As we continue to adapt and evolve by embracing today's technologies, it's phun taking a glimpse back at how we got here.
If you're under the age of 25 or so, much of what's below may make as much sense to you as Instagram does to the rest of us
For the old-skooler's, here's one trip down memory lane... scene retrospective-style through various archival links!
Before the days of pirates and kats, when retrogaming didn't include any Sony consoles a scene emerged.
Fast-forward (translation: press the 'skip' arrow) past the epic BBS, Napster and VCD times from B.A.D. to Hitmen to Dextrose and you might end up a little mUPPED, but don't worry, the dOGS aren't dead... they keep growing with intros, demos and even more cracktros!
Online forums became digital and as the news increases, port scanning is on the daily for OC+ pubs while Feds target topsites, disclaimers fail and Uncle Sam takes over hosting the party while word spreads of their pwnage where even domain changes only lead to an inevitable ending.
Now Rewind a bit (translation: press the 'back' arrow) while all that was happening...
On came the Chimps, the Chumps, JAYTEEMASTER, Slide Tools, Swap Magic, PS2 Cases, Swap Magic 3, and DVDRips with no time for Sergeants to lead as an Adrenalin rush ended up bringing more EA Patches... for those with a NEO anyway.
From the PSX scene came mod-chip developers like Old Crow (Scott Rider) and Friedrich Zohmann, which led to numerous 12C508 .hex codes that evolved into a PS2 chip battle between Paul with NEO Tech and Gary (Gazza) with Channel Tech... only to find out the real Messiah for anti-backups nuts was Justice Jacob with importers around the globe becoming casualties of war.
When PS2 patching, burning and swapping game discs got teh lame, emulator author SJeep strayed from mrbrown and other homebrew developers to code with Herben and DMS to produce HDLoader followed quickly by the HDAdvance clone with USBeXtreme thereafter to ensure everyone's hard drives remained filled... fo sho nobody cared what custom firmware was back then either, legit.
The underground's heyday eventually drew near, and as Elmer Fudd would say the scene got W.A.B.'d but all is not lost... thanks to modern technologies like Facebook we can all stay up-to-date with some of the groups that kicked things off such as Razor-1911 and Paradox (PDX)... who we already knew weren't strangers to phone phreaking but do share some hilarious swapping stories now and then!
And there you have just one tRiP down memory lane... it's by no means comprehensive, but uber l33t because this tale has so much more meaning to those who experienced it all firsthand while informative on another level to those just reading it now.
Do holla below if you recall any of it or if you were too twisted to remember knowing you were along for the ride
It would also be FAN-PHREAKiN-TASTiC if other old-skooler's lurking about jumped in and shared some kewl scene memories of your own in the comments to keep the spirit alive for the rest of us who are #UG4LiFE.
If you're under the age of 25 or so, much of what's below may make as much sense to you as Instagram does to the rest of us
For the old-skooler's, here's one trip down memory lane... scene retrospective-style through various archival links!
Before the days of pirates and kats, when retrogaming didn't include any Sony consoles a scene emerged.
Fast-forward (translation: press the 'skip' arrow) past the epic BBS, Napster and VCD times from B.A.D. to Hitmen to Dextrose and you might end up a little mUPPED, but don't worry, the dOGS aren't dead... they keep growing with intros, demos and even more cracktros!
Online forums became digital and as the news increases, port scanning is on the daily for OC+ pubs while Feds target topsites, disclaimers fail and Uncle Sam takes over hosting the party while word spreads of their pwnage where even domain changes only lead to an inevitable ending.
Now Rewind a bit (translation: press the 'back' arrow) while all that was happening...
On came the Chimps, the Chumps, JAYTEEMASTER, Slide Tools, Swap Magic, PS2 Cases, Swap Magic 3, and DVDRips with no time for Sergeants to lead as an Adrenalin rush ended up bringing more EA Patches... for those with a NEO anyway.
From the PSX scene came mod-chip developers like Old Crow (Scott Rider) and Friedrich Zohmann, which led to numerous 12C508 .hex codes that evolved into a PS2 chip battle between Paul with NEO Tech and Gary (Gazza) with Channel Tech... only to find out the real Messiah for anti-backups nuts was Justice Jacob with importers around the globe becoming casualties of war.
When PS2 patching, burning and swapping game discs got teh lame, emulator author SJeep strayed from mrbrown and other homebrew developers to code with Herben and DMS to produce HDLoader followed quickly by the HDAdvance clone with USBeXtreme thereafter to ensure everyone's hard drives remained filled... fo sho nobody cared what custom firmware was back then either, legit.
The underground's heyday eventually drew near, and as Elmer Fudd would say the scene got W.A.B.'d but all is not lost... thanks to modern technologies like Facebook we can all stay up-to-date with some of the groups that kicked things off such as Razor-1911 and Paradox (PDX)... who we already knew weren't strangers to phone phreaking but do share some hilarious swapping stories now and then!
And there you have just one tRiP down memory lane... it's by no means comprehensive, but uber l33t because this tale has so much more meaning to those who experienced it all firsthand while informative on another level to those just reading it now.
Do holla below if you recall any of it or if you were too twisted to remember knowing you were along for the ride
It would also be FAN-PHREAKiN-TASTiC if other old-skooler's lurking about jumped in and shared some kewl scene memories of your own in the comments to keep the spirit alive for the rest of us who are #UG4LiFE.
