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https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5056
Founded by Metalwar, Helix and PGCS, 1988.
  • MEGA DEMO, October 1988. Code: Metalwar. GFX: PGCS / Ironhawk. Music: Mr. Last / Metalwar
    Founded by Metalwar, Helix and PGCS, 1988.
  • First ALCATRAZ Copy Party, Geneva, Switzerland, December 27 and 29, 1988.
  • MEGA DEMO II
  • MEGA DEMO III
  • ODISSEY, December 1991
  • ILYAD, August 7, 1994
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5864
Alcatraz Pentcost Party 1990 was held at the Centre Culturel du Chene in Aubonne, Switzerland. Alcatraz was originally to have arranged this party (together with Brainstorm) in april, but the original plans fell through. There was a dj with a huge light and laser show, a large screen, around the clock movies and a snack bar, so there was plenty of activities to get into. Separate sleeping quarters were available in a nearby hall. This may very well have been the first instance of females getting free entrance to a demo party. As we know, this became the norm in the years to follow. The winner of the demo competition won an A1000, the second place took home an Action Replay cartridge and some empty disks.
Cracker Journal 19 (march 1990) reported, "Alcatraz' "Pencost Mega Party" on 2nd to 4th of june 1990. Acitivites: Mega Demo Competition, DJ - light and laser show, three little conference rooms, two mega screens, TV and video corner, snack bar, special modem phone line, sport places, about 70 beds..."
Results and information based on Pentcost Party Invitation and party report in Hack-Mag 1 (august 1990).
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=6291
  • 2nd - 4th June 1990
  • Aubonne, District de Morges, Vaud, Switzerland
Alcatraz Pentcost Party 1990 was held at the Centre Culturel du Chene in Aubonne, Switzerland. Alcatraz was originally to have arranged this party (together with Brainstorm) in april, but the original plans fell through. There was a dj with a huge light and laser show, a large screen, around the clock movies and a snack bar, so there was plenty of activities to get into. Separate sleeping quarters were available in a nearby hall. This may very well have been the first instance of females getting free entrance to a demo party. As we know, this became the norm in the years to follow. The winner of the demo competition won an A1000, the second place took home an Action Replay cartridge and some empty disks.
Cracker Journal 19 (march 1990) reported, 'Alcatraz' 'Pencost Mega Party' on 2nd to 4th of june 1990. Acitivites: Mega Demo Competition, DJ - light and laser show, three little conference rooms, two mega screens, TV and video corner, snack bar, special modem phone line, sport places, about 70 beds...'
Results and information based on Pentcost Party Invitation and party report in Hack-Mag 1 (august 1990).
(Entry is a copy of the Demozoo entry! > https://demozoo.org/parties/7/)
HIstory
2022-08-03 12:18:08
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5064

Alcatraz was formed in 1988 from the ashes of the more strangely named "Motley Crue Team", by Metalwar (Code, Music), Helix (Gfx) and PGCS (Gfx).

Metalwar was the mastermind behind most of the first productions of the group, until the time of Mega Demo 2, when new creative members like Hornet of Avengers joined Alcatraz.

After Mega Demo 3, Metalwar started to work on his dream Amiga game, codenamed "Ilyad". This shoot 'em up was eventually released in 1989 by UbiSoft. One year later, Metalwar and Helix decided to leave both the group and the scene, leaving PGCS heading the group.

https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4554
Aus Wikipedia über Hofstettler: 
Kreml von 1986 (englische Version Kremlin, herausgegeben von Avalon Hill, Träger eines „Origins Award“ 1988) ist eine Parodie der sowjetischen Politik. Dieses Gesellschaftsspiel lässt sich nicht im klassischen Sinn in die gängigen Spielarten einordnen, da ihm sowohl ein Spielbrett wie auch Spielkarten im herkömmlichen Sinn fehlen. Die Spieler spielen die Rolle grauer Eminenzen, welche hinter Kandidaten stehen, die um Ministerposten bis hinauf zum Amt des Staats- und Parteichefs kämpfen. Nimmt ein Spieler dabei mehr als nötig Einfluss auf das Spielgeschehen, so verrät er seine „Beziehungen“ und macht sich dadurch angreifbar. Kreml stellt insofern ein Kuriosum dar, als man durch weitestgehende Passivität und Unauffälligkeit beste Gewinnchancen wahren kann. Der Spielverlauf nimmt dabei immer wieder überraschende Wendungen.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5268
ILYAD (1994)
7 August 1994
4th THE ASSEMBLY 1994
AMIGA DEMO COMPETITION
AGA - TRACKMO - 1 Disk
Asphyxia Design was founded by Shagan and Cookie in 1990
In 1994 they worked together with the ALCATRAZ guys
ILYAD v1.3 was released on 25 Sepetmber
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5850
Brainstorm is a Swiss-based demo group, that has existed in two distinct periods; their formation as an Amiga demo group in the period between 1989 and 1993, and their reformation as a mainly pc demo group in 2006 until present day. They were originally formed a short while before may 1989 by graphician Chester and coder Majestic, and their first release was Lazer Roll. During the summer they recruited more members (like Orlando), and at the end of the summer vacation they were joined by the entire group Axxis (Bird, ...). This group had both a Swiss and German section, but the German section was found to be substandard and was forced to leave after a while. Another member, swapper Joker, left the scene soon after. They had by now started planning what would become the diskmagazine Zine. It was originally conceptuated as a cooperation between Brainstorm and another Swiss group at the time, Setrox, but the latter eventually decided against being part of the project. Due to this, Setrox coder The Accused left to join Brainstorm. Zine 1 was released in october. They were now a totally Swiss group again, except for two German members - Shadow and Yankee.
Advert in Cracker Journal 18 (january 1990), looking for members. Cracker Journal 19 (march 1990) reported, "Angel Dust joined Brainstorm and his name is now Six Pack." Sometime between Zine 3 (february 1990) and Zine 4 (april 1990) they decided to kick their German writer Yankee because he wasn't productive enough. He was a freelance writer for D.I.S.C. for a while before finally joining Addonic. Zine 5 was released at the Alcatraz Pentcost Party 1990 at the beginning of june. It was to be Orlando's last issue as editor, as The Accused had returned from his army service.
Metamorphosis (august 1991) mentioned their bbs Cheese-Line as 'new', and listed Accused, Axel, Bird, Chesney, Chester, Droid, ESA, Fly, Grubi, Luke, Macho, Majestic, Odie, Oli, Orlando, Patsy, Peace, Scattergold and Truxton as active members. Danish megaswapper The Pride joined the group in late september, and was sent a new packmenu for creating a new series of packs (see Superpack 1) - which would become the Obsession packseries, starting in october. All this was also reported in R.A.W 1 (november 1991).
R.A.W 2 (february 1992) reported that The Pride moved on from the group to join Sanity, and that a Finnish section had been opened by Phazer, Extabulator, Hoover, Mac, Top Azz and Voyager.
January 1993 saw the release of Axel's musicdisk Musicland, featuring among other songs his 8th-placed Technology from The Party 1992 the month before.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4264

Schweiz

Computerclub STAB, gegr. 1986, ca. 260 Mitlieder. Keine Mitgliedsbeiträge und Aufnahmegebühren. Leistungen: gelegentliche Kurse, Disketten zum Selbstkostenpreis, PD-Software. Kontaktadresse: STAB, J. Giroud, Solothurnstr. 69, CH-3322 Urtenen
 
Atari Computer Club Zürich, gegr. 1987. Mitgl.-Beitrag Azubis und Studenten 100 Franken jährlich, sonstige 150 Franken. Leistungen: Clubmagazin, PD-Software, Kurse. Kontaktadresse: ACC, Hansjürg Bürgler, Schüsselwies 13, CH-8636 Wald
 
DIAL-Computer-Club, gegr. 1984, 300 Mitglieder. Mitgl.-Beitrag Jugendliche 8 Franken monatlich, Erwachsene 11 Franken. Leistungen: Kurse. Kontaktadresse: DIAL-Computer-Club, Iwan Martin, Postfach 231, CH-4003 Basel
 
Aargauischer Computer Club, gegr. 1985, 400 Mitglieder. Mitgl.-Beitrag 80 Franken jährlich, Ermässigungen möglich. Leistungen: PD-Software, Kurse, Clubzeitschrift. Kontaktadresse: ACCB, Aargauischer Computer Club, CH-5200 Brugg
 
Verein Compix, gegr. 1988, 40 Mitglieder. Mitgl.-Beitrag 60 Franken jährlich. Leistungen: PD-Software, eigene Mail box. Kontaktadresse: Verein Compix, Roland Koller, Zähringerstr. 21, CH-6003 Luzern
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4612

..ich hab'zu Hause selbst 'nen Mac

Im Gegensatz zu GudrunLandgrebe (»Mit Computernkenne ich mich gar nichtaus) sind für Hauptdarsteller Peter Sattmann Computerund Happy-Computer nichts Unbekanntes. 
Er gab uns be-reitwillig auf dem Weg voneinem Drehort zum anderenAuskunft.
Sie spielen bei »Bastard®den Computer-Freak. Sie sehen nicht aus, wie ein typischer Computerfreak. SindSie einer?
P. Sattmann: Nein, sicher binich kein Computer-Freak. Andererseits habe ich zuHause einen Apple Macintosh, auf dem ich überwiegend Musik mache. Ein Computer kann schon ein paartolle Dinge.
Wie sind Sie mit der Rolleund dem »Partner Compu-ter zurechtgekommen?
P. Sattmann: Es war teilwei-se schon etwas ungewöhn-lich, an so einer Kiste zu spielen. 
Aber am Ende ging eshervorragend.
Das Interview mit Peter Sattmann führte unsere Mitarbeiterin Rita Gietl
Happy Computer, Ausgabe 7/Juli 1988
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5474
Den Crackern ging es selbstverständlich auch darum, bekannt zu werden. Sie versuchten symbolisches Kapital anzuhäufen. Man kann ihre Motivation und ihre Aneignungsweise durchaus mit derjenigen der Graffiti-Sprayer jener Jahre vergleichen, die mittels “taggen” ihres Künstler- und Gruppen Namens auf leeren Flächen der Stadt versuchten, Aufmerksamkeit zu erreichen – zum Beispiel GEN im Zürich der 80er Jahre. Getting Fame oder Getting Up war die Losung.
Abbildung 13: GEN gehörte zur ersten Generation der Sprayer in Zürich, die ihren Künstlernamen überall in der Stadt verbreiteten und dafür simple Tags und nach und nach immer komplexere Formen nach dem Vorbild der New Yorker Subway Graffiti nutzten. GEN, auch Gen Atem (aka Genius), hatte sich schon 1984 mit der New York City Graffiti Legende Phase Two getroffen, in der Casablanca Galerie in Zürich. Die beiden Bilder wurden 1986 in Zürich Oerlikon aufgenommen. Fotos: Beat Suter.
Aus den anfänglichen kurzen Bemerkungen als Text wurden immer komplexere eigenständige Vorspänne – die sogenannten Intros. Hier zeigten die Crackers mit der Message ihres Namens, die nicht zuletzt als Botschaften an die Adresse anderer Cracker Gruppen dienten, ihr Ganzes Können. Dabei versuchten sie alles aus diesen Computern herauszuholen. Diese Intros waren eine Art Graffiti auf den blanken Oberflächen der Games jener Zeit. Die Intros unterstanden nicht den Gesetzmäßigkeiten des Game Designs. Die Spielmechaniken spielten keine Rolle und mussten nicht verändert werden. Es ging lediglich um die Titel- und Credit Sequenzen der Spiele. Es ging um einen visuellen Auftritt, der auffallen sollte. Die Intros mussten gut aussehen und einen Wow-Effekt haben. Mit dem Einbezug von Musik und Animation wurde es aber bald auch wichtig, spezielleres Wissen zu erarbeiten. Die Cracker Gruppen begannen Arbeitsteilung einzuführen mit Programmierern, Grafikern und Musikern.
Aus diesen Intros, die in bestehende Spiele eingefügt wurden, entstand später eine ganz eigene Szene, die Demoszene. Und so kommt es, dass sich im Umfeld der meisten Schweizer Cracker und frühen Game Devs auch immer Demos finden. Diese Szene ist noch immer aktiv und dokumentiert sich bis heute selbst. Man findet fast alles aus den letzten 40 Jahren auf der Website POUET (2000) sowie in spezialisierten Datenbanken. Einige der Entwickler updaten ihre virtuellen Echtzeit Welten bis heute aber auch direkt selbst.
Abbildung 14: Cracks und Demos aus den Jahren 1983 – 1988 werden archiviert und öffentlich zugänglich gemacht über die Website der Swiss Cracking Association SCA (2018).Abbildung 15: Aus dem Repertoire des Crackers Hcc: Solomon’s Key Cracktro, Atari ST (1987).
 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5884

 

Facts

  • TTV1 was the first file-based Amiga virus
  • Its creation was a fun experiment. It was inspired by the boot block based SCA virus which had reached dubious fame due to its very successful spreading and the flaw of overwriting the boot block. Would it be possible to create a self spreading file, thus breaking out of the boot block dread?
  • Development took place between spring and fall 1988.
  • The early code name was HOUZ virus.
  • Thinking up the name we tried to find something that would sound mean and at the same time on the verge to ridiculous. The final name was inspired by a rap band called The Terrorists.
  • The virus does not harm the system. In fact, care was taken to avoid any even unintentional damage.
  • Identity of the authors was kept secret for 30 years. It was officially revealed on March 9, 2019 at the Demonights 008 event in Bern Switzerland
  • "The names have been changed to protect the innocent" shown in the message was inspired by the song Beat Dis by Bomb the Bass. They have sampled it from the Dragnet radio series.
  • The "BGS9" was in fact a clone. Its code is almost identical even including the resident name "TTV1". It got more reach and thus was regarded as the origin.

About the life of the beast

  1. TTV1 installs itself as a reset proof resident module (KickTag/ROMTag) named "TTV1"
  2. On reset the resident module (virus) is called
  3. Execution gets delayed in order to gain disk write access. Therefore Intuition's OpenWindow function is redirected.
  4. As soon as the AmigaDOS tries to open the CLI window the OpenWindow gets called the virus looks for the startup-sequence on the booted disk
  5. The virus is looking for the first command (A) in the startup-sequence
  6. File request windows (e.g. "Disk is write protected") are being temporarily disabled
  7. Virus renames A to $a0202020a02020a020a0a0. This is a combination of none breaking spaces and spaces. The idea is that the user will oversee this "invisible" file.
  8. Virus writes itself as an executable command with the name of A to the disk
  9. Eventually A gets loaded and executed with all its parameters by the virus
The next time the user will boot the disk the virus gets loaded into RAM and step 1 takes place. On reset the horizonal beam position gets evaluated. If the beam position is smaller than a certain number the screen turns black and a message in white letters appears.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7638
With support for multicolor sprites and a custom chip for waveform generation, the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware.
The C64 dominated the low-end computer market (except in the UK and Japan, lasting only about six months in Japan[7]) for most of the later years of the 1980s.[8] For a substantial period (1983–1986), the C64 had between 30% and 40% share of the US market and two million units sold per year,
In the UK market, the C64 faced competition from the BBC Micro, the ZX Spectrum, and later the Amstrad CPC 464.[11] but the C64 was still the second most popular computer in the UK after the ZX Spectrum.[12] The Commodore 64 failed to make any impact in Japan. The Japanese market was dominated by Japanese computers, such as the NEC PC-8801, Sharp X1, Fujitsu FM-7, and MSX.[13]
Part of the Commodore 64's success was its sale in regular retail stores instead of only electronics or computer hobbyist specialty stores.
One computer gaming executive stated that the Nintendo Entertainment System's enormous popularity – seven million sold in 1988, almost as many as the number of C64s sold in its first five years – had stopped the C64's growth. Trip Hawkins reinforced that sentiment, stating that Nintendo was "the last hurrah of the 8-bit world".[57]
 
 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=9147
The CFA was founded in 1987 in Basel, Switzerland, when 3-letter names were still in fashion. CFA stood for “Computer Freaks Association”. In the first months the CFA was a group of C64 fans and gaming tournaments were held in regular intervals. They organised a gaming room at a local School-Party of the RG in Basel.

The CFA started with pure Demo-Making and Software-Swapping. The first international contact was the Norwegian group The Sinister Realm 2013 Stavanger. One of the early meeting places was the Dial-Club, a local Computer-Center in Basel.
At this time a regular Exchange-Ring of Software between the members was built up.
The first Copy-Party visited by CFA members was Crazy & ZSS Party 1988 in Pratteln/Switzerland. In 1989 Members of the group was busted by police on a German Copy-Party, but thanks to slow Swiss legislation, no CFA member had any troubles at all after returning to Switzerland.
The CFA took part in Demo-Contests of other Swiss copy parties: Crazy & RCS Party 1989, Crazy Stardom Copy-Party 1989 and Fresh Party 1990. 

In the early days, our strategy was: focus on Switzerland. This changed with the first member expansion outside of Basel: 
German members: Snief and The Cure.
Liechtenstein members: Sandman.

War against another Swiss group Fresh, which led to a funny anti demo Fresh on Top. The war was officially ended at the Swiss Pirates Reunion 2002. (nowadays there are many friendship boundaries between the former 2 opponents).

The CFA has in the meantime started importing and cracking games: access to the major US BBS, latest wares and cards agogo. 

1990-1991 Cooperation with Italian Cracking Service from Italy.

11/1989-07/1993 reknown Disk Mag “Immortal Flash” an e-zine that become quite popular in the scene (later released by Atlantis).

In 02/1991 the CFA died and the remaining members built up Atlantis. More info in Joker Note.
Ilyad Credits
2022-08-03 12:48:31
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5078
Shoot'em'up game on Amiga. Coded by Metalwar, Music by Fred (fantastic C64 style !!!!), Graphics by Leto2 and Disk routines end demo by P. Adane. I especially love the music of Fred (Fredereic Hahn). 1st music is done by metalwar
Who is ...
2022-08-03 21:32:49
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5080
Metalwar: Olivier Régis
PGCS: Pascal Arn
Helix:
Hornet: Alain Malek
Firestone:
J.O.E.: Peter Baustädter
Zoltar: Gilles Raimond
Greg:
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5100
'I had created maybe around 30 demos and I wanted to create a game on the Amiga because I always like shoot'e 'up. It was a new challenge for me: I gathered a team of a few people, some of them ended up not staying very long: Marc Albinet, the graphic designer, who would work on other games later on, such as Agony, Frédéric Hahn (musician with Ackerlight), Pierre Adane (who worked on the copy-protection system and the endgame animation), and myself Olivier Régis (Metalwar), doing the cosing in terms of programming, there was nothing fancy. I just had to create some specific tools to piece up graphics piece-by-piece and to manage the dynamics of enemy motion. We then called Ubisoft to show them our Ilyad project. Marc Albinet and myself met one of the Guillermot briothers in Paris - they are the founders of Ubisoft. At that time, the firm was very small compared to what it is now, and the licensic fees we received, were really symbolic. They barely covered our travel expenses, but we did not do it for the money."
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5270
'After this period of demos, we started to work on a Point and Click adventure game, planned for PC, Playstation, and Linux called Immanis for the Cryogen label, a startup created in 1996. It was a superb project which never saw the light of the day due to questions around money and because the timing was wrong: editors and Publishers of the time didn't believe in Point and click adventures anymore.' Demoscene: The AGA years (2020:117)
Cookie remenbers
2022-08-17 09:24:29
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5272
"Later we started developing a game called Immanis, and we already had dedicated tools for making parallax masks etc. The project was started on the Amiga and then continued on PC before being abandoned - this doesn't fit in the context of demos, however it was inspired by them." The Demoscene: The Aga years (2020:119)
Shagan's accounting
2022-08-17 09:31:55
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5274
“Hornet died in the year 2000, after a heart attack. He was only 27 years old.”
“I'd like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Alain Malek (Hornet) who left us far too soon. We'd launched ambitious projects together, like a game called Immanis, and we even intended to start a company together. Unfortunately, he left us only a few days after signing the notary to found the company.” Demoscene: The Aga years (2020:117)
Names of the developers
2022-08-17 11:59:20
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5302
Cryogen Game Development
Publisher (gegründet 1996)

Developers:
Alain Malek (Hornet)
Roberto Marra (Shagan)
Santiago Lema (Cookie)

Haben 2000 eine Firma gegründet, kurz danach ist Alain Malek verstorben.
Swiss Game Design
2022-06-25 19:17:32
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=85
The swiss gamedesign was influenced and even founded by the cracker scene coming from the C64 to Amiga and the other tree was the Atari ST. Around 25 own Games and Ports were created and published from 1985-1997. There was even an own publisher Linel. 
Computerclubs
2022-06-30 09:42:21
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=99
Computerclubs were a very important institution. 
0. Is a place and a community in the same and also a public in the same
1. Networking people in a non internet time.
2. Bringing KnowhHow to people (Courses)
3. Showing, Selling Hardware (Internally)
4. Own public magazines
5. Part of Creating Groups/interested people
6. Only available in bigger towns 
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