I've learned programming by coding PPE scripts for PCBoard.

i solved the phone-bill part by blue-boxing trough Bagrijn's :thumbsup

Well in late 1980's and early 1990's, much same as today with rapidshare's, torrent's and tube's, the most time and priority was spent not into chatting, but into copy and trade games, apps and porn - well porn at the time being just 256 or less colors scans of paper magazines (color climax, hustler etc.). I remember an Horny Rob doing it circa 1992 but there was others well before that I forgot - one of them labeled the pics "MPC" = My Private Collection, anyone remembers those awesome MPC jpg's circulating in bbs's?

Basically the guys was copying floppy disks (the only media available) from school or work friends, of course this was not 0-day i.e. it was not very new stuff.
For newer stuff you had to call those guys who put adverts in the computer magazines, actually at the time the printed magazines was major as the only way to contact people from other cities really. Most of these was in the biz and so you could deal you pay something a month and you get every week the new releases via snail mail.
Then you was an hero in your city and everyone (including girls) will come to your home to get copying the latest games - since copy was long time, you could flirt the girl(s) if any, otherwise talk of very nerdy stuff with guys.
But where these bigger guys was getting all those new releases to send in snail mail to you? Actually, they had a modem, usually an HST US Robotic one 9600+, the only ones allowed to connect to the "Elite" boards. And they had a leech account they paid per month to the bbs. Or they was traders, which means they move stuff between boards and so, they upload not so less than download and their ratio was nice.
Even further, how these guys knew the BBS numbers? That was in the crack intros/loaders put before the games/apps, this started as static screens and evolved into a form of art that later spin-off from warez and was called demo scene.
Actually 99% of people had pirate stuff so 99% of people seen bbs numbers (or at least names when number is -PRIVATE shielded), as crack intros/loaders listed them.
I googled some and found one my 1993 crack intro, at youtube.com/watch?v=VJPKYwffoU4

This have a 3d glenz vector with star field, waving textscroller with mirror, bouncing logo with transparent copper bars, and music ripped from a game - quite classical :)
The elements are all there: Group Name presents: release name.
Actually no one acted alone, it was groups only, and this is due to what comes next:
Original supplied by: xxxx - as to crack a game or app before of anyone else in the world (as coming second was too late, other group's release was already around) you needed to have the original game also before than others, and this is a science on its own.
Actually not many know, that the most suggessful groups had the best original supplier(s) and not necessarily a faster or more wizard cracker.
A game or app could reach first a shop in a country or another, in a city or another, and groups had guys visiting the main shops of all cities daily or even shop guys was part of it.
When a new game or app, esp. major was hitting a shop of some city or country, the original supplier had to buy it (yes! needed lots $$, as the group purchased dozens of these monthly), then send it to the cracker, usually in other city or country.
Transfer of the original was made via modem, but some had protection including wrong disk format (different number of records in a few tracks), so the cracked even coded special disk readers used only internally, and in some cases the original supplied took the train and go with package in hands, no joke, we had to hurry or other group release it first.
Then it comes the next step in intro, "Cracked by: XXXX", the cracker had to remove the request what written in page X of manual, or the wrong sector tracks loader or whatever the protection it was, before that others done it.
Originals could be supplied at any time of day, like an emergency I was picked home by a guy who bring me to main bbs location by driving quite crazy speed (my mom was a little afraid let's say, but they was very understanding parents really). Then I had to crack the game and that was half luck half skill and could be few minutes or hours or days to do it, but days was too late. While I was bouncing head with hexadecimal assembly code, next to me the other guy running the bbs had our guys logged in major bbs of other groups and refreshing to see if the specific game was released by others. I was quite on pressure.
In majority of cases, others released it first - I remember a soccer game quite important release, I was done and putting the intro and it appeared in BBS's from a german group, damn just few minutes... well there was to upload too it was not to few minutes before.
The only hope in these cases it was that their crack was failing after some time you played, then we had some guys playing their version, if it crashed I continued my crack then we released the 101% version which, replacing their broken one, would have be distributed worldwide in its place. Actually contaminating million disks with our crack intro and BBS numbers. This is why these 0-day elite etc. BBS's in most cases was in a group (altough independent ones existed), as you could find a few minutes before of elsewhere, the releases of such specific group. Also BBS's was changing group while one group became more cool of another. I see from my crack intro's googled that MOZART's MANSION was actually our US HQ for a while and I personally managed to steal it from someone else group by chat the sysop, but I do not remember really any detail.

Of course this whole thing was not very nice to do and phone calls was also al little creative so altough this is 20 years ago and I was under age at the time, I am a little shy to talk of it, but well we was just kids, innocent ones, isn't it.

I solved the phone bill by port scanning my local ranges nonstop for open sub7 infections, and gathering ISP logins. Then carefully tacked on a hour here, an hour there. Script kiddie to the maximum. Only took a couple $400 phonebills and asswhoopings before I smartened up on that note... :1orglaugh

Was never much of a real "hacker" type, but I always managed to nose my way into a lot of places I probably shouldn't have been. Defacing websites was actually what turned me onto web design and building pages in the first place.

This thread oozes l33tness.

I remember being awed by what I could do on FidoNet.

Ah, you are younger than me. I am 34...we blazed the trail for you guys..lol. I was also in the gifted section and I swear most of those kids were borderline criminal minds even if they weren't into computers.

My special talent was being more interested in news and stuff (shocking giving my postings here, I know) than even most of the teachers and the school not only created a journalism class for me but eventually let me have an hour period just watching the news everyday just to keep me happy.

I am the daughter of a science teacher. I played so much Oregon Trail growing up it was silly.

I think I caught the tale end of the whole BBS thing. I accessed it via the school networks, though there was a dial-up access point for those who used it. There wasn't a whole lot of action to be had on there. It was school ran, so nothing really cool to hang out and enjoy. The only fun to be had was fucking it all up. :error

Oregon Trail was fucking epic, lol. I couldn't even guess how many times I've died of dysentery. The sheep farming game was fucking awesome too if anyone ever played that back in the day. :1orglaugh

Lol i was exactly like that, although i was pretty deep into the hacker scene as 99% of my friend all were hackers/coders for Fairlight or Razor.. i was the hardware guy and supplied them with the hardware that was needed.. anyone remember US Robotics? ;-)

I just ordered a 'You died of dysentery' shirt the other day that I am picking up from my folk's the next time I visit.

I don't remember a sheep farm one put I remember a deer park one that I played a lot. I used to get sad when I had to put a deer down.

Ya, I know the shirt. I've been wanting one for a while. :thumbsup

In middle school I had a BBS here in Michigan. Was first named Renaissance BBS and then renamed NOTLD BBS. Ran Wildcat BBS first then switched to Tag BBS software. I was straight up pimping with 200mb of offline storage and about 80mb online.

Whenever I wasn't multitasking with Deskvu or Windows Beta to play Simcity... it was up!

Brad

P.S. - I remember meeting a hacker high school kid at the end of my street to but a US Robotics 9600 baud modem. Good times!

Someone in razor I talked with in voice, in hotlines, those sex lines for pay but you would hijack somewhat to do conference calls between guys, sort like pbx, razor guy was in norway or maybe I am wrong.

US Robotics HST 9600 in year 1988 or so, that costed 1 month of salary of my parents (sum of both their salary) or more, and it was the only and minimum speed the El1t3 boards would allow to connect. Of course I got one from the group just as I was a cracker, no way I can afford one of my own. I remember around 1990 everyome upgraded to HST 14,400 but shortly later some other protocols than HST was out, then internet out with ftp's, newsgroups and IRC channels... anyone remember #channels of IRC with the @operator wars including botnets trying to ping flood each other and takeover the @'s control of channel itself? The main reason to hack the first internet servers it was to put there an IRC bot script, or fill some hidden ftp folder of warez to trade, if I remember correctly. There was a "trumpet winsock" on windows 3.11 to go on internet and "mosaic" web browser, at the time irc and ftp's was way bigger then the web, the html it looked like a joke. I would have not guessed everyone would end up in facebook really, at that time. I was thinking modems was only for a few geeks and others had no reason whatsoever to get there.

Yep, I ran 2 BBS's back in the 90's. Central BBS and Graffiti Bridge. Both had 3 lines 2400 , 9600 and 14.4k modems. I remember ordering 1.44MB disks because the connection would take so long to download it.lol

Really? Who were you on Shoreline? ;)

Let's see, I first ran a Commodore 64 Blueboard. My next BBS was a 7 line D-Dial (#60 Sexual Connotations). D-dials were cool because we used to link them up all over the place. You use one of your lines to dial the line of another BBS, and then everyone could chat. You could do it in a big chain and sometimes we'd have 50+ users on at once from around North America.

After that a good friend of mine ran Digital Rain which was like Shoreline (A BC thing).

Man you bring some memories :)
I remember going to copy parties, swap disks and meet new people from the scene..
Many of my old friends are now working as coders in game development, i ended up here :-)

this thread kicks major ass. I grew up on BBS's. Was even charging subscriptions to dial in users to access my adult download section that I hosted on CD's. Bought FAO Gold Back in the day and rotated the 6 discs, 1 each day would be available. Charged 5 bucks per month to access the downloads. Even back then I was trying to hustle a buck online.


WWiV 4.25a 4 Life!
Or at least until the internet emerged.

Sure I was in game development later, as most went into... first you crack games then you end up making games putting better protections that your (ex)mates will crack lol.
But game development is a mess to be into for a living, unless you're hired in EA, Ubisoft and the such. I 've read a recent study, conclusion is only 4% of game developers make profit, this means 96% of games developed are either an hobby so you know it from start you will not get $$ from it - or failed business so you work on it 12h a day for 3 years to then make $10k = you made few cents per hour, again an hobby.
Finally is way easier to make money pimping some naked russian girls, than to design a super complicated game (which is so big effort you would not imagine as is a "game"!) and be lucky enough to get published (take plane and lick asses worldwide) and sold big way, believe me :)

Lol it sure does..

I did the same, i had a cd changer carousel for 6 cd's and PCExpress as i switched from Amiga to PC. The PC was easier to upgrade and there were more warez, although i kept a Amiga section open on my BBS.
Past year i was in a retro mood and bought all my old machines from e-bay :-)
Amiga 1200 and a 2000, Atari 800xl, C64 and some retro game consoles like a Neo Geo and Atari Jaguar..

Yeah, my friends all started with game cracks, scrollers and intro's.
One of my friends was really good at cracking SNES titles, he had a BBS were he had 1000's of SNES pall/ntsc fixes and trainers.. was fun.. now he runs gamecopyworld.com for many years..

AT Commands HST anyone?

ATS0=0V1E1X4B1&A0&K1&M4&B0&H0M0&C1&D0

AT&FC1F1Q0V1X4S2=255 S15=8&B1&N0&C0&D2&I0&M4 &H1&A3&R2&S0&Y1S7=60S0=0&K3

:)

Aaaaaaah, the memories!! every time i sent those AT commands it was so cool to see those leds flashing..

I think i still have 2 of them HST's upgraded to ISDN.. i never could let go of them..

Ascii/Ansi art anyone?


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___ _____$$$$$_________$$$$$$$$$$$$_______$$$
_______ $$$_____________$$$$$$$$$$$________$$$
_____$$$__ ______________$$$$$$$$$$________$$$$$$


/--------------------------------------------------------------------------\
| USS-ENTERPRISE B.BS _____ CO-S'S. |
| 30-Jul-94 XX:XX:XX _.-' `-._ MARIO |
| SYS PICARD .-' ` || || ' `-. ELVIN |
| _______________ _ ,' \\ // `. SIGMA-SEVEN |
| / || \ /' \ _,-----._ / \ KIRK |
| |_______________||_/ / \\ ,' \ | | / `. // \ WHIZ |
| | | _] \ / \ ,---. / \ // \ SHADOW MASTER |
| | \__,--------/\ ` | \ / \ / |/ - | |
| ) ,-' _,-' |- |\-._ | .---, | -| == | GVP 040/30MHZ |
| || /_____,---' || |_|= || `-',--. \| -| - ==| 12MEG 32BIT RAM |
| |:(==========o=====_|- || ( O )|| -| - --| LINE AMPLIFIERS! |
| || \~~~~~`---._|| | |= || _,-.`--' /| -| - ==| BATTERY BACKUP |
| ) `-.__ `-. |- |/-' | `---' | -| == | 4! GIGS ON-LINE |
| | / `--------\/ , | / \ / \ |\ - | 3 28K +3 NET NODES |
| __|____|_______ _ ] / \ / `---' \ / \\ / N-U-P REQUIRED |
| | || \ \ // `._/ | | \_.' \\ / LEECH ACCTS AVAIL |
| \_______________||_/ \ / `-----' \ / |
| `. // \\ ,' |
| ANTHR0X W H Q `-._ || || _,-' |
| SWAT W H Q `-._____,-' |
| A&S NODE #'S.. |
| PHEENS SITE 1-412-xxx-xxxx MAIN |
| S ! X SITE 1-412-xxx-xxxx |
| FOR FUN NOT STATUS |
`--------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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.. THIS FILE PASSED THROUGH...
CO-SYSOP'S...
HYDRO ICE ZOOL OSCAR
_____ ELVIN SIGMA SEVEN DA-VINCI
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\ / \ _ \ _ /
.-/ / /\__ \/\__ \/-----------------------------------------------.
|/ / / . \ / \ |
|\_______/_____/|__/_______/ /\ |
| / | ATX/WHQ! / \ |
|__________Mb/__|____________________________________/ \________________|
|\ _ / \/ \__ ___/ _ / _ \ _ \ _ \____/ _ / _ /|
|/ _/\/ \ | \ _/\/ _/ / _/ \ _/ / \____ \/ _/\/ |
/ | \ | \ | \ \ \ \____/ \ \ \ / \ \ |
\_______\ \_____| \______\___\ \___|/_____\ \_____\_____/_______\|
`---/_____|-----|______\----------\____/----------\____/-------------------'


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 This File Was Downloaded From:

____/ \____/ \____/ \____/ \____/ \____/ \____/ \____/ \____/ \____
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\ D . A . N . S . E M . A . C . A . B . R . E /
____/ \____
____ >>> M . I . N . I . S . T . R . Y <<< ____
\ /
____/ 713-xxx-xxxx 713-xxx-xxxx 713-xxx-xxxx 713-PRI-VATE \____
____ ____
\ 4 Nodes Running AmiExpress -- GVP 68030 At 50 MHZ /
____/ \____
____ Amiga And Console Wares ____
\ /
____/ ---> Date And Time Uploaded -- Sun 14-Feb-93 3:12:12 PM <--- \____
____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____
\ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ /

_NosLHA-Check_ Version 0.03 (05-Jan-92)
Written By Nosferatu!
Danse Macabre 713-324-xxxx/xxxx/xxxx

No, but the best and longest friendships I have are from #maryland on efnet. Going on 15 years now.

Yeah, IRC was where I went after the BBS world and it is why I ended up moving to the UK.

Moved? Hell I was on the net with the BBS.
Between FidoNet, a various group of QWK based nets and this nifty uucp to PCB utility by Ed Hopper and an install of Waffle the board I had Gonzoland ... was a total connection.

Funny story was I was using a bang path as an alias thru a waffle BBS in 1990. The kid was a bit of a flake so I got a holonet account in 93 which required registering a domain name.

My buddy Robert Vostreys gave me the advice that gonzoland.com was just too fucking long so I filled out the long assed paperwork to get the free domain.... gonzo.com .

I guess you know the rest of the story.

Wildcat sux too.