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---=[ Introduction ]=----------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to Inquisition issue #3.
Well here is our third edition of this warez mag. We have some new
additions in this issue. As the weeks progress along we plan to enhance
this mag to better standards, so in the meantime bare with us.
We decided to let Mercury go. Unfortunately, I have not heard from him
nor have any of the other members. Lester will take his old position
next to me in editing this mag and enhancing it's material and
appearance. We currently have a World Wide Web site courtesy of Lotug.
This site info will be place in our Web site section. So be sure to
drop by to check it out and send mail if ya think its great or if it
sucks.
Basically we are always looking for ASCii Artists and Writers. We are also
looking for coders who can help us enhance our Web Site. If you want to
join, but you are unsure on what all you are responsible for, leave us mail.
We still want YOU to write in comments on our newsletter, even if they
are negative. We prolly will publish them in our next issue and one of
the editors will reply to them.
We do need an able person to review games. If you have the time to
conduct a review similiar to the fashion of Jimmy Jamez, please send
e-mail.
- Raptor
Send your articles, comments or suggestions to:
- an407822@anon.penet.fi -
---=[ Contents ]=--------------------------------------------------------------
1. Letters to the Editor.....Raptor & Lester
2. Warez Report..............Jimmy Jamez - "Special Biased Edition"
3. Interview.................Raptor - "Dorian Hawkmoon - MALiCE"
4. Article...................Raptor - "NFO's and Packaging"
5. Internet..................DOD/INQUiSITION WEB Sites, Plus More
6. Announcements.............Orion, PWA President/Founder Retires
7. Closing...................Raptor & Lester
---=[ 1. Letters to the Editor ]----------------------------------------------
This week we had a couple of comments, but we would like more.
Greetings,
I read the letter to the editor from Subterfuge that was in this weeks
article, and pretty much agree. I like the way JJ is doing the scene/group
rating. But, I guess I would like to see a whole new catagory that describes
and rates the warez. (Although this might not work if this new catagory is not
updated frequently for obvious reasons.)
Other than that I like what I'm seeing.
Keep up the good work,
The JeneRaL (619/801)
Raptor - Currently we are trying to add a section which reviews utils of
the week we are currently writing about. Hence we cannot
review all the utils nor the games, but we will try our best
to cover the mainstream programs
We wil accept outside reviews, articles and other warez related
topics. Thanks for expressing your wishes.
---=[ 2. Warez Report - "Special Biased Edition" ]=----------------------------
Biased Utils Report made by Jimmy Jamez Issue #3:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Woah! On the whole, I can characterize past week as week of inside releases,
betas, and cracked sharewares (this is a habit already :) ).
First part of the week had some store titles but the rest had nothing worthy
besides anonymous release of Quicken 95 for Windows 95. All we saw from
major groups - many betas, many cracked shareware programs, many inside
preorder utilities. As I thought, this week will show us bigger competition
than before, and a few smaller groups were more active. Lets comb through the
main events of the week and the groups now:
* in alphabet order *
DOD (Drink Or Die) - Store kings had a hard time this week. Because of the
lack of store titles, there were only 7 releases and around 70 megs. Not a
valid result for this hardcore Russian Posse, but not it's fault that lazy
publishers delay with shipping. Mostly all the stuff came from inside sources
and only couple of releases were from stores. Week started for them with
Monarch for Windows 2.0 (4 Disks). After that they came with one of the best
releases of the week - MS Visual Basic 4.0 Standard. FINALLY first real
RELEASE of Visual Basic 4.0 version. We still hope to see sometimes soon PRO
and ENTERPRISE editions. Next day - next release.. nice MAC <-> PC conversion
program Conversion Plus 3.0 for Windows. On that, store heaven finished for
DOD and they started to compete with others on internal applications.
Quality won this time and we saw Lantastic 6.01 for DOS/Win/Win95 (5 Disks)
and Quarterdeck WINProbe 4.0 for Win95. DOD finished this week with 2 big
utilities. One long-awaited Oracle SQL-Net Connectivity 2.0 for Win95 (13
Disks) (all Oracle stuff released by DOD lately..way to go!) and a huge CD-RIP
of electronic greetings designer called Animated Greetings from Pinapple (19
Disks). Last one is too big for it's aim but, it's fully commercial and new.
Not the best week to compare with the other weeks on the past but, the group
started to show ability of inside contacts and releasing. One point is taken
for small release number & meggage. You will ask why only 1 point? Because
we saw no betas and three very, very cool titles like Visual Basic, Lantastic
and Oracle programs.
Current Week Points: 09/10
Overall Score : 28/30
PNT (Pantera) - I am happy. I finally stimulated this team to work better
and they really gave us the ultimate trip through their neverending releases.
It started with ZIP Office 1.25 for Windows (5 Disks), Selected Office Pro 5.1
(too many offices, btw <g>), OpenMind 2.0 from Attachment (3 Disks) and
finished with bunch of unknown but legit things like PC3290 4.1 beta for
OS/2 (huge beta.. bah), Netwizard 2.5 for Win/NT and Win95 (7 Disks),
Baryan Enterprise Client 6.0 (long awaited title of main Novell competitors),
and finally Crosstalk 2.3.1e for Win and Win95 (5 Disks). The week totals to
7 releases, nothing big and well-known except Baryan but no fuckups so far and
no dupes. If these kids will work as hard as now - I wish good luck to PWA and
DOD in the future. One beta release takes 1 point off, but all the rest
collects a lot.
Current Week Points: 09/10
Overall Score : 15/30
PNC (PiNNACLe) - They are still half-dead. :( Only three titles and two of
them were a bunch of CD-ROM Adobe Photoshop manuals and help programs. Kinda
big so they are not earning many points. There were Adobe Photoshop Tutorial
Series 3.0 (16 Disks) and Fundamental Series 3.0 (12 Disks). They finished
the week with Netscape Commerce Server 1.1 for NT on (4 Disks). That is a cool
release. Good luck to them on next week!
Current Week Points: 04/10
Overall Score : 09/30
PWA (Pirates With Attitude) - Time passes but PWA is the same! :) Many big
betas, couple cracked sharewares (this week they loose on this aspect to the
REBELS, haha), and couple store utilities. Lets get a ride of their releases
for last 7 days.. Here we go:
Microsoft Voice, Speech and Phone Beta 2 for Win95 (6 Disks), Interecho 1.12
for Intermail (1 Disk), Univebe 1.5 cracked (another PWA cracked shareware,
hehe), IN3 Voice Recognition Cracked (hehe, how much more? :), finally
OnNet 2.0 for Windows (15 Disks) (cool inet junk), small Intuit proggy Quicken
Expensable 1.1 for Win, WinBeep Cracked (some shareware pager software
successfully cracked by PWA), long long awaited PCBoard 15.22 for OS/2 100
nodes (4 Disks) (sysops say thanx to them!), Watcom C++ Class Builder (c)
Powersoft (10 Disks), FileNet PrintFlo 2.0.33 (5 Disks), NT Client (1 Disk),
Borland C++ 5.0 Beta 2 (31 disks), very cool and only STORE title - Windraw
4.0 for Win95 (14 Disks), new NT betas for Workstation and Server 4.0,
Mindwire BBS for Win/NT and Win95 (9 Disks) (what the heck is it? Somebody
install it on a board - i will call to have fun!), and 1 small util at the very
end of the week, Test Archive Virus Scanner (1 Disk). Also need to mention one
very rude fuck up releasing MS Explorer 2.0 beta that is double fucked -
FREEWARE and DUPE of PNT :) We all can log to www.microsoft.com and get
it directly from the first screen. What can i say? Shitload of meggage but
4 betas that got 70% of those meggage and also 1 dupe/fuckup. Anyway, the
team released other fine utils that can and must award fine points.
Current Week Points: 09/10
Overall Score : 28/30
RBS (Rebels) - Very impressive. These Swedens exploded with many utils and
cracks on the past week. Want to just mention MS Windows NT SNA 2.11 Server
(25 Disks), Diskaccess for Windows 95 cracked, DS Standard Netware Tool for
Win/Win95 on (5 Disks) and a few others. Also they were prolly jealous of PWA
for cracking elite shareware/demos and beaten them fully on this week in that!
5 small cracked/unlocked things. I am glad that somebody is doing this dirty
job - cracking sharewares! Have fun and release us some cool sweden blondes
next time.
Current Week Points: 08/10
Overall Score : 10/30
As you could notice - nobody got perfect points. Because nobody actually WON!
Each group did the best in one way and lost in another. Anyway, competition
was rocking and we would like to see something special soon! Hope next week
will be that special. If you dissagree with anything or simply wanna talk
- email me on dod@ns.extech.msk.su
JIMMY JAMEZ [DOD BOSS]
* All complaints/questions send to: dod@ns.extech.msk.su *
---=[ 3. Interview - Dorian Hawkmoon - MAliCE ]-------------------------------
WWN : Rumor is or was that Ordnance asked you if he could be a Council member
in MAliCE. Is there any truth to this?
Dorian: Not a rumor. This is true. However, the MAliCE council was not in
agreement with allowing him in.
WWN : Another rumor is or was that you purposely brought RTS into it's
doldrums type state as it is in now, is there any truth to that?
While Ordnance was gone, of course.
Dorian: It was never my intention to "kill off" RTS. No RTS member was
approached by me personally to join MAliCE. People made a choice and
applied to MAliCE.
WWN : Why MAliCE? Meaning - Why did you choose MAliCE as the new frontier in
couriering? Why not stick it out through in RTS?
Dorian: Well, if people remember, (and I hope some of the senior members of the
scene do), MAliCE was a great courier group in the early 90's, and one
of which I was an important part of then. So when it came time to do
something new, I felt that the name would make people realize that the
group was making a comeback, not a new "fledgling" group. RTS had a
lack of responsibility in senior positions. NO one person can run a
courier group by himself. MAliCE has a "council " of people who are
dedicated to making this group #1.
WWN : To our knowledge, MAliCE has 8 INET sites? Needless to say, is MAliCE
an INET couriering group?
Dorian: MAliCE is hardly in INET group. Although we do run that many net sites,
we are very much into the BBS scene as well.
WWN : Percentage wise - How many MAliCE couriers are LD, NET, and Both?
Dorian: Strict net couriers - only 10%, LD people - about 20%, local board
couriers - about 30%, and couriers that do both - about 50%. That's
over 100% becuase of an overlap of duties.
WWN : What do you think about RiSC?
Dorian: NO question RiSC is the #1 courier group in the scene today, as well
they should be. They have had little competition in the last 2 years.
I like their organization, but I do not subscribe to the "Upload to the
Top 10 boards only" theory.
WWN : What do you think about EVR (Everlast)?
Dorian: It's hard to make a judgement on a group that has so few people in it,
and one that appears and disappears so frequently. The guys who are in
the group definitely know how to play the game though :)
WWN : What do you think about fATE?
Dorian: I will try and be objective here. And, just state that I don't see
much of their stuff on the boards I call. They claim to be the #2
courier group in the scene, but I think most people see things in a
different light.
WWN : What do you think about HTC?
Dorian: HTC is about where RTS was just before it died. I don't see a future
for HTC unless they revise their senior staff and get back to basics.
WWN : What do you think about RTS and it's future?
Dorian: RTS will always be there. Whether it ever amounts to anything again,
your guess is as good as mine. If the right people are put in place, I
would imagine they could be a competitive group again.
WWN : What do you think about any future couriering groups out there?
Dorian: Good luck:) Seriously, I'm sure we in MAliCE would welcome the
competition. People seem to forget that MAliCE is only 5 weeks old in
it's current phase. So, we are still essentially, the "new" guys in
town. But, we'll take on anyone in the future.
WWN : Vile was quoted in our last issue that MAliCE would put a dent in
RiSC's market. How do you guys plan to do so?
Dorian: Reveal our secret plan? :) That wouldn't be fair. Let's just keep
them guessing.
WWN : To our knowledge, MAliCE has one Distribution Site. How does one's
board become a distribution site for MAliCE?
Dorian: Actually, distribution sites just need to apply. Minimum of three
nodes is required, and reputation of the board is important WE do have
a lot of affil sites and many member boards too.
WWN : What are the requirements to be a courier of MAliCE? Essentially, what
does the Staff of MAliCE expect out of the couriers?
Dorian: Couriers are required to support their assigned boards. For board
couriers that are local, we expect sizable uploads in meggage per week.
For LD people, we expect dedication to uploading the MAliCE name to
give the group exposure. And, for our net couriers, we expect movement
of releases to sites ASAP as something comes out onto the net.
WWN : Back to the "Top 10 Board Theory," what is the theory of MAliCE?
Dorian: Anyone that knows me pretty much knows my theory. Courier groups were
created for the sole purpose of mass distribution of files. I would
much rather "create" a fast board in every AC in the country, rather
than have people upload to boards that would be fast regardless of
which courier groups support them. There will always be independant
traders for that function.
WWN : What group does MAliCE officially courier for and what exactly does
that mean?
Dorian: WE "officially" courier for Pinnacle right now. What that means is
that PNC gives us the releases first, so that we can spread them
throughtout the scene.
WWN : What are your theories of tagging?
Dorian: Honestly? Tagging is bullshit. I would like to see a return to the
days when a courier group is rated based on how well they support the
boards they choose to upload to. Because, no SysOp really cares if a
MAliCE guy uploads RiSC tagged files, or vice versa. All he sees is
that the MAliCE guy uploads 200 megs a week. And that makes him happy,
and it should make the sneior staff of the courier group happy too.
WWN : So, it is safe to say that the best courier group is the one who
uploads the most to their boards rather who carries the most files
tagged?
Dorian: You can easily find the same releases tagged by 3, 4, or 5 different
courier groups. I would have to say that uploading meggage to a board
is more important. NO one judges an independent trader by how many files
he couriers bearing his NAME do they?
WWN : Here is a scenario that all courier groups have - You are the Official
Couriers of PNC, however one of their suppliers is a member/courier of
fATE, who gets the tag?
Dorian: That is a very disturbing scenario. Unfortunately, it seems the
release groups have not set any standards for that. I would like to
think that the groups would agree that if they are going to have
official couriers, then they should have all their releases given to
the OFFICIAL couriers first.
WWN : Since you dislike the fine art of tagging, will MALiCE drop it in the
future.
Dorian: NO.
WWN : Where do you see MAliCE in the future?
Dorian: MAliCE is here to stay I believe this time. AS long as I am around
(not in a rocking chair yet!), MAliCE will always strive to be the #1
courier group in the world.
A MAliCE NFO is included within the INQUiSITION package.
Interview Conducted by Raptor on October 21, 1995.
---=[ 4. Article - NFO's and Packaging ]=-------------------------------------
NFO's and Packaging
Well, I guess this might be a bitch more than an article, but I'll express
my views and ideas as more of a suggestion.
Every group out there, whether util/game/established/new/cool/lame/etc is the
same in this respect - they package with a compression utility (ie PKZip),
use an NFO, and use a DIZ. Pretty simple you would think, eh?
Afraid it's not. Most groups that are established like Razor 1911, PWA, DOD,
NTA, TDU-JAM and countless others have complete NFO's and DIZ's to help the
scene's layman understanding what exactly their leeching.
On the other hand we have Independents and groups who don't give a damn about
what their sticking out there. A fine example of this was Vendetta (VND),
and their dead now anyhow. Anyways they put out a damn vendetta EXE and a
DIZ. I mean that really does a Sys-Op any good for file management or for
those who want to know more about what their leeching. Any dude can move a
file to Point A to Point B, but not all of us have ISDN lines, so we might
be a little more selective in what we're downing. Hence we unpack that NFO
to read what the hell we're sucking down.
This is merely a suggestion, but it would be nice or convient if
groups/independents take up the idea of including a date of the release,
version numbers, operating systems supported, installation instrctions (if
needed), and a fairly decent description of the program.
I can understand that games' groups are in a different catagory, but the
utils' scene is not even as competitive. Hell - I have sat on releases for
a week or so and no one has put it out, no biggie. So what if it takes an
extra few minutes to put out a description of decent length.
I think it's pretty sad when a group says - "Here's Symantec Act! v2.0"
"Uh - have fun" - Cool - gotta a release but what the hell is it?
Like I said, most of the groups out there have descriptions on their releases,
but a few need to improve their NFO's a bit in this area.
A DIZ should include proggy name, version number and OS - once again it makes
it simple for Sys-Ops and the ever-so-important dupe checks.
There also is the rush of CD software on the market. CD's are here to stay,
so we better get used to them. If a group decides to rip, make sure you say
that it is a Rip. It might be obvious, but then again - some traders might
be doubtful in moving the rip due to a future nuke off a board b/c it doesn't
work for shit. Anyhow, that's just my beef on rips. Well maybe I'll add
that people need to use ZipChunker instead of ARJ. Simple fact that ARJ does
not use a 32-bit CRC integrity check on the ARJ. Many groups have been burned
due to ARJ compression and recompression CRC errors. Recently though, I have
changed back to the ARJ compression utility but I just have to take that extra
minute to check the CRC integrity.
I like to send a personal greet to TDU-JAM and HYBRID for using the simple
install EXE's for all of us who do not like to deal with arj and the
parameters that go along for repacking and all that jazz.
Once again - this is just a opinion and well if you think I am full of shit
well - go ahead and think that. Read the next article.
---=[ 5. Internet ]=----------------------------------------------------------
INQUiSITION has a World Wide Web page site. Please come by and check it out.
You can grab the Previous issues of INQUiSITION there plus the WWN archives.
INQUiSITION - http://www.hooked.net/users/tails/inq
Here is list of other excellent pages
DOD - http://spl.co.il/zino
If you're group has a WWW page, please leave us a not and we'll advertise here
Other Internet related news: If you are a Flight Simulator fan, there is a
site where you can play against 300 other flight sim players. The site is
currently beta and is free during this period. Here is the info you need:
Go to CACTUS.ORG to grab the Front End
Then telnet to ICI2.INFOHWY.COM
Login as new user
Have fun
---=[ 6. Announcements ]=-----------------------------------------------------
On October 23, 1995 - Orion, President/Founder of PWA, announced his
retirement.
<ThePrez> Ok when we started PWA 3 years ago, people didn't think we would
make it.. ACtually a few people (no longer with us), tried to break the
group up. But being mainly consisting of adults we hung thru it all to Make
PWA the best there was, the best there is and the best that EVER will be...
<ThePrez> So for Three years we have shown people that without cut throat
competition a group can survive and take themselfs to the top.
<ThePrez> Well its time for you all to take this group onward further then I
can take you all... I am retiring from PWA, for reasons that really aren't
that clear to me at this moment, but its best for my life right now...
<ThePrez> But before I go completely out, I wanted to clear a few things up
* Marlenus looks very sad
* Blackhawk pouts
* Bainster wipes his eyes ...
* mario_ sighs
* Raptor is sad
* Corv8 will miss ThePrez's great sex
* Blackhawk is NOT going to ask....
<ThePrez> First and foremost, the Council has the final vote on the group,
Period end of sentence,, Sr. Members do have a vote in the group activity,
but the Council vote is the last stand
<ThePrez> The Council should act as a single person with one objective in
mind, whats best for the group.. over the past few months it has gotten
away from that.... And its time to get back into it..
<ThePrez> ok council members, Rambone, Blackie, Marlenus, Snake, you guys
need to get this under control...
<RAMBONE> already workin on it
<Marlenus> your wish is my command
<ThePrez> There is NO group coordinator, there is though a council with each
having indiviual responsibilites
<ThePrez> Those people under you all are your responsibilty
<ThePrez> All supplies and couries are invited
<ThePrez> So in a nut shell, change the nfo from Orion President to Orion
Founder... Yes Ego has taken over and I still will be in the nfo hehe
<Marlenus> i bet he joins DoD tomorrow :')
<Marlenus> prez, its been great working with ya, youve been a swell fellow,
ill see you in vegas, and bone, delete all his leech accounts tomorrow :')
<ThePrez> I just want a promise from you guys, especially the ones that have
been thru PWA when it was doing 20 megs a month to when we were going 300
megs a month, (When Blackie knew what piracy was) now he just get laid..
<ThePrez> PWA is a standing for people not to take this shit seriously, if a
hobbie like stamp collecting, a far better hobbie I think, but a hobbie non
the less
<ThePrez> But seriously guys don't make me come back from retirement to kick
all your asses, its not a pretty picture of me being black and wheelchair
running over your toes if you don't keep the beliefs of PWA alive
<ThePrez> Well guys thats about it in a nut shell, now its your turn to throw
the questions if any back to me,, I said my peace, nothing more to add to
it........ sigh
In the last two months, we have seen two great leaders, Liquidator and Orion,
step down to allow new blood to represent the scene
---=[ 7. Closing ]=------------------------------------------------------------
We hope you enjoyed this issue of INQUiSITION, if you have any questions
or comments, find us on the IRC or through e-mail.
Hopefully you enjoyed this issue of INQUiSITION. Look forward to
Mr.ZigZag's article over site security, Jimmy Jamez Interview, and an
upcoming debate.
INQUiSITION will have weekly meetings on Wednesday's at 9p Central.
Take it easy Orion!
The Inquisition Staff:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Raptor [Editor] Lester [Editor]
[Staff]
Jimmy Jamez ú Lotug ú Lurch ú Mr. ZigZag ú Riot ú Vile