] The adventures of Evil Exidy aka "The Crazy Cracker" and his Apple // computer.

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] Introduction:

] Our first experience with a computer was with an Apple ][ Computer system - as early as 1979, 1980.

] In 1982 our father would reserve an one hour slot every friday night at the Boulder library (in Boulder Colorado) so we could play on their Apple ][ computers, this was a day both my brother and I would look forward to every week. Aside from playing games at the Arcade and Pong at home, the Apple ][ opened up a totally different door for us - we were now able to copy games from friends and other people in the area using copy programs, one of our favorites was COPY ][ PLUS. Around this time we relocated to Natchitoches Louisiana.

Actual picture of my brother playing Mobius ][ on his Apple //e. (thats my brother Apr. 86)

Actual picture of my apple //e running Tele-Cat ][ . (thats me Apr. 86)

] Late 1982 our parents decided to purchase an Apple //e for us because he noticed how excited, dedicated and enthusiatic we were about the computer system. What he failed to understand was our addiction to the system - we spent all day and most of the night on the computer- dialing into bbs's, downloading games and doing other "not so nice" things to others. We had already copied hundreds of games, hacking (definition: password stealing), phreaking (making illegal phone calls) and cracking (the breaking of copy protection on retail software). Back in the early 80's instead of the internet, we had an underground circle of bulletin boards systems (BBS's) where all the pirates (people who copy retail software) would trade games and share hacking and phreaking information. The BBS numbers were very easy to find, because whenever someone would crack a game they would leave their 'logo' or signature on the game with phone numbers to their favorite pirate bulletin boards. Some of our favorite bulletin boards included: The Pirates Cove, South Pole, Miami Vice, The Pirates Den and many others.. Aside from the cool bulletin boards there were pirate circles and everyone had an alias, I was known as The Crazy Cracker and my brother was Dr. Klepto.. Other more well known crackers/pirates were: Two Knives Tan, The Warezird, Crockett and Tubbs, Hot Rod, The Gonif, Krakowicz NY, Apple Bandit, The Syndicate, The Disc Jockey, Ali Baba, The Intern, The Sheik, The Triton, Apple Rebel, The Intern, The Time Lord. These crackers/pirates belonged to organizations or circles that worked together to crack and distribute games, some of the orgazinations were: The Midwest Pirates Guild, Coast to Coast, Black Bag, The Rackateers and many others. This was a huge underground scene, a scene that basically no one was aware of at the time.

] My system included:

] Apple //e computer system + 80 column card.

] Apple //e dual 5 1/4" disk drives.

] Star dot matrix printer.

] Hayes Micromodem 300 bps then later Novation Apple Cat ][ 300/1200

] Kraft Apple //e joystick.

] Novation Apple Cat // Modem

---(above)--- not actual picture of my computer.

] Now that I had my computer system, I was ready for business. We got our own phone line and started calling bulletin boards like crazy.. Running our phone bill up to $200 a month with no slowing down... Our phone bills were going up, up and up... We had to do something about this, so we started experimenting with calling card companies.. Our local long distance company was called LDS (Long Distance Service) and we got them good.. I cooincidentally saw a post on a bulletin board which gave an actually calling card # that worked for the SKYLINE long distance company. This same number worked on LDS, but what we soon found out was that LDS had only 1000 calling card numbers issued and they were all issued between 56xxxx and 57xxxx.. So we ran a hacking program over a 2 day period and managed to take all their calling cards numbers with one big SWOOOOOP. Now we were set, we could make all the phone calls - anytime - anywhere in the world without having to worry about any more phone bills or parents breathing down our necks for making expensive phone calls. The most exciting thing about this was that we lived in an area where tracing was impossible, our phone system was so primitive that even the operator didnt know where I was calling from! This gave us confidence and allowed us to do what we wanted in relation to long distance phone calls.

] It didnt stop here! We talked our parents into buying us a 10 meg external hard drive (by a company called RANA ELITE). At the time it was the biggest hard drive made and it cost my parents $1200... Believe me.. We were now considered ELITE! We also managed to get the hacker's choice modem called the NOVATION APPLE CAT ][ modem. This modem was able to do 300 bps + 1200 bps in half duplex.. We were also able to clone operator tones and do speed dialing. This cut our hacking time in half (hahahahaha). We had now had everything we needed for our own bulletin board system (BBS).

Actual picture of our apple //e. (pictured above: scott (left), me (right))

[*] The Silent World Cat-Fur 10 Megs......318-357-0858 [*]

] After thinking of some cool names we decided to go with (k)uality (k)onnections aka "The Silent World" BBS - which ran as a BBS, CAT-FUR and AE. At the time (k) meant COOL or better yet - Kool. So the more K's that were used, the kooler your bbs. I also joined the pirate group known as COAST TO COAST. So all the software that was cracked by them had our phone number listed on it. I was only 12 years old and my brother was 11, but we were doing stuff that most people couldnt even imagine for its time.

] By this time we already had thousands of games and access to everything we ever wanted. We even picked up how to CC (credi card). This is where people jump in dumbsters and steal the credit card carbon copies and use them to order merchandise (including computer parts, games, anything!!). You can imagine what happened here, I just leave it at that :)

] ...This period of chaos/adventure in my life ended in 1985/1986 when several of my friends were arrested for phreaking. I was tipped-off almost a month before the FBI came to my house. The tip was given by a friend of mine (king Lear).. He called me from a phone booth and explained to what had happened to him and his BBS, he also stated that FBI was asking questions about us (my brother and I) and our BBS. Later that week I managed to hide all my hardcore hacking/phreaking equipment plus all our illegal software. We set up a bare bones 'skeleton computer' which was taken by the FBI when they came to our house.

] The FBI. This was a scary time for our parents, but I can honestly say it wasnt for my brother and I. When the FBI came over and when they introduced themselves my parents were scared stiff. Both my brother and I were cool and calm, because we knew they were coming so we had already prepared for it. They asked us questions, more questions, and even more questions.. They were determined to break us.. We never did! We denied everything.. They even asked to see our computer which we were more than happy to show them. They took our computer away from us which ended our rampage.
In the end we were never defeated but our parents cracked down on us and would not allow us to dial into any BBS's anymore. Plus by this time we were in our mid teens and had bigger and better things to do.

] Transmission Terminated.

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List of some BBS's

Haunted Mansion 516-367-8172
Jolly Roger 713-468-0174
Mad Board from Mars 213-470-5912
Pirates Chest 617-981-1349
Pirates Cove 516-698-4008
Pirates Harbor 617-720-3600
Pirates Hideaway 617-449-2808
Pirates of Puget Sound 206-783-9798
Sherwood Forest 212-896-6063
Skeleton Island 804-285-0041
Secret Servic 213-932-9294
The Silent World 318-357-0858

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Update August 7, 2005

I actually found some text files and info on my BBS:

[*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*] [*] [*]
[*] The Pirate's Zone Ae/Bbs/10 Megs...402-333-1733 [*]
[*] Milliways Ae/Bbs/Cat-Fur/10 megs.609-921-1994 [*]
[*] The Pirate's Palace 30Megs/Ae/Bbs/CF..504-863-6105 [*]
[*] The Rapists Den Ae/Pw/Rape...........313-663-8103 [*]
[*] The Silent World Cat-Fur 10 Megs......318-357-0858 [*]
[*] The Cathedrial Of Chaos 10 Megs soon..702-323-1068 [*]
[*] Ecido Ae/Bbs/Cat-Fur/Megs.............914-764-5934 [*]
[*] [*]
[*] The Arabian Knight [*]
[*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*]

__________________________
/ Terrorist Home Companion \__________________________________________________
| \
| By: The Mentor & The Dead Kennedy |
| |
| An Anarchists-R-Us Release |
| |
| Call these fine systems: |
| |
| The Lighthouse............504-291-5690 300/1200 AE 10Meg PW:Ocean |
| The Pitstop...............504-774-7126 300/1200/AE/CF/BBS 10Meg |
| Pirate Chip...............206-735-7468 300/1200/AE/CF/BBS 10Meg |
| Silent World..............318-357-0858 CF 10 meg |
| The Asylum................504-831-4348 PW:Sanity |
| |
\_____________________________________________________________________________/

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CRACK SCREEN SHOTS

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Apple ][ games and game box's

Other Apple ][ related links

Click Here to see the Apple // Hacker Memory Website.
Click Here to see the Apple // reunion site.

Click Here to see Asimov - APPLE ][ ROM images.