In January 1988 the West German fanzine Illegal, the paper voice of the Commodore 64 cracking scene, thanked “GENESIS*PROJECTS for the frontpage drawing”. The group behind that cover was two years old. It went on to release hundreds of cracks, run disk magazines, make demos and organise parties. It broke up in 1995, came back in 2009, and CSDb lists Genesis Project releases dated 2026, among them new cracks of Commodore 64 games.
Fast facts
- From: West Germany, with sections in other European countries.
- Active: 1986 to 1995; restarted in 2009 and still active.
- Platform: Commodore 64; some members also cracked Super Nintendo and PC games in the 1990s.
- Slogans: “Europe’s No. 1” and “Accept No Limits”.
- Known for: cracks and crack intros, its own intro-maker tool, the disk magazines of its leader, and a very long run.
A German group goes international
CSDb and the scene history Recollection agree that Genesis Project, G*P to its members, was founded in 1986 by The Nasty Ounk, Catman and The Nauseating Timelord, known as TNT. Recollection describes TNT, who later took the name Antichrist, as “the main architect of the group”, and says the group “expanded outside of Germany to have divisions in most major scene countries”. Its members over the years included the British artist Bizzmo.
Like every cracking group of the time, G*P removed the copy protection from new games and raced to release them first, each with an intro carrying the group’s name. It also built tools for the job: Demozoo lists several versions of GP’s Intro-Maker dated November and December 1987. TNT edited disk magazines as well, Sex’n’Crime and then Propaganda; Recollection calls Sex’n’Crime “the first real C64 scene diskmag”.
Notorious
By the early 1990s the group’s name was known in the British magazines. In October 1992 a reader wrote to ZZAP!64’s public-domain column to contradict the magazine’s claim that nobody could put more than ten sprites on screen: “The Genesis Project… have created a demo called Sprite Mania”, he wrote, which showed “TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY sprites”. In January 1993 Commodore Force profiled Bizzmo, who had been “a member of the notorious Genesis Project for some time” before leaving to join Crest.
In 1993, according to CSDb, many members also began cracking for the Super Nintendo and the PC. The group turned up in person at the big German parties: Amiga Joker’s report on the Radwar party at Heinsberg in January 1994 listed members of Genesis Project among the early arrivals, with Tristar & Red Sector and Spreadpoint.
Break-up and return
Recollection puts the end of the first Genesis Project in February 1995, after around 600 releases, when most of the active members left for the group F4CG. Demozoo’s list of the group’s productions goes almost silent after 1994.
The group was never formally declared dead, and in 2009 it was restarted. CSDb lists new members joining from that year. Since then G*P has organised parties again, among them Datastorm in Sweden, Gubbdata and Fjälldata. CSDb lists more than 2,700 releases under the group’s name, the latest dated 2026: cracks, including previews of new Commodore 64 games, alongside music and tools.
Sources
- Illegal issue 24, January 1988, as transcribed from paper by King Fisher of Triad (web, secondary): thanks to “GENESIS*PROJECTS for the frontpage drawing”. https://www.exploit-db.com/ezines/kr5hou2zh4qtebqk.onion/ILEGAL/ILEGAL24.TXT
- ZZAP!64 issue 89, October 1992, reader’s letter to the public-domain column: Sprite Mania by “The Genesis Project”.
- Commodore Force issue 1, January 1993: profile of Bizzmo of Crest, formerly of Genesis Project.
- Amiga Joker (Germany), March 1994: report on the Radwar party, Heinsberg, 15 January 1994.
- CSDb, the Commodore 64 Scene Database, group entry for Genesis Project (web, secondary): founders, slogans, the 1993 moves to Super Nintendo and PC, members’ joining dates, parties organised, and the release list. https://csdb.dk/group/?id=396
- Recollection (Atlantis), “Cracker’s Map: Germany” (web, secondary): founders, TNT/Antichrist, the European divisions, Sex’n’Crime and Propaganda, Spritemania, the end in February 1995 and the 2009 restart. https://www.atlantis-prophecy.org/recollection/?load=crackers_map&country=germany
- Demozoo, group entry for Genesis Project (web, secondary): productions by year and GP’s Intro-Maker. https://demozoo.org/groups/3170/