Cracks, pirated copies and piracy

Pirated copies themselves became a cultural phenomenon in the mid-80s. Cracker groups across Europe competed to distribute the latest games first. To sign their work and promote their names, they added cracker intros to games — the portmanteau “cracktro” is a later term. These usually combined graphics and/or scrolling text with looping music, and often allowed players to increase their number of lives or choose a starting level.

Pirated copies were sold illegally for small sums, but large parts of the scene did not act out for financial reasons, but considered copying as a sporting contest. Games were distributed by the cracker crews either by mail or via mailboxes, sometimes via copy parties, illegal meetings, where the stars of this scene exchanged the latest software.