Crack intro: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:21, 16 November 2024

Revision as of 16:17, 6 December 2024

Line 1:

{{Short description|Credit sequence added to cracked software}}

{{Use British English|date=December 2024}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}

__NOTOC__

[[File:Quartex.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Cracktro for the cracking group Quartex on [[Amiga]]. A typical crack intro has a scrolling text marquee at the bottom of the screen.]]

A '''crack intro''', also known as a '''cracktro''', '''loader''', or just '''intro''', is a small introduction sequence added to [[Software cracking|cracked software]]. It aims to inform the user which "cracking crew" or individual cracker removed the software's [[copy protection]] and distributed the crack.<ref name="EuroGamer" /><ref name="wired"/><ref name="0dayartTheVerge"/>

==History==

Line 14 ⟶ 17:

Crack-intro programming eventually became an art form in its own right, and people started coding intros without attaching them to a crack just to show off how well they could program. This practice evolved into the [[demoscene]].<ref name="EuroGamer"/>

Crack intros and other small software created by [[Software cracker|software crackers]] such as [[Keygen|keygens]] and [[Patch (computing)|patches]] that remove protection from commercial applications often use chiptunes[[chiptune]]s in the form of background music. These chiptunes are now still accessible as downloadable ''[[Module file#Music disk|musicdisks]]'' or ''musicpacks''.<ref name="chiptunes2009"/>

==See also==

* [[Chiptune]]

* [[Demoscene]]

* [[Hacker subculture]]

* [[List of warez groups]]