This is the first of many additions from Fzool‘s collection. Active in the C64 scene in the 1990s, he provided us with over 100 disk covers, votesheets, flyers and many other fascinating artifacts from a period when the lion’s share of cracking activities took place on the PC and the Amiga, while the C64 remained to be a crucial demoscene platform. The first instalment consists of votesheets for C64 diskmags.
After providing us with News #7/1988, Se7en came up with one more issue of this classical German C64 cracker magazine. Issue 3/1989 (May/June) encompasses 36 pages full of news, interviews, copyparty reports and random nonsense. Amongst other things, it features a German translation of the legendary “Crackin’ Comic” by Hobbit/Fairlight.
Download the issue >>> here <<<, or have a look at the details and credits at Demozoo.
Who does not know the accessory of every music festival freak, worn with pride throughout the year? Festival wristbands! Since at least ten years, after ordering small quantities of industrially produced, customised wristbands became affordable, the demoscene used the same methods to control whether a visitor has paid his or her entrance fee at a demoparty. Moqui scanned his small collection of demoparty wristbands from the recent years for us. Made out of plastic or fabric (so the latter can actually be worn throughout the year), they are part of a demoparty’s corporate identity, cramming fancy design onto a tiny piece of material.
While you can quickly browse the images at the bottom of this post, here are the links to the original scans & metadata:
This time, we have something really special – not flyers, magazines and other replicated materials, but private letters from scener to scener, exchanged while swapping disks. This is something very familiar to those readers who were part of the scene in the 1980s, but something that members of younger generations hardly ever got to see. Here, however, the platform and location of the authors is rather unusual: The letters are written by Ukrainian ZX Spectrum sceners in the 1990s. While the Internet was a luxury in the post-Soviet countries, mailswapping was the usual way of interregional software exchange – and, obviously, it was not just enough to pack a disk into an envelope. Spectrum users exchanged personal letters, photographs, funny collages… This is where news and gossip was spread, long-distance friendships were forged, and new demo productions took shape. The small stack of letters presented here today was originally posted by VBI on his blog, and he was so kind as to provide us with higher resolution scans for permanent archiving. Thanks to him, we now have a unique insight into an early post-Soviet home computer culture.
As a new feature, we now have a built-in gallery at the bottom of the post, so you can browse the pictures quickly. There, you can also see the detailed metadata for the scans – they include summaries of the letters (which are, of course, written in Russian with bits of Ukrainian in between). To download the hi-res scans, however, click on the single links below pointing to our archiving space at scene.org.
• Rob F. to VBI, early 1999 [link]
• Consul to VBI, 19 September 1997 [link]
• Epson to VBI, 29 September 1997 [link]
• Injector to VBI, 25 August 1997 [link]
• Viator to VBI, 28 November 1996 [link]
• Viator to VBI, 19 December 1997 [link]
item name: Letter from Rob F to VBI, January 1999
creator: Rob F
description: Letter from ZX Spectrum coder Rob F (Kiev, Ukraine) to ZX Spectrum coder VBI (Kanev, Ukraine), January 1999
category: letter
date: January 1999
material: paper, (inkjet?-)printed
size: 202 x 296 mm
print run: 1
provided by: VBI
scanned: 11 July 2015 at 300DPI
format: JPG
notes: In this rather formal letter, Rob F wishes VBI a happy New Year and describes the contents of the attached disk.
item name: Letter from Consul to VBI, 19 September 1997
creator: Consul
description: Letter from ZX Spectrum coder Consul (Kiev, Ukraine) to fellow ZX Spectrum coder VBI (Kanev, Ukraine), 19 September 1997
category: letter
date: 19 September 1997
material: exercise book paper
size: 165 x 200 mm
print run: 1
provided by: VBI
scanned: 11 July 2015 at 300DPI
format: 4x JPG, zipped
notes: In the letter, Consul thanks VBI for previous sendings, tells him about newly acquired games and programs, and plans concerning birthday intros (so-called "gifts").
item name: Letter from Epson to VBI, 29 September 1997
creator: Epson
description: Letter from ZX Spectrum graphics artist Epson (Smela, Ukraine) to ZX Spectrum coder VBI (Kanev, Ukraine), 29 September 1997
category: letter
date: 29 September 1997
material: envelope, newspaper collage, exercise book paper
size: 238 x 167 mm (envelope); 196 x 164 mm (inner envelope); 170 x 203 mm (letter)
print run: 1
provided by: VBI
scanned: 11 July 2015 at 300DPI
format: 4x JPG, zipped
notes: Date based on postage rubber stamp. The innver envelope is decorate with a collage, featuring a Polish journal feature on the reggae-turned-pop group Inner Circle, as well as a German review of a record by the metal band Pride & Glory.
In the letter, Epsion expresses his joy about the fact that VBI is still sticking with the Spectrum scene, and praises (and criticises) his music. He is sending a pixeled font, hoping that VBI finds it useful to include in a demo or game. He invites VBI to come and visit, tells about the activities of common friends, and celebrates the music of Prodigy. The letter ends with "HIPPY EPSON - EVERYONE CAN LIVE IN HARMONIE" [sic].
item name: Letter from Injector to VBI, 25 August 1997
creator: Injector
description: Letter from ZX Spectrum coder Injector (Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine) to ZX Spectrum coder VBI (Kanev, Ukraine), 25 August 1997
category: letter
date: 25 August 1997
material: envelope, paper, collage, photo
size: 224 x 160 mm (envelope); 164 x 198 mm (letter); 125 x 88 mm (photo)
print run: 1
provided by: VBI
scanned: 11 July 2015 at 300DPI
format: 5x JPG, zipped
notes: The envelope hints towards massive problems Ukrainian swappers had with the postal service. The sticker in the lower left corner says in Russian "Do not open! Respect the law about sanctity of the mail!", while the remark in the lower right corner says "Copy number three :-(", probably meaning that the swapper sent three identical sendings hoping that at least one of them would reach its destination. The backside of the envelope gets even more drastic, featuring a collage saying "Killing dead!" in Ukrainian and "I wanna send big faq!!! [i.e. fuck] to Kharkov customs". In the letter itself, Injector first of all sends congratulations for VBI's 21st birthday (the attached photo shows Injector and his groupmate SVV raising their drinks for VBI), relates miscellaneous news, and describes the sendings on the attached disks.
item name: Letter from Viator to VBI, 28 November 1996
creator: Viator
description: Letter from ZX Spectrum artist Viator (Chernigov, Ukraine) to ZX Spectrum coder VBI (Kanev, Ukraine), 28 November 1996
category: letter
date: 28 November 1996
material: envelope, paper
size: 156 x 114 mm (envelope); 163 x 203 mm (letter)
print run: 1
provided by: VBI
scanned: 11 July 2015 at 300DPI
format: 8x JPG, zipped
notes: In what appears to be his first letter to VBI, Viator introduces himself, his music preferences, hobbies etc., relates the forthcoming projects of his group, and criticises VBI's work samples (which were, apparently, sent to him before by VBI).
item name: Letter from Viator to VBI, 19 December 1997
creator: Viator
description: Letter from ZX Spectrum artist Viator (Chernigov, Ukraine) to ZX Spectrum coder VBI (Kanev, Ukraine), 19 December 1997
category: letter
date: 19 December 1997
material: envelope, paper
size: 231 x 165 mm (envelope); 210 x 297 mm (letter)
print run: 1
provided by: VBI
scanned: 11 July 2015 at 300DPI
format: 3x JPG, zipped
notes: On the note of the backside of the envelope, Viator cmoplains about the sending havnig been send back for the first time. The letter contains several news as well as enthusiasm for the Amiga as an additional challenge to work on besides the Spectrum.