Interviews
Interview with ACM
Published in Vandalism News #40
Performed by Almighty God
I'm sure this will be a very interesting interview to read for all of you as this time we present one of the founders of the very famous Spanish group: TBI.
V)
To start with maybe you can give the Vandalism News readers a brief description of yourself and your scene status in the good old times.
A)
Well, my handle is as you already know, ACM, member and founder of The Blasters Inc., but before that I was in the group Air Crackers, together with another of the TBI founders called BSR.
V)
When did you buy your first computer and how did you get involved with our beloved scene?
A)
My first computer was a C64; it was a present of the Three Kings in x-mas 1986. I was 14 years old at that time. I spent one year learning how to make programs and playing games with it thanks to programs and games swap with some of my school-mates, that was until x-mas 1987. Then some member of my family, I cannot remember, gave me as a three kings present, a couple of tapes with some rare games that I never even knew about. Those games were purchased in the San Antonio street market (main street market of Barcelona). Those games woke up my curiosity and interest about cracking, as they had a nice cracktro... In the summer of 1987 I met BSR thanks to a friend of both of us. He was also very interested in the scene and we decided to join forces and after some learning and making ourselves a place on da San Antonio street market, we built up Air Crackers. Nobody was really interested in our group until one day BSR gave me a very nice surprise by importing to Spain OUTRUN, a game that was quite well known because of it being a great coin-op. Thanks to that game we made ourselves a reputation in the Spanish scene. Before that we have done some swapping with some groups outside of Spain, but no cracks at all. After we met every single scene mate. In particular the Barcelonan 64 scene, we met JR.Predator and some months later having a meeting in JR.Predator's house together with BSR, JSC and another guy that I cannot remember. We built up a new group called The Blasters Inc. A week after we just had three members: JR.Predator, BSR and myself. Later some more guys joined the crew...
V)
What was your job in the Blasters?
A)
Swap, crack and coding. I did some of the Blasters intros (and Air Crackers ones too) and cracked some games, also a bit of swapping but not as much as some other members in the group.
V)
Do you remember that the Spanish scene was a big scene with a lot of groups? Or was it just a couple of groups and a lot of guys just interested in playing games?
A)
In that time the Spanish scene was really small, at least we had contact with nearly nobody. JR.Predator had some Spanish contacts, but I had none myself. There were also so many lamers around recracking our cracks and using our code. The Spanish group with better reputation apart from TBI was VC- Crackers that later on left the C64 to go to the Amiga scene and changing their name to Darkness.
V)
Nostalgic memories I can recall. Even with most of my contacts outside of Spain. I just had only three Blasters contacts: JRC, Yeyus and JR.Predator, but I know there were many more.
A)
In the Blasters there were so many people coming and leaving and it's a pity that I cannot remember most of my pales that were in our forces. I remember very well BSR and JR.Predator because I had a very close contact with them. But I have not forgotten: AMD, JJ, Narciso Mix, Ray, The Fly and some foreigners: Gunnar, The Coca Cola Kid, Bernard (Nasa) and some others.
V)
Are you involved in any scene nowadays? Or still in the computer world? Did you follow the C64 scene?
A)
Unfortunately not. At the end of 1990 I left the underground world of computers and now I'm working as a professional with them. I have only contact with The Fly. To find true documentation of the good old times on the internet was really amazing and I hope to have a bit more free time to check out what the C64 scene is doing these days. Thanks to all of you that kept it alive.
V)
Please feel free to mention anything historic or that you consider interesting...
A)
I can say that the most important thought that I kept about The Blasters Inc. history is the time we cracked the game Operation Wolf. I cannot remember how that game reached our hands before the rest of the European crackers. Was a great sensation to have the orrie before anyone. We had to be fast if we wanted to jump on top of European rankings. JR.Predator got the game and gave it to JJ who broke it and passed it to me with the codes to create the cracked version. Was quite late in the evening when I told JR.Predator that the game was done., he told me about to come next day as soon as possible to his house to make all the parcels early in the morning. Was about 12 o'clock at night when I was about to go to bed and then I thought "what a shit crack, if we spread it, there will be a better version the day after". So I started making a better version the same night with some more extras, infinite lives, armour... was really late when I finished the trainers menu, around 5am when I realize that I had one option more in the menu, I was really tired so I decided to make the last option as the following question: "Are The Blasters a very cool group?" and you could only play the game if you answered yes. That option start became very popular in the cracks of other groups after that. That night (early morning) I slept at JR.Predator's house while he was doing the parcels to spread this crack.
V)
Ahh! That's probably why Operation Wolf is the most popular crack by TBI. Thanks a lot for the interview and stay tuned...