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The Ware Report - October 1996
Written by: The Renegade Chemist
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The Ware Report .. Official Rules ...
I. Definitions.
PLAYABLE - The game is cracked, and can be played by someone who speaks
only English.
COMPLETEABLE - The ware report does not go by the definition "playable."
Because games must be ripped from CD, they must be COMPLETEABLE in order
to be accepted. This means that you don't rip out tracks, levels, or
trivia questions in order to get a release out. It's okay to take out
sound, animations, and music, provided that these are not essential to
the completion of the game as it was designed by the publishers. Any
other license taken at the group's discretion is subject to my review.
DUPE - The game was released before, by another group. Usually this
means that the group released the game several hours too late, but this
rule also applies if a group releases an update and tries to pass it off
as a sequel.
FAKE - An unplayable, or unfinished version of a game.
CREDIT - Full credit means the group put out a new, completeable game,
and cracked it properly the first time. They receive all megabytes that
are associated with the game as part of their group score. Half credit
means that the game came out badly cracked, or in need of a fix, but the
group did fix it, so it only loses 1/2 of the megabytes. Both full and
half credit allow the group to retain the full release points for the
game, in addition to whatever meggage has been awarded. No credit means
that the game was not completable, or released uncracked and fixed by
a different group. In this last case, the group receives 0 megabytes
for the release, and 0 release points. Screw-ups like that can really
hurt your average for the month.
II. Rules ...
A. SPA Compliance - This report is fully compliant with all the rules set
forth by the SPA several months ago:
1. Only games of 50 disks or less will be considered.
2. Only final versions will be considered.
3. Only games completeable by English-speakers will be considered.
B. Extensions to SPA Compliance.
1. Only the first, completeable version will be considered.
2. Trainers, Patches, Upgrades & the like are not considered.
3. If a game is a DUPE or FAKE the group will not get credit.
4. If a game is released uncracked and later fixed by the releaser,
the group gets 1/2 credit. If another group fixes it, the
original group gets no credit while the cracking group gets 1/2
credit for the release.
C. The Ware Report Group Rating System - The group rating is based on
3 things - number of releases, meggage of releases, and release rating.
1. Number of releases - Self-explanatory.
2. Meggage of releases - Self-explanatory.
3. Release ratings - The rating is a number, from 0 to 9, rating the
game's importance to the scene. This means that big, anticipated
titles, which are of course more difficult competition, will get
higher ratings than smaller titles from smaller publishers. This
explains why BattleCruiser 3000 got a 9 (the highest rating) while
Death Rally only got an 8, even though Death Rally is more fun to
play. Quality of a release doesn't usually come into play on the
rating, unless the game is a real "sleeper" (ie the original
WarCraft) or a major disappointment.
* Rating Bonuses. While I can't find a fair way to penalize groups
for ripping games poorly, I CAN reward groups for ripping them
properly. This means that the smaller the rip, the higher the
bonus points:
1 - 10 disks .. +1.00 31 - 40 disks .. + 0.25
11 - 20 disks .. +0.75 41 - 50 disks .. no bonus
21 - 30 disks .. +0.50
* Group Rating Formula - The group rating is calculated as follows:
(Sum of all Ratings+Bonuses)
---------------------------- * (Awarded Meggage) = Group Rating
(Total Number of releases)
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Title Rating Disks Size Awarded
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Group: Prestige
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
APBA Boxing (c) APBA 4(1.00) 1/ 1 2mb 2mb
Area 51 (c) GT 6(0.00) 48/ 48 72mb 72mb
Ashes to Ashes (c) Corel 6(0.50) 29/ 29 43mb 43mb
Assassin 2015 (c) InScape 5(1.00) 10/ 10 15mb 15mb
BG: Bulge (c) TalonSoft 7(0.25) 39/ 39 55mb 55mb
BC 3000 AD (c) Take 2 9(0.25) 32/ 32 48mb 48mb
Caesar II Win95 (c) Sierra 7(0.50) 26/ 26 39mb 39mb
Captain Quazar (c) 3DO 6(1.00) 8/ 8 12mb 12mb
Cold Shadow (c) Disney 6(1.00) 9/ 9 13mb 13mb
Death Rally (c) Apogee 8(1.00) 9/ 9 13mb 13mb
Dscnt Msn Bldr (c) I-Play 6(1.00) 2/ 2 3mb 3mb
ESPN NBA Airborne (c) Sony 6(1.00) 10/ 10 15mb 15mb
ESPN Natl. Hockey (c) Sony 6(0.25) 33/ 33 50mb 50mb
Fighter Duel SE (c) Philips 6(1.00) 5/ 5 8mb 8mb
Game Guru (c) 3DO 5(1.00) 1/ 1 2mb 2mb
Hoyle Casino (c) Sierra 6(0.25) 35/ 35 52mb 52mb
Hyper Blade (c) Activision 8(0.00) 50/ 50 75mb 75mb
Jumanji (c) Philips Media 6(0.25) 32/ 32 48mb 48mb
Meridian 59 (c) 3DO 0(0.00) 0/ 16 22mb 0mb
M-Soft Golf v3.0 (c) MSoft 7(0.75) 14/ 14 20mb 20mb
Necrodome (c) SSI 7(1.00) 6/ 6 9mb 9mb
Othello (c) Hasbro 6(0.50) 24/ 24 36mb 36mb
PGA Tour '96 Win95 (c) EA 7(0.00) 45/ 45 66mb 66mb
Pilots Toybox (c) C-Vision 4(0.00) 49/ 49 73mb 36mb
Power Chess (c) Sierra 7(0.00) 40/ 40 60mb 60mb
Russian Roulette (c) Buka 5(0.50) 21/ 21 31mb 31mb
SlamScape (c) Viacom 6(1.00) 8/ 8 12mb 12mb
S. Hunter P. Disk (c) SSI 6(1.00) 5/ 5 8mb 8mb
Third Reich (c) AH Games 6(1.00) 7/ 7 10mb 5mb
Toy Story (c) Disney 6(1.00) 9/ 9 13mb 13mb
Ult. Spin Doctor (c) Expert 5(1.00) 4/ 4 6mb 6mb
Unc Hry's Plyhse (c) T-Byte 6(0.00) 46/ 46 68mb 68mb
War Wind (c) SSI 9(0.25) 31/ 31 46mb 46mb
Wing Cmndr Win95 (c) Origin 7(0.75) 16/ 16 24mb 24mb
Wooden Ships (c) AH Games 6(0.75) 12/ 12 18mb 18mb
Yahtzee (c) Hasbro 6(0.50) 22/ 22 33mb 33mb
~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Totals for Prestige 184.50 359/385 1054mb 990mb
Prestige Monthly Points : 240.25
Number of Releases : 36
Release Quality Average : 6.67
Prestige Group Rating : 6603.30
Notes/Explanations : Meridian 59 - Requires serial number, but
the serial number may be used only once.
Should not have been released, as online
service requires that the user purchase
an account with 3DO.
Pilots ToyBox - Released with the same RARchive
file in each of the 49 disks. Re-released by
PSG the following day.
Third Reich - Originally released with a non-
working crack. Fixed by PSG 2 hours later.
Prestige - Comments ...
For the second consecutive month, Prestige has reached the 24 release
mark, a record set in early '95 by TDUJam. This month, however, PSG did
not just meet the record, but blew it out of the water, as the group
totaled 36 releases for the month of October, averaging more than one
title a day. This kind of production has never been seen before on any
platform, and this world record is sure to stand for some time.
Releasing a wide variety of games, Prestige put out a lot of medium-
range titles, such as Yahtzee for Win95, Third Reich PC, and Toy Story.
In addition to the games of medium quality, Prestige hit big with hot
titles like War Wind, BattleCruiser 3000, and Death Rally, all sure-fire
hit releases. Competitors in other groups who'd like to believe that PSG
set the record by putting out a bunch of low-quality, budget titles, are
really kidding themselves. With titles like MicroSoft Golf 3.0, Cold
Shadow, Hyper Blade, and others, its easy to see why Prestige is the #1
group again this October.
On the downside, PSG did make a few mistakes worth mentioning this
month. Third Reich PC was badly cracked, Meridian 59 was unplayable w/out
a serial number (which could only be used once, so it was useless anyway),
as it is playable through an online service only, and Pilot's ToyBox was
released with the same RARchive in each of the 49 disks. To PSG's credit,
however, every fixable screw-up was fixed, promptly. That might be small
consolation to users who grabbed the initial release of Pilot's ToyBox,
only to realize that they had grabbed the same disk 49 times, but its
good to know that a group cares enough to fix its mistakes.
The question now: What has allowed PSG to be so sinfully successful
for such an extended period of time? PSG has been on top for 4 of the
last 5 months, burying groups like Razor and RomLight beneath mountains
of releases. What is doing it for Prestige? And can the mix of people
producing this success continue to do so in the future?
1. Supplying. Prestige has by far the most stable supply corps out of
any of the major groups, even Zeus' Paradigm. With more than 15
proven suppliers (the highest number out of any group), Prestige is
head and shoulders above the competition in the race for US titles.
In Europe, Prestige is lacking, having pulled only one game in the
last two months from that continent.
Supply Rating (Europe) - 1/10
Supply Rating (US) - 9/10
2. Cracking. Prestige boasts the deepest cracking section across
two continents of any of the major groups. With Wolverine and
Shadow Seeker as the chief US crackers, and Grudge as the high-
powered specialist from Australia, Prestige can handle just about
anything. When those three are unable to provide a crack for a
game, PSG can call on any of a number of European crackers, such
as Tinox, LTD, Sternone, and Lost Soul. Only Hybrid can boast
cracking as good as Prestige's, but even they have their cracking
based only in one continent.
Cracking Rating (Europe) - 7/10 (Grudge, L.Soul, LTD, Tinox, Sternone)
Cracking Rating (US) - 9/10 (Wolverine, Shadow Seeker)
3. The "Winner" Factor. Being a winner brings a lot of fans, and many
of those fans can turn into quality members over time. Prestige is
a winner, and many of the members, such as Shadow Master, Wolverine,
The Renegade Chemist, and others are known as being associated with
winning groups. INC was also known as a "winner" back in '90-92,
and that is a big reason why the group was successful for so long.
As a famous coach once said, "Winning is contagious. So is losing."
Noteworthy +'s and -'s ...
(+) Both of RomLight's US suppliers, Andeveron and CyberPhreak, left for
Prestige in early October. This helped Prestige have the record
month, as these guys supplied about 10 games between the two of them.
(+) Prozac, Illusion's top US supplier, joined PSG in the middle of the
month, and has already supplied the group with 4 or 5 good titles.
His contributions have definitely been beneficial to the group, and
he will continue to become more valuable over time.
(+) Two former Razor 1911 suppliers, Pest and Karrade, have both moved
over to Prestige. Pest has been in retirement for some time and has
yet to supply a game under the PSG banner, but Karrade has already
proved valuable, supplying two huge titles for PSG in early November.
(+) With the Christmas Rush in full swing, Prestige's supply methods will
be more effective than ever before, which means lots of titles for all
of Prestige's myriad of suppliers. Individual successes promote
group victories, and there will be lots of those successes this month.
(-) Even though PSG is blowing the other groups away consistently, it is
still making too many mistakes when releases come out. Three mistakes
in 36 releases might not sound like much, but its far worse than it
could be. Now that PSG has set an untouchable world record, it should
slow down and concentrate on testing everything thoroughly before it
goes out the door.
(-) Although it acquired Sternone and The Undertaker from Razor's European
division, Prestige has yet to make major inroads into the European
software markets. Until it does so, Prestige is relying on US titles
alone to carry it through.
Predictions & Summation ...
Prestige has emerged victorious for another glorious month. The only
question remaining is, can they do it again? The mix of suppliers and
crackers in this group should be able to compete with anyone, barring a
major catastrophe. But will they be able to pull out another victory in
November?
My prediction is that yes, Prestige will once again be victorious in
November, and without major personnel changes, I predict a victory in
December as well. The one word that you can use to describe Prestige is
depth. This is the deepest group that anybody's put together in a long
time. If one supplier or cracker goes AWOL, there are enough others to
pick up the slack and move on. In addition, Prestige's system is fund-
amentally sound. Suppliers that have been non-productive, or low-
production in other groups have come on board and cranked out tons of
titles under the Prestige banner. That's a credit to the leadership,
and as long as that leadership is in place, the group will run well.
Prediction: 1st Place, 20-25 releases.
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Group: Hybrid
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Broken Sword (c) Virgin 7(0.25) 20/ 39 55mb 27mb
Champ. Mgr. '97 (c) Eidos 6(0.75) 10/ 10 14mb 14mb
Champ. Mgr. DK (c) Eidos 6(1.00) 4/ 4 6mb 6mb
Champ. Mgr. SWE (c) Eidos 6(1.00) 4/ 4 6mb 6mb
Champ. Mgr. NOR (c) Eidos 6(1.00) 4/ 4 6mb 6mb
D. Cup Tennis (c) Telstar 6(0.75) 12/ 12 18mb 18mb
Fable (c) Telstar 6(0.75) 12/ 12 18mb 18mb
Harpoon Adm. Ed. (c) Eidos 7(1.00) 9/ 9 13mb 13mb
JR Hartling Fishing (c) ARC 5(0.00) 42/ 42 63mb 63mb
MicroSoft Soccer (c) M-Soft 7(1.00) 8/ 8 12mb 12mb
Mutant Pengiuns (c) GameTek 6(0.75) 11/ 11 16mb 16mb
NET: Zone (c) GameTek 6(0.25) 32/ 32 48mb 48mb
Pinball C. Kit (c) 21st C. 7(0.75) 18/ 18 26mb 26mb
Scorched Planet (c) Virgin 7(0.75) 13/ 13 19mb 19mb
Sfc. Tension (c) GameTek 6(0.25) 35/ 35 52mb 52mb
Team F1 (c) EA 7(0.25) 39/ 39 58mb 58mb
U. Soccer Mgr 2 (c) Sierra 6(1.00) 5/ 5 8mb 8mb
Wallace & Gromit (c) BBC 4(0.75) 14/ 14 20mb 20mb
~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Totals for Hybrid 122.25 311/311 458mb 431mb
Hybrid Monthly Points : 122.25
Number of Releases : 18
Release Quality Average : 6.79
Hybrid Group Rating : 2926.49
Notes/Explanations : Broken Sword - Uncracked; Hybrid fixed.
Hybrid - Comments ...
Hybrid is one of the few groups around that is fun to watch. Quality
cracks, nicely-packaged releases (complete with installers, intros, etc),
and a little panache from the group's leadership make Hybrid a worthy
adversary. Its nice to see smaller groups like this one succeed on a big
scale, turning in a strong 2nd place finish in October.
As usual, Hybrid can thank Mad Turnip for its top finish, but he is by
no means the only guy in the group doing anything. Phoenix, Hybrid's top
cracker, has come through time and time again as Hybrid put out 17 games
for the month. Only one of them needed a fix, as Broken Sword had a CD
check that was not removed, but Hybrid handled it promptly. And the ever-
faithful Animal & Dogfriend came through several times this month as well.
None of the games that HBD released in October were what I'd call "high
profile" titles, at least in the US. Broken Sword was a big hit as a
quality adventure game, and Hybrid did put out several titles from Virgin
and Sierra, but no major releases a la BattleCruiser 3000 (Prestige),
Syndicate Wars (Paradigm), or Eradicator (Razor 1911). However, the
group made up for it by releasing a nice assortment of very playable
titles.
What makes Hybrid, a small group, so successful?
1. Supplying. In most groups it would be considered a weakness, but
Hybrid's one-sided supplying tends to be more of a strength than
anything else. Mad Turnip is what I'd call "the Zeus of Europe,"
in that he's able to hit so many titles from so many different
companies before they are commercially available. Turnip domin-
ates in England much as Zeus dominated in the US for a long time.
Until someone learns his secrets, I suspect that Turnip will be
the "King of England" for some time. Additionally, Hybrid has
the duo of Animal & Dogfriend in Denmark. This pair bags 1-3
games a month for Hybrid, and helps to put them over the top.
Supply Rating (Europe) - 9/10
Supply Rating (US) - 0/10
2. Cracking. Hybrid has an excellent blend of crackers, with the
top duo being Phoenix, an experienced cracker in England, and
Cyber, a very skilled cracker in Sweden. In addition to these
two, which would probably be enough to get the group by, Hybrid
has Replicator on hand, and even Mad Turnip and Hoson have
successfully cracked many games. With such a well of talented
cracking to pull from, Hybrid has zero worries in that area.
Cracking Rating (Europe) - 9/10 (Phoenix, Cyber, Repl., Turnip, Hoson,
Animal, Dogfriend)
Cracking Rating (US) - 0/10
3. The "Small Group" factor. Because Hybrid is a small operation,
the members stay focused and motivated. Hybrid doesn't really
need anybody else to be successful, so they can be selective
about who they ask to be a part of their group. If the group
is ever able to get a top US supplier to join their ranks, they
will truly be a consistent threat.
Noteworthy +'s and -'s ...
(+) Mad Turnip's recent run-in with the British police doesn't seem to
have affected his supply performance, as he once again led Hybrid to
a great finish for the month.
(+) Hybrid has conceded that couriers are an important part of the group,
and have set up a small courier division. This will help their WHQ
internet site as well as the rapid spreading of all new HBD releases.
The team already has helped, aiding in Hybrid's win on Scorched
Planet, when they were duped by Razor 1911.
(-) Hybrid has yet to make any major inroads into the US, which means
that if Mad Turnip has a slow month, Hybrid has a bad one.
Predictions & Summation ...
Hybrid is a small group, perpetually poised on the brink of major victory.
The pieces they are missing to complete their puzzle are in America. If
the group is able to recruit several top American suppliers, they could
really be a number one contender every month. As it is, nobody's too busy
worrying about Hybrid, because everybody knows that all they can get are
the UK releases. We're willing to write those off, but when Hybrid does
start to make inroads into the American supply markets, competition will
most definitely get hotter.
For the month of October, I'll stick with a prediction of 4th place, as
I think it'll be considerably slower in Europe this month than it was in
October. I do think, however, that it'll be a very close 4th place, and
the group might even beat Razor out of 3rd. There won't be too many big
losers in the month of November, with so many games coming out.
Prediction: 4th place, 7-10 releases.
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Group: ZEUS/Paradigm
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CyberDome (c) Gnrl. Admsn. 4(1.00) 8/ 8 12mb 12mb
FIFA '97 (c) EA Sports 9(0.00) 49/ 49 73mb 73mb
Over/Reich (c) Avalon Hill 6(0.50) 22/ 22 33mb 33mb
PowerSlave (c) Playmates 7(0.75) 14/ 14 20mb 20mb
SimCopter BETA (c) Maxis 0(0.00) 0/ 31 46mb 0mb
SimGolf BETA (c) Maxis 0(0.00) 0/ 14 20mb 0mb
Syndicate Wars (c) B-Frog 9(0.50) 27/ 27 40mb 40mb
~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
36.75 120/165 244mb 180mb
ZEUS/PDM Monthly Points : 36.75
Number of Releases : 7
Release Quality Average : 5.25
ZEUS/PDM Group Rating : 945.00
ZEUS/Paradigm - Comments ...
Paradigm is a new group, launched by the famous US supplier Zeus, the
remnants of the defunct RomLight, and members of the German group, Dynasty.
The group has cranked out several quality releases, and appears to be a
force to be reckoned with for the rest of the year.
After his departure from Prestige, there was a lot of speculation about
what would happen to Zeus. Would he hang it up, as he hinted he might be
interested in retirement? Would he join another group, as many groups
were rumored to have propositioned him about joining? Or would he start
his own group? Our questions were answered when Zeus decided to form a
group, named after himself.
The initial premise behind the formation of ZEUS was to find out if a
small group could hang with the "big boys." as Zeus referred to the larger
groups. At first, his plan went successfully, with ZEUS putting out two
titles from Maxis - SimCopter and SimGolf, and following those up with
a major game - Syndicate Wars from Bullfrog/EA. It later came out that
SimCopter was a beta, and SimGolf didn't even work. Perhaps his early
mistakes are what discouraged him, but for whatever reason, Zeus chose
to disband his group.
Dynasty had been a successful group in Germany for quite some time. A
few months ago, the DNS guys joined up with Hybrid and helped them to a
victory in August. Because of internal trouble in Hybrid, the Dynasty
members left and went back to their old label again. When ZEUS made it
public in the NFO file that the group would soon become a new one, the
DNS guys were interested. Clearly there was an opportunity here, for a
group that had only a major US supplier, but no crackers, and no European
suppliers. So, the Dynasty members decided to team up with ZEUS and came
up with the new group, Paradigm.
There was still another group-entity floating about, a group of members
who felt that they could still contribute to the scene, but were not in a
good position to do so in their current group. These guys were RomLight
members, or what was left of RLT, anyway. Seeing an opportunity to
associate themselves with a good supplier, Holy Beast, Hemp Hoodlum, and
the rest of the RomLight members jumped ship to Paradigm. In fact, Holy
Beast cracked PDM's inaugural release, FIFA '97. It's pretty much common
knowledge that Holy Beast is one of the better crackers around, and the
fact that most of the originals that PDM will get will be inside titles
from Zeus should allow him to crack many titles for the group. The rest
of the RLT members have yet to prove their worth to the group, but I
imagine that they were brought on board for a reason, so expect to see
something from them sometime soon.
Assessments ...
1. Supplying. PDM has one of the strongest US suppliers of all time
in Zeus. If he is operating at peak efficiency, Zeus can make it
difficult on every other US supplier. To date, we've not seen him
really turn it on in '96. That may change with the Christmas Rush,
and more free time for him to work his magic. In Europe, Paradigm
will probably get 2-3 games a month from the Dynasty connection.
However, PDM still lacks the East Coast supply team that they will
need to compete with Prestige for the bulk of the US titles, but
if Zeus gets on top of his game, they may not need it.
Supply Rating (Europe) - 2/10
Supply Rating (US) - 6/10
2. Cracking. While the group does not have a large corps of crackers,
the ones they do have should be enough to get them by unless they
are in a race with another group. Holy Beast can handle most of the
protections thrown at him, but there is a speed factor involved.
Again, the nature by which most of the originals are supplied to PDM
will give Holy Beast an edge here. But should PDM get a fast East
Coast supplier, they will need a fast US cracker to complement him.
Cracker Rating (Europe) - 5/10 (Holy Beast)
Cracker Rating (USA) - 0/10
3. The "ZEUS" Factor. Because Zeus is such a famous supplier, he can
attract a lot of quality people to his banner. However, this factor
can wear off if Zeus doesn't exploit his abilities and bag a bunch
of major titles. The group also benefits from the "New Group"
Factor, which is also a magnet for good people.
Noteworthy +'s and -'s ...
(+) After months of inactivity, Zeus seems to be getting active again.
He is the ultimate leader of Paradigm, and could carry it to victory
single-handedly.
(+) Paradigm has had early successes in both the US and Europe, which
can only serve to bind the members in the group closer together.
The best chemistry in a group is always attained when everyone is
successful on an individual level.
(-) Paradigm has already deviated from their initial promises. The
group initially promised "no mistakes, no budget releases," but
hasn't yet lived up to that pledge. Already, Paradigm has cracked
a budget title (CyberDome) and there have been fixes out for FIFA's
sound.
(-) There are a number of members in the NFO file who don't seem to do
anything. This is not a problem to PDM's execution, per se, but it
is certainly a turn-off for quality people who might want to join a
new group.
Predictions & Summation ...
PDM is a group with a lot of potential. I'm not sure exactly why Zeus
chose to abandon his idea of a small group, as I really thought it could
work out, in favor of a larger one. In any case, what's done is done,
and PDM has already shown a consistent performance. If they can keep it
up, cut the fat, and recruit a few more good US suppliers, as well as a
good US cracker, PDM could really be a threat. Of course, if Zeus is able
to repeat his performance of the last two Christmas seasons, PDM may not
need anyone else in order to blow out the competition.
Because of Zeus's track record in November/December, and because PDM has
the crackers to do it, I predict a 2nd place finish for PDM for the month
of December. I think they'll get out a lot of big titles, and impress a
lot of people, but I don't think they'll put out the quantities necessary
to be #1.
Prediction: 2nd place, 10-15 releases.
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Group: Razor 1911
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Casino DLX 2 (c) Sierra 6(0.50) 22/ 22 33mb 33mb
Destiny (c) I-Magic 8(0.00) 50/ 50 75mb 75mb
Eradicator (c) Accolade 8(0.25) 38/ 38 53mb 53mb
Hyper Blade (c) Activision 0(0.00) 50/ 50 75mb 0mb
Scorched Planet (c) Virgin 0(0.00) 0/ 14 21mb 0mb
GP Mgr 2 *FAKE* (c) MProse 0(0.00) 10/ 10 14mb 0mb
~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
22.75 60/ 74 271mb 161mb
Razor Monthly Points : 22.75
Number of Releases : 6
Release Quality Average : 3.79
Razor 1911 Group Rating : 610.19
Notes/Explanations : Scorched Planet - Dupe of Hybrid.
Hyper Blade - Dupe of Prestige, also
released uncracked.
Grand Prix Mgr 2 - Fake. Freeware update
of original Grand Prix Manager.
Razor 1911 - Comments ...
By now, everybody's wanting to know if the rumors are true, if Razor's
edge has been dulled by tough competition from Prestige and other groups.
Although the answer is self-evident to many in the know, some of you may
not realize the foreboding goings-on over at the Blade, so let's examine
them, in detail.
For starters, Razor has been beaten for the fifth consecutive month.
Beaten badly, I might add. While September's loss to Prestige was tough,
it was certainly bearable, as even in defeat Razor was able to bring out
a few great titles, such as MechWarrior II: Mercenaries and Madden '97.
The month of October was nowhere near as rewarding for the Razor team.
The group was able to manage only 4 legitimate releases, with 3 others
coming out under the Razor banner falling by the wayside as fakes and/or
dupe releases. The biggest game Razor had this month, Eradicator, is by
no means a bad title but is most definitely a forgettable one, as are
all of the other games presented this month by the group.
Why the reason for this dismal failure by the group? There are a
number of factors influencing Razor's poor performance:
1. Supplying. Razor used to have several options where originals
were concerned. With competent suppliers in both the US and
Europe, Razor could turn to one continent when the other failed
them. With the departure of The Undertaker to Prestige, and
the resurgence of Mad Turnip of Hybrid, Razor no longer has the
European option, so the group must rely on the North American
supply team to bring home the bacon, something they have not
been able to do since early in the year. With Prestige's hot
supply crew on the East Coast, and Zeus sucking up the inside
originals from many of the major publishers, the competition
has gotten much hotter for Razor, and they haven't been able
to adjust to that.
Supply Rating (Europe) - 2/10
Supply Rating (US) - 3/10
2. Cracking. I mentioned last month that Razor no longer had the
edge in cracking, either, and this month they proved my point.
Razor lost on two games because of poor cracking speed, one of
those being HyperBlade, a US original, the other Scorched Planet,
a game from the UK. On HyperBlade, Razor actually put the thing
out uncracked (by The Speed Racer's own admission!), hoping that
by the time disk 50 was up on sites, disk 1, containing the crack,
would be ready. Unfortunately for Razor, Prestige had put the
game out, fully cracked, about 45 minutes before Razor started to
spread their uncracked version. Scorched Planet wasn't quite as
bad a beating, but Hybrid's cracking speed came through as they
beat Razor everywhere, spreading the cracked version like wildfire
shortly before Razor got theirs out.
Cracking Rating (Europe) - 4/10 (Mod, Faceless, Bunter)
Cracking Rating (US) - 3/10 (Beowulf)
3. The TSR Factor - TSR's reputation is starting to catch up with
him. You can only blacklist so many people for leaving your group
before others start to get the message. Members of Razor are
actually afraid to leave because they fear what consequences TSR's
wrath may bring. For those already in the group, you're out of
luck. But fear is not an attractive option to quality people in
search of a group to join.
Noteworthy +'s and -'s ...
(+) The GEcko has remained active for a 2nd consecutive month, putting out
a small Casino game from Sierra Online. If he is able to spare much
time for Razor, they will be a lot better off.
(+) Egoistic Fate's board, Malevolance, was promoted to the Razor USHQ
position. This may get Ego more interested in helping the group win,
and he supplied Amok, a game from GT, this month.
(-) Blue Adept, Razor's release coordinator for several months, has left
the group, disgusted with the poor performance and bad attitudes of
its members. Guys like this are important to the success of Razor,
as a large number of Razor releases were to pass through Adept's hands.
(-) Midnight Grave Digger (MGD), the premier FTP trader of the group, has
left, unhappy about the low number and quality of releases. The loss
of MGD directly relates to Razor's recent struggles on the internet,
as with him they would have had a better chance of winning on both of
the losses they incurred.
Predictions & Summation ...
Razor has taken another beating this month, and this one will be tougher
to swallow than the last. The question now is if the group has the guts
to bounce back from a bloody defeat, and if they do, does Razor have the
resources to get back to number one? November and December will yield
the answers to these questions.
My prediction is that Razor will bounce back from this overwhelming
defeat at the hands of Prestige to make a decent 3rd place showing in
November. I don't think the group is about to die, but I do think that
if they don't make at least a decent showing this month, December could
be a very bad month for Razor. More people are bound to leave soon, as
a few are only holding on by a thread.
Prediction: 3rd Place, 7-10 releases.
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Its been another eventful month in the scene, and it already looks like
November will be just as much fun. Prestige surged to a huge victory, once
again, while Hybrid brought up second place with a dazzling show of European
titles. The surprise group of the month was of course Paradigm, formed from
the ashes of a dead RomLight (incidentally, I predicted that RLT wouldn't
make it into November in my last report, and guess what, it didn't!), Dynasty
and ZEUS. October saw Prestige set a new world record, the once-sharp blade
at the bottom, and lots of releases in between.
October 1996, Ware Report 1st Place - Prestige
MVP : Shadow Master
Honorable Mention(s): CyberPhreak, Grudge & Wolverine
October 1996, Ware Report 2nd Place - Hybrid
MVP : Mad Turnip
Honorable Mention(s): Phoenix
October 1996, Ware Report 3rd Place - Paradigm
MVP : ZEUS
Honorable Mention(s): Holy Beast
October 1996, Ware Report 4th Place - Razor 1911
MVP : None *
Honorable Mention(s): None *
* Razor did not put down the real name for any of the games supplied this
month, and none of the crackers were in a position to make an impressive
showing, and with such a dismal performance it was clear to me that none
of the organizers were putting forth enough work, so I didn't know who
deserved the MVP for the month.
The Official Ware Report MVP for October - Mad Turnip of Hybrid
Honorable Mention - Shadow Master of Paradigm
What is an MVP? The MVP is the person whose group could least bear the
loss were he to leave. Mad Turnip is the MVP in October because if it
were not for him supplying 85%+ of Hybrid's titles, they'd barely be on
the board. Shadow Master is not as important to his group as Turnip is
to his own, because if SMaster were to vanish, Prestige still has others
who could keep Prestige at nearly the same levels of output as before.
This absolutely, positively does NOT mean that if you were not selected
as the MVP that you are not important to your group; it simply means that
the MVP is most likely a person who carried the group for the whole month.
* NOTES: The report took longer than usual to put out because there were
more games than usual, and because I've changed the format to add
more commentary & analysis than ever before. I hope the new
format will allow you to get more insight into the major groups
and what makes them tick. Also please note that much of this
commentary and stuff was written on or about November 3rd, so if
any of it seems inaccurate now, I apologize. I intend to stick
with my original predictions about the groups, since they are
the ones I made at the outset of the month, even though the month
is now nearly 1/3rd over and the performances have not been what
I expected.
* GREETS: The Third World Paki Report Crew - Shadow Master & MindBender.
Prestige, Razor 1911, Paradigm, and Hybrid - All the guys that
make my report possible.
Greets to RoundMan of RCN Magazine - Maybe you'll get it right
this time.
And of course, greets to pirates everywhere! Enjoy the report
and watch out because it'll be out next month, too.
- The Renegade Chemist / Prestige
Author of The Ware Report!
* To contact the author of The Ware Report, email him at chemist@laker.net.