The Ware Report - November 1996 Written By: The Renegade Chemist ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ The Ware Report .. Official Rules ... I. Definitions. PLAYABLE - The game is cracked, and can be played by someone who speaks only English. COMPLETEABLE - The ware report does not go by the definition "playable." Because games must be ripped from CD, they must be COMPLETEABLE in order to be accepted. This means that you don't rip out tracks, levels, or trivia questions in order to get a release out. It's okay to take out sound, animations, and music, provided that these are not essential to the completion of the game as it was designed by the publishers. Any other license taken at the group's discretion is subject to my review. DUPE - The game was released before, by another group. Usually this means that the group released the game several hours too late, but this rule also applies if a group releases an update and tries to pass it off as a sequel. FAKE - An unplayable, or unfinished version of a game. CREDIT - Full credit means the group put out a new, completeable game, and cracked it properly the first time. They receive all megabytes that are associated with the game as part of their group score. Half credit means that the game came out badly cracked, or in need of a fix, but the group did fix it, so it only loses 1/2 of the megabytes. Both full and half credit allow the group to retain the full release points for the game, in addition to whatever meggage has been awarded. No credit means that the game was not completable, or released uncracked and fixed by a different group. In this last case, the group receives 0 megabytes for the release, and 0 release points. Screw-ups like that can really hurt your average for the month. II. Rules ... A. SPA Compliance - This report is fully compliant with all the rules set forth by the SPA several months ago: 1. Only games of 50 disks or less will be considered. 2. Only final versions will be considered. 3. Only games completeable by English-speakers will be considered. B. Extensions to SPA Compliance. 1. Only the first, completeable version will be considered. 2. Trainers, Patches, Upgrades & the like are not considered. 3. If a game is a DUPE or FAKE the group will not get credit. 4. If a game is released uncracked and later fixed by the releaser, the group gets 1/2 credit. If another group fixes it, the original group gets no credit while the cracking group gets 1/2 credit for the release. If the game goes unfixed, the releasing group gets 1/2 credit and nobody gets the other half. Should a game require more than one fix, for each subsequent fix the amount of credit will be divided in half; ie, the first fix resulted in 1/2 credit, the second in 1/4, and so on. C. The Ware Report Group Rating System - The group rating is based on 3 things - number of releases, meggage of releases, and release rating. 1. Number of releases - Self-explanatory. 2. Meggage of releases - Self-explanatory. 3. Release ratings - The rating is a number, from 0 to 9, rating the game's importance to the scene. This means that big, anticipated titles, which are of course more difficult competition, will get higher ratings than smaller titles from smaller publishers. This explains why BattleCruiser 3000 got a 9 (the highest rating) while Death Rally only got an 8, even though Death Rally is more fun to play. Quality of a release doesn't usually come into play on the rating, unless the game is a real "sleeper" (ie the original WarCraft) or a major disappointment. * Rating Bonuses. While I can't find a fair way to penalize groups for ripping games poorly, I CAN reward groups for ripping them properly. This means that the smaller the rip, the higher the bonus points: 1 - 10 disks .. +1.00 31 - 40 disks .. + 0.25 11 - 20 disks .. +0.75 41 - 50 disks .. no bonus 21 - 30 disks .. +0.50 * Group Rating Formula - The group rating is calculated as follows: (Sum of all Ratings+Bonuses) ---------------------------- * (Awarded Meggage) = Group Rating (Total Number of releases) ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ TITLE PUBLISHER RATING DISKS SIZE AWARDED ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Group: Prestige ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3DO Games Decathlon Studio 3D 6(0.75) 16/16 23mb 23mb Admiral Sea Battles Mega Media 6(0.75) 14/14 20mb 20mb AFL Finals Fever Cadability 6(0.25) 31/31 45mb 45mb Age of Sail TalonSoft 7(0.75) 19/19 27mb 27mb Agile Warrior Virgin 6(0.75) 13/13 19mb 19mb Alien Trilogy Acclaim 7(0.75) 13/13 19mb 19mb Batman Forever Acclaim 7(1.00) 9/ 9 13mb 13mb Battleground: Antietam TalonSoft 7(0.50) 28/28 40mb 40mb Battleship Hasbro 6(0.00) 45/45 65mb 65mb Cave Wars Avalon Hill 7(1.00) 8/ 8 12mb 12mb Civ. II Scenarios MicroProse 6(1.00) 10/10 15mb 15mb Conquest/New World DLX Interplay 7(0.00) 43/43 62mb 62mb Death Drome Viacom 6(0.75) 11/11 16mb 16mb Daytona USA Sega 8(0.75) 14/14 20mb 20mb Descent 2 Inf. Abyss Interplay 6(1.00) 10/10 15mb 15mb DragonHeart Acclaim 7(0.75) 18/18 26mb 26mb Duke3d Plutonium Pak GT Interactive 0(0.00) 0/19 27mb 0mb Eat My Dust Sierra Online 6(0.75) 17/17 25mb 25mb Front Page Football '97 Sierra Online 9(0.00) 42/42 61mb 61mb Full Tilt! 2 Pinball Maxis 7(0.50) 21/21 30mb 30mb F/X Fighter TURBO GTE 6(0.00) 42/42 61mb 61mb Grid Runner FINAL Virgin 7(0.50) 23/23 32mb 32mb Hunter: Hunted Sierra Online 7(0.25) 31/31 45mb 45mb JetFighter III Interplay 8(0.00) 48/48 70mb 70mb MS Golf: Mauna Kea MicroSoft 6(1.00) 6/ 6 9mb 9mb MS Golf: Pinehurst MicroSoft 6(1.00) 9/ 9 13mb 13mb Terminator: SkyNET Bethesda 9(0.75) 6/11 16mb 9mb Tomb Raider EIDOS 9(0.50) 21/21 31mb 31mb Plague MicroForum 6(0.25) 38/38 55mb 55mb Power Rangers Zeo-Power CyberFlix 5(0.00) 46/46 66mb 66mb Risk Hasbro 6(0.50) 29/29 42mb 42mb Rocket Jockey Sega 7(0.75) 19/19 28mb 28mb Sim Copter Maxis 7(0.50) 26/26 38mb 38mb Sim Golf Maxis 7(0.50) 27/27 39mb 39mb Soul Trap MicroForum 6(0.25) 34/34 49mb 49mb SSN Simon&Schuster 6(0.75) 19/19 28mb 28mb Steel Panthers II SSI 8(0.25) 38/38 55mb 55mb US Navy Fighters '97 EA 8(0.00) 46/46 67mb 67mb Virtua Squad Sega 8(0.75) 6/12 18mb 9mb X-Treme Chess Davidson 6(0.50) 24/24 35mb 35mb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTALS FOR PRESTIGE 286.00 920/950 1371mb 1327mb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prestige Monthly Points : 286.00 Number of Releases : 40 Release Quality Average : 7.15 Prestige Group Rating : 9488.05 Notes/Explanations : D3d Plut Pak - Bad crack/rip, fix required. RZR fixed, no credit given. Termy SkyNET - Bad crack/rip, fix required. PSG fixed, 1/2 credit given. Virtua Squad - Bad crack/rip, fix required. PSG fixed, 1/2 credit given. Prestige - Comments ... I feel like a broken record. For the 3rd consecutive month, Prestige has equalled or broken the world record for the most releases in a month. Last month, PSG did it with 36 releases, this time the group had 40 releases as it coasted to an easy victory over the competition. All of the Prestige Members contributed something to this month's victory. The group had 14 different suppliers turn in performances this month, the most out of any group, and 6 different crackers removed protections for the group this month. Prestige's major source of originals is still conventional but more insiders are jumping aboard all the time - with guys like ODB, Union Jack, and the new insiders the group is rumored to have, expect to see many more early releases from the group in the near future. Most Prestige Members believe that Prestige is a fun group to be in; because of that, don't expect to see a slowdown in the rapid growth of the group. One of the things that makes PSG so successful month in and month out is the effort of the leadership to bring in "new blood" as often as possible. Many other groups refuse to give new people a chance to prove themselves, often setting them up against ridiculous odds and not giving them the full benefits that other suppliers might have. This is a foolish strategy. PSG has proven that there are capable people out there, but they must be plugged in to the system in order to be productive. Karrade, for example, cut his teeth on the finely-tuned PSG Supply System, and now he has gone on to PDM, presumably to succeed there as well. With 7 titles in his first month, he is hardly going to be turned down by ANY group at this point - and yet just 4 weeks ago, he left Razor because of a lack of support by that group's leader- ship. There are other examples of PSG's constructive philosophy, as well. Guys like Pale Horse, Feeeenixx, and Q-Ball all provide an influx of games into the group, but there is not much pressure on them to supply, because of the capacities of the other, experienced, Members. Then there is the matter of cracking. Prestige has 6 crackers, which is not particularly noteworthy, until you consider that all 6 are actively cracking games for the group, and that one of them, CyberPhreak, is actually new at cracking but has done six titles this month! CyberPhreak is also a supplier, and is conveniently located near the heart of PSG's Supply Team, plus he has one of the fastest available connections to the internet, so he is a surefire bet to crack a lot of PSG's titles. Wolverine and Grudge are 2 of the best crackers in the scene, while LTD and Lost Soul are experienced but often more difficult to contact because of their residence abroad. In any case, Prestige will more likely never want for cracking, though no group can ever have "too many" crackers (my personal philosophy). Prestige is quite simply a well-rounded and balanced group, poised to take on December and beyond! Assessments ... 1. Supplying. Prestige still has the best corps of suppliers out there, and as a result won on nearly every US title once again. The loss of Karrade probably won't hurt Prestige very much, as the chief reason Karrade was successful was the support staff he had in PSG, and the newest additions to the PSG supply team, Mr.Skill, Feeeenixx, Pale Horse, and Q-Ball, should do more than pick up the slack. In Europe, PSG did absolutely nil this month. Supply Rating (Europe) - 1/10 (change: +/- 0) Supply Rating (US) - 9/10 (change: + 1) 2. Cracking. The North American corps of crackers has truly solidified, and PSG now has 3 capable crackers in the States - Shadow Seeker, Wolverine, and perhaps the biggest surprise, CyberPhreak. This month Grudge stepped up with 6 cracks, but LTD and Lost Soul are not to be forgotten, each cracking several titles for the group. Overall, PSG's cracking has improved, especially in North America, where fast cracking is the key to victory. Cracking Rating (Europe) - 7/10 (change: +/- 0) Cracking Rating (US) - 9/10 (change: + 1) 3. The "Winner" Factor. This factor is of course still applicable, perhaps even moreso this month than the month before. PSG is a winner, and this keeps attracting more quality people to the group. Noteworthy +'s and -'s ... (+) Prestige added to its US supply team this month with the additions of Mr.Skill, Feeeenixx, Pale Horse, and Q-Ball. The 4 of them combined for about 25% of PSG's releases this month. (+) Prozac had a huge month for PSG, supplying 11 titles and assisting with several others. If this is an indication of what he can do in the future, expect more big things from him. (+) CyberPhreak has refined his cracking skills, and while he's unable to crack some of the more difficult protections, he can handle 3 out of 4 protections that come his way. Because of his proximity to some of the top PSG suppliers, and his ethernet access to the net, CyberPhreak is a good weapon against the other groups. This kind of cracking availability is a serious threat to competition. (+) The Blue Adept joined Prestige this month, from Razor, and he'll prove valuable in assisting with organizational matters within the group. (+) Prestige made very few mistakes this month, and handled most of them in- house. The quality of releases was higher than in October, and the group grabbed a lot of big titles, like Front Page Sports: Football '97, Tomb Raider, SykNET, and the Duke3d Plutonium Pack. Quality titles like this will do a lot to offset the accusations of "budgetware" from other groups. (-) Once again, Prestige comes up empty in Europe. With so much success in North America, its time for PSG to branch out and take parts of Europe away from Hybrid. (-) Prestige released Duke3d Plutonium Pack totally uncracked. This is absolutely inexcusable, even though it has never happened to this group before. I've always said that its better to lose on a release than to put it out uncracked, but in this case the group didn't even test the game. That's amateurish and mistakes like that cannot be allowed by the PSG leadership. Things like this can open up the group for insult and it alienates fans of the group who wanted to play this long-anticipated game. (-) Karrade, a fast supplier on the east coast, left the group for PDM. Top members of PSG are less concerned with losing his output than with PDM gaining it. Prestige probably has enough depth to cover the loss of Karrade, but it could become a problem during a race. Predictions & Summation ... Last Month's Prediction: 1st place, 20-25 releases. Actual: 1st place, 40 releases. Prestige won by a landslide this month, just like the two previous months. Other groups have got to be wondering if there's any good reason to try and compete with Prestige - the group just wins on title after title, hit after hit release, despite the best efforts of the competition. The basic core of the group hasn't changed much since last month, although the group has had its biggest facelift in some time, with the addition of 4 new US suppliers. This group has been successful because of good organization from the top down and that organization is still in place. Shadow Master deserves a lot of the credit, as the group has become more successful as his name appeared in the "supplier" column less often. In any case, PSG seems poised to win again in December. My prediction for December is that PSG will indeed win the month by a large margin. I doubt that the group will manage 40 or even 36 releases, as the last month of the year is historically a slower month than the two preceding it. Once again, I have to bring up the fact that Prestige has the most depth out of any other group. When Karrade left for Paradigm, the other top groups started smacking their lips, looking forward to a shot at some releases, or at least expecting Prestige to lose on a few more. However, since Karrade left, the opposite has occurred - PSG hasn't lost on an American title since Karrade left the group more than 2 weeks ago, while Karrade still remains empty-handed as a Paradigm supplier. The reason for this is quite simple - depth. When Karrade left, other suppliers stepped up to the plate and delivered the quality titles. The supply scheme employed by Prestige is such that suppliers can be more successful than within other groups - this is why Prozac more than tripled his output moving from Illusion to Prestige, why so many rookies are making an impact on the number of releases from PSG, and why good suppliers only get better when made a part of this group. It doesn't do other groups any good to steal PSG's suppliers - PSG can recruit new ones who will do just as well as the old ones. Until the competitors can come up with a supply system that can compete with PSG's, don't expect a slow down in production from the group. As far as last month's prediction (1st place, 20-25 releases) goes, well, I blew it again. PSG had first place, of course, but doubled my predicted out- put. I just didn't think we'd see this many titles for 2 months in a row, even from THIS group. Well, I was wrong, and Prestige once again put on an unreal show for us to watch. I expect the group to win in December, but this time I really do think my numerical predictions are accurate. I just don't see how we can have more than 40 new games out for another month... Prediction: 1st Place, 15-20 releases. ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Group: Hybrid ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Blood & Magic Interplay 8(0.75) 18/36 52mb 26mb Blue Ice Psygnosis 6(0.75) 29/29 42mb 42mb Destruction Derby 2 Psygnosis 8(1.00) 3/ 6 9mb 5mb Fragile Allegiance Gremlin 7(0.25) 21/21 31mb 31mb Grand Prix Manager 2 MicroProse 6(1.00) 5/10 15mb 8mb Krazy Ivan Psygnosis 7(1.00) 4/ 4 6mb 6mb Realms of the Haunting Gremlin 7(0.50) 27/27 39mb 39mb Screamer 2 Virgin 9(0.00) 24/48 70mb 35mb Swiv 3D Sales Curve 6(0.25) 18/18 26mb 26mb XS Sales Curve 6(0.25) 20/20 55mb 55mb Zombie Wars Sprint 5(1.00) 5/ 5 8mb 8mb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TOTALS FOR HYBRID 81.75 174/224 324mb 252mb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hybrid Monthly Points : 81.75 Number of Releases : 11 Release Quality Average : 7.43 Hybrid Group Rating : 1872.36 Notes/Explanations : Blood & Magic - Bad crack/rip, no net play. Not fixed, 1/2 credit given. Screamer 2 - Bad crack/rip, fix required. HBD fixed, 1/2 credit given. D. Derby 2 - Bad crack/rip, fix required. HBD fixed, 1/2 credit given. Gr. Pr. Mgr 2 - Bad crack/rip, fix required. Not fixed, 1/2 credit given. Hybrid - Comments ... Hybrid had another nice month this November, continuing a trend they started early in the year, with a strong 2nd place finish behind Prestige and ahead of Razor and Paradigm. Mad Turnip is once again the man most responsible for Hybrid's success this month, which earned him the MVP for a second straight month. Not only did the Turnip supply most of the games Hybrid released, but he even cracked many of them himself! Of course Animal & Dogfriend are not to be forgotten, as they supplied & cracked 3 games as well. Only a couple of Hybrid's releases needed a fix, as Screamer II and Destruction Derby II both needed fixes (the netplay on DD2 and Blood & Magic don't work by the way). Many people wonder why Hybrid continues to be so successful even though it is a small group. Here's why: 1. Supplying. Hybrid's originals all come from Europe, and I think that Hoson (the leader of Hybrid) has finally accepted that, as no Hybrid members have tried to make inroads with US suppliers. The addition of Hot Tuna to the supply team will make life easier for Mad Turnip, as now he has someone to help him rule over the UK originals. Animal & Dogfriend continue to be a reliable duo, helping the group get over the hump and put out some more quality games. Supply Rating (Europe) - 9/10 (change: + 1) Supply Rating (US) - 0/10 (change: +/- 0) 2. Cracking. Hybrid's cracking continues to become deeper, as Mad Turnip sharpens his cracking abilities. It seems that the group has almost no need to go with their pure crackers anymore, as most of the titles we see nowadays are cracked by Mad Turnip or Animal & Dogfriend, though Jammer and the rest of the crackers can still be seen from time to time (like when Hoson tries to crack something that is way over his head ). If need be, Hybrid can use some of the best crackers in the business to take care of the tough protections. Cracking Rating (Europe) - 9/10 (change: +/- 0) Cracking Rating (US) - 0/10 (change: +/- 0) 3. The "Small Group" factor. Hybrid succeeds at what it does because it doesn't have as many members as some of the larger groups. The size of Hybrid facilitates better cooperation and communication between members, and that's what keeps the group running so smoothly. Noteworthy +'s and -'s ... (+) Hybrid picked up another capable Brit this month, capturing Hot Tuna from Razor to strengthen the UK supply team. (+) Hybrid goes along with the 50 disk limit, which gives them credit as a group that sticks to its word. (-) Hybrid still has no US suppliers, so it lacks the firepower to beat groups like Prestige. Predictions & Summation ... Last Month's Prediction: 4th place, 7-10 releases. Actual: 2nd place, 10 releases. Well, Hybrid sure surprised me this month! I figured that Europe would slow down, but I was apparently wrong, as the group cranked out a flurry of games at the end of the month to put them in 2nd place. Again, the other groups are willing to write off the European titles as a loss to Hybrid, so I don't think they are in any threat of major competition anytime soon, unless Razor is able to get a lot of games out of Hooligan (which I doubt). In any case, Hybrid did very well again this month, and I suspect they'll do alright in December as well. For December, I predict this group will finish in second place, as the US releasing season is getting wrapped up and I think that a few more titles will be out in the UK than usual. Prediction: 2nd place, 7-10 releases. ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Group: Razor 1911 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Battleground: Antietam Talonsoft 0(0.00) 0/28 41mb 0mb Blam! MachineHead EIDOS 6(1.00) 9/ 9 13mb 13mb C&C: Red Alert Virgin 9(0.25) 17/34 49mb 25mb Cyber Gladiators Sierra Online 7(1.00) 9/ 9 13mb 13mb Duke3d Plutonium Pack GT Interactive 9(0.00) 10/19 28mb 15mb Firo & Klawd BMG 5(0.00) 46/46 67mb 67mb Gubble Actual Ent. 4(0.25) 27/27 39mb 39mb Ironman *FAKE* Acclaim 0(0.00) 0/13 19mb 0mb Ironman *FIXED* Acclaim 0(0.00) 0/57 82mb 0mb Lords of the Realm II Sierra Online 8(0.25) 36/36 52mb 52mb Privateer 2 *BETA* Origin Systems 0(0.00) 0/46 67mb 0mb Space Jam Acclaim 8(0.00) 47/47 68mb 68mb Time Paradox Flair 6(0.50) 27/27 39mb 39mb WWF *BETA* Acclaim 0(0.00) 0/43 62mb 0mb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTALS FOR RAZOR 1911 65.25 228/441 636mb 329mb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Razor Monthly Points : 65.25 Number of Releases : 14 Release Quality Average : 4.66 Razor 1911 Group Rating : 1533.14 Notes/Explanations : Battleground: Antietam - Dupe of PSG. No credit awarded. C&C: Red Alert - Bad crack/rip. RZR fixed, 1/2 credit given. Duke3d Plutonium Pack - Fix for PSG bad/crack rip. 1/2 credit given. Ironman *FAKE* - Fake release. No credit awarded. Ironman *FIXED* - Over disk limit. No credit awarded. Privateer 2 - Beta. No credit awarded. WWF *BETA* - Beta. No credit awarded. Razor 1911 - Comments ... November marked many changes for Razor, most of them for the worse. The group's leader, The Speed Racer, retired from the scene, and left the group in the hands of The Punisher, an inexperienced hothead who has only been in the scene for about 6 months. The Punisher has already managed to alienate some of the oldest members of the group, as Hot Tuna, Razor's former top UK supplier, left for Hybrid, citing disatissfaction with the childish attitude of the leaders as the chief reason for his departure. Hot Tuna has already proven valuable to Hybrid, supplying 2 titles for the group this month. In addition, the new "leader" of the group displayed more of his childlike antics in threatening a young supply prospect, Karrade, when he left for Prestige early in the month. Karrade was also disappointed with the so- called "leadership" within Razor, and struck out for better opportunities, but The Punisher would have none of it, and threatened to bust him. Read more about it in RCN #30. Combined with the great losses Razor incurred when they lost Karrade and Hot Tuna (who together released more games than Razor put out the entire month!), Razor's image was shattered as the group cranked out beta after beta release. WWF: In Your House, Privateer 2, and Iron-Man were all betas, requiring mop-up jobs from other groups. The group released a game as 57 disks (Iron-Man - Fixed), well over the established 50 disk limit, as well. The kiddy ware Gubble didn't do much for Razor's image, either, as that game was passed up by Prestige (and every other group!) more than a month before those "talented" guys at the Blade released it. PieJackers and Time Paradox (supplied by JDA and rumored to be a beta, though nobody's proved it yet) rounded out the garbage games by the blade, while CyberGladiators did not work on any of the 4 systems we tried it on (rumor has it this one works on some systems, so for this report I'll give Razor the benefit of the doubt). Command & Conquer: Red Alert required 2 fixes to play properly, one for the internet, and one for the graphics which were screwed on level 7 through 11 because of an improper rip-job, but I think we can overlook that considering the fact that Beowulf had to strip one 400+ meg file into several smaller files to make the game playable for us pirates. Although the Razor members continue to rant "quality not quantity," it has become apparent, at least to my eyes, that this group will release anything it can get its hands on, regardless of the condition of the release. For more information on how bad Razor is, just read JDA's interviews in RCN #31, they tell volumes about how the group operates. But why did Razor crash and burn again this month? The fact that Razor kicked itself in the nuts in October had a lot to do with it, but I think we should go into more detail: 1. Supplying. Razor's supply team has withered into nothingness. The group used to have a lot of depth in this area, but now all the top suppliers have gone the way of the dinosaur, or left for other groups. Hot Tuna, the group's top UK supplier, left for Hybrid, which was a blow to the European section of the group. While JDA was mostly a beta supplier, he did occasionally get a final version of a game, but he, too, is now gone. In the US, none of the top suppliers from the past are making an impact; the only good games Razor got this month came via The Speed Racer, who is now retired. Razor is no longer able to get ANY games by conventional methods, and what titles they do get now will be few and far between, and will not exhibit any semblance of consistency. During the early part of the month, Razor stated that they would now get all Virgin and Sierra games. Since that bold statement, Razor has lost on 2 Virgin games, and on the biggest Sierra game of the season, Front Page Sports: Football '97. Whether they are able to rebound and pick up a good supplier or two will dictate their success in this area, because right now, Razor just doesn't have the firepower to compete with Prestige in the US, or with Hybrid in Europe. On the upside, Razor seems to have an enigmatic new Euro supplier, Hooligan. This is the only possible ace Razor has in its deck, and thus far, Hooligan has only supplied 2 cheesy titles that none of us will ever play (MachineHead, Firo & Klawd). Supply Rating (Europe) - 1/10 (change: - 1) Supply Rating (US) - 3/10 (change: +/- 0) 2. Cracking. Last month, my report generated some controversy when I stated that Razor's cracking in North America was only worth 3/10 points. I did not intend to offend Beowulf, and I apologize for doing so, as anyone who has spoken to me on the subject of cracking knows that I consider Beowulf within the upper echelon of crackers; indeed, cracking is the only area where Razor has any strength at all, and Beowulf is the prime reason for that. The 3/10 was awarded because I did not believe Beowulf was easily accessible or available, and there- fore I did not think he'd be much of a factor unless the group had a game very early (where speed on cracking didn't matter). The cracking rating is based on my opinion of what would happen if all the groups got a typical, protected US game at the usual time (in general, before noon EST). Razor would not be able to go with Beowulf, unless I have bad information, thus he is useless in that kind of situation. I'm sure that if Beo was available, he would perform as well as any good cracker out there; but if he's not available, how good he is becomes a moot point. Anyway, on with my analysis. Beowulf did more than I expected him to, as he was able to crack 4 games for the group, thus earning the MVP award for the month. Beowulf single-handedly put out the best game the group got, Red Alert, by stripping it from a huge size to one that is playable for the rest of us, and for that he does deserve a big hand, even though the game required several fixes. As far as the other crackers went, they performed on an average level, but note that none of them was really tested; Razor was able only to get one game via conventional means this month, therefore speed was never an issue. All in all, I'd have to say Razor's cracking team is capable of cracking just about anything, but because of time differ- ences and availability, is not a threat in a race to a group like PSG, which has enough crackers for almost any eventuality. Razor gets a +2 for the US side of the rating, because Beowulf really does deserve a hand for his work with Red Alert, but again, in a race, I don't see how Razor can compete. Again, its not Beowulf who gets the cracking rating, but Razor with the rating. To draw a metaphor - on a Super Bowl team, Neil O'Donnell was a pretty good quarterback, interceptions notwithstanding. With the New York Jets, he is 1-12. His bad stats passing this season are more a reflection of the team he plays with than a reflection on his abilities as a quarterback. Cracking Rating (Europe) - 4/10 (change: +/- 0) Cracking Rating (US) - 5/10 (change: + 2) 3. The Punisher Factor - The Speed Racer stepped out, and with him a bad reputation for dirty tricks, which is definitely a bonus for the group and its reputation. In order to offset any benefit of this departure, however, TSR installed one of his disciples, The Punisher, in the position of "leader." The Punisher, while just as rotten as TSR, has none of the former leader's sensibilities in determining when and when not to discuss busting someone; before he was even given the mantle of power, The Punisher threatened to bust another group's supplier, and this isn't the first time Punisher has done something like that, as he even threatened to bust a good friend of his, Malign, after he left Razor for Prestige several months back. Even Razor members don't like this guy, as was proven by the departure of Hot Tuna, and the recent rumblings of dissatisfaction within the group. The fact that The Punisher threatens to bust anyone who leaves Razor is certainly a good reason NOT to join this group; as more people realize what a tyrant this guy is, they'll stay away from the group, and more importantly, those already in the group may elect not to perform rather than serve the ego of a guy like this. Noteworthy +'s and -'s ... (+) Hooligan supplied 2 titles from Europe this month. Whether or not that means anything, time will only tell, but if Hooligan is able to keep up 2 or 3 titles a month, it will help keep the group afloat until it makes the tough changes that have to be made. (+) Beowulf is cracking more of Razor's titles. If that means he has more time to crack, it is a huge benefit for the group, as Beowulf is one of the better crackers out there. (-) Razor has started releasing all sorts of crap, but continues to rave about "quality, not quantity." Its clear that those are empty words, so Razor should either can it, or only release quality games, before it erodes any more of the trust people have in Razor's cracks. With so many big egos and so little production, something has to give. Predictions & Summation ... Last Month's Prediction: 3rd place, 5-10 releases. Actual: 3rd place, 10 releases. Once again, Razor has had its knuckles bloodied as it hit against a brick wall called Prestige again this month. The only thing holding the group together is the idea that if they try hard enough, its members can bring down Prestige. Some members, like The Punisher, are taking this very seriously, even going so far as to threaten Prestige suppliers (ie Karrade). Razor must overcome challenges like The Punisher so that the truly gifted members of the group can shine. Some of the pieces of the puzzle are there, but the group doesn't have anyone to get the rest of the pieces and put them all together. My prediction from last month was accurate, as Razor finished in the bottom half of the heap with less than 10 releases. I believe that next month, the group will do worse than it did in November, however I think that Paradigm will be even worse, therefore I think Razor will finish in 3rd place one more time. I said last month that many Razor members were barely holding on by a thread; some of those members are already gone. December could be Razor's defining month: Razor will either prove me totally wrong and succeed in the face of overwhelming odds, or it will fizzle into nothingness once and for all. I don't think that this group can continue running on fumes for much longer. Prediction: 3rd Place, 3-5 releases. ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Group: Paradigm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A-10 Cuba! Activision 7(0.50) 16/31 45mb 23mb Archimedian Dynasty Blue Byte 7(0.50) 22/22 32mb 32mb Creatures Inscape 0(0.00) 0/14 21mb 0mb Harpoon '97 for Win95 Intractv Magic 6(0.00) 43/43 62mb 62mb Heroes/M&M II New World Cmp. 9(0.75) 8/16 24mb 12mb Master of Orion II MicroProse 0(0.00) 0/58 84mb 0mb Race Mania Flair 5(0.25) 19/38 55mb 28mb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTALS FOR PARADIGM 36.00 108/222 323mb 157mb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PDM Monthly Points : 36.00 Number of Releases : 7 Release Quality Average : 5.14 PDM Group Rating : 806.98 Notes/Explanations : A-10 Cuba! - Bad crack/rip, fix required. PDM fixed, 1/2 credit. Creatures - Bad crack/rip, fix required. PDM fixed, but not a game. No credit given for screen saver utilities. Heros/M&M II - Bad crack/rip, fix required. Indy fix, 1/2 credit. Master of Orion II - Bad crack/rip, fix required. Fixed by PDM, but over the limit, and initial fix did not work. Third-party 30 disk fix required, final size totaled 88 disks. Race Mania - Bad crack/rip, fix required. PDM fixed, 1/2 credit. Paradigm - Comments ... : Even though Paradigm was able to get a few good titles this month, the only word I can use to characterize their performance is mediocre. PDM, who I thought would win 3rd place this month, fell all the way back into last place, behind even Razor. From the attitudes of group members, however, you'd think they won the month! PDM boasts big attitude, but thus far has produced very little in the way of results. A number of factors influenced their slide this month. For starters, out of 7 releases this month, 5 of them had problems. First off comes Creatures, which is not even a game, but is in fact a screen saver utility. Why PDM released this is beyond me. In addition to not being a game, the release required a fix as well. The second screw-up of the month was Race Mania, a very bad racing game from Europe that required a fix to patch the CD check that occurs after you win one race. A-10! Cuba and Heroes of Might & Magic II both required fixes as well. Finally, we come to the issue of Master of Orion II. This game was available all day in CompUSA before PDM released it - yet they still were unable to get it right. For starters, the game was released as 58 disks by PDM, well over the set limit of 50 disks. While this outraged the other groups, many users were happy to get a relatively small version of the game to play - unfortunately, PDM did not test their release at all, and the game was NOT playable. The 4 disk fix released by PDM solved some of the problems, but in order to finish the game, an additional 30-disk fix from an independant group was required. This means that the full game is about 90 disks in size, which is nearly double the size of the limit, and is a lot more than most users are willing to download. Shame on you Paradigm! Bad cracks/rips notwithstanding, PDM still had a pretty bad showing this month, with only 5 legit releases. However, once again both continents did provide several titles each, and the group was able to release a very big title, Heroes of Might & Magic II. The supply team appears to be rounding itself out, as the group picked up several new suppliers (though I suspect that these "new" suppliers are just fake names for someone we already know and love, I will give the group the benefit of the doubt for now) who have all produced a good title. Zeus did nothing for another month, and this could really become a big problem for the group, as PDM needs for him to produce in order to be successful. Paradigm's cracking remains a major issue, with the star cracker of the group, Holy Beast, faking a crack for Master of Orion II, and of course the crack/rip mishaps I mentioned above. Then there is the problem of leader- ship, which seems to be getting out of control over at Paradigm. Hemp Hoodlum, one of the leaders of the group, threatened to bust CyberPhreak of Prestige, after a routine prank (releasing a 100 disk title as PARALAME in homage to PDM's flouting of the 50 disk limit on MOO 2). This kind of silliness is what's killing Razor, and the Paradigmers should be careful not to let it kick in before the group even gets off the ground. So, what are Paradigm's chances in the future? Let's see what's "under the hood," so to speak: 1. Supplying. The fact that most of PDM's releases this month required fixes is not a reflection on the group's ability to get the games. I was surprised to see where the games came from in November, though not entirely surprised to see a number of good titles from the group. Neither the US nor the European side fared well this month, but both did provide a couple of games, and this is a good sign. Zeus did not supply this month, which is worrisome, considering that out of every- one in the group, he has the most potential to be a top supplier. Zeus even lost on an Avalon Hill title, a company he claimed to have "locked up" after he picked up Over the Reich from that publisher. If Zeus loses his motivation, this group is sunk. In the US, the group added Karrade, who was successful with Prestige, as an East Coast Supplier, and in Europe, the supply as been as expected, with several poor to mediocre titles coming in from the German connection. Supply Rating (Europe) - 2/10 (change: +/- 0) Supply Rating (US) - 4/10 (change: - 2) 2. Cracking. Paradigm has several crackers, but has only used two of them thus far, Holy Beast and Johnny Cyberpunk. Johnny is certainly the better of the two, and Holy Beast proved that he's not as good as he'd like to think, even faking a crack on Master of Orion 2 when no protection was encountered on the game. Additionally, with the addition of Karrade, PDM's cracking will have to get much faster in order to win on the US titles. Cracker Rating (Europe) - 5/10 (change: +/- 0) Cracker Rating (USA) - 0/10 (change: +/- 0) 3. The "ZEUS" Factor. Zeus is still a famous supplier, and he can still use that to his advantage when recruiting suppliers to his team, as he did when he brought in Karrade. However, if he doesn't start to put out titles, the novelty of Zeus will wear off. Noteworthy +'s and -'s ... (+) Karrade joined Paradigm this month, and he'll be a valuable addition, as he's had experience with the most powerful North American group, Prestige. If he's able to duplicate his successes with Prestige, Karrade will supply a lot of good titles. (+) For a second month, Paradigm has had several titles from both the US and Europe, which can only serve to keep the group closely-knit. (-) PDM continues to break their promises/philosophies, as 5 of 7 PDM releases this month required fixes, and Creatures was not even a game. Should they continue on this track, the "Quality not Quantity" ideal will be mocked. (-) There continue to be members in the group who don't do anything. A few PDM people have already expressed concern with this situation. Predictions & Summation ... Last month's prediction: 2nd place, 5-10 releases. Actual: 4th place, 7 releases. Paradigm has evolved from a threat into a joke. This group has some real potential, but is wasting it on public relations nightmares. Master of Orion 2 was released at 58 disks, 8 over the limit, and required a 30 disk fix from an independent group in order to run properly, as the 4 disk PDM fix for the game was useless. Creatures was cracked by PDM this month, requiring a fix, unfortunately it wasn't a game. A-10 Cuba!, Heroes of M&M II, and Race Mania all needed fixes as well. Master of Orion 2 had no protection, but PDM stated they cracked a CD check on the game. So far, the group has done everything it set out not to do - first budget titles, now 3 out of 5 releases need fixes, etc. They need to get back on track. On the upside, PDM was able to get several good titles out of the States this month, and several games out of Europe as well. Zeus supposedly did not supply a game this month, and the group still did okay in the US. Now if PDM can duplicate those successes, expand on them with Zeus and Karrade, and work on getting out more clean cracks, they have a chance to be a big contender in December, but I personally don't see it happening. Prediction: 4th place, 3-5 releases. ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Well, its been another great month of free wares! November saw the release of Red Alert, Tomb Raider, Master of Orion II, and a lot of other really kick ass titles. For the past couple years, November has been the best month of the year, and this one was no different. Prestige blew the doors off of the competition once again, slamming out an outrageous number of quality titles, but the other groups weren't silent, as Razor made noise with their crack of C&C: Red Alert. Hybrid got in on the action with several nice European games, and Paradigm brought up the rear with a bunch of non-working releases, among them the highly anticipated Master of Orion II. This month, there was really something for everyone, and December should be a little bit slower so we can all take our time sampling the great titles from November. * NOTES: As usual, my commentary was written right about at the start of December, so by now its a little bit outdated. Paradigm died and the remaining members joined Razor, Hybrid's having a killer month so far and other weird things have happened since I wrote the copy for most of this report. Once again, sorry it took so long to get out, but there was a lot of stuff out this month and I have a lot of other things to keep myself busy with, besides the scene. I appreciate all the email, comments, and questions I have gotten since I started the report - keep 'em coming. Also, check out the file SCORING.TXT included in this release, and if you like it, let me know. The MVP and more is in that file. Enjoy, and have a happy Christmas holiday! * GREETS: The Third World Paki Report Crew - Shadow Master & MindBender. Prestige, Razor 1911, Paradigm, and Hybrid - All the guys that make my report possible. And of course, greets to pirates everywhere! Enjoy the report and watch out because it'll be out next month, too. - The Renegade Chemist / Prestige Author of The Ware Report! * To contact the author of The Ware Report, email him at chemist@laker.net.