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67 of 99 files lester

1999 April 28

Mainstream Article - VCD's on CNN.
[+] Configuration Copy text
Netmonkey Weekly Report Issue XLIV April 28th, 1999 g#S$ d. ____ ascii by garflozzy ____ $$$: -- ,$b ----- $$$ ___ $$$$$s __ :$$l $',$$$$.`$$ :$$$._l$$: ,s#S$$$$: $$$"╚$$b.`╚$i $$$ ',$$'└$$,`$ l$$$T$$$$._ --------- l$$$$$$$$ :$$l b,`Y$$,`l l$$.d$P . └$$,` $$l" $$$▓T$S#g._ ----------- ░░░░░░░░░ :$$$$$$$l l$$: $$b.`Y$$, :$$$$' d$b └$$,d$$: :$$l ,.`"▓T$S# ░░░░░░░░░ $$$$$$$: $$$ :$$$$. Y$$.s$$$' d$$$b '$$$$l l$$: l$'.d$$' $$$$$$$. $$$ l$$$$$. $$$Sl$' d$$$$$b '$$$: :$$l .'.d$$' $$$$$$l :$$l $$$$$$l l$$::P :$$$$$$$b.`$l l$$: ~~~~~~~ ------------------ l$$: ------- :$$l.' ---------- `: ;$$l --------------------- $$$ ░░░░░░░ .l$$ :: ~~~~ │ $$S#s,$$$ ::: ``^"▓Y$$$ `Y$ [ n ] ETMONKEY [ W ] EEKLY [ R ] EPORT Well, Wednesday is better than Thursday is it not? And guess what? Ndetroit is back! Where was he you ask? Read the new tdpriest journal to find out. Ok well, the mag fucking sucked without old ND, and so we apologize for being shitty. And now we are back to normal:P -Lester [Co-Editor/Head Writer] Hi... I'm not a real editor, but i play one on tv... ;p Ok, so i'm back. Sorry i was gone, but... now that i am back, i am gonna do my best to make nwr better than ever, blah, blah, blah, blah.. Thank you to all the people who carried this show while i was gone. Ryche.. duranged(!), bacid..... bud... prozac... and most of all lester, who now hates me.. We are back to owning this week, with some phat (fat?) pics of a ton of gimps (literally!!).. Ok.. i don't know if you all saw this or not, but i saved it into a zip... it was the webpage selling "3 scene gimps" on yahoo auction. Mad leet. Check out the WACKY pic that geemoney sent us, entitiled "machv, jess, and wintermute".... no confirmation as to whether or not that is actually jess... My question is: how did geemoney get the pick? --mjwgee.jpg And finally.. we are back with a REAL jesspic... To show her desire and love for tdpriest, jess got a picture of him tattooed to her... well.. *cough*... you'll figure it out... ... wow... tdp has one sweet mother of a beard, eh? Buds utils report is FAT this week, and Lester is joined by jess and marbitoz for his biased courier report. I am back with sites and rumors, and we managed to track down sky for some news.. Prozac has a mini-interview about hemphood in his games report.. Check out the CNN article about ryche's group, EViLiSO!!! It's good to be back. ndetroit [Co-Editor/Head Fatass] -----------[ index ]----------- I.) Intro a) Lester b) ndetroit II.) Quotes of the Week III.) Stats - Ndetroit's Weekly Stats, and comments on Sites. IV.) Lester's Biased Courier Report V.) Articles a) Prozac's Kinda Biased Games Report b) Bud's Biased Utils Report c) Lesters Moview Reviews d) VCD Group and Movie Reviews e) Mainstream Article - VCD's on CNN VI.) Scene News - All the news that's fit to print VII.) Rumors! VIII.) Closing ---------------------[ Quotes of the Week! ]--------------------- -<Ryche> Lesters a momo <ndetroit> hahaha.. what else is new? :) <Ryche> cant spell, cant edit.. monkey with a keyboard basically -<gee_money> Lester get nwr out please so i can fuqqing sleep <gee_money> i dont wanna read it tomorrow night <gee_money> i want it.... NOW!=!=! <gee_money> dooh i dropped my pasta on the floor -<Lester> free to bludgeon your anus -A comment on grad: <_rogue_> if he was any more ignorant, he would work in the Registry of Motor Vehicles -<jess-> "lester is a pansy ass mammas boy" -<genesis^p> you courier like my GRANDMOTHER! <genesis^p> =p <Lester> haha not my fault <Lester> from us to euro to us <Lester> :P <genesis^p> nice excuse =) <Lester> listen bitch <Lester> :P <Lester> you crack flexlm like my grandma <Lester> :P <genesis^p> HAHA <genesis^p> Shaddap, or Ill get my grandma to OWN DMS on EVERY site, AND THEN kick YOUR grandma's ASS! <genesis^p> =) <Lester> hahahaha <Lester> but my grandma will crack a bunch of stuff for dms to pre and will own your grandma! <Lester> ok rls is there <genesis^p> well, uhmm, my grandma .....is .. in PDM, CORE and hrmm, LND .......NOOOOOOOO MY GRANDMOTHER IS Grad!! aiiiieeeee <genesis^p> <suicide> =p <Lester> hahahaha -<glen-> why doesnt any1 release any god damn thing ne more <mgd-> cuz its almost midnight pst <ffire> haha <glen-> im sitting here like a dork waiting for something to release *** mgd- is now known as mgd <glen-> so i can do proxy mp *.zip then go take a piss <mgd> dork !!!! <glen-> and i know if i go take a piss now <glen-> someone will rls <glen-> and ill get owned <mgd> go piss you fag -<SthFag> New STH Util Upload by jess/AV - BIG.RELEASE.FOR.DARKITOZ.TO.TRADE-XCRYPT <SthFag> New STH Util Upload by Zarkof/AOD - YOU.MEANT.BIG.SHIT.TO.TRADE-XCRYPT <SthFag> New STH Util Upload by darkwolf/av - SAY.THX.TO.JESS.FOR:BIG:PRE-BOOGIE <SthFag> New STH Util Upload by jess/AV - ZARKOF.FTP.V5.2.REGGED-ZARKOF <SthFag> New STH Util Upload by Zarkof/AOD - MY.ZFTP.DOESNT.TRADE.SHIT-ZARKOF <freakshow> im going to move these dirs everywhere so i can be on NWR ! -<glen-> BigMan; she wanted me bad... she was playing hard to get <glen-> i can tell <glen-> i have a 5th sense about these things -<loke-> i was horny <loke-> i had five orgasms in 45 mins <loke-> beat that <ndetro1t> i am having an orgasm now. <loke-> oh no <ndetro1t> ;p <loke-> dont put that in nwr please -<TheBot> [CatWalk](New Release) (xtase/DEVOTION) Test.dir.for.gay.GregK.Win9xNT-ECTO <TheBot> [CatWalk](New Release) (xtase/DEVOTION) Reptfp.teel.a.eb.tsum.esatx-GWA99 -<SiNs> yawn <SiNs> *yawn8 <SiNs> i can't even yawn right -<glen-> actually seriouslly my name is Jim im a contractor for J&B Construction outside Orlando, and i'm 32 years old -----------[ ndetroit's sites and stats section ]----------- Ok kiddies... I'm back to rock your worlds... ;p Man... LOT of shit happened since i been gone... where do i start? E is down temp, and has been for a while.. It will be back this week tho. FH is down temp, after some fuckwad narked its bounce..... uhh, close, but no cigar smarty-pantses.. CAT is starting to hit the big time. Some nice affils, and an all-star staff... Greets to them! ATX (atomic-x... wait... i've heard that somewhere before, haven't i...?) is the OGN WHQ, and a VGC site as well, so... you can't complain about those affils, and i'm sure it will do quite nicely. Mgoh must be staff on like... 15 sites by now, and has had a pretty big hand in bringing the US scene back from the brink of obscurity... thats some nice work... Say thank-you to him the next time you see him. So i hear HOG is a pretty out-of control site with the daemon-to-end all daemons... Glen says its better than hftpd... is that possible? I guess I'll have to see... Affils are AV, rzr, and mfd... Thanks a heap to glen for helping me get these weektops, and duranged for the numerical analysis assistance.... i appreciate it.. Siteops!!! Give your wkups to me or lester! =--------------------------------------------------------------------------= Sites are rated on a 3X and 2X scale.. if you want to know why we do it that way, read an old issue. Couriers get 10 points per site they get #1 on, 9 points for 2nd place, 8 points for 3rd, etc, etc. Sites are rated by us. If you don't like the ratings, then.... heh... fuck off and die.. =--------------------------------------------------------------------------= The Top Ten sites for this week are: x3 FS -*- STH -*- ET -*- DLS -*- CAT x2 HOG -*- TOS -*- LA ---=NETMONKEY COURiER REPORT=--- trader group FS STH ET DLS CAT HOG TOS LA pts pos ------------------------------------------------------------- godbless DEV 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 167 [1] tc DEV 8 2 3 2 2 0 0 0 145 [2] garoto DEV 3 6 2 0 5 0 0 0 96 [3] cedric AOD 0 4 6 6 6 0 0 0 96 [3] cujo EPT 0 5 7 0 7 0 0 0 63 [5] darkwolf AV 4 0 10 7 3 0 0 0 54 [6] jess AV 1 9 0 0 4 0 0 7 47 [6] darkman AV 5 3 5 0 0 0 0 0 42 [8] kruzin DMS 9 0 0 3 0 3 0 0 40 [9] psychica MnM(?) 10 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 39 [10] * = no weektop this week. =--------------------------------=--------------------------------------= -----------[ Lester's Biased Courier Section ]----------- Biased Courier Report Biased shit. Guess what? It's the same fucking shit as last week!@ AOD: Cedric and more Cedric..the boy just dont quit. I even got him involved in the new utils group to cut his performance down..and it's not working.. jeezus. Not a great deal of action from the rest of the crew though. A down week for them in comparison to past weeks. Devotion: Garoto and Godbless continue to tear it up and with TC they now have 3 guys really tearing it up, and Acidapple is still going strong and dont we all just love the Appleman? Anyways, nothing really special to say about these guys..typical week for them right now. Dimension: Damnit..I'll say it to make everyone happy. DMS sucked ass this week. With all the new people DMS has you'd expect to see something more from them. Hopefully we will see an increase in output over the next few weeks. AV: Wooo Darkman is back! You must fear that. Yes it's true he's back in action, how long that will last is up for debate. But right now the merger has brought some life into these 2 long idle groups, with Jess and Darkwolf putting up big numbers as well. Hell even Marbz was on some weektops..<g> XXXX: Guess what group?!#@ M&M: ^^^^^^^^^...^^^..................flatline............... -Lester =----------------------------------------------------= Special Guest LBR person Jess will continue on.. Weeeeeeee! Jess' VERY VERY BIASED! Courier Report Version 8.3.5000.3! With Special Guest Marbitoz! Now I'm gonna be cool like Lester and be as biased as anyone can be! :) If you don't like what I reported about your group, shove it up your ass until you're able to spew it back up thru your mouth! :) AOD: Well as usual Cedric showed up on virtually every top site this week, and also some nice help from Siim.. Unfortunately, AOD has been slumping in the weektops. This group used to dominate every site, hope this is just a phase cause AOD is neat.. :) AMBITIOUS VENGEANCE: Well, I'll try to do this unbiased as possible.. WE OWN! WE OWN! WE OWN!.. Ok.. We pretty much dominated alot of sites last week, and picked up some nice new additions.. LordVader from MNM.. Thorax from EQL and Mimoz from EPT.. All of which showed up on several weektops. DEVOTION: Godbless, Godbless, and Godbless. Does this guy ever logoff sites? Hopefully for DEV he won't because, that's about all they've got. Add some TC pres, and Gayoto's stupid SEiKO fake dirs, and that basically sums up DEV. Although Acidapple (YOU ROCK!) showed up on some weektops. We'll see how good this one-man trading group is once Godbless slows down a bit. DIMENSION: Well I'm going to use this phrase in poor taste.. Where's DMS? Since Godbless, Wishmstr, and company went over to DEV, seems DMS' flame has gone out. Glen got raped into DMS last week but didn't seem to be much help to the crew. Hopefully Lester can pull something out of his ass and get this group back in shape.. Bring back MGD! (Insert Flame here) DIMENSION (Marbz Style!): picked up Glen from AOD. Still not making too much of a presence on top sites..maybe they are too busy with some new utils group ? :) dont expect too much of a change next week. ESPIRIT: CuJo = ESPIRIT.. pftp extraordinare! EQUALITY: Nice sites, sloppy slow couriers. Snap you need to teach your boys how to trade without their eqlftp.. DLS if you need a new home.. AV will welcome you anytime.. :) MILLENIUM: Hahaha! 'nuff said. RiSC: Well I'm not going to flame RiSC like Lester usually does because truthfully they actually have an OK week last week.. Brain and Flavor showed up on the top sites and BigWhatsHisName showed up also. Maybe this is a resurrgence in this group since Eternal stepped down.. Maybe it's a fluck.. Only time will tell. RiSC (Marbz Style!): well...they picked up flavor who seems to be doing pretty well for a relatively new trader..as always brain doing good when he's not sleeping or eating :) .. not like it use to be but risc is alive i suppose you could call it ? -jess+marbitoz =----------------------------------=--------------------------------------= -----------[ Articles ]----------- =----------------------------------=--------------------------------------= -----------[ Prozac's Kinda Biased Gaming Report]----------- Prozac's Kinda Biased Gaming Report - #13 Welp April is coming to an end, and now slowly moving into the slow summer months that usually afflicts the gaming scene. I'm sure after E3, the releases will pick up for a little bit. Hey you E3 organizers, the scene people WILL be there, you can count on it :) We're just eyeing what we can release, and what will be released as ISO's ;) - The shock of the week was watching RZR pull a rabbit out of their ass with the highly awaited Midtown Madness one day after it's announced it went gold. Let's take a look at this week, shall we? Class- With the news of Hemp just disappearing then retiring left some people in shock. It was just unexpected, and there hasn't been a response on the who/what/why on this. Hey, I don't even know myself. I'm still trying to figure out what happened. We'll see how it afflicts CLS, and see if they can recoup from this. The only thing they could muster was a measly add-on course. It's yet another watch and see situation. Hot Releases: Golden Tee Gold Addon Course #1 - 21 disks Paradigm- Hrm, seems PDM is trying to play catch-up with CLS. They justify the crappy board game (even thought two other groups had the game, I thought it should of been done iND) with the other j0nx CLS put out. Hey, what ever floats their boat. After the takeover this week, #paradigm has gone +i, so that's now 2 major game channels I can't get into anymore. DAMN YOU TAW! Hot Releases: Tribond - 8 disks Razor- Well well, it seems RZR got pissed with my comment last week, and behold, amaze the scene with the standard one-big-fucking-game-everyone-jizzes for the month of April. But as usual, when something big comes out, rumors of the B word floats around. That B word was even seen coming under the breath of the big boys. My thoughts? 98% sure it's the real deal. Good job, it's a great game. Now if only we can see a 100% ISO. They unforunately blunder the week with putting out a krusty Korean game (all english thought). Oh well, I'll just stick to Midtown. Hot Releases: Midtown Madness - 32 disks Bubble Hero 2 - 9 disks Origin- Hybgin? Oribrid? Hrm, dunno what to call this group. The UK team does a near perfect month, winning on just about every UK game this month, and win on the well-awaited Railroad Tycoon 2 Expansion Pack. I dunno what happened to the others in the big groups. I'm not going to eat my words, just yet. I know ][ce is just dying for me to. I'll just let him stick to making an ass of himself on TU and in SG. Hot Releases: Chess System Tal 2 - 11 disks Wild Metal Country - 11 disks Railroad Tycoon 2: Second Century - 26 disks Other- Ahh, TPC.. so close to getting that respect. While thought they did an expansion pack noone did cuz it wasn't an official add-on, many kudos were seen in the scene. They also did a Cricket game, but I know that was passed on to TPC. Maybe TPC will get to the level or even surpass that level DVN is at right now when they can do & win on EB store pickup games. Hot Releases: Red Odyessy: Battlezone Addon - 46 disks World Cricket 99 - 29 disks Springer'ish Final Thoughts: Well, I'm kind of getting tired of getting on my soap box and ranting about some random subject, only to see noone really gives a shit about it. So, fuck it this week. I'm doing another new thing this week in NWR. I'm doing a "mini-interview" of where I take one active gaming scener and get their thoughts on a couple things. It's short and sweet, but it gets the point across. The first person I grabbed (because he was alive in the channel :P ) was Principal from Class. Here's how it went: <NWR> Let's start. What you think of the rival groups in the scene? <Principal> Well I guess I don't really consider many of them to be frequent competition for CLS, the only group who really rivals us is PDM. <Principal> The rest just make me laugh <Principal> Some may be on top for a week or two then they get pushed back to the bottom <NWR> Hemp Hoodlum retiring outta the blue, what has that done to CLS, and to you? <Principal> Well I was very suprised by that, I did speak to Hemp a little bit but it was more about other things rather than CLS but he will be missed because he was a good motivator and was very easy to co-operate with. <Principal> I guess it will affect me because I will miss his comments around the channel and his idea's. <Principal> Plus we are both avid Rap fans, and always like to argue about who is a better rap artist and that kind of stuff. <NWR> The CB competition, now that it's over, will CLS start to decline? Did this help or hurt CLS? Or did it even make a difference? Which was a bigger motivation factor, CB or seeing Sunny D naked. <Principal> I doubt CLS will start to decline now that the competition is over, we had a bit of bad luck with not being able to get releases out quick enough even when we had games days before other groups. <Principal> I think this helped CLS a little bit because some people were taking the defeats to heart and everyone was unhappy. <Principal> It motivated them to try that extra bit harder and it just shows what CLS can do when we are on our game. <Principal> I wasn't really motivated by anything, since I am in Australia I knew I wouldn't win anything so I just continued to do what I have always done and that is to help CLS as much as I can. <NWR> Last question, why can't we all get along in the gaming scene? <Principal> Hah, I think the reason we can't get along is because of all the ego's people develop after they have done something in the game scene. We also have other idiots namely ][ce,Angwee,Cypher and TRC who think they are superior and are also frequently reminding everyone how good they think they are. <Principal> It is really sad to see these people talk massive amounts of trash and then get a whole lot of chronies who actually believe them that is even sadder. Perm. ad for my website, be sure to check out my website at: http://ppgr.webjump.com - Includes weekly & monthly reports in the gaming scene, and posts most issues of NWR! =----------------------------------=--------------------------------------= -----------[ Bud's Biased Utils Section ]----------- Bud's Biased Utils Report #19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A big week for utils... I actually have an interview done for the second straight week. Two interviews in fact. More importantly, there's a new player in the utils field. If you've been around long enough you may remember a group run by Lester called Vengeance, well, once again there is a utils group starting up named Vengeance, and once again it's run by Lester. Now I could hype or give my thoughts on this (in fact I will later), but I also decided to just go to the source and interview Lester. I'll also get a few other opinions about this new challenger for my next report. Finally, I've settled on a new date scheme for my reviews... the week will now run till Monday, and start again on Tuesday, as opposed to the Sunday to Saturday scheme I was using. Since NWR is *SUPPOSED* to come out Tuesdays, this gives me a day to finish up. This week, to smooth over the transition, will run for two extra days, from Sunday the 18th till Monday the 26th, nine days instead of seven. Now back to our regularly scheduled utils report... Disclaimer: It's BIASED moron. My opinion. So don't send me a bunch of mail & messages bitching about this or that. If you don't like it... SCREW YOU =] Rankings: Groups get a score out of 10. Points are given for amount of releases, but QUALITY titles will give a group a much higher score. Nukes for duping, broken releases and just plain CRAP will lower a groups score. However on the occasion that a title is nuked which I don't feel should have been, MY OWN JUDGEMENT TAKES PRECEDENCE. Cuz I'm writing this. Groups can also get points for any other reason I see fit. Week: Week is based from 04/18/99 to 04/26/99. I'm in the EST time zone so dates/times run according to it. Groups: (In no particular order) ▄ ▀▀██▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▀█▄ ▀█▌▀█▄ ▐ ▄█▀ ▄▄██▌ A Group ▐█▌ ▐▌ ▐█ █▌▐█▌ ▄█▀ █ That Gives ▄██▌▄▀ ▄██▌▀██▌ ██ ▐▌ Slightly ▀███ ▀███ ▀█ ▐███▄▄ █ Less Than ▐█▌ ▐█▌ ▐▌ ▀██▀ ▀▄ A Fuck. ▀ ▀ ▀ ▀ -XeN PIRATES WITH ATTITUDE: Releases: Entegra_AdaptLib_for_System_View_by_Elanix_v1.03-PWA System_View_v4.0_cracked-PWA PVCS.Version.Manager.v6.5.for.Win32Bit-PWA PVCS.Configuration.Builder.v5.3.for.W9X-PWA PVCS.Configuration.Builder.v5.3.for.NT-PWA InfraSet_v1.0j-PWA The PWA crew is riding high with their most successful month of the year. They've taken what in my eyes are the two best productivity titles of the year, and while this week didn't see anything in that league, they did some nice apps anyways. System View 4 is probably going to be the most popular here, although nothing is really mainstream... don't think that System View is an enhancement app or anything btw. This is one of those weeks where if you don't recognize the app, you probably don't need it... but you should always experiment and try new stuff out. Total: 6/10 ▄───── ▄▄▄ ────────── ▄▄█▓▄ ─── ▄ ─ ▄▓▄ ░ ▀ ▄█████▓ ▄▄███▄ ▄▀▀████▌ ▄█████▄ ▀ ▓███▀ ▀▄██████▄▀█▌ ▐████▐▓▀ ▀███▓ ▓███▌ ▐▓█▀ ▀██▌▐▓ ▀ ▀▓▀▓▌ ▐███▌ ▐█████▄▄▀ ▀█▄ ▄▓█▓ █▓▄ █▌▀▄▄████▓ ▀██▓▀▀ ▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀ ■▄ ▐▓ ▀▀▓█▀ ■▄──────+ The Corporation +─ ▀▄ ─gas!─■ THE CORPORATION: Releases: Energy.Conversion.v1.1.Package.B-CORP Ad.Cafe.Professional.Repack-CORP Able.Commerce.2.61.Standard-CORP VisiTools.Developers.Suite-CORP Sondio.Media.Sound.Font.Toolbox-CORP CloverLeaf.Message.Broker.v3.5.1P-CORP Seagull.License.and.Message.Server.V2.1-CORP Remote.Annex.Software.R5.4-CORP Bosa.Nova.TCP.IP.V4.10-CORP Optio.FAX.Server.V3.0-CORP Explore.EZ.Modeler.v1.3.0.1-CORP A small bomb dropped on Corp when their cracking co-ordinator, TK4, left the group to help form Vengeance. Corp founder Uncle John also left to join VGC, although I've been told he was idle... still, it's at least a blow to group moral. More grumbling came as members complained about UCF's lack of activity, UCF, if you recall, became the official crackers for Corp a while back, in a deal orchastrated by TK4. With some Corp members complaining about their idleness, I have to wonder where this pact is going to wind up, especially with TK4 gone. On the up side, Corp kept on releasing right through the hoopla, with four releases on Saturday after starting the week slow. Maybe the VGC news motivated them. All these apps are decent professional level tools, nothing jumps out and says leech me, but a fine showing from The Corporation. They started the next week with some good utils in Sondio and Visitools Developers Suite, Ad Cafe Pro is pretty old though. Oh yeah and get the repack. Total: 7/10 . )\_______)\__)\_______)\_______ . . __/ __ _/ _/ ____/ ___/ . . \__ / _\ \_____ \ ___/__ : . :/ \ \ / \ / \| : |\___/ /___/_____ /___ /| : | \_/_____/\____ /_____/___/_____/ | :...`---\_____\/----/_flr_/---/_p^D_/--' RISE: Releases: N/A Total: N/A ▄██▀███▀▀ ▀ ▄█ ┌- ▓██ ▀▀ ▀▀▀ ────-──-─-─ ▀▀▀ -──-──-──┐ : ▀▀▀██▄▀███▀▀▀▀▀██▄ ▄██▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀██▄ ░│ ▀▀███▓ ███ ███ ▓██ ███ ███ ▓██ ▓██ ███ ░: : ███ ███ ███ ███▀▀▀ ▓██ ███ ███▀▀▀ . │░ ███ ██▓ ██▓ ███ ██▓ ███ ███ ███ ▓███▀▀ : ▓██▄██▀▄███▄▀██▄███ ▀██▄███ ███ ███ : ▄ ▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ roy███ ███ ███ ─┘ ▀▄ ███ ███ ██▓ ▀▄ ███ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀██▓ ▀█ SIEGE: Releases: DIGITAL.FUSION.POST.V2.51A-SiEGE CADENCE.SPECCTRA.V8.04-SiEGE DIGIMATION.DIGIPEOPLE.V1.01D.CRACK.FIX-SiEGE DIGITAL.NATURE.TOOLS.FOR.3DSMAX2.X-SiEGE KAYDARA.FILMBOX.V1.5-SiEGE KAYDARA.FILMBOX.CRACK.ONLY.V1.5-SiEGE 3D.BROWSER.FOR.LIGHTWAVE-SiEGE Siege went back to focusing on art/design tools, putting out Cadence's Spectra 8.04 as their best offering here. A fix for DigiPeople.... Crack only and included edition of Filmbox (becoming a cracking group here? ;P), I don't have lightwave so dunno if 3D Browser is decent or not. Not a stellar week but Specctra is good. Total: 6/10 ──────────────────────────────────[XX/XX]─ ▄██ ▄▄▄ ░ ▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ █▓█ █▓█ ▒ ██▀ █▓█ █ █▓█ ██ █▓█ █ ███ ██ █▓ █▒█ █▒█ █░█ ▀▀ ▄█ █▒█ ██ █▒█ █ ▄▄▄ ██▄▄ ▄██▀██▄ ▀ █▒█▀▀▀ ██ █░█ ██ ▄▄█ █▓█ ██ ▄▄ █▒█ █▓█ ▓ █▓█ ░ █▓█ █░█ ██ ░ █▓█ █▒█ ██ █▓ ███ █▒█ ▒ ███ ▬▀█████▀▄██ ▒ ▀█████▀ ▀████ ─── ██▀ ░ ──────────────── ▓ ───── sikos ─ X-FORCE: Releases: MAYA_2_UNLIMITED_B2_LIVE_LICENSE_KEY-XFORCE C-FORGE_V1.2-1_COMMERCIAL_FOR_LINUX-XFORCE Linux which I can't score and a key... well the key look to be actually helpful at least. Total: 1/10 /\______/| ___/\_ _/ ______ :|; . __/\ ____/\ __| // %%%\____ \ |__:_\__ \/ ~~ :\_ | __/%%%% iii_/ :| \\_ \ ;| \_ |____/ \iiiii :::\__ ; _/ | \\_ : // | \\_ | \\_::: \____/---|____/____/_______/-|____/kaz SHOCK: Releases: IBM.VisualAge.TeamConnection.Enterprise.Server.v3.0.1-SHOCK Lumiere.Video.Studio.v2.0-SHOCK Master.Clips.3D.Artist.v2.90-SHOCK Card.Wizard.v5.0.for.WindowsNT-SHOCK Revize.v2.0.Full.Platform-SHOCK BrightArrow.PhoneAssistant.v1.0-SHOCK EnCase.Pro.v1.96-SHOCK SurReal.Synthesizer.Sampler.v1.0-SHOCK Scala.iPlay.Studio.Retail.Final-SHOCK Project.Analyzer.Pro.Pack.v5.0-SHOCK AcuForm.SDK.v2.0-SHOCK 3D.Sensations.for.Presentations.Vol.2.v1.51-SHOCK 3D.Sensations.for.Presentations.Vol.1.v1.51-SHOCK Shock rolled out some ok store stuff this week with Lumiere Video Studio 2 (which has been out for a while now but no one got to it), a new version of MC 3D Artist, from the same company, IMSI, and BrightArrow Phone Assistant, call answering software. They did some ok web stuff as well, with iPlay Studio Final from Scala, which lets you make TV like content for the web, and SurReal 1.0 - but the best app here is without a doubt EnCase Pro. If you download no other app this week, or this month, grab it. At about half a meg, it's worth the time. It's basically what the authorities will use to recover info if they ever seize your hard drive... I found shit I deleted long ago and was able to recover a lot of it... so it's certainly worth a look, should help keep ya one step ahead of the feds. :) Total: 7/10 . ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ .▀████▀▀▀██▄ ████▀▀██▌▐██▀▀▀▀ --- .------. : ████ ███ ▐███ ███ . | ████ ▐███ ███▀ ███ : | ████ ███ ▐███ ▄███ ███▄ . : | ████▀▀▀▀▀ ██▓█ ▀███▄▄██▓▀ . .▄▓███▄ ▀███▌ ▀▀ PRESENTS : | : : [xx/xx]. '---.-------PENTIUM FORCE TEAM-- ---- - -' PENTIUM FORCE TEAM: Releases: Microsoft.Windows.98.Second.Edition.Final.Build-PFT DecisionWeb.v2.5.for.WinNT-PFT ArcFM.v7.2.for.WinNT-PFT Netscape.Process.Manager.v1.1.for.WinNT-PFT Their first release this week was a nuke, as it's the same as Glow's... final build... uh-huh.. this is MS we're talking about. There will be no final build :P Expect to see a store final of this put out by someone, yes, you heard right, they're making you pay for this crud... what another company would offer for free, M$ cashes in on. It has ie5 intergrated (I hate IE but I won't get started on it), bug fixes (which probably cause more bugs), some other stuff... I'm not touching this thing with a ten foot pole. PFT get no points as Glow got it out earlier and was confirmed the final build, at least until MS finds the next big bug... and don't forget, M$ isn't allowed to release any product until PWA wins on the final <g>. Once the weektops reset the PFT team got moving with a few more releases, one day this practise might come back and bite them in the ass, although I doubt they'd wait on anything good. Total: 5/10 ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▓▀▀ ▄ ▄▄█▀▀██▓▄ ▄▄▄█▀▀▓▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄ ▐██▓▌ ▄▄▄▄ ▐█▓█ ▐▓██▌ ▐▓██▌ ███▓ ▓██▌ ███▓ ▓██ ▓▄ ▓██▌ ███▓ ▓██▌ ▐██▓▌ ▐██▓ ▐█▓▌▐██▓ ██▓▌▐███▓ ████▓ ▀▀▀▀ ███▓ ██▓ ▐█▓█ ▀▀▀▀▀ ▄██▓▀ mg ▀ ▀▀▀▀████▓▌ ▀▀ ██▓▀ ▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▓▀ ▀ ▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀ :: <LEGENDS NEVER DiE> ::: <o4 * 2880> :: ▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄ LEGENDS NEVER DIE: Releases: AVS_EXPRESS_V4.11-LND MASTERCAM_V7.2_FINAL-LND LND slowed considerably... their first release of the week was ok... even with VGC entering in, don't expect their CAD dominance to drop. They then put out MasterCAM 7.2 final. Suprise Suprise, after a few fake dirs of this, it's really out. So good job to them, it's one of the best titles out this week. Total: 6/10 .__________. [xx/xx/98] \_ ___ ) Da ToP oF Da LiNe! .___. ===/ _/ /=======================/ /===== .:/ _____/__./(___.____/\.______./ /_____. :/ /__/ . ) . )____ ) _ ) / __ ) /__/ / / / / // __ / /__/ / /___/: .:/ /__/__/__/__/(______\____ /__/_____ /MO =/__/========================\/========\/=== = THE PINNACLES OF RELEASING (C) PNC 95-98 = PINNACLE: Releases: N/A I dunno what's keeping these guys alive, if anything. Kirk Hammit did for a while, left for Rise, and now has hopped to VGC with Lester. Zima Man doesn't seem to be around much... I may remove them from my list but I really don't want to, years ago they were my favorite group... but it's not looking good. Total: N/A ─ ▄▄ ── ▄▄▄ ─────────░──────────── ─── ── ─ ░▀ ▀█▄ ▀▀ ▀▌ ▀ ■ ▐▄ ■ ▄ ▀ ■ ▀ ▀ ▄▄▄ ▀ █ ▐█▌█ ▀ █▄▀▄ █▀█▄▀██ █ █▄▀▄ ▀▀ ▄▌ █▄▀▄ ▐█▌▄█▀▐█▌ ▐█▌▄ ▐█▌▐█▌▐█▌▐█▌▐█▌▄ █ ▐▀▀▐█▌▄ ▀▓▓ ▀▓▓ ▀▓▓ ▄▀▓▓ ▀ ▓▀ ▀▓▄▀▓█ ▄▐▓▌ ▀▓▓ ▄ ── ▀ ─── ▀ ─ ▀▀ ── ▀ ▀ ──── ▀ ▀▀ ▄▀▀ ─░─ ▀▀ PREMiERE 1998 RELEASES WITH STYLE [xx/xx/98] ──────────────────────────────────────────── PREMIERE: Releases: Been.There.Done.That.v3.2-PREMiERE HTML.Transit.v3.2-PREMiERE QUIZ.Create.98.v1.21-PREMiERE Atomic.Clock.v5.0-PREMiERE SurveyEase.v3.1.02-PREMiERE Email.PossaLink.v2.52-PREMiERE Abritus.Business.2000.v2.01-PREMiERE SurfStats.v3.0-PREMiERE MsgCore.v2.11-PREMiERE Atomic Clock 5 is cool... they beat me on that actually. Rest if the stuff is so-so, they could feel an impact from VGC, if it decides to go after some of the better web apps. Total: 5/10 _______________ ____________ ____________ \_ ___ \_ ___ \ ___ \_ _/ l/ / l/ / l/ / \______ / / / /____ / /| ======\________/\__________/[om]\________/== d(*)d D r i n k O r D i e 1 9 9 8 d(*)d ===================== [ DOD * xx-xxx-98 ] == DRINK OR DIE: Releases: N/A Total: N/A ___ _ __________ ____________ ____ _____ ___ \__\\_\_______ \__ _ ______/___ \_ __//__/ ;;;;;;; / \/ \\ ____/ / \\ mg/SAC -)--- _/ / \_ \_/ -/ \_ --(- ;;;;; \____/_ _ _//_ /______ _ _// ;;;; [xx/xx/98]/________/==\/====/________//[MfD] =[X]==][= MANiFEST DESTiNY RELEASE =][==[X]= MANIFEST DESTINY: Releases: Intellisync.For.Notebooks.v1.61-MANiFEST Mind.Manager.v3.5.2-MANiFEST Sax.Basic.Engine.Pro.Enterprise.v5.1.17-MANiFEST DiskJuggler.v1.05.340-MANiFEST PowerQuest.Lost.And.Found.v1.01-MANiFEST IBM.Home.Page.Reader.v2.0-MANiFEST Without a doubt Lost & Found is the best app here, I'm going to install it latter in the week, so it better bloddy work! PFT's 1.0 didn't.. so we'll see. Minor build on Sax Basic Engine... and an IBM app. With Evel and Baseclaw going to VGC, what will happen to the uils side of MFD? Read on for an interview with Evel, MFD leader. Total: 6/10 _______________________________[xx/xx] \_ _ \_ ____/_ _ \_ ____/ |_\ ___/ / _/ ___)/ _/ ___) | \___ \ / | \_ | \ | \ | \ : \ : \ \___| /___ \____ \___ \___ \___ \ ====|__/===\__/===\__/==\__/==\__/==\__/ REBELS: WE MAKE ALL DAYS PARTY DAYS >> RELEASING WITHOUT PERMISSION << REBELS: Releases: NetTalk.Messenger.v2.3_Cracked-RBS Micro-Cap_V_Version_2.1.2_Cracked-RBS Rebels just can't seem to get a steady pace going... maybe they aren't looking to, but I'd like to see some of the old RBS action return. Total: 3/10 █▄▓▄■▀░▄ Teknorage and Pirasoft Present: ▄░▀■▄░▄█ █ ▐▄ ▌ █ █▓▀cH/SAC ▄▄▄▄ ▄▄█▄▄ [xx\xx] ▀▓█ ▀ ▄▄█▄▄▄▄ ▄ ▄██▌▐████▓ ▄▄█▓█████▓▀ ▄█▄▄████▄ ▀ ▄▄████▓ ▄▄▄ ▀████▌█████▌▐████▐████▌▐████▐█████▌ ▐██████▌▐█████▄ ▓███▀█████ ████ ▀████ ███▌▐██████ ██████ ███████▌▐███ ▐████▌▐███▌▄████▌ ▀█▄ ▀▀▀▀▀ ▐████▌▐███████ ████▄████▀ ▄████████▀ ▄▄ ▐█████▄ ▄▓███▓▄▓██████▌▐████▌▀▓█▄ ▀███▓▀▀ ▄████▌▓██████▌ ▀▀██████▀ ▀████▀ ▀▀▄ ▀█▀ ▀██▀▀██████▀ █▄▄▄▓▄▄▄ ▀▀▀ ▀ ▀ ▀▀▀ ▄█ ▀▀▀ ░▒▓█▄ xx/xx/98 ······ Ratzhole WHQ ▀ ▀▓▀▀▀ Teknorage & Pirasoft: Releases: MediaWare.WebFlix.Pro.v1.5.3-TRPS MediaWare.MyFlix.v1.5.3-TRPS AudioTester.1.4a.Regged-TRPS Targeted.Email.Download.1.10-TRPS JoyMouse.4.2-TRPS Chores.and.Rewards.3.04-TRPS Internet.Intercom.v3.3-TRPS The Mediaware stuff is ok, those are the only apps I recognize here, and nothing appeals to me to test drive, so.... Chores and Rewards? Heheh ok... sounds like my life as a kid. Total: 4/10 _____ ____________ ____ __________ / __/_ ___/\_ \ ___\_/ __/\ ___\_ \ \ / _/ /_ /___ / \ ___ / \___/\_____/___\ ____/______/_____/pn \_/ VERSUS: Releases: Truespectra.Iris.Transactive.v2.0-VERSUS Truespectra.Iris.Accelerate.v2.0-VERSUS Extensis.PhotoGraphics.v1.01-VERSUS Good job here, only three apps but all three are good quality, the best being Extensis' PhotoGraphics 1.01, the Truespectra series I've released some of, can't for the life of me remember the developer at the moment, but they're nice apps. Total: 5/10 ..._______________________.___ ____.____... ::/ _______/ ____/ | \/ | \:: _/\____ \/ /___/ | \ \: \ > \ \ \/ \ \ :\__________/\________/_________/|_____|___/ ::.. .:[ SCUM ]:. .:[SCUM]:. .:[SCUM]:. ..:: ```````````````````````````````````````````` SCUM: Releases: Elemental.Drumbeat.2000.v3.01-SCuM Only one title from Scum this week, a pretty nice one in Drumbeat 2000, but these guys may feel the pressure from VGC judging from what the new group has put out so far. Total: 2/10 Only one more byte to crack before... ____._____ ____ _____ _____ _ _____ __ ._____ :::_|_ / _ \/ _ \/ _ \__\_ \___| / ::/ __/_ / / / / / / _ / _ /: :/ / / / / / / / / / / / /:: :\_______\___/\____/\____/\______/________\:: : \\\\\\\ \\\\ \\\\\ \\\\\ \\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\ -----------------------------------------wk!- 2000AD: Releases: VISUAL_PROGRAMMING_ARMOURY_v1.1-2000AD Secure.Socket.Relay.Communicator.4.0.For.Windows9x-NT-2000AD QuantumImage.3.5.50.For.Windows9x-NT-2000AD EyeCU.1.0.For.Windows9x-NT-2000AD Win.Driver.4.11.For.Windows9x-NT-2000AD Secure.Socket.Relay.Server.4.0.For.WindowsNT-2000AD Secure.Socket.Relay.Communicator.4.0.For.Windows9x-NT-2000AD S.To.Infinity.1.0.For.Windows9x-NT-2000AD PowerTerm.Pro.7.0.Final.For.Windows9x-NT-2000AD Interscan.Webmanager.1.0b.For.WindowsNT-2000AD HyCD.Play.and.Record.2.00.0415.For.Windows9x-NT-2000AD FlashFXP.1.2.70.For.Windows9x-NT-2000AD E-Guard.1.0.For.Windows9x-NT-2000AD Sitescape.Forum.4.0.For.WindowsNT-2000AD Intergraph.Diskaccess.4.01.00.08.For.Windows9x-NT-2000AD A lot of small web stuff, nothing fancy, the latest beta of FlashFXP... their one really decent app was a ripped ISO... and well, I see PWA actually MISSED an Intergraph title. Total: 6/10 _______________________ ____________ __\ _______/ ______/______/__ / \ __/ / / \/ / / /_______\ /______________\____ /________\ -------------------------------\/----------- (*) F a t i g u e - Couriers Network (*) ___________________________________________. ________________________________________wK!. FATIGUED COURIERS NETWORK: Releases: IceTCL.Compiler.v2.0.1.Win9xNT-FCN IceTCL.Compiler.v2.0.1.Win9xNT.Missing.Crack.FIX.SORRY-FCN I'll be nice and give two points for IceTCL, but I have to take one away for the fix... hopefully more activity in the coming week. Total: 1/10 _____nnn_____ <$$$$$$$$$$$$$b »»»»»»»»»»»)$$ |$$$$$$$$$$$$$' |$$T```X$f''' |$$$ '$$$L |$$! '9$$$i. |$$ `'$$$$> r a d i u m »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» RADIUM Releases: Nemesys.Gigasampler.v1.52-Radium Sibelius.v1.105-Radium CODA.PrintMusic.v1.0-Radium Retro.As-1.v1.20-Radium Panhandler.DX.v1.51-Radium Sound.Forge.CD.Architect.v4.0f-Radium TC.Essentials.v1.02-Radium Soundforge.v4.5.mp3.update-Radium PAS.Spectrum.Analyser.Pro.v2.0-Radium PAS.EQ.Studio.v2.0-Radium CDRWIN.v3.7c.working-Radium Thanks to Radium for a working CDRWin, since I reinstalled Windows I need a new copy. Some other nice audio apps, SoundForge stuff, and PanHandler DX. Total: 6/10 .--------------------------------. | | | ▄█ [xx/xx] ▄█ | ` ▄███ --------------- ▄███ -----' ▀██▓█ ▄ ▀▀██▀▀████▀████▀▀████▄ ██▓█ ███▄▄▄ █▓█ █▓██ ████ ██▓█ ▐████▀ ░ █▓█ █▓██ ░ ▀▀▀▀ ██▓█ ███▀ ▄█ ░ █▓█ █▓██ ░ ████ s ██▓█ ▐█▀ ▄███ █▓█ █▓██ ████ q ████▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀███ ▀▀▀▀▀██████ z▄▄▄▄▄▄█▀▀▀ ████ ░ ███ ▀▀▀█▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ████ ░ ███ ████ ███ ████▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ VENGEANCE: Releases: OpenFile.Manager.v5.3-VGC Satori.WebFX.2000.V3.02-VGC DataDirect.Connect.OLE.DB.V2.1-VGC DataDirect.Connect.ODBC.V3.5-VGC Here's probably the most anticipated group on the report this week. Their first week releasing, and really they only had Sunday/Monday. What they did do I've included... I'll skip the billshit as you can a) Read it on TCA or b) Read it in the interviews to come. Basically this is Lester's old group reborn, I think you can safely call it a new group. The DataDirect Connect apps are nice, as is Satori WebFX 2000, which is probably my favorite here. I heard complaints about OpenFile Manager being a web app... but so what if it is? VGC didn't say they wouldn't do ANY web apps, just that they would avoid crappy ones... but no one can argue that there aren't plenty of quality web apps. I felt they were on par with most of the groups this week, and they placed a decent score as a result. Total: 6/10 New this week: VGC Idle this week: SDM Quote(s) of the Week: <lester> wow..i'm so special <glen-> arg <glen-> dont rls this shock shit until i do this pre <glen-> or i swear i will narq u all <glenner> i need some VCD porn sites ASAP. <glenner> i have to wank it <MoonSabre> daammit <MoonSabre> glen <MoonSabre> 20 times a day is enuff :/ <glenner> i know <glenner> its only been 17 timez <Twizted> VGC = Virtual Grazing Cows <Beck-> VGC= Vagina Growing Cactus <Twizted> VGC = Violent Gargantuan Chickens <Beck-> VGC= Violent Gaping Cunts ^^^ the official VGC fan club holds its first meeting. Sodom is gone from the list... good luck in the future. Actually, are you even still alive? Oh well... PNC may follow, but that will be harder for me. MFD may also follow if they switch modes to just cracking, but that remains to be seen, and so long as they put out good utils I'll include them. In all honesty, LND would have had the week with Mastercam if they had of done even one more app... but then the same can be said of PWA in many weeks past. VGC/PWA/SGE had a shot but I just didn't feel they did enough... I wound up giving it to Shock for a well rounded week, and Corp for overcoming some obsticles and still having some good output. Although even I'm a bit iffy on the results this week, I'm sticking to them. An Interview with Lester ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I actually followed through and did something! Well, then again, how could I not... If you're an NWR reader, you should know him as our co-head editor, and author of Lester's Biased Courier Report, as well as Lester's Movie Reviews. In the past he's lead groups such as DOD and LND for utils. He currently also runs DMS, and previously, AMN, the group which broke the RiSC dominancy in trading. So why am I hyping all this shit? Well, all the past week, news was leaking about a new utils group with an impressive lineup. I knew first hand as I was approached about it, but several IRC channels were buzzing with the news. I spoke briefly to Lester about it, and in more depth to TK4, and finally, the day before this new group made its debut, I decided to get something official for the report, right from the source.. mainly, Lester. There's no doubt that he knows how to run a utils group, so expect a decent impact when this new utils force, named Vengeance, makes its debut. Of course it's not technically a debut. Vengeance is actually an old group run by Lester, which is returning. But the makeup is new, and with the recent string of comebacks (Corp, Premiere, Scum, 2000AD, Sodom), the time is right for something fresh... or at least a REAL return to the roots of the scene. Whether or not Vengeance is ACTUALLY a return to scene roots remains to be seen, but they could be. Now lets get on with it already, shall we? <Bud> First off, thanks for agreeing to being interviewed for your own mag <g>, and to get it out of the way, throw up some affils for any readers who aren't familiar with your history. <lester> Well currently I'm Vengeance, Dimension, Origin, Eviliso and DVNISO..uhmm.. in the past I've been DOD, LND, Siege, Rise and Razor for games..as well as Amnesia my courier group.. <Bud> Alright... now, the biggest news of the last week has been the rumour of a new utils group hitting the scene. Despite a great deal of secrecy, news did spread... probably more than you would have liked... in any case, word of a new group with a LOT of prominant figures in the utils scene turned out to be true, with you playing a large role. What is this new group, and how did the idea for it come about? <lester> Well yes, the word got out a little sooner than we might have liked, and so it stepped up our grand opening a little sooner. But the idea has been there for a long time, I've bounced it off people now and again for the past 6 months or so. And now only recently did some other people say hey this is an idea we should pursue. <lester> So the point of the group is to bring back to old style utils group..from the DOD/PWA/SCUM era..We chose the name Vengeance because it was my utils group from when I was still a half-lamer..:) So it's a nostalgia thing, Unclejohn and maybe a few other former VGC members will be coming back to have some fun again. <Bud> Now Vengeance... that's a name that's been around the block a few times, in the past as a utils group that you were very much a part of, more recently as a courier group that recently merged with AMB to form AV... any reason why you didn't go with a new name, aside from the nostalgia? <lester> Hehehe..Well personally when Hawkeye started the courier group, I msged him and yelled at him to stop using my groups name..but since that group had been dead for like 2 years, he wasn't willing to give up the name..when we decided to get back to the name, Vengeance was not AV, it was still Vengeance, but it was a retaking of our roots, they were nice enough to rename themselves even<g> A new name never even came up. <lester> reviving Vengeance has always been something I wanted to do <Bud> Hahah... I could be mean and say the curry group VGN has been dead for a while anyways... but I won't. <Bud> Opps wait I just did :P <lester> I wanted to be nice and not say that :) <Bud> When this idea was formed, and you realized it was something you wanted to pursue, and that it was actually going to happen, did you have at the time a list of people in your mind you really wanted to work with? Or was it more spontaneous than that... ? <lester> Well, there are certain people that I of course wanted to work with, I wanted to get any of the old VGC members back involved..and UJ has come along for the ride. I asked people that I have known for awhile and had experience, I didn't want to bring in people who would be egotistical or not focus on the group as a whole. I had a general idea of who I wanted, but it expanded <Bud> In idling in the irc #, I see some pretty impressive names... can you perhaps introduce for the readers a few of the main players, and what you think they are really going to bring to the group? <lester> Well, the main head people along with myself are TK4, who many may know from being CORP Cracking Coordinator as well as an OGN cracker. Evel, the leader of MFD. Kirk Hammett, from PNC fame as well as a partner of mine in Rise. And Blitz who recently retired from Origin. <lester> The reasons to get these people are fairly obvious..each has his own particular niche in the scene and they have come together nicely to bring this group about.. Other notable members are as I mentioned Unclejohn who left his baby CORP to return. Some very prominant crackers, Cedric my main man as well as others I dont need to name :) <Bud> With Evel being leader of Manifest Destiny, do you feel there's going to be a conflict of interests? <lester> Well, many people have asked that same question, and the situation is this. We all know that Manifest releases some really good titles mixed with some.. well not so good titles. Evel is coming into Vengeance with the quality side of Manifest, while MFD will continue to release their shareware and keygens and misc. other items that we've come to love from them. <lester> So there is no conflict of interest <Bud> Hmm... so in that case, will we see the dissolution of the utils side of Manifest Destiny while the cracking side continues forth? Or is that a question better left for Evel ? ;) <lester> You should ask Evel to be 100% clear on that, I don't wish to speak out of place :) <Bud> It seems that a lot of these people come from a wide variety of interests... how do you plan to get Vengeance to focus as a group? Are you looking to look at any specific fields for releasing, any niche groups, or do you want to just release good apps overall? <lester> The focus is just primarily on high quality apps, we aren't picking a field or anything. We just want to put out good apps and leave the minor updates to little groups :) <Bud> You've definately got the experience, just in the small selection of members I've seen concerned so far... but despite the fact that Vengeance is not a "new" group exactly, it is in essance a new group, entering a field where a majority of the groups are three plus years old... (pwa, dod, shk, prm, pnc, xf, rise, corp after some pauses...) <Bud> Do you think you can match the longevity and quality output of the aforementioned groups? <lester> Well, I mean I can' see the future, but we have put together a nice core of people to build theg roup on, so I think we should be able to hang with the big boys. <Bud> You went to Rise from SGE, and I got the impression that you were fairly happy there... and I know you were a help to the group. What's it like leaving the group so soon after you came to it? <Bud> Especially given you've known about this move for abit and couldn't say anything. <lester> It fucking sucks..to be blunt..if I could have forseen this happening, I would have not gone to Rise simply to avoid upsetting them. As I respect and still do like Rise, though I suspect they may not like me as much anymore. I am generally a loyal person, but this is something I've always wanted to do..:( <Bud> Well, given Rise is a great group, but I guess you need to follow your heart... or other organs depending on the situation. <Bud> I'm gonna bring up a quote I came across in discussing Vengeance with someone recently... I won't say who... but basically what it came down to is this: <Bud> Vengeance could either be a great success... or it could go down in flames, really fast, with no one really having a direction to go in. <Bud> Do you feel that there's any truth to the latter? <Bud> excepting that there's always SOME possibility in anything. <lester> haha who was that?:) <Bud> Like i said I won't say who ;) <lester> but anyways..a new group is always like that..it could fail miserably.. or maybe it wont <lester> I dont think it will..:) <lester> we have our direction already <Bud> Is there a general feeling in the group now of "We want to kick ass"... are the troops really pumped, so to speak? Or are things a little more laid back? <Bud> I've been told to expect great things <Bud> upon your debut... but how much can we really expect? <lester> Well everyone is truly excited..everyone that has joined has been waiting for something like this to happen, so they want to prove themselves. Well our debut got bumped up a little by the noisy scene people, but it will be a decent showing and we will continue with some big titles that are lined up over the next few days. <Bud> Well, this interview is taking place before anything's been done... so time will tell. But this is one of the most talked about new groups in a while, mostly because the members are far from new. Does that add an extra element of pressure? Or is the reaction of the group just to ignore it (or what's your reaction, anyways) <lester> Well, I had hoped people wouldn't even really know about it, but that's too difficult to pull off on this scale with who is involved..but I feel no pressure, we are not new kids on the scene, we've all proven our abilities, so it's just time to have fun <Bud> Now you mentioned some cracking talent, and of course you'll want to go after big apps... but one of the nice things about the modern scene is how spread out the titles have been, especially in the past while (with the exception of pwa owning ms) <Bud> But how will you approach other releases.... in a time were 80% of the utils done are web stuff, and a lot is sub-par when it comes to quality <Bud> Do you have any real quality control goals in mind? <Bud> Aka no web apps, no minor versions, or anything of that sort? <lester> well not all web stuff is shit, alot of good apps can be found if you look hard enough, but we won't be doing any of the "credits" warez that other groups go towards..like I said we are a throwback to the old groups..we wont be doing any .1.1.1.2.001 apps..etc.. <lester> but if it's a good application and it happens to come from the web..i'm not going to say no dont do that release <Bud> Well, each group has it's own methods of getting titles done, so I won't get into that much... but can we be expecting to see any apps from Vengeance say, for the Linux platform, or any other? <Bud> Recently it seems that many people have come to believe that this is the Bill Gates scene <Bud> As opposed to the PC scene... and I have to admit, initially I fell into the "if it isn't win it sucks" category <Bud> Will Vengeance have any polcies on non-win apps? <lester> Well, certain apps are worthy of release being for Windows or not.. like I would release Solaris, as I did way back in DOD, it all comes down to the app and what it is, but we won't be focusing on non-win apps of course <Bud> If you could sum up what you want to do with Vengeance in just a few goals, what would they be? <lester> I want to create the image of the old utils groups and bring a "role model" utils group to the scene again..utils groups have gotten to be too childish or too owned by couriers who put out the rls'es for megs..there are exceptions of course, but we simply want to have fun and set a good standard. <Bud> Seems as if you have a pretty full plate, with DMS, and NWR... how much of a juggling act will Vengeance be for you? (My real question is... don't you have a life?!?) <lester> Haha yes, it was a real question whether or not I would have the time to do this or not, and to be honest I'm only online a few hours a night, but Vengeance is assembled with many experienced people who know how to get things done, and in DMS some people are being promoted and things. And well NWR, that doesn't really take too much time for me..and it's still fun so I make the time for it. <lester> I'll never be here as much as I was when I was running DOD or anything, because i do have a life now, but hey..time management is a skill :) <Bud> Well, that was actually more of my joke question, but it does leave some serious food for though... how hands on will you be with Vengeance, and how do you see your role evolving in the future? <Bud> And the same question for DMS <lester> Well what I hope for DMS is that I will be able to take a lesser hands on approach so as to focus more on Vengeance in the beginning, and I'm confident that the staff will be able to handle things if that is the case, and well I mean that's the reason they are council right? But I want to be as involved as I can be with the amount of time I have. <Bud> Well, I wish you all the best in both, and am looking forward to some good competition in the utils field (since I am DMS and never move a meg I don't think i need to worry there <g>). <Bud> And since I wanna catch the next hockey game... I think that wraps things up ;) <Bud> So thanks for putting up with all this :) <lester> haha no problem man <lester> it is my magazine and all.. i should be helpful Now I do want to thank Lester... while, as he points out, it is his magazine, this report is alomst a seperate entity, in the sense that it's included uncensored and unedited (explaining all my fuckups), and I'm free to do whatever the hell I want... speaking of which next week is our poetry issue... umm ok maybe not. An Interview with Evel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All this commotion has left a big question mark right next to MFD. Lester couldn't really speak for the group although he pointed out the possibility of MFD taking a back seat in the utils scene, so I decided to have a chat with Evel about it. My interviews tend to be as much for my benefit and info gathering as anything else, for anyone wondering, and MFD's utils success after being labeled a cracking group (why we even make the division between cracking and utils these days is a seperate debate) has impressed me, so I was anxious to learn what was in the cards for Manifest Destiny. <Bud> To start this off, what are some of your affils, past and present? (Everyone gets to suffer through this question ;)) <evel> i started in sodom and when it died I moved on to dod.....I was helping out in a group called darkage at the time and when things kinda went bad there decided to start manifest <evel> I also attempted to courier for vice but it was always a side thing <Bud> Hahah yeah... gee that sounds familar ;) <evel> :) <Bud> MFD sort of dipped into two realms... cracking and utils releasing... although it wasn't too long ago those went hand in hand, they've become split categories... and you had success in both with MFD. <Bud> And your success with some decent releases at first suprised a few people... what made either side of the coin (utils/cracking) so successful? <evel> alot of work really....I wanted to make a successful group but also a group of friends. I have to say we have alot of loyal people so that helps a lot too. <Bud> Certainly does :) <evel> I never really thought much of the rules saying you had to be "cracking" or "utils" though. We just wanted to release <Bud> Neither have I, but it seems the scene has developed in that direction :P <evel> yea <Bud> I think RBS and MFD, and oh.. maybe TRPS were the only groups really doing both. <evel> we got alot of heat about it but I guess once ppl seen we didnt care they stopped bothering us :) <Bud> And even MFD differentiated between the two, using -MFD and -MANiFEST <Bud> Any reason for that? <Bud> Or just to show the diff... after all it's the same group <evel> It's a hard question to answer...I dont really have a good answer for that <evel> It just kind of happened and we went with it <Bud> Ok, fair enough ;) <Bud> Now, MFD has done well... which brings us to the current week... which has been buzzing with the news of a new utils group. Which isn't really new, but an old group of Lester's, Vengeance, reborn. <Bud> In speaking with TK4, who was very much involved with VGC, earlier in the week, we came to the topic of who was in the group... and yours was one of the first names mentioned. <Bud> And of course, my first reaction, and I'm sure many others, was "What will happen to MFD?" <Bud> So that brings us to.. well, what will happen with MFD? <evel> hehe I had probably 30-40 msgs yesterday about that :) <Bud> I'm sure :) <evel> Well I best explain exactly the reasoning for this as it wont make sense to most people <Bud> Go right ahead ;) <evel> For the past 6 months or so I havent really done much with the cracking area of MFD. I have to give total credit to GMouser, someone that alot of ppl in the "scene" wont know but is a true friend that helps out so much <evel> I have taken care of the utils end mainly. Well I took some time off in february and things didn't really go well in my mind <evel> I was doing way too much on my own. Sensi and base are also leaders but they dont have the time to help as much as they would like <Bud> Heheh only like 6 releases that month, but everyone needs a rest :) <evel> Which brings me to lesters offer :) <Bud> What was the offer, basically, and what was there any reasons for accepting the move, other than lack of time for utils in MFD? <evel> Lester asked me if I would be interested in working with a new group. Well most people would say thanks but no thanks however I am weighing 2 job offers and I need to start "settling down". My wife will be taking a day shift when i decide. sometime this week, and I wont have near as much time to run things in MFD the way I was <evel> So rather than see MFD kind of die and fade away I think the best way was to be part of this new group. I won't have people depending on me 100% <Bud> Sounds like you're pretty busy irl, but it also sounds like a good thing for you in that respect. <Bud> I'm going to give you a quote Lester gave me <evel> Yea its a good time right now :) <Bud> So you can give any comments you want on it <evel> sure <Bud> <Bud> With Evel being leader of Manifest Destiny, do you feel there's going to be a conflict of interests? <Bud> <lester> Well, many people have asked that same question, and the situation is this. We all know that Manifest releases some really good titles mixed with some.. well not so good titles. Evel is coming into Vengeance with the quality side of Manifest, while MFD will continue to release their shareware and keygens and misc. other items that we've come to love from them. <Bud> How true is that? Will the utils side of MFD cease completely and stick to the cracks? <evel> that is pretty much the plan right now. How it will work out I cant say. MFD may also do some minor update things <Bud> Do you plan to remain as a leader in direct control of MFD, or are you going to let GMouser run things for the most part, or others? <evel> Nothing has been decided right now. I'm trying to get a meeting together and get some ideas flowing really, but I can't see having the time to be the man in charge anymore. <Bud> Which means the future for MFD is in question right now perhaps... but I'll leave that, since it's an internal group matter, and move on to VGC for a bit. <evel> well I don't think MFD will die. So many people are friends. However I'm not sure about the # of releases etc. Someone will have to step up to keep that side going I think <Bud> Well I hope so anyways :)) <Bud> Now for VGC. News leaked early and fast about the idea, and the premiere of the group got pushed up... now I was told to expect all sorts of things, finally it came down to two pretty nice apps, which I believe you supplied. <Bud> So a fairly nice start... but where do you see VGC heading in the near future? <evel> Yea I was kind of nervous :) <evel> Well with the crew that we have put together I see some pretty big things. So far everyone has gotten along and it's been alot of fun. I think that is the main thing really, having fun and getting people some nice working apps <Bud> I'm going to give you a quote now, identical to one I gave Lester, it came from someone spoke to about VGC, I won't mention who <Bud> But I'd like your thoughts on it <evel> sure <Bud> Vengeance could either be a great success... or it could go down in flames, really fast, with no one really having a direction to go in. <Bud> Do you feel that to have any truth to it? Accepting that there's always some possibility in anything... <evel> Really you never know....from what I have seen I think the group will be a success. There maybe some truth in it but what group starting could you have not said the same thing about? <Bud> Very true... well, that about wraps things up... so I'd like to thank you for taking the time for this chat, and good luck with VGC :) <evel> thanks alot :) I'll thank Evel now, he agreed to this interview the second I asked him for it, and I sort of just dropped it on him. So the future is still a bit of a question for MFD, but that should clear things up somewhat. So my Springerish final thought (I'm ripping this off from somewhere but i don't remember where now)... Vengeance could be the best thing since sliced bread. It probably won't be, I think Snapple was that. But it does have potential... and time will tell whether it will live up to that potential, or crash and burn. I don't expect it to crash and burn though. I do believe this report is now longer than the rest of NWR combined... so I'll shut the hell up now and let you guys move on. :) Greets to all the groups in the report, all the poor souls I've ever gone through an interview with, everyone from my own groups, NWR, and Web Monitor, the clueless schmuck hanging out over on BAcid's forum on TCA =) - Bud =----------------------------------=-------------------------------------= =---------[ Lester's Movie Reviews ]----------= Sure he's a prominent scene member, leader of the #1 courier group, and former "Miss Scene 1995".. But did you also know that in real life, Lester's real name is "Roger", and he hosts a popular syndicated television show, where he plays a big fatass who has nothing better to do with his time than go to every single movie ever released? Well.. now you know.. Movie Reviews Pushing Tin Starring: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Angelina Jolie, Cate Blanchett Rating: 3 Stars Ok it's like this, John Cusack is this super cool air traffic controller guy.. He's "The Zone" and he's got a wife and some kid with ADD..He's the kind of the world and shit, until mr. Harley driving badass Billy Bob Thornton comes along.. Billy Bob is a crazy mofo who is possibly better than the zone. He's also got a wife who is way hotter than zone's..Angelina Jolie who we all know and love from Gia and Hackers and shit like that. Anyways, they get into a competitive thing where they risk hundreds of lives to show who has a bigger dick. Makes you really hope that people like this aren't really controlling your airplanes. But then again who gives a fuck right? Anyhow, everybody in this movie is a good actor and there are some truly funny moments. So I recommend it to everyone as pick of the week. ------ Lost & Found Starring: David Spade, Sophie Marceau Rating: 2 3/4 Stars Well, I love Spade..but this is no Tommy Boy. But it is still classic Spade humor in his dry wit manner. Sophie is quite the little french hottie and so you have a nice little mix. Hot chick, Spade, and a little dog. Spade kidnaps her dog so he can get to know her. Thin plot since we all know she would never look at Spade if he was not really David Spade. I mean the guy could pass for a mop. Anyhow, nice comedy for rental and vcd purposes. ------- SLC Punk Starring: Matthew Lillard Rating: 2 Stars Well, I had a free movie pass and so I decided to hit up Lillard's newest venture. For those of you who don't know who he is, he is Stu from Scream. "Dude, Billy you cut me too deep. I think I'm dying here man!" And if you don't know that line then you fucking blow ass. Anyhow, it's about punks and Anarchy in Salt Lake City way back in 1985. There's some goofy shit and it actually takes a more serious tone than I expected from the film. Lots of attempted moral shit and whatnot, but it's a little long at 2 hours for me. Then again it isn't a major film or anything so I give him some credit for doing it. =----------------------------------=-------------------------------------= =---------[ VCD Group and Movie Reviews ]----------= VCD Group and Movie Review We would like to begin by explaining some of the common terms used in VCD releasing. These formats are: Telesync/TS: Telesync is a procam on a tripod in an empty theater with a separate audio source. If there's an audience, you hear people coughing, camera is shaky, etc. It's a CAM. CAM = banned. If you want a movie extremely early, Telesync is the way it will be. Workprint: Workprint is a pre-release copy of a movie, stolen copy, etc. that usually has the film running time on the screen. Screener: Screener is usually the BEST quality, an actual vcd of the movie, made from a reviewers copy, etc. Screener's are generally released after movies have left the theaters. Special Thanks to Ryche of EViLiSO for the education in VCD terms, and to come.to/vcddupe for keeping us up to date on the new titles. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryche's Really Biased VCD Group Report #12 Yeah, yeah.. you all missed my report last week. I got tons of email telling me how bad NWR sucks without me <G>. So, here it is.. in all it's full blown glory. Since I missed last week, I bet you want me to cover what I missed right? No, fuck you. Im lazy and theres too much to look at this week to live in the past. Don't like it? Good. This week we saw alot of releases, with some really good stuff. We also see the return of the Workprint and with it the nukes that go with them for being shit quality. 04191999 - Go - Screener - TFAISO 04191999 - 10 Things I Hate About You - Telesync - PMTVCD 04201999 - Velvet Goldmine - Screener - CENTROPY 04201999 - A Walk On The Moon - Screener - TFAiSO 04211999 - She's All That - Screener - IGN 04211999 - Edtv - Telesync - PMTVCD 04221999 - Forces Of Nature - Telesync - EVILISO [NUKED] - Election - Workprint - PMTVCD 04231999 - Never Been Kissed - Telesync - EVILISO 04231999 - The Out-of-Towners - Telesync - VCDRS 04231999 - Ravenous - Screener - VCDRS 04241999 - Shadow of a Doubt - VCDRS 04241999 - The Blair Witch Project - Screener - PMTVCD 04241999 - Rushmore - Screener - KRAVEN 04241999 - A Cool Dry Place - Screener - VCDRS 04241999 - Enemy of the State - Screener - KRAVEN (See.. it was a busy week) - TFAiSO - They got the hottest title of the week with Go but that was about it. Thier other release, A Walk on the Moon hasn't ever been a hot title. But I'll give you an extra point for Go being screener quality so soon. Total - 3 Points - Centropy - Kinda quiet lately from the europeans. They showed up with Velvet Goldmine, about glam rock bands, and was a bomb at the theatres. Think David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust days, if your old enough to remember that, and you get the idea. Gayness deluxe. Total - 2 Points - IGN - As usual they didn't release alot. This week they released a *cough* screener of She's All That which was on everyone's want list. Its not top quality though, and it's in .mpg format which means theres the possibility it won't burn back into a proper VCD. Guess they dont understand the concept of bin/cue yet. - Total - 2 Points - VCDRS - OMG. They live. After months of nothing out of this crew, they came out with quite a few titles in a one day span. Will they stick around? Who knows? Who cares. The Out of Towners got panned by the critics and it has two of Hollywoods most played out actors with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. The other notable release here is Ravenous, about a village of cannibals who live in the California woods in the 19th Century. It's also notable because its not a screener, its a telesync. Nice fuckup. The other titles they released can be found at your local Blockbuster on May 18th or thereabouts. - Total - 3 Points - EViLISO - Two good telesyncs of recent movies. Forces of Nature, the Sandra Bullock/Ben Affleck romance/comedy/crap, and Never Been Kissed, the Drew Barrymore as an old dork in high school flick. - Total - 3 Points - PMTVCD - Now we get to the problem group for the week. While they've gone about releasing quite a few things lately, they've also gone about releasing crap and defending it with "its watchable." Election was un-watchable in many people's opinions and was nuked. The Blair Witch which (pun) is basically a novelty movie shot on videocam and 16MM and is NOT a screener but a workprint, because if you look at the company webpage, they post DAILY updates about how they keep recutting and remastering the film for wide release on July 30th. Subtract the fuckups and bad encoding jobs and you get 2 telesyncs, EdTV and 10 Things. That puts them with the other groups in the average section for the week. - Total - 3 Points - KRAVEN - This will surprise you. They had a good week. Rushmore and Enemy of the State Screeners. Both good movies, both good quality. Im shocked and appalled. - Total - 3 Points Note: There was actually something called Enemy Action from some LMW99 or some group but since this is thier first release Ive seen without the word NUKED by it, they didnt make the report. This one's a toughie. When you subtract the fuckups, junk, bad workprints and total up the number of releases you get 2 good ones for each group contending for the group of the week. Now, do I give it to a group for 2 NEW telesyncs, or a group for 2 older Screeners. Or do I give it to a group for 1 older Screener, and 1 new Screener? Or do I say fuck all these hoes and call it a tie? Im going out on a limb this week, and giving it to KRAVEN. They had two good movies, that are semi-new and both are screener. Why them? Well, the movies they released are POPULAR. Not one popular and one shit, but both popular. For that, they get group of the week. If they hadn't both been screeners, I'd bag them like I usually do, but even the losers get lucky sometimes (Tom Petty rules). My real name is Will U. Bloamy - Ryche - =----------------------------------=-------------------------------------= Quickie VCD Reviews - By Prozac There is another a test article I'm writing since I'm starting to really get into VCD's. People don't need to read page-long reviews to know if something is worth seeing. They just want to know if it's good, it sucks, or a must see. These are the following VCD's I've seen this week, and here are my opinions on them. By the way, I watch TS & Screener, and don't mind either, so quality of the film, unless god aweful, is all the same to me: Go- This is a must see, in my opinion! It's funny, always on your seat, and witty. I highly recommend grabbing this. Mighty Joe Young- When I got done watching this, I wondered why I bothered. GAG! Sucky. Star Trek Insurrection- If you like Star Trek movies, its worth the time. It's not the best, but its decent. Afflication- If your a person who's into movies, this is worth checking out. Well made & directed. Not as good as the critics say it is, but still worth it. Waking Ned Divine- This is a scottish movie that's just a tad above decent, but WTF was up with the audio? Maybe i notice the people weren't talking in sync. Analyze This- A couple laughs, but not that funny. While better than past Billy Crystal comedies, it just didn't grab me. Grab it if you're bored. The Corrupter (Seen In Theaters)- I couldn't get the VCD to work, so I saw this at the cheapo theater for free. It was not good at all, plotline was funky, and it was badly made.. See Hard Boiled instead, 1000x better than this j0nx. WAAAY too many VCD's released that I want to see, send me a couple HD's to grab them all! :) =----------------------------------=-------------------------------------= =---------[ Mainstream Article - VCD's on CNN ]----------= Well, here is the first in a planned series of "mainstream" articles that nwr is going to be reprinting. As the world's mainstream media begin to take more and more notice of the internet and what it holds, the steamy "underside" is going to become increasingly apparent to them. Expect the first waves of articles to be shocked and indignant, and totally superficial in their tone. As news of the true nature of "the internet" gets out.... (come on, we all know its kiddie pr0n, hax0rs, and pirated software) the media is going to start to dig for the real story... Expect them to get it right sooner or later. When that happens... well.. it will be a scary day, i guess. Anyways, this article can be found on: http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9904/23/pirate.movies.ap/index.html enjoy! "Movie makers shudder as illegal copies of hot films spread on the Internet April 23, 1999 Web posted at: 11:34 AM EDT (1534 GMT) SANTA CRUZ, California (AP) -- Look out Hollywood. College students whose technical prowess spread bootlegged music over the Internet are now watching newly released films on the computers in their dorm rooms. Copies of hit movies like "The Matrix" are being distributed with a data format similar to the so-called MP3 files that are being used to spread free music across cyberspace. While the data files containing full-length movies are too big for the average home computer user to conveniently download, college students with high-speed hookups in their dorm rooms are doing it and the movie industry is shuddering. "It's very nice. I get to sit here in the comfort of my own room and watch a new movie without going to the theater and spending $7.50," said a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who asked that his name be withheld. It's not very nice, said Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America. "The theft of copyrighted material in any format cannot be left unaddressed. There is no exception in the case of Internet copyright theft. We won't condone it, and we will pursue those who steal film product and illegally transmit it via the Internet." The movies can be found on public Web forums, including those run by America Online, and on Internet message boards. The movies are frequently distributed by students at colleges around the country -- including Stanford University, UC Berkeley and Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The quality varies. "Cruel Intentions," Sony's new release about a pair of evil teens, looked vivid and sounded clear on a standard desktop computer in one cramped dorm room at Santa Cruz. However, "The Matrix," the surreal sci-fi film, looked somewhat dark and shady, and the musical soundtrack was missing. Here's how the copying works: The originals usually come from either a mixing studio employee who steals a copy of a yet-to-be released movie, or a projectionist who brings a camcorder into the reel booth and makes a copy. The video is then transferred digitally into a file, which is recorded into a computer. Once that computer file is distributed onto the Internet, it can be widely available. The drawback is the size of the file. While a song in MP3 format can be downloaded in a few minutes, it would take hours or even days to download a movie using a typical telephone connection to the Web. Internet analyst Mark Mooradian, who tracks the proliferation of music on the Web for the research firm Jupiter Communications in New York, said the large files are going to limit the widespread use of movies online until the technology improves. "It's just not going to be practical for most people," he said. But many college students and offices have access to networks with speedy computer lines and vast memory space. With these systems, an entire movie can be downloaded in about 20 minutes. "It gives me a sense of satisfaction, like I found something and here's the proof that I have it," said one self-described "stereotypical computer-jockey-hacker" who distributes movies campuswide at Santa Cruz. About two years ago, college students and other techies started using MP3, an audio format that compresses music files at CD-quality sound for easy distribution over the Internet. Since then, sharing new music over the Web has proliferated to more than 500,000 different music files online, despite critics who say the technology allows for massive music piracy. The Recording Industry Association of America and other music groups have recently teamed up with top technology companies to develop ways to distribute copyrighted music with protections against illegal copying. If this effort works, similar versions could be applied to films, said Leonardo Chiariglione, a founder of the Moving Picture Experts Group, the organization that created MP3 and is helping to create a secure version. The RIAA's anti-piracy chief, Frank Creighton, said movie studios should be very concerned. "This could easily explode," he said. "Anyone with a computer now is a movie distributor. With a click of a mouse button these things are flying around the Internet." Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed." *grin* =----------------------------------=-------------------------------------= -----------[The Scene News]----------- All the news thats fit to print... and then some... -BAM! I'm back, and i'm ready to kick it up a couple of notches! thx to bacid for filling in for me while i was gone.. Go to tca.phatchicks.com, and click on 3 or 400 banners... -K... there was a big fat issue about the dms private channel, and the bot that they had in there... wtf, people? dms issued an apology?.. thats bullshit. Like EVERY OTHER FUCKING group doesn't have a bot like that.. LAME. DEV killed dms accts on et and fs.. LAME... dev, you fucking bunch o' hypocrites! dms, if someone found out about your "secret channel", then your security sucks. hire taw. -a little vegetable told me that dunk's fucking ego is starting to bury FS.. True, FS has never had the "nicest" siteops in the scene, but... i wouldn't start to count it out just yet.... oh mgd, return from your slumber and save the beast.. ;p -Some milestones in the scene this week... officedog became #10 alltime on LA -group moves: cablegod leaves DMS, glen joins dms, tc from vgn to dev, mgoh is a dms senior, hemphoodlum retires; tk4, lester, genesisp, evel and many others quit their respective groups to reform vgc, exhume = crystal leader, blitz to vgc, kirk_hamm to vgc, unclejohn to vgc (jesus!), zzap to dms, and rodman got shitcanned. -Wow... tc left vgn finally... of course, i guess its not vgn any more, but still. -I saw ben affleck in Chapters the other day. He had a lot of books on architechture and cars. We chatted briefly, and ben would just like the scene to know that he "gives mad props to duranged"... whatever that means. -Big utils group news. VENGEANCE is reformed by Lester. The old vengeance, not the mad-idle curry group. So.. a shitload of people leave their groups and go join up with them. Wacky. -MG's full database got somehow zipped up, and released, as a fake mfd release. Now, mfd didn't have anything to do with it, so how it got released is still a minor mystery. The bottom line is: if you had an MG account, there is a chance that the IP of your shells/ISP are now public. I'm sure you know what the implications of that are. -And still i see no changes... -Cute little log on bacid's webboard about eagle_1 narking boxes... come on people.. that log is OBVIOUSLY faked... i mean, really.. how low can you get? When a man like eagle_1 with such an impeccable reputation can have his name dragged through the mud like that... well... something is just not right with the scene... ;p *snicker* -I think bleem is just all a big hoax. -Word is that tms is coming back soon with a wacky wacky daemon. -SOMEONE CARD ME A NUTTY INDUSTRIES WARMTH SHEATH!!! -sky masterson =----------------------------------=----------------------------------------= --------[Stories from the Watercooler]---------- Ahh yes, rumors, we all love them even though we love to say how much we hate them when they are about us. And these are some of the better ones circulating around this week. Email us or find us on irc if you have a good rumor you'd like entered, your name will not be included, but we do not add rumors like that say "Tdpriest is having anal sex with Fusion" because we know that Fusion is only having sex with Xtremist and therefore there is no hard evidence of that rumor, so if you have real rumors, let us know. Let's begin! -Rumor has it that nwr is back, and fat, the webpage is coming by next issue. GUARANTEED, BITCHES. -Rumor has it that ndetroit was gone for a while after CSIS called him up, and needed to take care of yugoslavian bitches. owned. -Rumor has it that the RUSSIANS putting a lot of the top talent on their payroll... as for why... you can try to figure it out on your own.. =-------------------------------------=--------------------------------------= Well friends.. Thats about it. If you've read this far, we sincerly thank you. We like to know this thing gets read, so if you get the time, drop one of us a quick msg, and tell us what you think, give us suggestions, tell us it sucks, or just say "hi" to us!.... Greets fly out to: jaydee, mgd, stix, tdp, hr, eci, jamili, raptor, skill, mandrake, zeus, speedy, subzero, superfly@okcomputer, wu-dave, dee, sj, bud, prozac, bernis, paledeth, duranged, tech+his crew, Kusa, ssava, CRC 97, acidapple, and all the rest of you that we love... Find us on IRC in #nwr, (channel commands: !nwr, !nwr 23 or whatever issue you want. We can't afford email, so we just steal CWS's... ;) Support NWR and CWS, and email your weektops to: [email protected] Thank you! take care.. peace. -ndetroit + lester. NWR 4/28/98
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