlarged again?
  Well, there is no way that we are gonna have ANY MORE members from outside England, I don't care if the fuckin' Pope wants to join. No way!
• How do you see the 64's future?
  I give it 2 years at max. Companies can keep converting arcade machines but as they get better graphics'n'sound etc., the 64 can't! My advice is: BUY A PC ENGINE!
• What's the time?
  5.35 p.m. Fuck it! It's neighbours! Oh yeah, CHICK, CHICK CHICKEN!!!!!!!

MEETINGS: THE DANISH PARTY BY IKARI-DOMINATORS-DANISH GOLD AND UPFRONT

Fuck about! The only reason we chose this party was that we arranged it with the Swedish TRIAD members, and that was the coolest party. We met finally. Drank a lot!!! And that's it! The party itself wasn't worth the journey, too small capacities, too many lamers, too less good stuff...

All together pretty lame! And just a word: WE DIDN'T DESTROY ANYTHING! I dunno who started that bullshit, but I can only say that I threw one (empty, of course) bottle of beer against a wall and that was all. We didn't burn down curtains or beds or do similar things... I really don't know who started spreading this bullshit, but perhaps they needed someone to blame for this bad party... DENMARK? NEVER AGAIN! /JEFF SMART

A copyparty? We in 2000 A.D. took off Friday, 8th of June to join this party and the trip lasted for 4 hours when we found the little house on top of a forest-like muddy road among cows, pigs and horses! And 150 guys were already inside! The first thing I saw was EXCELL / IKARI who said: "You're not coming in, before you have an apology demo to us and Dominators!" This was quite funny coz the day before I talked to MATRIX / DOM and we made an agreement which was that we should stop all shit-talk and we discussed a lot of things and he said "See ya at the party then!", but EXCELL said that he heard I should have hung up without saying goodbye.

Anyway, we stood outside for 4 or 5 hours, coz one couldn't be inside, there was no space left! Then those guys noticed that it was too small and came up with a new place... 8 km away from the first where everyone should go in the middle of the night and everybody was told that a bus was going to bring 'em to the new place, of course a bus didn't come, so after an hour some taxi-busses picked up some guys. Coming to the other place we at once recognize that it wasn't much bigger and better as we thought it should be... there was just place enough for us to sit, but not to sleep! So... the solution was we left on Saturday the party some hundreds kroners poorer.

We missed almost everything: A big place, a big town and supplyment, of course the announced grilling didn't take place... As a conclusion of the party (which was announced to be the greatest ever) one can say: LOADSA COOL GUYS, BUT VERY BAD ARRANGED! / APOLLON OF 2000 AD

MEETINGS: THE DANISH PARTY BY DEXION - A SUCCESS!

Well, we from 2000 AD showed up and what did we experience? The party place was a big school so there was loadsa space for everyone, even lamers were allowed to enter 'cause DEXION needed money! The only thing missing was that except some guys from Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark big and known guys were missing.

We got another cool friend at the party, PHOTONY / CFR. We played soccer and drank beer with only one problem: PHOTONY got drunk! (hehe can't ya stand the hard Danish beers, Stefan?).

If one became hungry, he had only to go 300 metres and there was a burger-bar, which was open up to 3 in the night! So all you guys who were at the IKARI-DOM-DG-UPFRONT party will agree with me that you couldn't buy any cokes during the night, and during the day you had to go by car, 'cause the next shop was 8 kilometres away.

It's just a pity that all the guys who came to the "flop" party haven't come to the best arranged party of the summer. I'm in doubt whether people will come again to participate another party in Denmark after this... but we try to organize a party as well... you'll see. On this party there were also demo-competitons on both the AMIGA and 64. Also it was cool 'cause I met some members from 2000 AD I haven't seen before. / STAY COOL from APOLLON / 2000 AD

The perfect organized party...

Yo, I (Photony) stayed at the DEXION party in Denmark and first of all, I want to say that I really enjoyed it. The party was over 4 and a half days, so I went to this party instead of the JEWELS and so on party.

The party place was a pretty big room in a school with space for about 300 people. Ca. 150 were there, so there was plenty of room for everyone. Lots of electric power and lots of tables, just everything you need for a good party, even quite new video movies were shown in a seperate room. Some cool guys were also there as 2000 AD, LEGEND, IKARI, PAPILLONS, WIZAX, APG, TST, STARION... and of course DEXION.

Lots of cool things happened: Soccer games outside, boiling eggs, testing the Danish beer, coding small stuff and more... The demo competition was won by ASC and RAY (Ex-TRITON TECHNOLOGIES), unfortunately DEXION didn't release a demo for their own competition.

The only disadvantage was that the town where everything took place was small, so that you couldn't see any interesting things in the town itself. OK, I have to end my report about the party and I have to say to everybody making a party in the future: DO IT LIKE DEXION DID IT! PHOTONY / CFR

THE PERSONAL COMPUTER SHOW 16-18 SEPTEMBER 1988 AT EARLS COURT LONDON - THE BIG PC(W)S PREVIEW 1988!

Excelsior, it seems that my writing has a reverse effect on people over the last few months, my article have been a slap in the face to arcade licenses, modem traders and Americans, I expected a wave of protest and discouragement from most of you out there but instead most people said they agreed with me, does this mean that a pirate has a conscience?

Ok, this time a more moderate article about the next big meeting place for computer freaks and when I said BIG the I mean BIG, yes dear reader I'm talking about the PCW SHOW which has been renamed by some silly people who are in charge of the organisation. If you do not know what the PCW SHOW is then stop reading this and go home...

Good, now that we've got rid of the little people we can continue, this year the 11th PCW SHOW will take place at Earl's court, London on the 14th to 18th of September, and it promises to be the biggest one yet, last year 80.000 people attended the show and this show is expected to attract over 100.000 computer addicts.

The show is always a big occasion, it boasts to be the biggest in its' kind and it attracts people with the following things:

• OVER 100 NEW COMPUTER GAMES RELEASED: well, this is a nice theory, only practise shows different, when I visited the show last year, over 150 new games were promised, only 7 were available, but I have to say that a lot of games that were promised were there in a preview form.
• OVER 50 ARCADE MACHINES WILL BE PRESENT, NONE OF THEM RELEASED AND ALL CAN BE PLAYED ON FREE DURING THE SHOW: Again a nice theory, although all the machines are there and they are free, the chances that you will be able to play is next to nothing, you see with about 20.000 people a day the ques in front of the machines consists of about 50 to 60 people so you have to wait about 2 to 3 hours to play a game which sometimes lasts about 30 seconds.
• THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO BECOME A PROGRAMMER: Another thing that gets people to come to the show, to be honest it is very hard to get a contact at the show if you just go there and show them your best demos, if you really are thinking about becoming a programmer then it is best to write a game at home, work some months on it and when it's finished (or a preview) show it at the PCW to the companies, begin with the budget one, there you have more of a chance to sell your game, you see companies recognize a good program when they see it, but they do not like to invest loadsa money in a guy who makes demos, but of who they are not sure if he will be able to make the game they want.

So see you all at the show and when you see me just yell -"Hey, MAD ALL I love you!" and I will surely run away from you... MAD ALL / CFR

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PC SHOW

• OCEAN is trying to release OPERATION WOLF promoted by a big scout car and TYPHOON, while film scenes of RAMBO III and ROBOCOP will be displayed at their 40 large TV screens.
• INTERCEPTOR GROUP is going to release 3 new games on the show including JOE BLADE 2.
• US GOLD have the largest stand on the show and want to sell LED STORM by CAPCOM, SUMMER EDITION by EPYX, DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS by themselves and are going to preview Sega's arcade THUNDERBLADE.
• LEVEL 9 will be releasing GNOME RANGER 2.
• CASCADE are finally going to sell 19 BOOT CAMP, supported by an army of six-feet-high cutout figures.
• DINAMIC's GAME OVER II will be brought out.
• HEWSON CONSULTANTS will be in host of three new titles ELIMINATOR, ASTEROTH and STORMLORD.
• ACTIVISION are only gonna preview R-TYPE.
• GRANDSLAM will be releasing BRUCE LEE: ENTER THE DRAGON, PACMANIA, ESPIONAGE, SAINT AND GREAVSIE, THUNDERBIRDS and a new Arnold Schwarzenegger movie license.
• MASTERTRONIC announced DOUBLE DRAGON and many more!?
• TYNESOFT are selling SUPERMAN: BLACK MONDAY and CIRCUS GAMES.
• THALAMUS want to sell ARMALYTE.

OLD C64 LEGENDS - THIS MONTH CRACKING 1982-1985

"ILLEGAL" presents the OLD 64 LEGENDS! Cracking 1982-1985! Haven't you always wondered how the whole cracking scene started, what the first cracking groups have been and may other things? That's why we are going to tell you about the origins of cracking in whole Europe, the first groups, their first releases and what they are doing nowadays... Here we go...

THINK BACK! What was the very first game you ever saw on your 64? Probably COMMODORE SOCCER which was cracked by a German guy called 1103, who also cracked other Commodore modules. Or M.U.L.E. from Electronic Arts cracked by OLEANDER? Or HARD HAT MACK by OTD? Or SUMMER GAMES by JEDI? Something like that, right?

Well, JEDI consisted of nobody less than 1103, OLEANDER, OTD and KBR (KOTZBROCKEN), all from Germany and they were one of the first who formed the cracking with cracks like MR.ROBOT, QUICKCOPY V2.0, SENTINEL and others...

This all happened around 1982, other famous groups at this point of time were ANTIRAM who cracked games like DALLAS QUEST, POGO JOE, MINER 2049, RAID OVER MOSCOW... or the first 'cracking service', namely the GERMAN CRACKING SERVICE who released games like Activision's HERO or SAXXON, SLAMBALL and FLIGHT SIMULATOR II. These groups formed cracking around 1982 and 1983.

Beginning 1984 lots of new groups raised their power, some of which were TBC who cracked KENNEDY APPROACH or CRACKMAN CREW with F-COPY III, HEART OF AFRICA and they were the first who fixed American games to the European PAL system, among them BALLBLAZER.

The first English groups were YAK SOCIETY who cracked almost every ELITE game (remember FRANK BRUNO'S BOXING) and TEESIDE CRACKING SERVICE.

1985 was the year of SECTION 8 who cracked almost every game that was released (e.g. G.I. JOE, AIRWOLF, ARCHON II), but so did ABC (e.g. MR.DO! and THE HOBBIT II), both from Germany. PAL fixes were done by INDIANA JONES who also cracked every single BRODERBUND game (CHAMP. LODERUNNER, HEART OF AFRICA, RACING DESTR. SET...).

The first big importer and spreader was a guy named ALI, groups like FLASH CRACKING GROUP with games like HYPER SPORTS, TOUR DE FRANCE or RMS TITANIC, MEGABYTE with CASTLE OF TERROR or their tape transfer disks, or the first Dutch group, the FEDERATION AGAINST COPYRIGHT with releases like SPACE STATION, or 2010 PROFESSIONAL with BEACH HEAD II were other groups of that time.

WHAT ARE THEY DOING TODAY?

JEDI's PAL of SUMMER GAMES was even officialy sold by EPYX all over Europe. 1103 has now an own company, working with PCs and bigger machines, but he also converted QUIWI by Kingsoft on the ATARI ST. OLEANDER works also on PCs, OTD developed the PROLOGIC DOS and all together developed the F-COPY III. F16 from SECTION 8 made the F-LOAD 3.0 and COPY+ and works now for Discovery Software.

Some of GCS are working for Rainbow Arts, INDY is active on the AMIGA, TBC developed the COMPACKER V2.0, CRACKMAN (Hi, Alf!) is programming on the AMIGA, ALI stopped, YAK SOCIETY worked for JEFF MINTER's Llamasoft (Hi, Aaron, Liddiment) and almost all others are now working on the Amiga, as TCS are doing and some members of FCG, as FLASH (found the 7th bitplane on Amiga, RSI Intro), PBA, CFB, EDE and IRATA (RED SECTOR) or MR.X on ATARI ST, only RADWAR is still on the 64.

FAC's Peter is also on Amiga, Marcel should have returned from the USA, but they're still on the 64, but ROCKY totally destroyed it....

NEXT TIME: 1985-1988, featuring DYNAMIC DUO, NEWLOOK and STARS...... Best Wishes to all old boys! MWS/RWE + JS.

BE WITH "ILLEGAL" ON TOUR...

In this new column we have each month guys talking about travelling to meet other dudes abroad or just travelling to other countries... This month: "On the way to D.K."

It was Thursday evening when we (Our driving friend, we call him "Arsch" oder "Ioannis"; T.K. ; HI-TEC and me (old JEFFIE dood)) started our way to the IKARI-DOMINATORS-DANISH GOLD and UPFRONT party in Denmark. After we drove ? hours (I even drove 3 hours during the darkest night. I blew the horn several times to be sure nobody was able to sleep...) when we finally arrived in the small village where the party should take place (after T.K. bought a small street map for 11 Mark 90...), it was about 4.30 in the morning, we stopped somewhere in the town, 'cuz two dudes came running from behind... Gosh, they were our TRIAD pals MR.PINGE and 801 DC!

Well, after PINGE had some problems to find the way back to the party place... we finally arrived in a small hut, where perhaps 30 guys would have enough place... About 20 guys were already there, among them BAMBAM/HTL, RADWAR and some more! So, JANITOR and me drove into the city at 9 and bought beer and beer and some food and beer and beer... After we drank the beer and ate the food, we drove into the city to buy some more beer... and beer...

Well, the party capacities were not enough for more than 50 guys, so the guys from DANISH GOLD organized a bigger room (they said they did) but after a race thru whole Denmark (10 km) we found out that the new party place wasn't much bigger...

Okay, JANITOR was seriously drunken and went out to sleep on a field outside in his sleeping bag, so did I. We slept 11 hours and the party hadn't improved that much, so we left on Saturday morning... There was not much going on, so here is my personal DANISH BEER CHART...

1. Calsberg Lager (strong'n'good)
2. Tuborg Grøn (the classic!)
3. Gamle Carlsberg (not that bad)
4. Tuborg Fine Festival (urps!)
5. Odense Pilsener (not that good)
6. Albani Giraf Beer (tastes like Giraf shit...)

CRACKIN' COMIC #3

OTHER PIRATES FANZINES!

Well... other pirate magazines are appearing on the market as water on the ocean. Take, for instance IGUANA (whatever the hell that means) by English group ZENITH (which I haven't seen yet!) that follows all the popular way. Most of the new fanzines are coming from Germany (I don't wonder), best of 'em seems to be NEWS by some unknown German dudes, featuring comics and lots of other things, but only in German. I always said that it's no problem to release one issue, but to release every month an issue of the same quality is the main task... Only the toughest survive, so we'll see... /JS

AMERICANS... WHY?

Many crackers are now feeling the strain of the American importing groups who often cause conflict between rival groups and end up as enemies. Who benefits? - It's certainly not us! If it wasn't for us these Americans wouldn't have a decent game in their collection. The American releases are not that good and they end often erased from my disks at the end of the week.

Even conferences are non-existent these days as most guys are blacklisted on a lot of the codes, even MCI's are now hard to get and often also blacklisted. Many of the American groups are disappearing coz of high phone bills and getting caught for phreaking. Many of the guys in these groups are 13-14 year old kids who ring at inconvenient times and even not apologising if you are asleep and still ask you if you have released any new wares! GOD DAMN!

I think it's time many groups forget the USA and continue with the mail trade and lamers spreading ya wares! There are a few groups I do respect like E.S.I. and a couple of importing groups. Most hated American I know is KID QUICK from TS, he is also known as KID DICK! and KID THICK! He has a very low brain power and is very impatient! He pissed me off so much that we switched over to MAYHEM.

I feel quite strong about this subject and if things haven't improved drastically by the time you are reading this then I will quit American trading. I am very interested in what other groups have to say regarding the USA and maybe they follow me the same way, but remember software piracy may be killing the industry, but the Americans are killing off us!

All the best, JUST ICE / IKARI -1988- (if you want to answer JUST ICE on this subject, then just send your letters to any of the editors and we'll pass on your stuff. /JS)

THE STORY OF... SYSTEM FOUR!

You quickly fall asleep as you creeped home... You're dreaming of her, though you don't want to, but you can't refuse. Your heart is ruling. Bad thing. You lost all your motivation for going to school again, but now she's there and the whole bunch of problems starts again and again... without any end in sight...!?

Wow, next day you climb into the bus, when you recognize her at once... you take all your courage together and say to her: "Hey, dear I wanna marry you here and now!"... and it worx! You wrap your arms around her and just want to give her a smack as... "Good morning, this is Greg Foster from BFBS with national and international news from the BBC at 6!" FUCK, only a dream after all... Shit...

Anyway, you look out of the window and it's raining hard, so you decide to stay at home today and work a little bit on your new projects. You walk to the System Four Headquarter in your town and get to know sad news, for example that some of your real friends left System Four without really saying farewell, others had to work more and so left System 4 aswell. Only a few real good pals are left at the end of this day, when you hear the latest news that one of your best friends has gone forever and another one thought it would be better not to talk to you again and it really seems as if your homegroup fell apart. Sheeeut! Damn, that can't be true...

But as you count all friends together, you recognize that there's nothing which can be built up again... Sad, but true. Then more awful news, other good friends of yours from System 4 do admire these guys from System 50, who have means to be much faster than any of us in System 4 will ever be... You spend almost the whole night thinking how to save the ashes...

What happened to 4 leading "a"-class groups? Only one is left from the origin ones, but going to drop work because the guys from System 50 seem to take over the business. One another group was let into the 'a'-class, and they give a sign of old days. But that's it. Only one thing can solve all problems, but it will be difficult to convince all others... but perhaps it could work...

Bah, what's the difference between girls and cracking? There's none, they both are gonna tear you apart. "And there's a taste in my mouth, as if desperation takes home. There was something so good, just can't function no more... and then May, 18th 1980 and January, 15th 1988!" TO BE CONTINUED! /JS

THE PAL OF THE MONTH!

Here we go again. Another new column called "PAL OF THE MONTH". We're gonna present you every month a guy (if there was any) who threw the whole cracking scene into a heap of shit; JANGO of THE WEB (Mario B÷lt)

Okey, you wonder, what's so strange about this guy? Well, it's not only the fact that he belongs to a German lamer group. The real thing is, that he was caught by the German police some months ago. What did he do? Right, what nobody else would have done... He betrayed ALL of his friends and gave out all adresses he had (about 400!) and not only that... he even told the cops about details.

So, up to now, 25 (!) good friends of mine were visited by the police, because of good old JANGO. Some of them aren't doing anything nowadays, but they still have to pay about 200 DM, others were just accused of things they didn't do, just 'cuz Mario said that. Now, I'm sure he won't return anymore, 'cuz otherwise he would have about 400 guys beating him up. Now, it proved once again that you have to think twice before you choose your German contact... Did you???? /JS

COZMIX'S FAREWELL

It'z with sorrow on my mind, tearz in my eyez and trembling handz I write thiz farewell note. I'm now leaving this my beloved computerworld concentrate on living what somebody calls LIFE!?! But before I quit, I'll try to give U -the reader- some kind of insight in the thoughts, I've had about computers generally - more specific about the 64 and it's history / future.

When I started cracking some games way back in '85, it all seemed sooo easy: no real protections, no big speed race among the groups and no discussion about who made the best version. U were happy just to get a version of the game - even though they often were malfunctioning or they just were previews...

Today, a lot of things has changed. Speed is the keyword - not quality. My good friend JANITOR has written a lot about this problem, so I won't bore U with repeating him. No, I'll instead talk 'bout the good thingz.

A very good thing is that the demoz release for the moment are increasing in quality. That's very good, 'cuz it's more healthy concentrating on being the bezt coder than on being the fastest with the crackz. To be more specific: competing on coding givez even the smallest group a chance of winning fame, while competing on crack-speed iz verrryy unfair. Reasonz:

• The English groups have the originals before everyone else - even if they buy them in the shops. Thiz means they can crack them before most other groupz without doing anything cool...
• Getting and cracking the games fast iz also a big matter of time and money - two thingz that doesn't tell anything 'bout how cool U R at computing...

1. Don't admire fast crackers (like PAPILLONS)
2. Admire cool coders instead (hmm.. TRIANGLE)
3. Admire quality-groups (like TRIAD & TRIANGLE)

ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG!

For MR.PINGE, my first contact to become a real friend. The news hit me as a brick in the face, one of my best friends quit computing last month, Stefan, better known as MR.PINGE of TRIAD. He was the guy who was responsible to spread all the stuff that TRIAD made, every day he sent out packages, every fucking day. He was one of the reasons that TRIAD could still hold their heads on high, in periods when they suffered some setbacks, a thing that some groups didn't like about him.

He was always an idealist, he innerly knew that he was in a group and he never gave in to criticism that TRIAD were going down. Probably the best thing about him was that you could depend on him 100%, not only did he send me three packages every week, he sent more than just his group's stuff, one would always get the best stuff from other groups on his disks. He was one of the best spreaders around, but most of all he was a spreader that never got tired until the day it became too much to his tense Swedish nerves...

Triad lost their best swapper which is a bad thing for them. The pirating world has lost a nice guy which is a bad thing for everyone... Goodbye, Stefan, we will miss you! MAD ALL / CFR

Nothing has to be added... /JEFF SMART

PSYGNOSIS+MIRRORSOFT+RAINBIRD=TRIAD!?

I couldn't believe my eyes, when reading it... -"The new force on the 16-bit market: TRIAD!". After reading it again and again, I still couldn't understand why the best AMIGA companies PSYGNOSIS (Obliterator, Barbarian), RAINBIRD (Magnetic Scrolls) and MIRRORSOFT (Cinemaware) joined together and call themselves now TRIAD! Stunning, stunning... And a strange feeling for all of us, when next time games will be released under the name of TRIAD. /JS

DEAR CONTACTS...

Denmark: 20.07.88

Well it just had to happen. We in PAPILLONS now officially declare us as dead - yes we stop! Anyway thanks for good swapping and so on. We'll NOT continue on the AMIGA so this is a kind of goodbye forever!!! Your friends, Lennart & Martin of PAPILLONS

DO ALL CRACKERS DIE?

It's starting to get serious...

First sign was STRIDER of FAIRLIGHT saying goodbye to the 64 business, but he is going to continue on Amiga. Next ones were the Danish importers #1, THE PAPILLONS. Last prominent victim was NIK of English top group IKARI. What led the guys to this decision? Is this a sign for all others? Or only some exceptions?

As STRIDER said, the AMIGA attracted him too much but simultaneously that he may be cracking one day again if there are lots of originals that GOLLUM can't crack alone. Well, and as time proved he wrote some introtexts in some cracks so he's surely not gone forever!

It was a very big surprise, the letter from PAPILLONS, not a long time after I talked to Martin on the bad party in Denmark. Without giving any reasons they just said that they stopped from today to tomorrow. They were one of (who said: the only) the importing groups in Denmark, one of the few decent programmers (even fixed WINTER EDITION), they had quite a big success so their decision becomes not so clear. Rumours say that they work a little bit for WIZAX (who got their modem) and DOMINATORS (ostensible some cracks), so they seem not to be gone forever as well.

Also a big surprise was to hear from NIK, one of the two maincrackers in IKARI, that he's not gonna crack anymore as he told me on a normal phone call. Reasons were that it was not possible to produce good quality cracks if thousands of lamer Americans keep calling him and demand new wares... but stated that he's gonna concentrate a little bit more on demo programming...

But here we've got it again!

Americans! Aha, the origin of all bad? With some very few exceptions (mainly E.S.I.) the only thing Americans can do is importing. To import games through modem is maybe as difficult as to receive a game by mail. Guess what would happen if everybody starts to put intros in front of their games they get by mail!?

The worst thing Americans are doing is to demand speed from all cracking groups over here... and lots of Europeans just produce what Americans want to have... the land of all diseases! A lot haven't recognized this problem and keep going on trading ("...with the power of 1200 baud...") by modem with Americans, but we can't stop it, 'cuz there would always be some idiot who trades by modem, ("cuz it's so much faster...") so if there aren't found any good perspectives soon, good crackers are gonna die!

And what do the Americans say when you tell them about this? They get angry, talking about the difficulties of importing and other bullshit... Where's the problem of putting one's intro in front of a European crack? In the good times this procedure was known as "re-cracking", nowadays it's called "importing"... Where are we going? /JS

WHAT'S COMING, AND WHEN?

OCEAN is going to release a couple of games in the following months... Here's a list of their games with rough release dates (without any guarantee!): All games for 64, Amiga, ST, Amstrad and Spectrum.

• VICTORY ROAD - October
• GUERILLA WARRIORS - end of Nov.
• ROBOCOP - end of Nov.
• WEC LE MANS - end of Nov.
• TYPHOON - September
• OPERATION WOLF - November
• RAMBO III - November

EUROPEAN MEDIA ART FESTIVAL

Do you wonder what that EUROPEAN MEDIA ART FESTIVAL is? Well, in fact it's a normal computer meeting, but some clever guys decided to make up a cracker meeting somewhere during the normal meeting. It took place on September, 3rd. They used extreme high quality invitations and even stickers.

Unfortunately they couldn't win many famous groups to organize the party with 'em together, as only RADWAR could be mentioned as a TOP ACT, so only a few groups came up. This is really a shame for such a brilliant idea and lots of commitment, but we'll see if this style can go on as we all are suffering a lack of parties, but VENLO returns on September, 17th. Anyway, the top guys are in London! /JS

THE WEATHER BROADCAST

The sun keeps on shining all over Europe. Only in Sweden one has to expect quite a heavy precipitation of Isepic, and the temperatures will sink below the freeze-frame point. The zeropage is startled with too many zerobytes that cause a lot of damage in the regions around $0400 and $0600. People with an allergy to Sprites, which might cause pixel-fever should better stay in bed and are well advised not to touch the border zone...

The thermometer will climb on its highest point on September, 14th up to 18th on the PC SHOW in London without any doubts, followed by high-tension, drunken pirates, lots of fun, 100.000 expected visitors, meeting all companies, collecting brochures and posters and lots of new releases...

In the upper regions of the expansion port rain can be expected around midday, and Reset buttons may be pressed. Around the joystick ports it may even start to snow, so take a big disk box. TAKE CARE OUT THERE! /JS

VID... VID... VIDEO!

Hello Video Freaks, it is LAZER here once again with the latest shit hot movies reviews for ya! Sorry for no reviews last month, but I was really lame and lizzy, so here we go:

• RAMBO III: This has to be the coolest movie of the year! Colonel Trautman goes to Thailand and finds John Rambo working in a monstry. He tries to persuade Rambo to help him deliver some missiles to the Mujahadeen rebels in Afghanistan, but Rambo refuses so Trautman goes alone and is immediately captured by the Soviets. Rambo then goes to Afghanistan to rescue his friend and kick some commie asses!!! Strider will like this film - Myshka will hate it! RATING: 95%
• EDDIE MURPHY RAW: This is not really a movie but a recording of Eddie Murphy in concert, just like Delerious. Eddie doesn't give a shit about anything or anyone and insults everyone famous. Eddie sure is a funny guy! Rating: 82%
• CROCODILE DUNDEE II: The Aussie is back and he returns together with Linda Kozlowski to the Australian jungle to show the crocodiles (and not only them) who daddu is. Of course there are also the typical jokes that Dundee cracks! Rating: 81%

VIDEO CHARTS 9/88!

1. RAMBO III
2. CROCODILE DUNDEE II
3. RUNNING MAN
4. PREDATOR
5. EDDIE MURPHY RAW
6. MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE
7. ROBOCOP
8. POLICE ACADEMY 5
9. FATAL ATTRACTION
10. GOOD MORNING VIETNAM

CIN... CIN... CINEMA!

Yo, here is PHOTONY of CFR bringing you some CINEMA movies reviews from movies I have been watching during my visit in CANADA!!

• VIBES: Cyndi Lauper's movie debut. She is acting together with Peter Falk and Jeff Goldblum. The story is really original, so are the actors (especially Peter Falk). But I have to say that there wasn't much to laugh about, any-high-way I was quite disappointed, such a good and funny story in such a good film, without any good jokes! The story goes like this that there are two people (Cyndi and Goldblum) who have a magical power and can tell you things about the future, who are asked to help an adventurer to find a treasure in South-America, while being hunted (of course) by some bad guys. I think there exist better ways spending one's money, so decide on your own, RATING: 65%
• A FISH CALLED WANDA: The best movie of the year!!! Yep, this movie was made by JOHN CLEESE who is a member of the fucking amazing MONTHY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS ("LIFE OF BRIAN"...). Together with JAMIE LEE CURTIS and MICHAEL PALIN, he tells you the story of an old fashioned English lawyer and of course there is his typical sense of humour in the movie, e.g. you can see attempts of killing somebody by putting french fries in his ears (with different sauces) and finally trying to stop him breathing by putting an apple into his mouth. I had to see the movie 3 times until I have understood all the jokes, because there are so many guys in the cinema and there was always laughter, so I couldn't hear anything. RATING: 98%
• COMING TO AMERICA: Eddie Murphy's newest movie and one of his best so far, he's playing an African prince, who is served by (female) servants 24 hours a day and even his royal dick is cleaned by those servants, so he has a perfect life. But this idiot (I just have to say that) is not satisfied with that, 'cuz he wants a smart woman, that's why he's going to New York, Queens and pretends to be a poor African student. I'm sure you can imagine that many cool things are about to happen, 'cuz both, the script and the story for the movie were written by Eddie dude himself. RATING: 87%
• CADDYSHACK 2: The follow up to CADDYSHACK is one the greatest flop of the year, except for a small part with Dan Akroyd there are only silly jokes for 8 year old children. Better forget it at once. Rating: 19%

C64 REVIEWS

• POOL OF RADIANCE: It happened at last! The first playable game I ever saw from S.S.I.! It's a very good role play game featuring nice graphics, only bad thing is that it takes about 8 (!) disks sides, but 87pts.
• SUMMER OLYMPIAD: The follow-up to WINTER OLYMPIAD, and TYNESOFT has improved in all, graphics, sounds, programming and even gameplay! Skeet Shooting and Diving is almost on the same level as some of EPYX's events, but it doesn't reach EPYX as a whole, 79pts.
• HAWKEYE: Programmed by BOYS WITHOUT BRAINS. One of the best graphics ever seen on a 64 and great sounds by JT / Maniacs of Noise hide the totally boring gameplay because it brings not the greatest fun to run left and right and right and left and collect stones and shoot animals, which are superb animated up. Bad luck, it looks really super, but is boring, 82pts.
• FOOTBALL MANAGER 2: It can't be the classic one. But it's somehow better, better graphics, but longer game sequences, save options, faster, but nevertheless it can't beat one of the best games ever made, after you've played it one time through, you won't start a game again, what you did with FOOTBALL MANAGER 1, but still 86pts.
• ZAK MC KRACKEN: The sequel to MANIAC MANSION and it's even better! It takes four disks sides and features things that any adventure fan has dreamt of, even the typical jokes has been included, so: 95pts.
• THE GAMES: SUMMER EDITION: The long awaited SUMMER GAMES 3 by EPYX and finally they found back to their old power. They used some new programming routines as vector graphics (take a look at Hurdles). They reached their old standard again! 96pts.
• VINDICATOR: Someone said that this is GREEN BERET 2, so the expectations were too high as it's impossible to make a game as good as GREEN BERET. VINDICATOR consists of 3 more or less boring single games, but listen to JONATHAN DUNN's sound in the third part, GALWAY is alive, 62pts.
• THE FURY: A very interesting remake of HEWSON's ALLEYKAT, with very high motivation level and nice sound by MARTECH, but unfortunately it's too easy, but 84pts.
• SALAMANDER: One of the best shoot'em up's ever made, 'cuz it brings loads of action on your screen in two different points of view. The graphics are very good, but the sound is quite weak, but 93pts.

AMIGA-REVIEWS

• CORRUPTION: The new Magnetic Scrolls thriller with a new background idea. It seems to be much more difficult as, e.g. GUILD OF THIEVES was, 80pts.
• CARRIER COMMAND: A flight deck simulator with detailed graphics, but without instructions almost not playable, 85pts.
• SUPERSTAR ICEHOCKEY: Somehow better than on the 64, better animations, 79pts.
• BERMUDA PROJECT: A damn interesting action adventure by MIRRORSOFT with a very good opening. You walk around and examine an island after you crashed with your plane, very good gameplay, 94pts.
• STARRAY: Very fast Defender-like shoot'em-up with nice graphics, difficult, 87pts.
• IMPOSSIBLE MISSION II: It hasn't much improved apart from the 64 version, just some speech samples has been included. Anyway it seems to be slower, but the gameplay is still convincing, 87pts.
• MORTVILLE MANOR: A very good graphic adventure with a stunning opening and detailed and very nicely drawn graphics. Even the sound effects are much better than in other adventures, controlable by mouse, 91pts.
• IKARI WARRIORS: Buah! Exactly the same, fast game as all 64 pirates have seen before. Even the sound stays on the same level, if a game is converted to the Amiga, I expect more than just a 64 version... 67pts.
• FOUNDATION'S WASTE: A very boring shoot'em-up which reminds me of Sidewinder, but bad, 41pts.
• CHAMONIX CHALLENGE: The French mountain climbing simulation strikes on the 16-bit computers. Well, of course the graphics got better, but somehow the movement of your climber seem to be more difficult than they have been on the 64. But it still looks good and is a great game, 89pts.
• STARGLIDER II: WOW! It beats even Interceptor with its ultrafast speed. It's a very, very good sequel and it has also good and detailed graphics, while the movements are almost the same as on Interceptor. The only bad thing about this, is that it's almost unplayable without dox, 96pts!
• KATAKIS: RAINBOW ARTS had to take back the first 1000 released originals, because ACTIVISION claimed that it was too close to R-Type and they have a very good point, anyway a new version is about to be released by the time you read this.

CHARTS - SEPTEMBER 1988

C64 GAMES		C64 CRACKERS
1. THE GAMES: SUMMER EDIT. (-) 2. ZAK MC KRACKEN (-) 3. BARD'S TALE III (1) 4. SALAMANDER (-) 5. ALIEN SYNDROME (3) 6. BIONIC COMMANDO (2) 7. IMPOSSIBLE MISSION II (4) 8. FOOTBALL MANAGER II (-) 9. HAWKEYE (-) 10. POOL OF RADIANCE (-)		1. SCOUSE CRACKING GROUP (1) 2. EAGLESOFT (7) 3. IKARI (2) 4. FAIRLIGHT (5) 5. BROS (11) 6. ZENITH (-) 7. TRIAD (3) 8. THE WANDERER GROUP (-) 9. RADWAR ENTERPRISES (-) 10. COSMOS (8) 11. TRIANGLE (12) 12. WIZAX (-) 13. DOUGHNUT CRACKING SERV. (-) 14. BEASTIE BOYS (-) 15. SHINING 8 (-)
C64 DEMOS		AMIGA GAMES
1. TRAIL MIX by SOEDESOFT & FIRE EAGLE 2. MISSION MONDAY by ASH & DAVE 3. RATT'S MOVIE by RATT 4. TRON BIKES by KINETIK DESIGN 5. CHANNEL 4 by IAN & MIC 6. WHY THINK? by SUPERSWAP SWEDEN 7. NEW LIMITS by THE SUPPLY TEAM 8. CIRCLE TWIST by BROS 9. WHY CAN'T IT BE... by ORION 10. HOLYDISK by ARGUS		1. STARGLIDER II (-) 2. INTERCEPTOR (-) 3. BERMUDA PROJECT (-) 4. KATAKIS (-) 5. BARD'S TALE II (-) 6. IMPOSSIBLE MISSION II (-) 7. STARRAY (-) 8. IKARI WARRIORS (-) 9. OBLITERATOR (-) 10. BUGGY BOY (-)

Thanx for voting to: S.C.G. (WEETIBIX), IKARI (JUST ICE), BROS (PACO), COSMOS (SSD), PUBLIC ENEMY (INSTINCT), RWE (MWS), T.W.G. (ltb), BEASTIE BOYS (CF), CFR (PHOTONY), and lotsa others!