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    Sunday 31th January (3:30pm GMT) - Desperate

Due to The Scene Review's desperate bid to attract more hits by offering free software, we have removed their reference in the links section.

    Saturday 30th January (12:55pm GMT) - Simcity ZzZzzzzzzz.

Origin in their latest release as included a massive NFO that claims that Class's SC3000 release is a complete dupe of their release. Then it goes on about the even older topic of Class running Just The Facts.

    Wednesday 27th January - Today's Major Releases

NFO Turok 2 Seeds of Evil (c) Acclaim (49)
NFO Alpha Centauri (C) EA from Paradigm (16)

    Sunday 24th January (1:20am GMT) - Simcity 3000 Final

Class has released a patch (450kb) for Origin's release of Sim City 3000. The fix converts Origin's release to the store release. If you didn't download the Origin release Class also released the Sim City 3000 store edition at just under 50 disks.

Below is what Class has to say about Origin's release of Sim City 3000.


  Here  is the "100% FINAL STORE BOXED COPY RETAIL VERSION" of  Sim City 3000.
  This is  version SC3final1230981.rc2, while  the ORIGIN and IND release  are
  both version SC3KBeta102991.1.  An interesting side note, in the FINAL .EXE,
  there is a  portion which states "The 30 day expiration of  this pre-release
  has expired."  However, in the  ORIGIN release, the .EXE has been modified &
  this whole sentence has been 00'd out.  In the DVNISO .EXE, it says "Another
  fine DVNISO release."  This was obviously done in an attempt to cover up the
  fact each group knew it was indeed not the FINAL copy.  Rest assured this is
  not a pre-release.

So upon reflection, what have we observed? We've watched ORIGIN lie to its competition and the public about the reason for their release of SC3K saying BETA in the version window. We've watched them try to in turn cover their tracks by removing text from the .EXE, that in fact is also found in the STORE FINAL game. Last but not least, we were forced to endure another unbearable ORIGIN.NFO in which they mutilate the English language through their whining over points they were unable to score in the charts. If they put half as much time into examining their releases as they put into writing their gibberish NFOs, perhaps they would in fact earn points in the charts. To OGN: You're not fooling anyone...

We at CLASS chose to do a BETA TO FINAL UPDATE PATCH as well as a FULL STORE FINAL RELEASE, because we are aware that some of you have unknowingly downloaded the ORIGIN BETA while others were not given the chance because ORIGIN's OVER THE LIMIT, BETA was removed from most sites. Those who have the ORIGIN release but want to avoid the possibility of problems such as, game updates not working, multiplayer incompatibilities, and the game eventually expiring, can grab the BETA TO FINAL UPDATE and rest easy. Those who missed the game altogether, waiting for the final, can grab the FULL RELEASE and see what they've been missing. Enjoy!

    Tuesday 19th January (1:30pm GMT) - Another Beta

Razor 1911's release of Alpha Centauri has been pulled by the distributor and is infact not going to be the store final. Apparently it's still to buggy so there will be a new gold coming at a later date.

    Sunday 17th January (12:30pm GMT) - Sodom

Sodom has returned after a years break. The new group consists of members from the old group, but without it's founder Saint Tok.

    Saturday 16th January - Today's Releases

NFO Alpha Centauri (C) EA from Razor 1911 (20)

    Saturday 16th January (8:35am GMT) - Simcity 3000 BETA

Sim City 3000 is apparently beta. It has been confirmed by many people of Origin's release of this game that if you hold down Ctrl Alt V (for version) you get the following reply ..
SC3KBeta102991.1
OEM VERSION: SC3KBeta102991.1
Note at this time even facing this evidence Origin are denying that it is a beta.

    Saturday 16th January (8:35am GMT) - Scenelink Returning

After a period of inactivity, scenelink is set to reopen with a new look, and a new team of editors. The site will feature current news from across the art, demo, and warez scenes, as well as occasional interviews and articles. The original founders, neofish9 and dezigner, are overseeing the redesign, but plan to retire from active service following the reopening. Questions may be directed to either neofish9@scenelink.org, or neofish9 on efnet.
Additional information, and a form for suggestions, are available at www.scenelink.org.

    Thursday 14th January (12:00am GMT) - Origin Rebels

You may have noticed that Origin's release of Sim City 3000 is 56 disks. Thankfully Origin is not a member of the Faction and so they can (if they choose) release what they want at what they feel is an acceptable size. Like Mindseye said in his article it is not about following X rules but rather getting the software out the most efficient way and today you see that with Sim City 3000. While obviously Faction sites (pdm, cls, rzr) are going to nuke and discredit this release some more open minded sites have accepted it.

    Thursday 14th January (12:00am GMT) - Origin Blasts JTF

Origin have been making a lot of news today with the most recent being the accusations of the JTF conspiracies. This article in the Simcity and Liath NFOs is really not worth reading about as it just rambles on in a typical Cypher fashion on how everyone sucks but themselves. I generally gives examples on what Cypher thinks his Origin released games should have scored, not much in the way of compelling evidence. I’m just curious as I thought it was common knowledge that JTF was a Class biased publication? So why are Origin dribbling this rubbish now, maybe because they finally have some half decent releases?

    Thursday 14th January - Today's Releases

NFO Liath (C) Project Two Interactive from Origin (45)
NFO Sim City 3000 (c) Maxis / EA from Origin (56)

    Wednesday 13th January (11:30am GMT) - Mindseye's Article

If you never read another scene related article... read this one.

The scene... whats left of it. I was reading through my mails the other day when I read a reply to a mail I wrote saying "I really wish there was some one public sounding board where I could let off some steam about a few things in the scene that have simply gotten out of hand..." I got a reply from a member of my group who directed me to a few URL's... 3 in fact... One of them I should have known about, www.defacto2.net's Forum... I should have known about it since I have been in DF2 since its upstart as an art group, but things mellowed for a while and I somehow dropped out of contact, anyhow, as I said there were 3 links... The DF2 link, One to a site where there was a full blown idiot fest going on where ChinaBlu was bieng called a bitch and cunt and everything else that a mature 12 year old can think of to call some one whos success intimidates them. That was not for me... The other had very little "Utilz" related info and seemed to be moderated by someone who assumed the scene was comprised of "The gamez groups" and those other little groups that didnt really need to be represented...

So my itchy fingers and burning soul turned towards the lesser of 3 evils... Defacto2's board was newly started, with very few posts, but Ippgi had at least made a few topics and initial posts to get people going... But what locked me to it was this forum called "The Utilz, Cracking, and Appz scene" I posted this message:

"The very title of this area is a horrendous example of scene rules gone awry...

#1 tell me the difference between an App and a Util.. if you say Pagemaker is an App and Partition Magic is a Util.. then show me one "Utils" group that wouldnt release both. Its crap.

To take it further and clarify what I mean... your little scene rules have forced people to make up senseless crap and confuse the piss out of everyone. Utils vs. Cracking Affil means this:
---> "I need an excuse for double grouping"

What does a utils group do with thier utils?
THEY CRACK THEM.
What does a cracking group crack?
UTILZ.
Get the point? All release groups are cracking groups. Games groups CRACK Utilz groups CRACK.. Everyone is a cracking affil. Gimme a hammer so I can pound it into your thick skulls.

and now I hear "But if they only crack shareware?" Then they are a WEAK utilz group. Get a supplier and some better crackers and try and compete, otherwise sit there and fart around... but you are still a UTILS group if thats what you crack.

Log onto any decent site... you get two dirs to up into..

What are they?

/GAMES/
/UTILS/
Where the hell is /CRACKS/ ? It doesnt exist cause everyone would laugh at the asshole siteop who made that dir.

Not to sound pissed off but enuf is enuf already with the damn rules and leeto-bullshit.

//MindsEye - Rebels"

I put my email on the message, gladly ready to swap punches with anyone who had something to say against my hard facts. I expected the mails to come.. but none did. Not yet anyway.. I expect there will be some.. I will also hasten to assume that they will come from new generation warez kids who were born with windows and assume computers have always had a mouse. They say that this generation is inheriting the scene.... well... after I die maybey. But they have had thier chance in my eyes. I dont want rules on releasing anymore than I want laws on the Internet. These things are ours. We were here first. We built it. They havent even taken the time to TRY to understand it. It began so beautifully... Anarchistic. Us against them, the companies trying to bleed us dry with rediculous software costs. And now its us vs. this unknown mess of crap and insecurity. Before you had to earn your place in the ranks... show what you were made of... Now you only need a cable modem and 1/4 of a brain and poof! you're Leet! Start a group... take some name that sounds cool... Fairlight! That sounds cool... Hmm.. I may have heard of that but fuck it.. there is noone using it now...

The rules in the beginning were simple... Dont be stupid. If you are intelligent then you will do things in a way that will be most efficient... that is leet. If you uploaded crap with no .DIZ so that no one knew how many disks were in the release you were lame.. why? cause you broke the level of efficiency. Not because you broke a rule some moron made... but because there was a better way and the truly leet always knew what the better way was and used it, they used thier heads. Thats all there is to it.

I know what every 14 year old who only knows the word "warez" to describe the scene is thinking right now as they read this article... "fuck you old man... die already... theres a new sherrif in town" and to that my reply is... you gotta outwit the old sherrif son.. and to be honest.. I dont think ya got the goods. If you had your new "systems" would work. And if you take a long hard look at the leadership of the successful groups in the scene these days I think you will find an "old schooler" at the helm of each and every one of em. Someone who very probably did binary to hexadecimal conversion, probably has typed some of his first games into his C=64 line for line by hand, someone who knows how his machine, how his network, and how the internet in generall works, someone who made tones into phones to make free phonecalls from usa to france to sit on QSD in paris or Lutzfer in germany, the predecessors of todays IRC.. One room.. no ops... anarchy. We were there.. and we are still here.. behind every group in the scene that is successful... And we have no intention of letting a bunch of snot nosed windows punks trash what we have built. Are you 14 and thinking "but I would love to learn all that stuff.. I am open minded.. I dont think I am god with a keyboard" Then theres a place for you in digital heaven my son... Its you we will lead into the light... it is you who will inherit the kingdom... OUR scene... Treat it well and remember these simple rules:

1- a real group releases to get warez to the people, and not to show off to each other or look good on lists.

2- a truly leet group is a group that is the most efficient -in the computer world its brains that count. Efficiency gives results, and results are what make you.

3- regardless of what anyone says the 3rd rule is very important... There are no rules. Fuck'em. Dont let anyone tell you what to do, what to release, how to release it... BUT make sure that if you are going to go out of the main stream (that which has proven to be the fastest and most intelligent) that your way is faster and smarter or they will eat you alive.

Live on the edge... Make it happen.
And you old schoolers... Dont give up on "our scene" it isnt dead... you are.. wake the fuck up, take some initiative, lets straighten this shit out... and if we are going to just give the scene to the next generation then lets give em a scene that fucking works. Thats fun. Like we had.

//MindsEye - Rebels

    Wednesday 13th January - Today's Releases

Natural Fawn Killers (c) Gameplay (17)

    Monday 11th January (10:30am GMT) - Wirm.net Dead

No sooner then it was started it was killed. The persons behind wirm.net have now joined with the Scene Review who are also ment to be getting a new domain soon.

    Friday 8th January (2:00am GMT) - Razor 1911 Online, again

Razor 1911 (www.razor1911.com) has finally got their new site online. The site was designed by Defacto 2 and Superior Art Creations.

    Wednesday 6th January (9:00pm GMT) - KingXTC Closes

KingXTC the site that took up the slack left by gameover.net has closed down. It seems the post christmas slug has effected these guys too.

    Wednesday 6th January (9:45am GMT) - Oops 1911

Even Razor 1911 makes mistakes sometimes. The Razor patch for Dune2000 1.06 is broken according to Fusion who released a fix (for a patch?!).

    Tuesday 5th January (9:45pm GMT) - News Sites

In case you havn't noticed as of late there has been a flood of new sites jumping on the online news bandwagon. Can anyone remember the original (first) scene news site?

Orm's ISO News: Covers all you would want to know about the ISO scene, both games and utilities.
Released HQ: Inspired by TCA, though I find it's easier on the eyes (and sometimes has more updates). Though they do tend to over hype many items with *EXCLUSIVE* etc a bit too often.
Scene Review: Formed by a ex-KingXTC member, also has simular content. Though unlike KingXTC it is being updated.
The W**** Fix0r: I can't mention it's name because we are after a new advertiser at the moment. This is also another KingXTC clone with NFOs, patches, etc.
Prozac's Personal Game Reviews: Another gaming report done by the well known supplier/writter Prozac, the difference with this though is that it will be also in html format.

    WANTED BY US!

The Scene Archives is in need of a fast file server located in the USA. We are after around 100meg worth of space and the files hosted by this server must be accessible by web links (annonymous ftp or webserver). The files stored on this server will include scene electronic emags, cracktros etc. We are running out of space and urgently need more. While we can't afford to pay you we could work something out (such as free advertising to over 60,000 ppl a month). If you can help The Scene Archive please contact ipggi@defacto2.net.

    Monday 4th January - Today's Releases

NFO Extreme Tennis (c) Activision / Head Games (14)

    Friday 1st January (7:10pm GMT) - The Forum

Defacto 2 NET is now hosting The Forum. The Forum is an unmoderated censorship free web board where all our visitors can post discusions and items of interest. The url is www.defacto2.net/discus.