Most of what the Commodore 64 cracking scene said about itself went out on disk, in scrolling messages and crack intros. Illegal went out on paper. Jeff Smart, a teenager in West Germany, started it in January 1986 with two pages. By March 1988 his photocopied fanzine was on its 26th issue, selling about 400 copies at 1.60 Deutschmarks each, with news of the latest cracks, gossip, interviews and monthly charts ranking the cracking groups against each other.
That was enough to reach a British newsstand magazine. In June 1988 Commodore User described “It’s Illegal (But Who Cares?)” to its readers, and noted that it “revels in its downright naughtiness”.
Fast facts
- Format: Photocopied paper fanzine; some issues were later typed up and passed round on disk.
- Editor: Jeff Smart, in West Germany.
- Run: January 1986 to December 1991, numbered up to issue 38.
- Languages: English and German.
- Group links: Published with Triad during 1988, when Smart was a member; the final issue was produced with the cracking group Elite.
What was in it
Commodore User’s account is the fullest description in the period press. Mike Pattenden’s piracy feature listed the April 1988 issue’s contents: “news, interviews with hackers, a report on the Venlo copy party, a review of Rolling Thunder, a debate on the relative merits of 64 and Amiga, classified ads, news of the latest cracked games and charts.” In his view the fanzine “holds the software industry in complete contempt and almost goes as far as to rationalise a kind of Robin Hood image for itself”. He quoted the March issue’s interview with Ian of the British group Fusion, who said he cracked games “to give people who can’t afford to buy a game the chance to have it.”
The charts were the part the scene cared most about. Issue 26, dated 7 March 1988, ranked the “Cracker of the Month” for February by readers’ points: Fusion first, Fairlight second and Triad third, with Ikari fifth and Eagle Soft Incorporated eighth. A later scene history calls Illegal one of the first magazines to rank groups this way. Triad’s profile of Smart singles out one column, “The Story of System 4”, as “a causerie of the Scene”: a chatty running story that added to the legend of the groups it described.
What survives today mostly survives because scene members copied it. Issue 26 exists as a text file “rewritten from paper” by a Triad member, who left out the German-language parts because he could not read them.
Triad and after
Triad was a Swedish group, but Commodore User called Illegal “the magazine published by Germany’s TRIAD group”. The mistake followed from its editor. The scene database CSDb lists Smart as a Triad member from January to October 1988, and credits issue 28, dated 21 May 1988, to “Jeff Smart and Triad”, with contributions from members of Fusion, Fairlight, Orion and other groups. In October 1988 Commodore User printed the opening of a letter he signed “Jeff Smart, TRIAD, West Germany”, and cut it off there. According to Triad’s own history, Smart moved to the Scouse Cracking Group in late September 1988.
Illegal went quiet. In December 1991, after 18 months without an issue, Smart published number 38, subtitled “Judgement Day”, with the cracking group Elite, and called it “the final and last issue of ILLEGAL”. Its charts named Ikari the world’s best cracking group.
Why it matters
Illegal is one of the few written records of the Commodore 64 cracking scene made at the time. Its charts show which groups the scene rated, month by month. Its interviews show how crackers explained themselves. Commodore User’s report shows it reaching well beyond the scene in 1988. The scene diskmags that followed took over the same job of news, interviews and charts, on disk instead of paper.
Sources
- Mike Pattenden, “Piracy: hacking at the industry’s roots”, Commodore User, June 1988, p. 93: “Delirious” and “It’s Illegal (But Who Cares?)”, the April issue’s contents, “Germany’s TRIAD group”, the Robin Hood image, the March interview with Ian of Fusion.
- Commodore User, October 1988, letters page: “Cracking Up”, signed “Jeff Smart, TRIAD, West Germany”.
- Illegal issue 26, 7 March 1988, as transcribed from paper by King Fisher of Triad (web, secondary): circulation, price, editor “Jeff Smart / TRIAD”, the February 1988 “Cracker of the Month” chart, the omitted German sections. https://www.exploit-db.com/ezines/kr5hou2zh4qtebqk.onion/ILEGAL/ILEGAL26.TXT
- “Jeff Smart’s Illegal”, Triad website, rewritten by King Fisher from the fanzine In Medias Res (web, secondary): the two-page first issue of January 1986. https://www.triad.se/articles/jeff-smarts-illegal
- “Jeff Smart”, Triad website member page (web, secondary): born 1968; editor and swapper; one of the first magazines to publish charts; “The Story of System 4”; the move to the Scouse Cracking Group in late September 1988. https://www.triad.se/members/jeff-smart
- CSDb, the Commodore 64 Scene Database (web, secondary): Triad group entry (Smart’s membership, January to October 1988), https://csdb.dk/group/?id=132; Illegal #28, 21 May 1988, https://csdb.dk/release/?id=6302; Illegal #38, 14 December 1991, https://csdb.dk/release/?id=13804
- Recollection (Atlantis), “Cracker’s Map: United Kingdom” (web, secondary): Ikari voted the world’s best cracking group in Illegal #38. https://www.atlantis-prophecy.org/recollection/?load=crackers_map&country=unitedkingdom