4 ms·

How did people get access to unreleased software?

gfosco 9y ago
The way it used to work in the old #warez days, was that people in the testing or supply chains (think cd packaging, for one) would leak things early. Groups like Razor1911 had suppliers, couriers, crackers, designers.. a wide network of people working on acquiring and spreading software.
- Cyph0n 9y ago
  An important thing you didn't mention is why these people participated in leaking software for no credit. It is because they got something in return: access to the private FTP servers used by the group, which means they get to download their releases before they appear anywhere else. This is especially attractive to people who manage DDL or streaming sites which earn a lot of $$$ from intrusive/malicious ads... It is also a big deal for private torrent tracker operators and/or uploaders. If you get Razor1911 releases before any other tracker, people will want to get in ;)
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
dogma1138 9y ago
Back then games had to be gold to be sent to the CD/Disk manufacturer, then you had to receive the copies and send them to be packed or directly to the distributors if they handled the finale packaging. This meant that a golden sample could circulate for as much as 6 months (and even longer) before the game would go on sale. Also as all support was pretty much phone support which also included some basic gameplay support you would have support staff often at 3rd party call centers who would require access to the game before it goes on sale (for large games at least, small companies tended to have support in house). Today with digital distribution even if it's for patches only you don't care about the game going gold the DVD could contain a build that is utterly irrelevant pretty much every new install from disk requires a day 1 patch that can be often as large as downloading the whole from scratch (pretty much every console owner knows this, PC games also get a day one patch but digital distribution is a given for the PC market these days). So zero-day for games at least isn't that important anymore, also DRM is harder to crack these games some games take months to crack, some don't get cracked at all, some rely on a weaken DRM version to be released (e.g. STEAM) down the line that can be cracked more easily. For DVDs/BR today this also often happens you have full BR rips often weeks before the official release date, sometimes months just because they are already ready just waiting on the right time to go on sale or for some online distribution exclusivity deal to end.
- gambiting 9y ago
  I work for a large games publisher and we still do that in fact! I've recently been on a trip to our customer service centre, and the guys and girls there have access to early builds of nearly all of our games so that when the game comes out they can provide advice on day one. And yes, I too was surprised to find out that they do provide actual gameplay advice if someone calls with a question - every desk had several massive game guides for our games just in case.
  - dogma1138 9y ago
    It doesn't surprises me that they still do that but with how easy it is to track builds these days and the fact that games today are released broken with "we'll fix it after launch" mentality it's not really that much of a source anymore. Early builds that might not function outside of the internal environment aren't much of a deal the last leak I remember that got a scene release was probably the Doom 3 Alpha.
- Steve44 9y ago
  In the 1980s when games were on cassette tape we used to go to either a recording studio or directly to the duplication plant. We'd take the computer with the mastering software and plug that into their reel to reel 'recorder'. I think it varied but was 1" or 2" tape usually. We'd then run some cassettes off that master to validate they loaded, some of the copy protection was picky about the duplication quality and speed. They'd then start production and the finished product would be on the shelves in a week or two at most. It was a fun and very interesting time visiting all those places. I went up to Telford once and was stuck there for a while as there was a mastering problem and we had to play with the copy protection. Most of the times it was a place by the A4 near Chiswick/Hammersmith.
amatecha 9y ago
Check out this article about music piracy -- I believe the process for game piracy was pretty much identical around that time: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/the-man-who-broke-the-music-business https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/the-man-who-br...

The way it used to work in the old #warez days, was that people in the testing or supply chains (think cd packaging, for one) would leak things early. Groups like Razor1911 had suppliers, couriers, crackers, designers.. a wide network of people working on acquiring and spreading software.

Cyph0n 9y ago
An important thing you didn't mention is why these people participated in leaking software for no credit. It is because they got something in return: access to the private FTP servers used by the group, which means they get to download their releases before they appear anywhere else. This is especially attractive to people who manage DDL or streaming sites which earn a lot of $$$ from intrusive/malicious ads... It is also a big deal for private torrent tracker operators and/or uploaders. If you get Razor1911 releases before any other tracker, people will want to get in ;)

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

dogma1138 9y ago

Back then games had to be gold to be sent to the CD/Disk manufacturer, then you had to receive the copies and send them to be packed or directly to the distributors if they handled the finale packaging. This meant that a golden sample could circulate for as much as 6 months (and even longer) before the game would go on sale. Also as all support was pretty much phone support which also included some basic gameplay support you would have support staff often at 3rd party call centers who would require access to the game before it goes on sale (for large games at least, small companies tended to have support in house). Today with digital distribution even if it's for patches only you don't care about the game going gold the DVD could contain a build that is utterly irrelevant pretty much every new install from disk requires a day 1 patch that can be often as large as downloading the whole from scratch (pretty much every console owner knows this, PC games also get a day one patch but digital distribution is a given for the PC market these days). So zero-day for games at least isn't that important anymore, also DRM is harder to crack these games some games take months to crack, some don't get cracked at all, some rely on a weaken DRM version to be released (e.g. STEAM) down the line that can be cracked more easily. For DVDs/BR today this also often happens you have full BR rips often weeks before the official release date, sometimes months just because they are already ready just waiting on the right time to go on sale or for some online distribution exclusivity deal to end.

gambiting 9y ago
I work for a large games publisher and we still do that in fact! I've recently been on a trip to our customer service centre, and the guys and girls there have access to early builds of nearly all of our games so that when the game comes out they can provide advice on day one. And yes, I too was surprised to find out that they do provide actual gameplay advice if someone calls with a question - every desk had several massive game guides for our games just in case.
- dogma1138 9y ago
  It doesn't surprises me that they still do that but with how easy it is to track builds these days and the fact that games today are released broken with "we'll fix it after launch" mentality it's not really that much of a source anymore. Early builds that might not function outside of the internal environment aren't much of a deal the last leak I remember that got a scene release was probably the Doom 3 Alpha.
Steve44 9y ago
In the 1980s when games were on cassette tape we used to go to either a recording studio or directly to the duplication plant. We'd take the computer with the mastering software and plug that into their reel to reel 'recorder'. I think it varied but was 1" or 2" tape usually. We'd then run some cassettes off that master to validate they loaded, some of the copy protection was picky about the duplication quality and speed. They'd then start production and the finished product would be on the shelves in a week or two at most. It was a fun and very interesting time visiting all those places. I went up to Telford once and was stuck there for a while as there was a mastering problem and we had to play with the copy protection. Most of the times it was a place by the A4 near Chiswick/Hammersmith.

amatecha 9y ago

Check out this article about music piracy -- I believe the process for game piracy was pretty much identical around that time: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/the-man-who-broke-the-music-business https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/the-man-who-br...