301 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
301 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
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=============================================
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RAZOR 1911: The History (1985-1998)
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Written by Founding Member Sector 9
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Moved to ASCII by Jason Scott, TEXTFILES.COM
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=============================================
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This page tells briefly about our career through the years 1985 to 1996
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on Commodore 64, Amiga and PC. I tried my best to remember all details but
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of course I've missed some things and I ask whoever it may concern to be
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indulgent with me and notify me instead of being disappointed or angry.
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I'd especially like to dedicate this page to ex-Razor member Bug, who is
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no longer among us.
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$ector 9 - founder member
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Norway June 9th 1998,
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-------------------
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In the beginning...
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-------------------
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On a rainy evening back in October 1985 three young Norwegian guys decided
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to form a computer group. We were not exactly sure about what we needed
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the group for but we were really inspired by other big groups at the time,
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such as Flash Cracking Group 1941, Section 8, Electronic Cracking
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Association 1998, ABC 1999, Jedi 2001, 1103, Djenghis Khan, Hellmates,
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SCC, Dynamic Duo etc.
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These three founder members are today known as Doctor No, Insane TTM and
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Sector9.
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------------------------------
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Playing with the Commodore C64
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------------------------------
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A good group does of course deserve a good name, and thanks to Hellmates
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we decided to call ourselves RAZOR 2992. (No, that's not a typo). The
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number was put there to separate us from eventual future jerks who
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would come and steal the "Razor"-label. Besides, most of the other
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groups used a number too - so why shouldn't we? (We actually had a group
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of nitwits on Commodore C64 who stole our name for a while and added
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"Express" behind it - ie "Razor Express". Not many remembers them today
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though).
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It didn't take us long to realize that 2992 was a dull number. So we came
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up with 1911 instead. We all agreed on that it sounded much better. Many
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people has asked us through the years why we chose exactly 1911. The
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reason is that the scene on Commodore C64 was full of brainless kids who,
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for some odd reason, enjoyed using 666 (the number of the beast - from
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the Revelation) on their demos, letters, diskbags and God knows what else.
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We thought this was rather childish, after all what has occultism got to
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do in the scene anyway? So we chose 1911 because it translates to $777
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(in the hexadecimal numbersystem). 777 happens to be the opposite of 666
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and so it was our small "grow-up-and-get-a-clue"-message to the immature
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kids in the scene. It may also be mentioned that we seem to be immortal
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and thus GOD-like (777). Later on we used the name "Project $777" in a
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demo on Amiga to slag off everyone's that we just didn't like in the
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scene but couldn't find a good excuse to yell at under the Razor-name.
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This time more people realized what was going on, but most of them
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thought it was quite funny so we got away with it (we always seem to).
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The 64-period was rather short. We made a lot of demos and a few cracks
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and became one of the better groups here in Norway. However - we didn't
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come up with too many outstanding productions. A few of them are still
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in circulation today on those CD-Rom compilations of Commodore 64 demos.
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Some of them are worth taking a look at, at least as a curiosity. So
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after a year the group broke up for a while. One half went to TCC while
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the other half (Sector9 and Doctor No) went to Megaforce (later known
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on Amiga as Scoopex). This only lasted for about a month - we decided
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to join Active Cracking Crew. This is where we got in touch with the
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WORLD for the first time. Through ACC we got to learn how the big
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crackers of C64 worked, we entered telephoneconferences and talked to
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everyone in the scene that was worth mentioning. About 6 months later
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we went to one of the big parties at the time. Back then parties were
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only for the "top elite" people. If you didn't have an invitation and
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couldn't legitimate yourself you could forget about even entering the
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place. They were actually even called "COPY-parties", and instead of
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boring democompetions we voted for the best cracker of the year (I
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remember that this year, 1987, it was Mr.Z from Triad, a few votes
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ahead of Laffen from Raw Deal) and the competition was when Danish
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Gold (the organizers) came up with a brand new original and every group
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could have a go simultaneously (If I'm not mistaken FairLight did some
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cooperation-crack together with ACC on a James Bond game there). Sorry
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about the digression folks, I just get really nostalgic from time to
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time. Anyway, on the plane from Denmark back to Norway we decided to
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give rebirth to Razor on the Amiga together with two members (Lord S
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and Hypocrite) from the highly successful crackingroup Raw Deal.
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Other important people from the c64-period are Mr.W and Tilt.
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The Amiga - demos are forever!
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The Amiga was really slow in the beginning - nothing happened. No games,
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no demos, no people, no nothing. But after a year with just sporadic
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productions from Razor we started putting out demos on a more regular
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basis (1988). Soon we were among the better demogroups around, and got
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many members from all over the world. Our demos were usually quite
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original - new ideas, nice graphics and really catchy music. But still
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something was missing. The senior members were all aware of the fact
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that our wish was to become a major cracking group as well as a good
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demogroup, unlike many of the new members. As we were one of the bigger
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demogroups we occasionally entered phoneconferences with the major
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cracking groups (such as Paranoimia, Accumulators, Eclipse (No, not the
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new PC-crew), Quartex etc). We became quite good friends with Zodact
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and Onyx from Accumulators and when they broke up in late 1989 we made
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them join us. Zodact was the main American supplier (and sysop of a
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major bbs: The Castle) and Onyx was their main European cracker. All of
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a sudden we had solved our main problem: ORIGINALS! Besides we had
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access to two good crackers - Lord S and Onyx.
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We also got heavily into the art of phreaking, so we had plenty of
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ways of reaching all our contacts around the world. This was way before
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the masses of lamers got any idea of what was going on, so everything
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was fairly safe too. During the last two weeks of 1989 we had our two
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first world-first releases on Amiga - Pocket Rockets and Strip Poker
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II. (I know they were rather cheesy, but who cares today?) Now we
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released games on a regular basis for a few months, until we joined
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a cooperation with Classic on Amiga during spring 1990. This didn't
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last long when we found out that some of their members tried to stab
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us in the back (you learn from every mistake you do!). After the
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break with Classic we continued putting out games until April 1991
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(I think it was about 50 games altogether). By the time Amiga started
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becoming a dull computer to crack on. You had to work like crazy to
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warp up disks because they all had track-protection, and you had to
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put out fix after fix after fix for different problems.
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Among these problems was the NTSC/PAL difference which made it
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impossible for Americans to play European games without patches
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and vica versa. Besides there were tons of groups competing on the
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same games, and usually if you released something you would be
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double, triple or even quadra(?)-released by other groups because
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noone could afford to lose on a release. The general economy was also
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weak, there wasn't enough people with money to keep the group running.
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Other people from the Amiga period that deserves to be mentioned are:
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Ziphoid, Sir.Henry, Rex, Jawbreaker, Sim, Drake, Murdock, Angel of
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Death, Analog Kid, DiMarz, Uncle Tom, Codex, Bug, Nosferatu, Darksilver,
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Atomic (SOS/Abrasax), Jogeir (Maniac), Mantronix, SOS, Mr.T, The Cat,
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Dave and lots of others.
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---------------------------------
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PC - the building of a dynasty...
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---------------------------------
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The solution came to us without us really realizing what was going on.
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A brilliant PC-cracker (Darwin) just happened to live in our
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neighborhood. What could be more perfect? It made us able to do
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everything ourselves, without having to rely on a cracker in another
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part of the world as we were used to. We closed down the Amigadivison
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(with exeption of Sim, Drake, Murdock and Codex who later made the
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best and most famous demo ever, VOYAGE).
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We restructured the group totally - the group consisted of a more or
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less anonymous investor, Darwin, Doctor No, Onyx, Zodact, myself,
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Black Spyrit (SysOp) Red Baron (Sysop EuroHQ) and Langoliar (SysOp
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WHQ). Together we managed to put out dozens of games on the PC (a few
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of the first ones was released in cooperation with Skillion(!)) and the
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response from the PC-scene was immense. Our little tight group quickly
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grew from a small, compact and efficient one to a MASSIVE release
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machine. We had no idea things were gonna go so fast. With the exception
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of a month in late 1991 where Razor was dissolved and became a part of
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INC we've continuously released games, trainers, docs, intros etc.
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ever since (There has been over 600 games and countless other
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productions from us since then). The rest is, as you all know by
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now, history!
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The most recent thing that needs to be mentioned is our entrance into
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the world of Internet. With this www-page and a very efficient
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distribution of releases we are able to reach more people faster than
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ever before. All skillfully controlled by our highly competent
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internet staff.
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The other thing worth mentioning is our introduction into the CD-Rom
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scene. We sporadically released CD-Rom games under the ROM 1911 label,
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but didn't pay too much attention to this part of the scene until the
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lack of floppy games forced us to. So in October 1995 we decided to
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enter the CD-Rom scene and to we overtook the leading place here too
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despite many people claiming that we wouldn't be able to convert such
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a big group.
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This just proves that regardless of what we focus our concentration
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on, we still manage to become among the very best within our genre.
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-----------------------
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The legend continues...
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-----------------------
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Of course we've had our problems in the group, this will always happen
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when sooner or later when a group becomes as big as ours. Twice the
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group has been split into two (The first time was 1994 when Legend
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was born and the second time in 1995 when Eclipse appeared), and both
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times we've managed to recover thanks to devoted and talented people
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ready to do a great job for Razor 1911.
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We have had hundreds of dedicated persons doing their best to keep
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the group on top at any time. They all deserve a great salute!
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Especially I'd like to mention those who got busted by the police
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through the years, among those are Baal, Insane TTM, Gene, Devil,
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Butcher, Red Wizard, Ginnie, Laric and last but not least the other
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sysops and couriers who got into the clammy hands of the cops
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(among these - Assassins Guild and Pharaohs' Akira). We feel with you!
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Some of the more distinctive characters during the IBM-period
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especially needs to be mentioned:
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Zodact was our first really fast and serious supplier and
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US-organizer. He wanted to take Razor to the top and when he
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finally managed he quit the scene to everyones' surprise. He's
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been missed ever since by everyone that learnt to know him.
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Black Spyrit was one of the best ANSI and VGA artists around
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in addition to his brilliant work for Razor (and ACiD). We
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won't forget you Chris.
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The Renegade Chemist is one of the big personalities in the
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scene, so I don't really think I need to say more. We are all
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grateful for all the effort he put into the group. Shame about
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the Eclipse-split, but nothing can last forever I suppose.
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Butcher should be well-known for most people for his long career
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in the scene. From his time in NEI on C64 until he left Razor
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after the Legend-split in 1994 he was beloved by almost
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everyone that had the pleasure of knowing him. After the split
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he unfortunately disappeared from the scene when the police
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busted him.
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Marauder handled supplies, organizing and group-politics from
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1993 to early 1995 when he decided to join Eclipse. Shame about
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the split, but he did a great job while it lasted.
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Randall Flagg was our main cracker from 1992 to the Eclipse-split
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in 1995. We all appreciate this Italian geek and all his
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brilliant cracks all his funny expressions.
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RazorBlade took care of our UK business from 1992 to 1994 when
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personal reasons made him withdraw from the scene. He was known
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as a sarcastic bastard, trustworthy friend, great supplier and
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last but not least as one of the leaders of the world's best
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couriersquad ever (We're talking about the 1993 edition of
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Razor's European courierteam consisting of him, Devil, Hoppermania,
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GrimLock, Insane TTM, Slain and Digital Justice which made every
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other courierteam in the world look like plain amateurs).
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Hoppermania, GrimLock, Janno, Dune, Timelord, Nailz, Rage and
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The Brain have been (and partly still are) our representatives
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in Be-Ne-Lux. They all did a great job couriering, supplying
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and organizing.
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We've had a number of good crackers working for us through the
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years and except for those I've already mentioned these guys
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deserve a pat on the back: Excessive Knight, Snacky, Wolverine,
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Intrepid, HAL9000, White Cracker, Marco Ramius and several
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others I can't remember from the top of my mind.
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Our members in Australia and New Zealand during the years have
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done a lot of good work for us. Thanks alot to Grim, Prime Evil,
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Poise, Lithium, Ginnie and Red Wizard.
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Speed Racer, EOS, The Geck, Beowulf, Lord Thinker - the guys who
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took over when the group split up in early 95. They did a great
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job putting the group back together again. They were also in
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charge of migrating the group into the CD-ripping scene.
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Driudkin, Hula, Third Son, Pitbull, Sir Alf, Toast and all the
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other guys who participated in the building of Razor's very
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powerful internet division.
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I'd also like to thank some of the other guys who are running
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the show today - The Punisher, Manhunter, Bunter, Vitas, Hetero,
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Ice, Sundancer, Cypher, Da Jackal and all the others. We all
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depend on them to carry on with this group that so many have
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sacrificed so much for. I still feel that the crew responsible
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today have managed to continue running Razor the way the scene
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has always learnt to love and hate us by.
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Other people who deserves to be mentioned are: Chairman
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(Suburbia sysop), TFM, The Unknown, SomeOne, The Ghost Wind,
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The Witch King, Hoson, Grim, Fallen Angel, Zebig, Performer,
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Serpico, Chessking, Westbam, M:Et, Laric, Avalon, Mindbender,
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Mephistar, Faldo, Big Boss, Hot Tuna, Zeus, Maverick, Piston and
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everyone else that my mind can't think of at this very moment.
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I think it's in its place to send a greeting to our worthy competition
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and companions up through the years: The Humble Guys, INC, Dream Team,
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Tristar & Red Sector, Public Enemy, Quartex, Hybrid and all the others.
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For further details about what has happened to Razor during the years
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I refer to the .nfo-files that are included in every PC-release that
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we have done through the years. You will also find material about
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Razor on Internet and in dozens of diskmags, computermags and
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newspapers all over the world.
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Contact us if you feel like telling us something we might wanna know.
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Thank you for your time - it's been a slice....
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-$ector9-
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