Re: On 'tros vs. pure cracks, my opinion

[kevin@hackaday.com]

On Friday, July 27, 2012 1:00:43 AM UTC-5, Steve Nickolas wrote:
> First, I know not everyone here comes from the same background.  As an 
> 
> Apple ][ fan I'm a relatively young 32, and when I had my greatest 
> 
> exposure to the machine, where I lived, we saw it as a GAME machine, a 
> 
> "console on steroids" not unlike the C64's perception.  So most of my 
> 
> exposure to the ][ outside of class work was as a gaming machine.
> 
> 
> 
> I understand the attitude of some that cracktros are a product of their 
> 
> time or the price one pays for pirated software.  Not exactly the same as 
> 
> my own attitude, as I'm mostly a purist and like my cracks "clean".  (I 
> 
> have done a few filecracks myself, and none of these have any cracktros 
> 
> nor is there any altered text in them.)
> 
> 
> 
> Additionally, the cracktros in some software just take up space that could 
> 
> be used for other things (this adds up a bit better when replacing KEY-CAT 
> 
> with Micro Keycat and DOS 3.3 with STOS, netting an extra 26 sectors, and 
> 
> when compressing games!).
> 
> 
> 
> I also noticed sometimes the crackers checksummed their plastering >:P. 
> 
> So for some games (Diskman's Ms. Pac-Man and Mr. Krac-Man's Hard Hat Mack 
> 
> come to mind) if you unplaster them they fail to work :P.
> 
> 
> 
> I guess to me it's more important to preserve the games as intact as 
> 
> possible barring the format change (e.g., disk to file, disk to tape) for 
> 
> archival purposes or whatever.
> 
> 
> 
> (BTW, I did find out what the correct text is for Hard Hat Mack's signon - 
> 
> the unaltered title card can be seen at 2:09 in this video)
> 
>    http://youtu.be/abOXbHPga30?t=2m9s
> 
> 
> 
> -uso.

As a 33 year old who grew up with the apple, I often find the cracks to be more interesting than the game