It could take a lot to tell about our group, so I’ll try to sum it up as much as I can. Me (Xad) and Fox started about in 1982, by using a ZX81.
We used to spend hours and hours typing in programs written in Basic from various computer magazines to see what they did. The programs were often very basic Games that did not always work or even save properly to tape, and would sometimes fail to re-load before they have even been run.
The ZX81 had this horrible membrane keyboard. The ZX81 that we owned also had a dodgy power cable that could full out at any time after hours of entering thousands of lines of code containing endless lines of data.. Then we founded a group, called ‘Dracula Soft‘. It happened in 1982-83, we were three: Xad, Leo, Fox. At the beginning we had fun programming in LM (Language Machine) with a Commodore 64. I remember the nights we three spent in my very small bedroom to code and to listen to the games sound files. Personally, I enjoyed so much those kinds of music and I adored theirs authors, people like Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway, Ben Daglish.
As brand new computers came out I’ve bought them all…. I can’t name all the very first consoles, of course I got Intellivision, Atari, etc. but the proper computers I got were Zx81, Zx Spectrum 48k, Zx Spectrum Plus, Sega SC3000, Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 16/Commodore 64/ Amiga 1000/500/2000/3000. Some of those, better to say each of those, still stand at my place, I collect them, I could never sell them, ’cause I really care about them. Anyway our group reached its top in November 1987.
- When we got the Amiga.
- When i have renamed my group from ‘Dracula Soft‘ to ‘Nightfall‘
- When the group grew up.
- When the “Hidden Power” BBS opened.
- When I moved all my stuff from my bedroom to the living room where I dedicate the entire space to the computer purpose.
- When I started to using the Blue Box and become a good phreaker ;-p
We had some new entries when people like Thor,Grizzly,Mrc,The Ripper,Dsk,Slayer joined so that everybody had his own task:
- Xad (Coder,Sysop,Founder,Organaizer)
- Fox (Coder)
- Leo Sexad (Coder,Swapper,Cosysop)
- Thor (Coder)
- Popcorn (Coder/Snes Trainer maker)
- Grizzly (Coder,Graphician)
- Mrc (Graphician)
- The Ripper (CoSysop of Hidden Power,Mail Swapper)
- Night Assassin (CoSysop of Hidden Power,Trader)
- Dsk (Coder)
- Slash (Swapper,Moral support,FlowerPack Maker,Trader)
- Little Lamer (Moral support,Mascotte)
- Vic (Pc Trader)
- Dnz (Sysop of Asdex BBS,Graphician)
- Fluster (Sysop of Gambler BBS “Nightfall HQ”,Trader)
- Booger (Coder)
- Benjo (Mail Trader)
- Fatal Kiss (Moral Support,Videotel phreaker)
- Lynx (Graphician, Osx Coder)
- Gem (Sysop of Maximum Rock´n Roll “Nightfall EQH”,Trader)
- The Soul Trader (Coder)
Yeah, we did really much using the Amiga. Me and Fox spent so many nights programming and trying to make something new, with just two bottles of Coca Cola and few sandwiches, in my huge living room, awake till dawn.
We took part of a lot of parties, especially in Italy and there were many FriendShips with famous groups, which I can name Warfalcons, Supplex, Resolution 101, Eurasia.
Our Amiga production used to be about different kinds of stuff like Demo, Music Disk, Intro, Party Report, Utility, and among the others our collection od Flower Pack (Compilation intro/Demo) , Smau Music Disk 92, Smau Report 93 and our great t-shirt that we featured at the SMAU, a very famour italian fair, in 1992.
Years were passing by and finally the first console able to do something more than the too overworked Amiga started to come out. It was the Super Famicon (Snes, SuperNintendo, just to say) a kind of console that drove literally crazy, better to say that drove crazy the all of us!
It was January 1992 when, after a couple of months, me, Fox, Thor, Leo, could get the Developer Manual by Nintendo, so using one of the very first backup (Super Magicom 16Mbit) we started to develop some very good introduction. A bit later, Popcorn joined us, he was not only a new guy in the group but also a best friend, and we started with him to release TRAINER…. yeah! exactly trainer for the tons of new games coming out for that great console. Popcorn did more than 150 of them. I remember that one brand new game was coming out at night and right the next morning we got the trainer already done. Popcorn was a true myth in doing that stuff! By that we reached the highest positions in the charts, competing with other groups which had our same hobby, I can name a few of them such as Anthrox, CyberForce, Elitendo.
Fun and the will to create something new was growing day by day and our BBS “Hidden Power” was doing great.
At that time I could enjoy a good computer (Amiga 3000/12Mb/800Mb HD/2 UsrRobotics/2Ringdown Lines) and a terrific directory filled with a wide assortment of games (Famicom/Gameboy/GameGear/Megadrive).
In the meantime I was keeping on buying new consoles as Megadrive, GameGear, GameBoy and I always tryed to get the Developer Manual so to be able to do something more than just play games.
As the new 32 bit consoles come out… like Playstation/Saturn, we faced the difficult to make any trainer or demo, because their supports was on CD instead of file. One can easily reverse a cartridge on a file, but a CD get up to 650 Mb and it’s hard to swap productions between groups. So I just bought it, use it and play it with my friends for hours…. just to name my best favourite games: Tekken, CrashBandicoot, Ridge Racer, etc. etc. By custom, I bought also various periphericals, Vibrant Joypad, Action Replay, Memory Card 360 Blk and so on.
So we arrived at nowadays, year 1998. Of course, I got also Nintendo64(Jap)/Doctor64 and its Development Kit but, sadly, today we all are much more busy so we can no more make something pretty. The BBS closed on 1.1.1998. People now use the Internet and I regret the time when I used to connect to BBS spread all over the world, chatting for hours with the same friends who now i meet again in IRC (Efnet/#N64scene). Actually, I have to say that my friend WildFire, and all his group, Crazy Nation, is still very active with the Nintendo64, in fact he released a great deal of trainer for this great console, but what is now missing is the competition we all use to feel with the Super Famicon trainer/demo.
The Story ends up and I’m waiting for the Gameboy with color LCD to come out, and for the new 64 real bit consoles that, money permitting, I’ll sure buy, like the constant upgrade for my fucking PC….. yeah, I was forced to replace my Amiga with a super packed PC because of the lack of Hardware / Performance and Software so I had no choice and now I can no more loudly assert that Amiga rulez and that’s the way it is!.
Special Greetings to (C64/Amiga/Snes/VideoTel scene):
Mad Harlequin, Black Jack, Tiger, Mat, Cyberfox, Blably, Felix, Dark Angel, E$G, Dr.g, Pier Soft, Sauzer, Kirk, Bug, Phalanx, Lonestar, Crier, Alex Sty, Dns, White Knight, Fashion Light, Batblaster, Pan, Night Assassin, Ennay, Fazwonga, Gilligan… and so on…
…and some friends in OldSkool, Capital, DualCrew, Eurasia, Anthrox, Paradox, Supplex,Warfalcons, Resolution 101, Arcadia
Last Update: 10/1/1998
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