The article reconstructs the history of underground software transfer in the second half of the 1980s between the core countries of the home computer software industry and its ‘peripheries’ both in the Eastern Bloc and in the ‘Global South’, and the geographical expansion of the cracking scene in this process.
This article traces the evolution of moving text as a stylistic element of “crack intros” and “computer demos” between 1984 and 1992, from a simple line moving from right to left at the bottom of the screen to massive 3D letters free-floating in space.
This article explores the practices of “software import” between Europe and the US by the Commodore 64 cracking scene and reflects on how it was related to the establishment
and expression of cultural identities of its members.
The story about the divergence of the cracker scene and the demoscene has been canonized over the years. In this article, Markku Reunanen takes a fresh look at the story and offers new perspective to the events of the late 1980s and the early 1990s.