Swiss Cracking Association Archive, Pt. 4

Here we go with the next instalment of the SCA archive, this time with another batch of letters received by Saturnus the Invincible (STI). On the one hand, there are some addenda to the 1987-1988 period, when STI was involved in swapping and correspondence primarily as a scener. On the other hand, this update features many letters from the late 1980s and early 1990s, when he focussed on developing Amiga games and tools, and thus received a lot of support requests from ordinary users. A particular highlight is a letter from Commodore Germany to STI’s mother. A lawyer, presumably on behalf of Commodore Germany, had sent STI a cease-and-desist letter related to software swapping. His parents wrote to Commodore Germany, and its legal department clarified that the lawyer had not been commissioned by them and the cease-and-desist letter was null and void. Here is the complete list of materials in this update. including letters from:

• Adam/Ice Breakers Int. (Canada) [29/8/1988]
• Alexandre A. (France) [21/1/1993|27/2/1993]
• Big Apple/SCA (Switzerland) [1989]
• CAB/Danish Gold (Denmark) [1987]
• Cino P. (Italy) [27/1/1987]
• Commodore Büromaschinen GmbH (Germany) [2/8/1987]
• CSR/Supremacy (Norway?) [29/6/1987]
• Cygnus-X (USA) [18/10/1988|21/9/1989|28/9/1989|3/12/1989|27/2/1990|16/9/1990]
• Dirk/D.S.Compware (Germany) [1987|1987]
• FBS/OGM (Germany) [4/2/1987|12/2/1987]
• Game Master/ACA (USA) [16/9/1987]
• Henrik C. (Denmark) [16/2/1990]
• Jason W. (Australia) [3/10/1987]
• Judit B. (Hungary) [31/8/1998]
• Mauricio H. (Costa Rica) [19/3/1993]
• Michael C. (USA) [3/6/1991]
• Mirage (Germany) [21/10/1987|11/11/1987|16/9/1988|1988]
• Pascal de S. (Switzerland) [11/3/1988|1988]
• Peter B. (Denmark) [17/2/1993]
• Philippe B. (France) [1990s]
• Pirasoft/ACS (Australia) [26/2/1989]
• Woody P. (USA) [15/5/1991]
• Zollamt Zürich-Post (Switzerland) [2/3/1987]

Scene Papers – Summer Mix

Escaping the heatwave by surfing the net in your cool room? Why not look at old scene documents? Today, we bring you a mix of various paper artefacts from the Amiga, Atari and PC scene, provided by Azzaro, Dipswitch, Gentleman, JAL, Lance, Lotek Style, Thorion, and Willy. Swapletters, wristbands, stickers, flyers, and some unusual stuff. Browse the documents in the gallery at the bottom of this post, or download the high resolution scans with metadata from the following list.

Letters:
• to Azzaro (Poland) from Digital Zone (Ireland) [23/03/1996] and sAS (Belgium) [29/02/199x]
• to Gentleman (Germany) from Double R (Spain) [xx/xx/199x] – including graffiti sketches by Mr. Stone and Turbo/Bronx!
• to Lotek Style (Germany) from Brume (France) [xx/xx/1999|xx/xx/199x], Evil (Sweden) [xx/03/2005], Frost (France) [xx/xx/199x], Lonsdale (Germany) [18/08/1997|14/01/1998|14/03/1998|14/09/1998|05/05/2000|06/05/2001|27/07/2001|xx/xx/2001], Mikro (Slovakia) [xx/xx/200x|xx/xx/200x|xx/xx/200x] , and Senser (France) [xx/xx/199x]
Stickers: Mexx / Targets / Tristar / TRSI
Business cards: 501/TRSI / McLoud/TRSI / Tail/Hypnotic
Party stuff: Outline 2008 lighter / Outline 2019 wristband / Scene Event 2000 badge / SF2K 2002 wristbands / Treacl Celebration Party 1991 ticket / Woest 2002 wristband
Other stuff:
• Generation Charts votesheet
• The Beast diskmag flyer
• Ritmika press kit, 2004. Ritmika was a Latvian electronic music label run by Raver/PHT, with several other sceners involved.
• Acronym List 4.0 materials, 1998. The Acronym List, encompassing 400 group acronyms, was compiled by the small German PC group Die Datenbäcker. This is the paper manuscript for the list.

Swiss Cracking Association Archive, Pt. 3

Here we go with the next instalment of the Swiss Cracking Association archive. This time, we bring you the letters received and preserved by Saturnus the Invincible (STI), the older of the SCA brothers, who was one of the very early crackers and coders on the Amiga, programmed the first Amiga virus, and went on to become a game programmer. This batch of letters, encompassing over 120 pages, is a treasure trove for various reasons. Firstly, they document the Amiga scene when the platform was still brand-new, and enthusiasts had to find out step by step how to work with it. Secondly, the years covered here, 1987-1988, were the ones where SCA gained fame and notoriety with their accidentally-spread virus, and here you can see all sorts of reactions that arrived at SCA’s Zurich post box: from an 11-year-old Norwegian boy who wants to get rid of the virus that infected his game collection, to Commodore User journalist Mike Pattenden trying to get in touch with the virus makers. And finally, the letters from 1988-1989 attest to the process of professionalisation that STI underwent, when he began coding games and tools for the Amiga, and received questions for support from “normal” Amiga users as well as correspondence from computer magazines and companies. All this and more you can read in the gallery below, but first, here’s the list of the new additions with metadata links, featuring letters from:

• Adam/The Ice Breakers Int. (Canada) [27/09/1988 | 21/01/1989]
• Amadeus/The Movers (Germany) [1987]
• Amiga Software Freak (Germany) [1987]
• Anubis/CFR (Belgium) [20/04/1987]  → later: Hobbit/Fairlight [1987]
• Arslan/ACS (Germany) [1987]
• BFBS (Germany) [1987]
• Brigitte Palenschat (Data Becker, Germany) [11/07/1988]
• CAB/Danish Gold (Denmark) [24/03/1987 | 14/06/1987]
• Chuck/UII (USA) [18/11/1987]
• Crackhawk/Trianon (Germany) [1987]
• Cygnus X-1 (USA) [15/04/1988 | 23/05/1988]
• Dirk/D.S.Compware (Germany) [03/12/1986 | 04/01/1987 | 29/01/1987 | 09/02/1987 | 18/02/1987 | 20/10/1987]
• Drago/Dynamic-Duo (Germany) [12/1986]
• Excalibur/Fairlight (Sweden) [03/06/1988]
• Explorer (Germany) [1987 | 1987]
• FBS/OGM (Germany) [1987]
• Game Master/ACA (USA) [31/08/1987]
• Irata/RSI (Germany) [1987 | 1987 | 03/10/1987]
• Jason W. (Australia) [23/10/1987 | 1988 | 1988 | 17/07/1988 | 10/1988 | 23/11/1988]
• Jayce (Denmark) [1987]
• Jens G. (Sweden) [20/07/1988]
• Jimmy S. (Sweden) [07/11/1988]
• John Inge O. (Norway) [02/03/1988]
• Megaman/Starlight Strikers (Denmark) [1987]
• Mike Pattenden (Commodore User, UK) [1987]
• Mirage 8001 (Germany) [31/08/1987 | 10/09/1987]
• Mr. Henry/CBI (Denmark) [03/10/1987]
• Munch/The Quadrant (UK) [03/09/1987 | 03/10/1987]
• Oohoo-Troops (Switzerland) [03/10/1987]
• Pascal/CBS (France) [1987 | 12/02/1987 | 12/09/1987]
• Peter/Berlin-Soft (Germany) [12/02/1987]
• Pirasoft/ACS (Australia) [30/03/1987 | 01/05/1987 | 13/09/1987 | 15/10/1987 | 05/11/1987 | 12/1987 | 28/01/1988 | 02/02/1988 | 23/03/1988 | 22/04/1988 | 04/1988 | 10/06/1988 | 02/1989]
• Rainer Bartel (Data Welt, Germany) [16/06/1988]
• Random Access (Belgium) [1988 | 10/02/1988]
• Rob/HQC (Germany) [03/09/1987 | 16/09/1987 | 04/10/1987 | 08/11/1987 | 10/02/1988 | 04/06/1988 | 03/08/1988 | 10/1988]
• Shut Berlin/ICE (Germany) [21/10/1987]
• Skylab/NBB^The Movers (Germany) [02/1987 | 03/09/1987]
• The Turtle & The Godfather/TSD (Denmark) [07/09/1987]
• The Turtle/TSD (Denmark)[24/11/1987]
• The Visiter/ACA (USA) [18/11/1987 | 03/12/1987]
• The Visitors (Germany) [24/11/1987]
• someone from Wizax (Denmark) [1987]
• Werewolf/AAA (Finland) [04/10/1987]
• Will/Hotline (Netherlands) [20/04/1987]

Party Invitations, 1987-2000

Some copyparty/demoparty materials this time – from the vaults of Acidchild & Bugjam, Arny, Ghost, Jugger, Lance, and Swiss Cracking Association. Included are party invitations from Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Hungary, Switzerland, and Poland. There are some really rare 1980s invitations, including copyparties that are not documented in any scene databases yet – and also some known, yet legendary ones, like the invitation flyer for the first The Party in Denmark in 1991. Following scans can be downloaded or browsed online in the gallery below:

Action Autumn Conference 1990 invitation // AWACS/RAF/Pussy Copyparty 1991 invitation // Chromance, Cerberos & Computer-Mania Copy Party (CCCCP) 1991 invitation // FCS-ECC Copyparty 1987 invitation // New Edition Copyparty 1987 invitation // NEWS-Party 1990 invitation // North Party 1997 invitation // Poison Party 1990 invitation // Shining 8 Eastern Conference 1992 invitation // Spherical Designs Party / Bocholter Copyparty series 1991 info pack // SSI Copyparty 1998 invitation // SWF Amiga-Sylvester-Panic Party 1987 invitation // Syndicate Denmark & Action 2009 Copyparty 1987 invitation // The Party 1991 invitation // The Party 1998 visitors’ brochure // Treacl & Panic Party 1991 invitation // Willow Party 2000 invitation