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Remembering The Lost Art Of Warez Music
October 17, 2008
Ah, the late 90′s.
Before Google…
Before peer-to-peer file sharing…
Even before “mp3″ was a household word.
It was a time when your computer’s specs actually meant something, and you fought valiantly for every spare K of speed your dial-up modem could grab.
People who “knew computers” commanded Emperor-like respect. The enterprising young gentleman who was so inclined could re-install some poor old lady’s Windows 95, charge ridiculous prices that’d make even The Devil blush… and she’d thank him for it and invite ‘em back for milk n’ cookies next month to do it all over again.
Get several marks (er, “customers”) droppin’ cash like that, and… who needs college?
It was a time of double-dealers and fast talkers who’d promise you the world on a paper cocktail napkin if you’d only throw them some sweet Venture Capital Lovin’.
And among all of this, I was there – standing at the forefront of technological progress, overlooking the Grand Utopian Vista that lay in front of us all.
Every week, you could read of new heroes developing new gadgets, raking in new fortunes. New new new.
Success was ripe for the picking, or… so we were told. With all the hype and “new economy” bullshit flying around, even the elite among us got swept off our feet a little more often than we’d care to admit nowadays. Jealousy.
Those of us who were there remember it all too well.
But…
…behind the mainstream facade, some played a different game.
While Silicon Valley cranked out new computers and new software, the warez scene of the 90′s snapped them up, oftentimes quicker than they could be released to the public, and churned out their OWN versions. Fast, and best of all, for free.
Groups with names like CLASS, Army of Darkness, Paradox, Siege, X-Force, Devotion, Paradigm, Divine, Origin, and Razor dominated the underground landscape. Each had their own specialization. Some competed, some worked together. Some hated each other’s guts.
All were some pretty brilliant people.
What these guys would do is take a new software release, “crack” it by removing the imbedded protection, decrypting the special key codes, or finding some other clever workaround… repackage it, and “release” it out to the community under their group’s name.
When you opened the package, it’d usually contain archive chunks of the software, a customized installer, and a few .nfo files, which contained information about the release, group news, and also breadcrumbs of what networks the package passed through before finally arriving into your hands.
Some people will tell you they did it to steal. No. They didn’t do it for money, or to “get back at The Man” or even for fame or respect. It was just… fun… and gave bright minds something interesting to snack on.
And when they traded, they traded like how kids trade baseball cards; they didn’t want to “use” the card, they just wanted to store it under protective plastic and show it off to their friends.
In fact, they didn’t even condone illegal use among themselves. Here’s a line from an old nfo (information) file I found from Siege [sic]:
“We do not maIl out misSing disks, nor do we mail out any information reGarding public distribution sites cOntaining pirated software or cracks, nor Do we mail out information regarding the sale of pirated software on CD or DAT. We do NOT condone the sale of pirated software. Rather than fill some guppy’s pockets with funds he did not earn, support the software developers.”
The bottom line is, those of us who liked the game or software application, BOUGHT it after we played around with the warez version first. That’s how it worked. The logic is easy; why dedicate yourself to Photoshop or 3d Studio Max if you’re not sure you’re gonna like it or be good at it anyway? Ya can’t take graphics classes in high school (at least not those kind, and especially not back in the late 90′s and early 2000′s) and the “shareware” or demo versions were too lame to make a real decision.
Glory days aside, some of the things these guys said in their packages was downright hilarious and often included bits of insider conversation and references that no one but them could possibly understand:
Protection by FlexNET. Greetz fly out to all members and friends of team PDX – Team Paradox, still alive and kickin after 7 years of getting bitched at for being No 1!
WE DO NOT WANT OUR RELEASES THERE AT ALL! YOU ARE NOT SUPPORTiNG US iN ANY WAY iF YOU SPREAD OUR STUFF AROUND! ONLY GAY MOTHERFUCKERS DO THAT, WE SHiT ON YOU! OUR RELEASES ARE MENT FOR THE SCENE ONLY AND NOT FOR ALL YOU WAREZ HUNGRY FUCKERS!!!
a example how much scene suxx those days:
lame groups like zone / midnight / DWP are selling leeches and warez dvds and still none cares…even more they get supported by lame siteops for example sj the mdn leader got busted… haez the dwp leader busted… and also some zone members are busted cause of their selling and public warez activities sj was selling leeches on his sites… haez sell leeches over toppis dumps and also sell on organised way warez dvd on china streets
Hey, just because I said they were brilliant with computers doesn’t mean they were good communicators 
Here’s a good one I found in a Paradigm release:
Good luck to Elijah who turned him self into the police today … I hope you learned your lesson about picking up pre-teens at the local mall. =)
One from X-Force, giving you an idea of the kinds of names these guys went by:
We would like to give a warm welcome to Werner & Tardy, the former PTG, GENESiS, and TDU-JAM leader; we also welcome back an old member, Luke, the super arcentine cracker, the best in the whole South America!
OUR DiAMONDS-4-EVER GREETiNGS MUST GO TO:
Stingray , Mach One , Ones Wally , Slain , Wildchild , BlackMagic , Wayward , The Riddler , Longshot , SWC , Dim, Blueyes, Winterhawk, Solar and the ones who deserve it …
One from Divine (signed by “Merlin”), demonstrating the rivalry:
We expected to release this game 2 or 3 days agoo. Unfortunatly razor managed to steal our suplier. So we immidiately ordered the game, knowing razor would never be able to rip it below the disk limit. We all saw the 94 disk release from that group called indor or razind or whatever the fuck they are called. They needed 2 days to produce that one while it only took us 2 hrs (1 hr and 45 mins of that used for playtesting)……
A special word to our friend jkowall: We told you not to believe everything you’re told. Most of the guys in this scene are full of shit. You deserve better!
Special group greetings go to our hero’s in razor: You guys are our gods! We bow in your presence….. NOT!
Merlin,
Divine Intervention….
And this one is my favorite of all:
Well, Bluewater said we couldn’t do it but Datakill proves him wrong and comes through with a tough crack for this game – Origin would like to send a special shoutout to our new Canadian Headquarters – Extra special greetz to Hoppermania who is presently paying the ultimate price for everything he did for the scene in the early 90′s. When you get outta the big house Hopper, look us up – your family hasn’t forgotten you!
Classic.
Anyway, what made a particular release so memorable wasn’t any of these things at all. No, what really glued all this stuff to my brain over the years is the extreme amount of TIME and ENERGY these guys put into creating their own customized MUSIC for each crack they put out there.
Because more often than not, each of the custom installers these guys made would play some song while they chugged away in the background.
And the song was always different. Some were pretty complex.
But they all had that certain indescribable “warez music” quality about them.
Here, see what I mean for yourself. Below, I’ve archived 5 of the old warez songs I got ahold of during my search. There’s more, but 5 is all my site would allow me to put in a single post:
Since I hunted all these down, I’ve started a little collection of these silly things. If you have any you could contribute, I’d love to hear ‘em.
Most of these guys may not be around anymore, and as for me… I left the “scene” many, many years ago and have seldom looked back – but warez music is certainly worth a tiny niche spot in our collective History of Early Computer Days.
I’m just doing my bit part to keep it alive.
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Tags: 90s warez scene, army of darkness, class, devotion, divine, greetz, music, nfo files, origin, paradigm, paradox, rare software, razor, shareware, shout outs, shouts, siege, software demos, the scene, warez, warez music, warez songs, x-forceTopics: Personal | 2 Comments »
i particularly liked Unfinished Business,good stuff..
Thank’s for the info. I will come back again for sure. Keep up the good work. Cheers, Mozak