In December 1987 two members of a five-month-old English group travelled to a copy party at Venlo in the Netherlands, where about 250 Commodore 64 crackers and swappers had crowded into a school. The fanzine Illegal called their arrival “the sensation for Venlo”. Everyone wanted to swap with Nik and Just Ice of Ikari, and the next issue reported that some visitors “even asked them to sign their sportbags”. Three months later Ikari topped Illegal’s monthly cracking chart for the first time, and when the fanzine said goodbye in 1991, a poll in its final issue named Ikari the best cracking group in history.
Fast facts
- From: England, with Danish members from 1988.
- Active: July 1987 to August 1991.
- Platform: Commodore 64.
- Motto: “For the best, trade with the best”.
- Known for: first place in Illegal’s “Cracker of the Month” chart in 1988 and 1989; the Ikari + Talent co-operation (1989–1991); first place for “best cracking group” in Illegal’s last issue, December 1991.
Into the charts
The scene databases date Ikari to July 1987. CSDb names Ultima and Pal as its founders, and the scene history Recollection adds Nik. It was a cracking group: it removed the copy protection from new games, added its own crack intro, and raced to get each one out first. Its motto, printed in Illegal in early 1988, was “For the best, trade with the best”.
Illegal, a photocopied fanzine edited by Jeff Smart in West Germany, ranked the groups every month. Ikari entered its “Cracker of the Month” chart in third place at the end of 1987, and was third again for December. For March 1988 it came first, with 7.15 points to Triad’s 7.08. Charts from later issues, reprinted by the German fanzine Lotek64, show Ikari first in November 1988, second in March 1989 and first again in April and May 1989.
The charts caused arguments. Ikari believed it had won December 1987, and Nik wrote to Illegal that the Beastie Boys, a rival group, had complained until the result was changed. Smart replied that the Beastie Boys had simply given Ikari no points in their own votes, which was “their good right”, and that Triad had been “unbeatable”. The same issue carried Nik’s answer to a rumour, printed by Smart a month earlier, that Ikari “freezed” every game. Freezing meant copying a running game out of memory with a cartridge such as the Action Replay instead of taking its protection apart, and Illegal had called that “bad”. Nik insisted that Ikari had released only two frozen games, Druid II and Risk, both because they had to go out fast.
Ikari and Talent
In June 1988 a group of Danish coders and crackers joined, most of them from the Danish group Jewels according to Recollection. CSDb lists Doc, Excell, Fletch and Gandalf joining that month, and the musician JCH in 1989. In October 1989 Ikari began releasing games jointly with the Danish group Talent. Recollection says the co-operation started as a one-game deal for Iron Lord; Demozoo dates that crack to 8 October 1989, and the Ikari + Talent releases went on until August 1991. Recollection calls it what “some regard as the best co-op ever on C64”. CSDb records Ikari as dissolved in August 1991, the month of the last joint release.
Best cracking group in history
Illegal had stopped in the middle of 1990. In December 1991 Smart brought out a final issue, number 38, subtitled “Judgement Day”. Just Ice of Ikari and the former member Tri-Dos were among its contributors. Its poll of “The World’s Best Pirates in History” put Ikari first as best cracking group with 46 per cent of the votes, far ahead of Fairlight with 12 per cent and Triad with 11. A second question asked which group everyone in the scene had heard of: Ikari came third with 87 per cent, behind Eagle Soft Incorporated and Triad.
Looking back in 2009, Nik was less impressed with his younger self. “We had some good times,” he wrote on CSDb, “but also wasted too many hours cracking games that were rubbish and we had no intention of playing!”
Sources
- Illegal issues 23 (December 1987), 24 (January 1988), 25 (February 1988), 26 (7 March 1988) and 27 (April 1988), as transcribed from paper by King Fisher of Triad (web, secondary): the “Cracker of the Month” charts; the Venlo meeting of 19 December 1987 and Ikari’s visit; the freezing rumour, Nik’s reply and Smart’s answer; the group’s motto. https://www.exploit-db.com/ezines/kr5hou2zh4qtebqk.onion/ILEGAL/ILEGAL27.TXT (and the matching files for issues 23 to 26)
- Lotek64 (Germany) issue 8, December 2003; issue 9, March 2004; issue 10, July 2004: reprints of the C64 cracker charts from Illegal issues 32 (November 1988), 36 (March 1989) and 37 (April/May 1989).
- Illegal issue 38, “Judgement Day”, 14 December 1991, transcription hosted by CSDb (web, secondary): credits, “The World’s Best Pirates in History” poll and the name-recognition poll. https://csdb.dk/release/?id=13804
- CSDb, the Commodore 64 Scene Database, group entry for Ikari (web, secondary): founders, dates, members and their joining dates, and Nik’s comment of 5 March 2009. https://csdb.dk/group/?id=33
- Recollection (Atlantis), “Cracker’s Map: United Kingdom” (web, secondary): founders, the Danish members from Jewels, the co-operation with Talent and Iron Lord. https://www.atlantis-prophecy.org/recollection/?load=crackers_map&country=unitedkingdom
- Demozoo, group entry for Ikari and Talent (web, secondary): joint releases from October 1989 to August 1991, including Iron Lord, 8 October 1989. https://demozoo.org/groups/150907/