Eagle Soft Incorporated
The most famous cracktros of all
Eagle Soft Incorporated dominated North American C64 cracking, and their eagle-logo intros are remembered as some of the most iconic the scene ever produced.
Overview
If you want to understand the crack intro as an art form, start with Eagle Soft Incorporated. ESI dominated the Commodore 64 cracking scene in North America through the machine’s glory years, often releasing titles — Epyx games especially — before they could even be bought, thanks to a network of contacts inside shops and magazines.
But it is the intros they are remembered for. The Eagle Soft eagle became one of the most recognisable images in the whole scene, the centrepiece of custom-coded introductions bolted onto every crack. By common reckoning, ESI had some of the most famous cracktros ever made.
Fast facts
- Founded: 1982 (originally Canadian; soon US-led under Mitch).
- Platform: Commodore 64.
- Region: North America.
- Famous for: The eagle-logo crack intros.
Intros as identity
ESI’s intros were a brand. Their artists — Ladyhawk, who painted the original 1986 eagle, and Scorpio, whose 1987–88 image became the best known — turned a group signature into a piece of recognisable design. In a scene where the intro was the calling card, ESI’s was unmistakable, and it helped fix the idea that a cracktro could be as carefully made as the game it fronted.