The
Scene 
The
Scene
Warning: There is ABSOLUTELY nothing illegal on this page and on the following links. I had fun in the scene, but I am NO LONGER in it, therefore do not ask any questions relating to the present!
AH! The good old days. I used to roam bbs's around the world getting wares as well as getting those wonderful ansi packs (that I still have BTW - contact me if you want some). When I started in 1992, everything was almost over in the scene, INC the biggest cracking team, as well as the first on PC's (I think?) was dying. Then it came to THG, and Phoenix, a local (but very good) Montreal cracking team. Then there was Nuke and Darkman (which I met accidentaly - BTW those Nuke people are VERY dangerous and I think they still exist).
And in the 514 AC everything stopped one day (in 1995), when most boards got busted, The Notice and Twins in particular. Everyone had high speed modems (they were getting very cheap), and more and more young kids were getting in on the biggies (and the stupid fighting and flaming messages shortly followed).
Anyhow, it is all over now, but it was fun while it lasted.
I will add some sample .nfo files as well as intros that you can download as soon as I have the time.
Effix This is a group that I created in the early days with a friend of mine. At first we did a few loaders for several local boards. Then it became a courrier group for ANSI packs. We were quite fast... But since phreaking was not our style, it was also very expensive. We had sites all across north-america. Due to a lack of time because of my studies, the group disbanded a year later.
You can download our loaders here
Members: Black One , Dark Minister, BackDraft, Cyric, The Veritech Knight.
Some information from groups that I used to love
TRSi - Tristar Red Sector Incorporated (crackers)
Very good crackers, and they used to have cool intros with ALL
their releases. No other group did that! (And NO group did that
when I retired - only .nfo files).
go visit the TRSI demo division web page
You can also download one of their
intros. 
TDT - The Dream Team (crackers)
Another great cracking team, they also included some cool
intros, and they used to release A LOT. (headed by Hard Core)
You can always download one of their
intros.
PTG - Pentagram (crackers)
This cracking group was created when several disgruntled people
from several other groups (Nexus in particular) joined together.
It did not last long (maybe it still exists?), but they used to
release at least two games a day.
PDX - Paradox (crackers and demomakers)
Mostly Amiga stuff, but they did release a few PC games
NTA - Nokturnal Trading Alliance
Used to release some good utilities.
INC - International Network of Crackers (crackers)
The first and foremost cracking team ever created (for PC at least)
Cracksmith, Jake Pikkett are all classic names now.
Sadly enough, the group died when they left, and thereafter,
a 'copycat' decided to release some educational games under
INC's name. INC's reputation was forever rotten.
PE - Public Enemy (crackers)
Don't know much about this group, but what I know from it,
is that they were really enemies with all other cracking groups!
Now quite dead. I remember a fight on some boards and nets
between PE and another group (cannot remember which one exactly)
which both claimed to have released X-Wing first.
(ps: claiming to be first in the release: one group uploaded
the disks before the other except for one, and the other
uploaded the entire set later. Who 'officially' released
it first? We will never know).
THG - The Humble Guys (crackers)
A good group with The Pieman (sysop of the pits), they also had
an excellent demo section, they did not release a lot, but
they existed for a very long time. (And I never saw them fight with
other groups. that is SPECIAL!). Quite dead now.
FLT - Fairlight (crackers)
They did not release much for the PC , but they were
quite good.
Go visit their company home page
or their scene home page
PWA - Pirates with Attitudes
Still quite in force, they released a lot of utilities, there
even used to be a Mac division. Wonder if it still exists.
iCE - Insane Creator Enterprises (ANSI)
These guys were/and are still great, I could not believe
my eyes when I first saw how beautiful an ANSI could become.
There has always been fierce competition between iCE and
ACiD and I think there still is!
Home page of ICE
ACiD - Ansi Creators in demand (now called Artwork Creators in demand) Other
good ANSI group. They used to have their WHQ at The Elusive Dreams.
Home page of Acid
Razor 1911 - (crackers) Another excellent group, still active even today,
I remember they used to have the most extensive courrier/dist
site service (looking at their member list, it was two pages long!).
Hope they will live long and prosper.
Their home page
download rzr-red.zip; one of their demos
Mirage BBS - This was the best of the best for speed, evidently i never got in (I could not even get the phone number to it, was somewhere in California). Sadly enough, after several busts at other boards, the sysop got scared and simply closed shop. Used to be the Razor WHQ. (Ami-Express)
The Pits - This bbs lasted for over 10 years, it was the THG WHQ and was located in NYC. Never got validated. (I hated those NUV voting systems). It closed down (why?) after the sysop had problem with the phone company. (PC-Board)
Alpha 2010 - This bbs came from absolutely nowhere, but after
a while it was one of the biggest (in terms of storage) in North America,
sadly enough it was busted. NUV = no validation
The Elusive Dreams - The legends of legends, for over 2 years, this was the fastest bbs in the world, if your group wanted to be known and claim to have released something first, you HAD to upload it to this board to have any credit. Closed down a while back. Evidently I never got validated there. ACiD HQ. (PC-Board)
Assassin's guild - When everything closed down, there was this bbs left, and it rose up quite fast, I don't know much about this board, except that I have a small loader for it (when it had only two nodes!). By the time this board had become the fastest, I had retired from the scene. Was busted though. Never called.
The Wall - This bbs took the place of The Elusive Dreams, when it closed down, it became one of the fastest in the world, it later became PTG WHQ. The board was busted in March 1996. It used to have 28 Gigabytes online! (thanks for the information Master of Puppets).
X-Factor - Still alive and well AND BIG, one of the biggest in NYC. I called there a few times, but I did not like my ratio (1:2 bytes, normally 1:3 for LD callers), I never called back, I think that was a BIG MISTAKE from my part.
Beyond Akira - This was the de facto fastest board in Canada, no doubt about that. ISDN lines included! Called there once, got validated by a miracle (NUP was required but I got in anyhow). I made a mistake in not uploading immediately (What could I upload, I did not have anything?), got flushed when I later called. (Amiexpress - last time I called). Got busted recently.
The Notice - I did not even know these kind of boards existed in Montreal. First time I called there, there was no PC section, but the sysop decided to open one, and I mean it was fast, even after calling other boards in others AC's (which were big, 3+ nodes), I could still not upload at this board. I gave up on uploading entirely it was useless. At least 70% of his users were from Europe. (Ami-Express) - 4 nodes.
Other boards that I visited:
Hi and ho's to the following: Malcolm X [ACiD], Poseidon [PWA/Romkids], Slider, Spread [TDT], Insider, Snibble, Slum Dweller [Razor], Natural Disaster, Cyric [Effix], Rodimus [INC], Space Ace [Dread], Arc Angel [Dread], Prophet [PTG], Midnight Sorrow [iCE], Darkman [Nuke], Dark Minister [Effix].