Ever since a proper jailbreak was introduced for Sony’s Playstation 3 video game console a couple of months ago, groups in the warez scene have been busy pre’ing leaked games for it. Thanks to the exploit, backups of original games could be played on jail broken consoles. Despite this being a relatively new find, there are already several scene groups dedicated to releasing PS3 games and activity in this segment is certainly picking up. But as we all know, the scene usually makes their releases conforming to a pre determined set of rules, agreed by major groups in a particular segment (see examples here and here. For a detailed overview of scene rules, nukes and nuke reasons see this post). Although there are rules governing scene releases of TV shows, Appz, Movies, etc, an official ruleset for PS3 games did not exist (until last week). Several groups in the PS3 scene have come forward to released a set of standards what they call is ‘official’. However, validity of this rule set is still in doubt after it was voided shortly after pre – In classic scene style, the VOID NFO opens with the line “These rules dont mean shit you asshats.”.

Quoted below is text from The.Official.PlayStation3.Ruleset.2011
.PS3-CONSOLE

[Begin Quote]

1.0) Release Rules:

1.1) Releases must be packed in RAR. SFV and NFO must be included.

1.2) Rar size should be split to allow a reasonable number of files.

Releases should not contain over 101 rar files.
0 to 4.700.372.992bytes folder 50.000.000bytes rar files
4.700.372.993bytes to 8.539.996.160bytes folder 100.000.000bytes rar files
8.539.996.161bytes to 18.253.611.008bytes folder 200.000.000bytes rar files
18.253.611.009bytes to 24.696.061.952bytes folder 250.000.000bytes rar files
24.696.061.953bytes to 32.212.254.720bytes folder 300.000.000bytes rar files
32.212.254.720bytes to 41.943.040.000bytes folder 400.000.000bytes rar files
more than 41.943.040.000bytes folder 500.000.000bytes rar files

1.3) Rars must be compressed with M1 (fastest) or better.

1.4) Rars must not be compressed using M0 / No Compression

1.5) The image of the game must be in one of these formats:

BLAS(ASIA), BLES(EUROPE), BLJM(Japan), BLJS(Japan), BLKS(Korea), BLUS(USA)

1.6) The game rip needs to be a full dump. RIPPED / STRIPPED / 3D removed releases done as iNTERNAL will not shield said release from nuke.

1.7) If a game does not include the English language, this must be specified in the dir name unless the region tag implies that regions native language is the only language in the game eg. game tagged JPN is Japanese only, hence does not need to state the language.

1.8) If a game is rereleased for having additional foreign languages, the dir must be tagged MULTI and the nfo must specify which additional languages are include.

1.9) Source of game disc origin must be included in nfo or be tagged
in the dirname. Non-region tagged releases without source information included in nfo will be nuked until they are dirfixed or nfofixed. A PROPER for this nuke will not be acceptable.

1.10) Suggested directory format:

Game.Name.PROPER/READ.NFO/REPACK.USA.JB.PS3-GRPNAME
Game.Name.MULTI.PROPER/READ.NFO/REPACK.JB.PS3-GRPNAME
Game.Name.PROPER/READ.NFO/REPACK.EUR.PS3-GRPNAME
Game.Name.MULTI.PROPER/READ.NFO/REPACK.PS3-GRPNAME

1.11) Only these caracteres are allowed in dirname:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789.-_

2.0) Additional Releases:

2.1) Patches for the lastest JB.ready firmware should be included in a CRACK dir (Modified Eboot/param.sfo)

2.2) If an update is avaible and crackable, it should be included in an
UPDATE dir.

2.3) Suggested directory format for updates(if the update is pred alone):

Game.Name.PROPER/READ.NFO/REPACK.UPDATE.VERSiON.JB.PS3-GRPNAME
Game.Name.PROPER/READ.NFO/REPACK.UPDATE.VERSiON.PS3-GRPNAME

2.4) Source of update origin must be included in nfo.
Can also be tagged in dirname.

2.5) Suggested directory format for eboot patch (in case that the eboot wasnt contained in a previous rlz or if a patch is now available for a game that could not be cracked at the time of the PRE.)

Game.Name.PROPER/READ.NFO/REPACK.Eboot.Patch.JB.PS3-GRPNAME
Game.Name.PROPER/READ.NFO/REPACK.Eboot.Patch.PS3-GRPNAME

2.6) PSN related releases will be regarded as PS3 releases and will
adhere to this ruleset. PSN related releases must have the tag PSN
in the directory name. Recommended directory format is:

Game_Name_REGION_MULTI#/PROPER/READNFO/REPACK/CRACK/etc._PSN_PS3-GRPNAME
Game.Name.REGION.MULTI#/PROPER/READNFO/REPACK/CRACK/etc..PSN.PS3-GRPNAME

3.0) Proof must be included:

3.1) All releases from physical sources must always include proof. PSN
releases will be exempt from proof requirements as they are downloadable.

3.2) Proof means a good quality scan or photo of the BluRay together with the cover or a booklet page so the proof can be identified as the
release in question. If the medium or cover/booklet contain anything that may expose your identity, then that part of the image can be blurred or blackened. Additional scans may be added but these DO NOT count as sufficient proof!

3.3) A note with the group name on the proof is required.

3.4) Proof resolution must be at least 640x480 or 480x640 pixels or higher in standard JPEG format.

3.5) Prooffixes If you fail to add scans/photos you have 24 hours AFTER NUKE to release a Prooffix. During and after this 24 hours grace period, any other group is allowed to release a PROPER with scans/photos. NOTE We STRONGLY recommend the removal of all Exif data! Uniquely identifying information such as the camera serial number and GPS coordinates can pose a security threat if not removed. Use tools such as jhead, PureJPG, EXIFCleaner or the inbuilt function of Win7/Vista to remove the Exif data.

The.Official.PlayStation3.Ruleset.2011.PS3-CONSOLE - v1.0
active as of Saturday 11 June 2011 00:00:00 GMT
Signed by the following groups on behalf of the PS3 scene:

ANTiDOTE - ATONEMENT - CARAVAN - CHARGED - CLANDESTiNE - DEFECT -- DUPLEX - iCON - JPMORGAN - MARVEL - NRP - PSIII - SHiTONLYGERMAN - SweeTpS3 -

[End Quote]

This was however followed with another SceneNotice titled The.UnOfficial.PlayStation3.VOID.Ruleset
.2011.PS3-FUCKYOU. Quoted below is the text from this NFO:

[Begin Quote]

These rules dont mean shit you asshats.
MARVEL, CHARGED, DUPLEX you didnt play by ANY rules and you think you get to make the NEW ones. lol NO all the other groups well are to lame to mention or decide anything.
Also these lame groups that are spit into 2 groups or 3 HAHA u know who you are, you get one vote. Consider your shit VOID until you can get all groups aboard.
Welcome to the Scene ;)
VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID

[End Quote]

You can download the original NFO files of both these scene notices from here and here.

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• Know All About Scene Rules, Standards, Nuking And Nuke Reasons

Read the rest of this article...

Duke Nukem Forever (DNF), a video game fans waited 15 years to be released is finally here. This highly anticipated title was released in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan on the 10th of June over Steam content delivery platform. It has just been one day since the game’s release and PC pirates have already been all over it, leaking the full game online along with a cracked executable that bypasses the Steam + CEG protection built into DNF. So far, at least 3 different ‘cracks’ have surfaced for the game two of them released by scene groups Razor1911, SKIDROW and also from a P2P source. RZR was the first scene group to crack the game but apparently their release was problematic with some users unable to replay completed chapters and so on. SKIDROW later released a PROPER which allegedly fixes these issues.

As most of you know, the scene is a place where groups compete for ‘first’ and ‘best’ releases. And PROPERS almost always involve flame wars, with groups arguing about the stability of their releases. However the NFO for Duke Nukem Forever PROPER-SKIDROW does not have any of it. Believe it or not, SKID actually praises RZR for getting the game out early:

Razor1911 did a fine job on getting their release out and reports are positive. Respect to the blade for some competition.
Still their release has a problematic issue with the crack, as when you progress in the game, you will notice that you can't go back and play previous completed chapters, besides the first one.
If you're happy with what you got from the blade, then don't download this proper. Alternative you can get the seperate sr-dnfcf.rar included with this release, so you don't have to download whole game again.
Keep in mind our release has all english, german, french, italian and spanish content in one whole package.

Now that PROPER note feels like a PC game dumbed down to suit consoles :P Although most of us claim to hate E-drama usually associated with the scene, those heated NFOs were kinda fun to read. They in my opinion intensified the competition between scene groups. Maybe SKIDROW is trying a different approach this time around, but keep in mind they were not so friendly in the last NFO war they faced.

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• SceneNotice Wars About SKIDROW Cracks

Read the rest of this article...

Forming a warez scene release group has many challenges. Despite the ever present legal threats, it takes a lot of time and dedication to keep up with evolving technology and adapt to cracking latest software protection mechanisms. This takes a heavy toll on group members real lives and is one of the mains reasons why most groups disband after a couple of years. However, there are certain release groups that have been around for several decades; FAiRLiGHT (better known as FLT) is one of them. FLT is a PC game release group that was founded in 1987 – they are now 24 years old but still alive and kicking. They just celebrated the release of their 1000th PC game ISO with the recently pre’d Shogun 2 Total War. Needless to say this is a tremendous achievement, especially considering the fact that the team was even subject to an FBI raid in early 2000s.

Quoted below is the NFO they released after the group was raided by FBI, as part of Operation Fastlink which targeted sceners in many countries:

Legends never die!
You all read the news - Operation Fastlink struck hard to the heart of the scene and hit the FairLight ISO section, but mind that the demo activities on the PC and C64 are still naturally untouched, as there is nothing to complain about from a legal point of view on what they are doing.
So, let me underline it for you again: FairLight's ISO section is lethally wounded, but the group as such is still alive and kicking!  FairLight is built stronger to last longer.
FairLight is bigger than one and even all of the sections. FairLight is and you can rely on the fact that FairLight will continue to be!
Respects to the Fastlink people for finding the core of the scene, which is not an easy thing to do. They are doing their job and we're not whining! In war, people take bullets - we are aware of this! If you can't stand the sight of body bags, then stand back and let the real men do the work for you.
We attack, adapt, improvise and survive!
We are FairLight and will continue to be FairLight.
FairLight IS the delight of ETERNAL might!

The raid did affect FLT very badly and the frequency of their ISO releases decreased dramatically. For a couple of years the group was limited to releasing low budget titles that did not use any of the heavy protection methods. 2011 was probably the year that truly marked their comeback – so far, FLT have pre’d several major PC titles including Crysis 2, Shogun 2 Total War, Dead Space 2 and Bulletstorm. These games were by no means budget titles and were protected by state of the art DRM such as SolidShield, G4WL (Games For Windows Live), Steam and SecuROM. Incidentally, Shogun 2 was their 1000th release, a feat no other fellow PC ISO group has managed to achieve before. Quoted below is the special announcement from Shogun 2’s NFO file:

Release #1000!
Two boys sit on a train, in rural areas of a  low  density  populated  part of the world. There and then they form a  pact  that  will  forever  change the course of the computer industry, marking a shift  in  culture  that  is soon to reach far and beyond their own  expectations, and  the  horizon  of their own vision. There and then, the group FairLight was born.
April 1987 was the year when  the  infant  was  conceived.  The  infant  is now a grown man at the age  of  23  who  made  significant  impressions  on Commodore 64, Amiga, Super Nintendo and the PC scenes,  both  for  demo and cracks. Today we celebrate a historic day, a  day  few  people  would  even envisage could  ever  come  -  FairLight  celebrates  it's 1000th  release!
Well, this is  naturally  not  entirely  correct,  it's  release  #1000  on PC ISO  which  followed  hundreds  of  on  C64,  Amiga,  SNES  and  earlier PC floppy scene appearing in parallel, or the dozens of mind boggling demos ever seen on most consumer hardware. So, rejoice and celebrate today as you are one of those who can  taste  yet  another  fruit,  resulting  from  our blood, sweat and skills. Hours, days, weeks  and  months  have  been  spent - both screen time and in some cases also prison time, for you to enjoy our work. Rejoice and celebrate with us, the efforts earning your  respect.  We are still here; we are  still  the  sentinels  of  a  world  free  of  copy protections. We are still here as we were built stronger  to  last  longer.
We are FairLight, standing up for quality, tradition and pride!
The FairLight council stands with eyes wet  in  admiration  from  the  work of the PC ISO section. "Boys, you have all done well. You bow to no one!" We are proud to be the first gameISO group reaching #1000 gameISO releases. FairLight started the gameISO  division in  late  1998 and  is still going. For your pleasure, check the FairLight dir for all the #1000 nfo's, and the releases.txt for all the game releases both in the included zip-file. Special thanks to our lost/retired members that made this possible! In April 2012 we will celebrate our 25th anniversary. Stay tuned! :)

FLT’s return could not have come at a better time. The PC Game scene is nowadays lacking quality groups and most have resorted to stealing and releasing P2P originated cracks as their own. FLT’s return would perhaps inspire others to bring back the good old days to the warez scene.

Read the rest of this article...

Two new issues of your favorite pirate magazine are here. These were released a couple of weeks ago so this may not be hot news for some of you. However, The Game Scene Charts (TGSC) Issues 48 and 49 are out there and can now be freely downloaded. For those who are heaving about this mag for the first time, TGSC is an electronic publication that rates and ranks PC game release groups in the warez scene. These self contained coded magazines come complete with interactive menus, background music and even have old school scene intros. Coming back to the TGSC issues #48 and #49, these cover scene released PC games during the months of November 2010 and December 2010. Summary of group rankings and download links after the jump.

 
Image: TGSC screenshot from issue #49

As usual, group SKIDROW have once again dominated the rankings. This is despite severe criticism coming from within the scene regarding their cracking methods and even accusations of code stealing. Either way, summary of group rankings can be found below:

November 2010

1. SKIDROW
2. RELOADED
3. Bamboocha

October 2010

1. SKIDROW
2. RELOADED
3. FASiSO 

Download

You do not need special software to open these magazines as everything is self contained. However, note that your screen may flash and flickering text will appear during the magazine’s intro screens. This is intentional since it’s modeled after old school scene cracktros.

You can download TGSC issues from Defacto, a scene resources site we featured in a previous article.

[Click Here] to download Game Scene Charts Issue 48 (November 2010) from Defacto.

[Click Here] to download Game Scene Charts Issue 49 (December 2010) from Defacto.

If you are looking for older editions, Defacto has the complete collection of TGSC magazines since Issue #1 (September 2006) on this page. And it’s regularly updated with new editions as well.

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• SceneNotice Wars About SKIDROW Cracks

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It’s been a while we posted a SceneNotice around here and it’s getting a little boring without all the E drama. So here’s a SceneNotice (and the response for it) that became quite popular in the last couple of days. It goes like this – veteran PC game cracking group SKIDROW is challenged by an anonymous group about the legitimacy of their cracks. The anonymous group claims that SKIDROW’s releases do not conform to scene standards. It is claimed that these pirated releases do not have the DRM software entirely removed but SKIDROW is merely using a workaround by emulating the protection mechanism (aka emu crack) – it is also claimed that some of the code in these fixes are stolen from Russian P2P releases. SKIDROW responds to these allegations and even goes ahead to provide source code snippets as proof. There is absolutely no news value in these type of posts but some of you (specially those into PC game cracking techniques) might find this an interesting read.

The initial SceneNotice titled ‘Truth.About.Skidrow.And.Their
.EmuCracks-DONOTBELIEVETHEIRLIES’ which started the flame war is quoted below:

[Begin Quote]
Dear Skidrow, i know you think all people are fullish to, believe your lies. That youre cracking all your releases by yourself, that youve never stole any piece of code from, anyone (especially russians), that all your cracks are awesome, even if they dont work the way they should..., but hey - who will care, right?
Wrong. Because there are some people in the scene who care, about quality and who stand on guard of scene rules. And what, do we see looking at your releases? WTF is that? - that only, comment that fit here.
Lets see your recent securom releases. Omg, is that firts real, securom crack from Skidrow? BEEP!!! Wrong. Its an emu-crack,witch does not fit in any scene standards and any real scene group wouldnt release that kind of crap. All your recent securom cracks starting from Gothic 4 update emulates the protection and should be nuked, because you havent cracked anything there. You know that method from russian p2p group and you are still stupid enough to claim that Reloaded used files from russian version. If you would understand what is a DFA feature in securom, you would know from where and why that files magically appeared in Reloaded crack. But there is one thing we admire in your work... We call it NFO Propaganda. The shit you write there is amazing. We know that you want people to adore you, but youve crossed the line of reasonability. You try to turn your every mistake into gamebug or some other thing, but its NEVER your fault. Guys, seriously, people laugh from your crackfixes. Another day, another crackfix from Skidrow. For love of God, learn to test your shit before releasing it. We know that things may get complicated when putting together pieces of stolen code, but still.
And last thing... have you maybe concidered to stop stealing and start making your own cracks? All your solidshield and ubidrm cracks were stolen. It was mentioned by some groups it their nfos, but noone reacted to it. You even admited that you have stolen Assassins Creed 2 code from russians and the evidence was inside your crack. Does noone see this? If they done it once they would do it again, and again, and again...
Now a message to all real sceners:
Start caring for quality of releases! Skidrow floods the scene with worthless releases with stolen cracks and nobody care. They win in charts theyre releasing for themselves and you think its normal? Wake up!
[End Quote]

SKIDROW of course responded to the claim. They did not pre a separate SceneNotice but included the response in one of their Call of Duty 4 Update patch NFOs.

[Begin Quote]
Dear Bungholes,   
First of all get some balls and post under your actual Group name if you even have one. Since you are saying we stole something, why are there no references included showing some proof? Oh wait, there isn't any proof. If the people that still care about the scene believed we messed up, then there would already be a nuke, don't you think?  Since you guys also complain about our SecuROM releases, saying we "emulate". There is something we would like to say, that you are full of shit. First of all the real "emulation" you are talking about is done by some of the other groups, because as soon you unpack the exe from SecuROM you are left with a lot of VM calls that can be either "emulated" or wrapped into the code which is way more work. So who are the bad guys now? As far we are concerned with the rules, we did nothing wrong.
In general, then emulation and protection activation will be used more often, because things gets too complex for  example: the Ubisoft DRM, Steam, Solidshield 2, SeucROM VM checks and other similar protections.
NFO Propaganda? HA HA now it's getting funny, give us a definition of what type your NFO is then?
The Truth? Please, We've heard better :) Oh and since you are saying we stole the Ubisoft DRM cracks. We are sure ypu can't show some releases that do actually work until the end of the game right? All "cracks" that were ever done, just had a Menu patch or only the initial Handshake packet, which is no big deal in finding.
So here's a little detail of the Splinter Cell method: Client sends the coordinates Y,X,Z and the Server will check by those. If the player is standing in a registered area on server, if that's the case it will send the player if he has entered the area or left it. The "Russian" cracks you say tried to emulate the stuff via a public released server code, which only leads them into sending the initial handshake, which is just a packet including the product id and product version. 
Due our good will, we decided to show a fraction of a couple of source code examples: 
Prince of Persia: http://codepad.org/FhhVs5RK
Splinter Cell Conviction: http://codepad.org/9VTM3D3.
If you still think that's stolen, let us at least know from where, if you can :) But lets be honest, you can't ever and never will. But why would you believe that? You don't even know what code looks like, even if we would hold it up right under your nose.
Since we have a guess who is responsible for the spreaded NFO, we are just going to say it once: Congratulations you just got voted for the most dumb idiots ever! And if you are so sure about all the things you said in the NFO, why can't you provide any deeper details?  Seriously if we wanted to bash someone, we would at leastprovide some details about this and that.
Over and out. 
[End Quote]

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• Know All About Scene Rules, Standards, Nuking And Nuke Reasons
• The Game Scene Charts Issue 43 – Featuring Interview With SKIDROW

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Here’s yet another chapter in the ongoing war (or shall I say E-drama) between the warez scene and torrent sites. Earlier, we saw a SceneNotice revealing names of SysOps and server IP addresses of the popular scene tracker SCC (if you don’t know what a SceneNotice is, read this post). Today, two more sites have been ‘targeted’ by the scene, namely the hugely popular General/0day torrent tracker TorrentLeech and specialized TV torrent site BTN. The notices, titled TORRENTLEECH.ORG.P2P.TORRENT-SCENENOTICE and BTN.P2P.TORRENT-SCENENOTICE again reveal nothing more than site and IRC server IP addresses (which are not so secret, by the way) and a list of IRC nicknames of tracker staff. These newer notices also contain instructions on how to ‘submit’ these trackers to the FBI for investigation. Quoted below is the SceneNotice pre’d against TL, with personal information and IP addresses removed:

BE SMART YOUR BEST SITE CAN BE A TORRENT SITE PASS THIS IPS FORWARD
Just another tracker making dumps from scene using falow ips for this shits
www.torrentleech.org IP (XX.XX.XX.XX) - they use like master for dumps (can be a site or just a dump
www.torrentleech.org has two IP numbers (XX.XX.XX.XX, XX.XX.XX.XX). Both are on the same IP network
irc.torrentleech.org:7011 or 7021 ssl IP (XX.XX.XX.XX
FBI INVESTIGATION OPEN i put alot of ips ther :D all %
Ok on http://www.fbi.gov/ in report internet crime on page http://www.ic3.gov
I already report OWNERS and SITE IPS on FBI page and the ticket ID are open
i will keep secret the details here, but i have all informations agains this sites, i info hosts too
but i target woot the site leader with ther email too, and thks to site uploaders for give me alot of infos
ofc i report your paypal privated and site paypal too :D now fbi will hunt you sucker
DELUPURGE this nicks on sites all torrenters
[LIST OF STAFF NICKS]
by torrent hunters
on the last nfo us forget to put fbi report on SCC, but is already done now your tracker will be the next

As you can see, the content and writing style on these notices speak volumes of the maturity of whoever pre’d them. And submitting site IPs to the FBI is surely a sign of desperation (and you don’t even need to be a l33t scene haxx0r to do this). Either way, it would now be interesting to see if DDOS attacks will be launched against TL and BTN, just like it happened with SCC a few days ago. Although the DDOS interrupted SCC services for about a day, it was ineffective in the long run as the site came back online, fully operational and without data loss.

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• Scene Notice – Read inside information on the warez scene

Read the rest of this article...

Two new editions of your favorite pirate magazine, The Game Scene Charts (TGSC), is out. Issues No. 45 and 46 covers PC game ISO/DOX scene releases for the months of July and August 2010. For those of you who are reading about TGSC for the first time, it’s a coded magazine that rates and ranks release groups in the warez scene based on the number of cracked games they leak each month. Groups are given points for each pre they make and at the end of each month groups with the highest number of points are selected. Each edition usually includes an editorial, a monthly overview, monthly charts, yearly charts, all time stats and in some cases even interviews with scene groups. TGSC is built with an old school scene cracktro look and feel, comes with its own rendering engine and does not require any additional software to run – just click on the executable and start reading.

As for the monthly group rankings, SKIDROW has unsurprisingly managed to retain the top position in both July and August. This group has been spewing releases regularly and consistently, and appears to have the ability to break all major DRM on the market (Steam, Securom, UBISoft DRM, etc) today. They have also been releasing cracked game updates, which we don’t always see from scene groups. Anyways go ahead and download the magazines to see complete group rankings.

Download

You can download TGSC issues from Defacto, a scene resources site we featured in a previous article.

[Click Here] to download Game Scene Charts Issue 45 (July 2010) from Defacto.

[Click Here] to download Game Scene Charts Issue 46 (August 2010) from Defacto.

Note: Your screen may flash and flickering text will appear during the magazine’s intro screens. This is intentional since it’s modeled after old school scene cracktros.

If you are looking for older editions, Defacto has the complete collection of TGSC magazines since Issue #1 (September 2006) on this page. And it’s regularly updated with new editions as well.

Related Articles

• 10 Great Resources For Scene Releases, Pre Times, NFOs and BitTorrent

Read the rest of this article...

Two things that go hand in hand with BitTorret, DDL Forums, private trackers, scene releases, etc are Pre Channels and Tracer services. Through Pre channels, you can get instant updates when new scene releases are leaked online. Through Tracer (short for Torrent Racer) channels, you can know which private trackers were the first to index such releases in their torrents databases. Most of the Pre and Tracer services that exist today are based on IRC – while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with IRC channels, not all people like to idle on these and execute commands to look up releases, although this isn’t remotely hard as it sounds. If you prefer web based services as opposed to IRC based ones, here’s something you might like. Pre and Tracer facilities provided by G2x3KS are simple, easy to use and can be used by anyone with a web browser.

How G2x3KS’s Pre and Tracer services work is pretty straightforward and there’s nothing really to explain at all. The ‘Pre’ section of the site indexes the most recently pre’d scene releases. Each entry contains the following information; Time (time of pre), Section (category), Title (title of release), Size (release size) and Raced (has any private tracker uploaded this release yet). Clicking on the title of any item will take you to a detailed description of the release, which usually contains a full NFO, screenshots (if it’s a movie, TV show, etc) and a list of private trackers that ‘raced’ and first had a torrent version uploaded. This page usually looks similar to the one shown in screenshot below:

The Pre version of the site functions exactly as the Trace mode, only difference being that it displays race information in the main index itself. Each entry in the trace page has an additional ‘torrents’ field, depicting the number of private trackers that already index a torrent version of that particular release.

In both modes, only the last 100 or so scene releases are listed – you cannot browse for older releases which I found to be a minor drawback. However, there is an easy to use search function for both Pre and Tracer modes, which proved to be pretty useful when looking up an older release.

Anyways don’t let us bore you any further – go right ahead and check the site out for yourself.

G2x3KS Trace Service URL: http://layer13.ath.cx/?p=trace

G2x3KS Pre Service URL: http://layer13.ath.cx/?p=pre

News about this site seems to be spreading pretty fast – I already saw a thread about this on FST (posted by iLOVENZB) and several of our readers had sent us hat tips about this as well. It’s a useful service and let’s hope it lasts long.

If you are looking for IRC based public pre and tracer channels, check out our recent post about Corrupt-Net, a P2P friendly IRC network open to all.

Read the rest of this article...

Yeah it’s kinda late for posting the June 2010 edition considering it’s already September. I somewhat forgot about TGSC in the last couple of weeks on top of it I couldn’t issue #44 anywhere else until Defacto posted it a couple of days ago. Anyways for collectors and fans of this awesome pirate magazine, here’s the June 2010 edition of ‘The Game Scene Charts’. If you don’t know what this mag is all about, it rates and ranks groups in the PC game scene based on the number of pirated game releases they make every month. Issue #44 covers releases in the month of June 2010. Sadly, there are no interviews with release groups in this issue (unlike the last edition where SKIDROW was interviewed) but rest of the features including editorial, monthly overview, etc are there.

As far as the monthly rankings go, SKIDROW has managed to secure the first place yet again. If I remember correctly, this is the 5th time in a row they’ve come up first (as said above, if you want to read the interview with SKID read the last issue which you can find here). TiNYiSO, a group primarily focused on releasing budget games gains the second spot while the all time rankings leader RELOADED follows in the third place.

Download

You can download TGSC issue #44 from Defacto, a scene resources site we featured in a previous article.

[Click Here] to download Game Scene Charts Issue 44 (June 2010) from Defacto.

Note: Your screen may flash and flickering text will appear during the magazine’s intro screens. This is intentional since it’s modeled after old school scene cracktros.

If you are looking for older editions, Defacto has the complete collection of TGSC magazines since Issue #1 (September 2006) in this page. And it’s regularly updated with new editions as well.

Read the rest of this article...

Several years ago when file sharing networks were not so popular, most of the leaked content on the internet (and on streets) were released by groups in the warez scene. However, as BitTorrent and other P2P mediums attracted the masses, another set of release groups outside the scene were born – these are commonly referred to as P2P groups or Non Scene encoder groups. Unlike the scene who loathed P2P, these new groups embraced file sharing sites – some of them even started to release exclusively on torrent trackers and DDL forums. The service we are featuring today, P2P Elite, revolves around such non scene release groups. It’s a multi role site which will act as a pre database, group ranking system, NFO & screenshot repository, etc related to releases by non scene groups whose roots lie in P2P networks. It’s an ambitious new project that’s currently in testing phase – the idea is definitely interesting.

A very detailed description of P2P Elite was sent in to us by it’s developer, KoOlWaReZ. Since his description pretty much says everything about the service including the concept behind it and how it functions, we are directly quoting parts of his email below:

[BEGIN QUOTE]

I'm a web developer and I'm putting together a site. I've been coding it for a week now and trying to open the doors and get more users to come and check it out. Help me find bugs etc.

The idea behind it is: Giving the P2P a 'Pre' Database, like Scene w/steriods. Not only does it have a full feature database, which release groups can post the title, pictures, nfo, samples of the releases but soon it will feature a voting/ranking system which is being put in to rank release groups. Video, Audio, Compatibility. Voting continues until something better gets released, then the scores get tallied up; for a winner. Example, a CAM gets released by a group. That groups gets points for being first. Then every other group will release theirs... members of the site chooses which is best by ranking video, audio, compatibility. Then when a TS gets announced "pre" then the voting automatically stops and the winning CAM gets a green check and the release group gets points (respect points) comments can be left for releases also.

Now with the profile system, release groups get a profile like myspace. Members of the site also get profiles and it has added features like being able to use myspace layouts, post youtube videos on there profile and post them into the system for ranking and comments, PM other users or groups, release group list with ranking, you can have open debates with the community, chatroom built in and soon to be built into the release groups profile pages, built in instant messenger to chat in real time between each other, file sharing, picture sharing with private pictures option.. so much more and more coming.

What kind of benefit release groups can get from your my site?
They get a home. They get a profile, they get a central place to interact with the public. They get to have fun with a lil competition with the ranking and being first.. They get (soon) there own sub domain they can edit through there profile http://groupname.p2pelite.com, they get there own chatroom, just click a hotlink in there profile... its a win win.. when enough release groups signup and start pre'in there releases in teh database to thousands watching and waiting.. and by the way I have SMS messenging already coded in so users can get texts to there cell phones when something new hits in the database that they been waiting for.. then eventually your releases wont be knowned til you do take part in the new system. Also RSS and email notifications.

Current release groups who have helped and bug tested are (members):
Rx, 420Demons (*THC*), PrisM, iMAGiNE, KiNGDOM, FLAWL3SS, MAGNET, n0ir, [NoFS], Blackjesus...
and its only been a week. (going to be featured in nfo files as a contact point)

[END QUOTE]

First thing that comes to mind when talking about a service such as P2P Elite is security. A central location that tracks all P2P release details? Downloading movies online isn’t legal in most countries and uploading them is usually an even more serious offence. What steps have been taken by P2P Elite to ensure the security and secrecy of participating groups? We directed these questions at KoOlWaReZ, the site’s developer – his response is quoted below:

During the current testing phase, writing the script and bug testing its being hosted on a canada server with logs completely turned off on server side and on the profile script the site runs on. Most groups can use a public proxy like www.coverproxy.com if they feel there security is compromised until it gets moved on a NL or Russian server after testing and script completion. Most release groups use a VPN service to mask there IP anyway. I actually let a group borrow a VPN line during this testing phase as a appreciation for helping. Group members are joining my site for a home base, a contact point, anonymity? Not sure what you mean by that, but if it refers to security that is already the most important part in this developing community. Everything I code, all the decisions I make will be 100% about the security of my friends and fellow members of my site. I do know and talk to many of these release groups everyday, so obviously to have this many release groups at my site already they must some what trust me.

As we said earlier, P2P elite is an interesting project. If it kicks off, this could become a really cool service for both P2P release groups as well as their fans. The site and some of its services such as the pre database are currently live in beta testing phase. You can check them out using the links below:

P2P Elite Homepage URL: http://www.p2pelite.com 

Pre Database URL : http://pre.p2pelite.com (Beta – Login as guest)

Thanks to KoOlWaReZ for the heads up.

Related Articles

• 10 Great Resources For Scene Releases, Pre Times, NFOs and BitTorrent

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In case you still haven’t downloaded it, a new issue of The Game Scene Charts (TGSC) is out. This issue (#43) covers the ISO/DOX game release scene for the month of May 2010. The magazine retains all of it’s usual features and editorials such as release groups overview for the month of May, monthly, yearly and all time group rankings as well as various statistics of leading PC game release groups. In addition, this month’s issue includes an interview with SKIDROW, a leading PC game cracking group who have recently been making waves with their cracks and workarounds for UBISoft’s DRM protection. And for those of you who are interested in scene rules, TGSC #43 also includes a yet to be finalized version of Standard ISO Rules (S.I.R.) 2010 which will probably define how PC game ISO releases are pre’d in the future.

Speaking of group rankings for the month of May, SKIDROW managed to retain the first place for the fourth consecutive time. FASiSO and Bamboocha gained 2nd and 3rd positions respectively with well known release group RELOADED dropping a few places to #11. RELOADED’s German division 0x0007 however managed to hold the 6th place for the second time in two months. For detailed description of group rankings please refer to the ‘Charts’ section in TGSC.

As mentioned earlier, one of the highlight of this month’s issue is the interview with SKIDROW. This somewhat lengthy interview discusses several interesting topics including group history, current status as well as about the heated flame wars surrounding UBISoft’s DRM. To read the full interview, please download the magazine.

Download

You can download TGSC issue #43 from Defacto, a scene resources site we featured in a previous article.

[Click Here] to download Game Scene Charts Issue 43 (March 2010) from Defacto.

If you are looking for older editions, Defacto has the complete collection of TGSC magazines since Issue #1 (September 2006) in this page.

Related Articles

• The Game Scene Charts Issue 41 & 42 – March/April 2010 Editions

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The past two months have been pretty hectic for the gaming scene, especially for the folks involved in cracking game copy protection mechanisms. During this time we saw the public launch of UBISoft’s new hyped up DRM system (bundled with games such as Assassin’s Creed 2 and Splinter Cell : Conviction), creating frenzy among release groups who simply hacked away at it, trying to break this supposedly unbreakable protection. We saw leading names such as Razor1911, RELOADED and SKIDROW each claiming to have cracked the protection and there was quite a bit of E-drama and flame wars between these groups. Either way, the cracking scene was more alive in the past two months than it was in the first few weeks of 2010. If you want to see how scene groups fared and competed against each other during this time, check out the latest two editions of The Game Scene Charts (TGSC), a pirate magazine that rates and ranks groups of crackers based on their ‘performance’.

March 2010 rankings saw SKIDROW top the charts with their recent flurry of new games releases. SKIDROW, founded in 1990 as a release group for AMIGA console games, returned to the scene in 2007 as a PC cracking group. Initially releasing mostly budget games, SKIDROW have now proven themselves to be a team of top crackers and reverse engineers capable of cracking complex DRM. Legendary RELOADED and GENESiS follows SKID in TGSC’s March rankings.

April 2010 rankings are very much similar. SKIDROW grabs the first spot, RELOADED second and the only  difference is TiNYISO moving a few spots up the ladder to claim the 3rd place. Unlike SKID and RLD, TiNYISO deals with budget PC games that are relatively unknown to the public.

Download

You can download TGSC issue 41 and 42 from Defacto, a site we featured on a previous article.

[Click Here] to download Game Scene Charts Issue 41 (March 2010) from Defacto.

[Click Here] to download Game Scene Charts Issue 42 (April 2010) from Defacto.

If you are looking for older editions, Defacto has the complete collection of TGSC magazines since Issue #1 (September 2006) on this page

Read the rest of this article...

Scene Notices rarely contain useful information – they are usually full of E-drama and flame wars. However, I stumbled across a recent SceneNotice which can be pretty useful if you download illegitimate software online. As you may know, the internet is full of pirated software that come with cracks or key generators which circumvent the built in copy protection mechanisms. One of the most common downsides associated with cracked software is that they ever so often carry virus or other malware infections. The original release which usually comes from the scene is almost always clean – viruses and other malware sneak in as the release gets repacked and spread across warez sites on the internet. But here is a rare case where the scene release itself is infected by malware.

A.NOTE.ABOUT.WiNDAZ.RELEASES.v1.0-iND warns you of malware that comes embedded with cracked software releases by 0Day release group WiNDAZ. Full NFO is quoted below:

Rels: A.NOTE.ABOUT.WiNDAZ.RELEASES.v1.0-iND
Name: ind-wnz1.zip
Date: 2010/05/09
Size: 1 x 5MB
Type: TextProof
Avast.Internet.Security.v5.0.545.Incl.Keymaker-WiNDAZ
ESET.NOD32.Antivirus.v4.2.42.0.Incl.Keymaker-WiNDAZ
Nero.v9.9.4.26.0b.Incl.Keymaker-WiNDAZ
Mirc.v7.0.Incl.Keymaker-WiNDAZ (contains mIRC 6.35)
WiNDAZ-installers bundle the setup and a file called idx.exe, which is a trojan/password-stealer. Check proof.rar and/or google for Steam.pdb
Their keygens arent working (containing a random string generator) Btw. nuking the shit for only "not.working" or even "get.proper" is simply a sign of stupidity the sole purpose of the releases is to spread the trojan - there wont be any FIXED or WORKING version by this fool
Ban them & catch the guy who brings this scum into scene

Proof.RAR includes screenshots of disassembled code from WiNDAZ installers. One screen includes a set of methods which appear to be trying to kill off background processes of several popular security software (whether that’s working code or not is a different matter – point is such methods should not have made it into an installer). It also exposes the functionality of the key generator which indeed just generates random strings as claimed by the NFO. If you have downloaded any of WiNDAZ releases and if your antivirus software didn’t alert you of suspicious activity, it might be time to do a full system scan with updated definitions (or try using a new AV for that matter).

[Click Here] to download the full NFO along with all the screenshots of disassembled code.

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If you haven’t still downloaded it, here’s TGSC Issue 40. The February 2010 issue of this pirate magazine was released on the 21st of March 2010, a month after issue #39 was pre’d. Amidst a new set of challenges (such as UBISoft’s new DRM), the gaming scene continues to release PC games (which ultimately leak to non scene members and end up in the hand’s of regular pirates on P2P networks). If you are one of our newer readers, TGSC is a scene magazine (chartmagazine) that rates and ranks groups in the gaming scene based on their ‘cracking’ performance. Rankings in issue #40 are based on scene releases for the month of February 2010 (not March).

Speaking of the latest monthly rankings, SKIDROW tops the charts with 66 pts while RELOADED follows with 48 pts. Just recently, these two groups were locked in a NukeWar over the PROPER of Just Cause 2. Anyways Bamboocha and GENESiS managed to grab 3rd and 4rd positions respectively. It was also interesting to see ViTALiTY crawling up the rankings to grab the 5th spot but a popular release has been long overdue from them (they’ve even been releasing several unprotected budget games recently).

Download

You can download the full magazine to your hard drive and read at leisure.

[Click Here] to download Game Scene Charts Issue 40 from Mediafire.

Note: You do not need additional software to read TGSC. It’s a coded magazine with it’s own rending engine. Everything you need to run the magazine is self contained in a single executable file.

You may download older TGSC editions from our Scene section.

Read the rest of this article...

By now you should be familiar with our collective private tracker & DDL Forum open signup updates. This post is something similar but you won’t find any BitTorrent sites or direct download link repositories here. This is a summarized list of utility sites (related to BitTorrent and scene) we’ve come to blog about in the past couple of months. The article features a varied collection of sites and services ranging from search engines, BitTorrent RSS feeds, tracer channels, tracer services to scene news portals that might be useful additions to a pirate’s toolbox. While these sites are not essential when it comes to downloading stuff from the internet, knowing about them can definitely come in handy and will expand your knowledge about BitTorrent, the warez scene, etc.

As usual, we have included a link with each item that will take you to a detailed article about a particular service. If you need more information, it’s highly recommended that you read the detailed article first.

Tottler
    
Homepage URL: http://tottler.org/
Type: Web based tracer, search engine
Description: Tottler is a web based release indexer which monitors over 30 private trackers. It also records top pre time stats for each indexed release. For detailed information on how this site operates, please refer to the detailed review below.
Detailed Article: [Click Here]

NukeNet
  
Homepage URL: http://rules.nukenet.info
Type: Scene information portal
Description: rules.nukenet is a site that contains an up to date list of scene rules (for a number of different release types) as well as some well documented articles on nukes and nuke reasons.
Detailed Article: [Click Here]

TRAC3.ME
 
Homepage URL: http://www.trac3.me/
Type: Web based tracer, pre database, scene releases index
Description: Trac3 is a multi role site that acts both as a scene releases index and a web based torrent racer. Provides private tracker rankings based on best pre times. Refer to detailed article for more info.
Detailed Article: [Click Here]

SCENENOTiCE
 
Homepage URL: http://scenenotice.org/
Type: Scene information portal
Description: This site indexes internal scene notices sent among groups in the warez scene. If you want to read a lot of flaming, e-drama and the occasional useful information, you should check this out :)
Detailed Article: [Click Here]

NFOOGLE
 
Homepage URL: http://www.nfoogle.com/
Type: Search engine
Description: NFOOGLE is a search engine for NFO files. Make sure you select the correct category from drop down menu before you do a search.
Detailed Article: [Click Here]

ezRSS
 
Homepage URL: http://ezrss.it/
Type: Torrent RSS feed
Description: ezRSS is a service that provides custom RSS feeds for all EZTV released TV shows (which are available on eztv.it) along with torrent download links. In other words, you’ll find individual RSS feeds for almost any US/Canadian TV show on this site.
Detailed Article: [Click Here]

TRACERS
 
IRC Channel Links: irc://irc.p2p-net.eu/tracers, irc://irc.p2p-net.eu/tr.chat
Type: IRC Tracer Channel
Description: #Tracers on p2p.net.eu is one of the popular public tracer channels available. For a detailed explanation on how this channel functions and a list supported commands, refer to the detailed article below.
Detailed Article: [Click Here]

VCDQUALiTY
 
Homepage URL: http://www.vcdq.com/index.php
Type: Movie releases index
Description: VCD Quality is a site which indexes latest movie leases both by scene and p2p groups. Not only does it index the latest releases but also includes the release .NFO, screen captures from the release, any nuke information, user comments and ratings.
Detailed Article: [Click Here]

Uptime Checkers
 
Homepage URL: http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/, http://isthatsitedown.com/
Type: Misc
Description: Uptime checks help you determine if a site is actually down – these will help you verify that a site is not inaccessible due to a problem at your end.
Detailed Article: [Click Here]

DVDRFiXES
 
Homepage URL: http://www.dvdrfixes.com/
Type: DDL
Description: DVDFiXES is a site that contains patches and fixes for scene DVDR releases that have problems. You can download fixes for issues such as out of sync audio, missing menus, missing or out of sync subtitles, etc.
Detailed Article: [Click Here]

Bonus - Defacto2
 
Homepage URL: http://www.defacto2.net/
Type: Scene information portal.
Description: According to the site’s own description “Defacto2 is a web site that is dedicated to the preservation of the computer underground counterculture, with a focus on the PC cracking scene.”. This is one of the best places to download cracktros, TGSC magazine, and overall a good source of history related to the warez scene.
Detailed Article: N/A

If you know more similar sites, feel free to post them in the comments section or E-mail us on filenetworks[at]gmail[dot]com. We might be able to do detailed postings on your suggestions, if and when time permits.

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Here’s yet another post in our popular scene rules article series. The 2010 XViD Sports Releasing Standards (TXSRS10) have been pre’d by ‘The Sports Release Council’ and all scene released sports content encoded using the XViD codec will conform to these standards effective from 15th March 2010. If you’ve been downloading UFC/MMA content, Wrestling matches or other sports related video etc leaked onto private torrent trackers, chances are that these will conform to TXSRS10 after the aforementioned date. As far as I can tell there aren’t many huge changes but then again I am quite unfamiliar with the previous revision of this ruleset. Release type specific rules are not uncommon in the warez scene – sceners believe they help set a standard and bring a level of uniformity to releases pre’d by different scene groups.

First part of the ruleset NFO (introduction) is quoted below:

The Sports Release Council was formed to separate sports releases from the ruleless world of TV-XVID. This standard aims to improve the overall quality of our sports releases while retaining the compatibility we have enjoyed for so long. We hope to bring standardization to our scene and rid ourselves of some of the archaic quality-hampering restrictions that the sports scene has had to put up with based on the preferences/assumptions of nukers.

Under exceptional circumstances, the council has the power to override a global nuke put in place by a nukenet. Such a circumstance would occur for example if a release is being contested within a nuke war. The release in question may be brought to the attention of the council who may then decide on the validity of the release. If the council does decide on the matter, that decision is final and should be treated as if it were written within the standard itself. If a council decision is made, the release shall be nuked or unnuked with "council.decision_reason" as the reason.

As usual, the detailed set of rules is categorized according to sizing standards, packaging and naming, video, video dimensions, audio, source notes, propers and internals. TXSRS10 is signed by the following release groups; 433, aAF, CiRCLE, DVSKY, ESPN, FQM, GORE, KAFFEREP, KYR, OTV, T0nK4 and W4.

Download

You can download the full set of rules using the link given below.  The .rar file linked-to has the complete NFO as well as a separate formatted HTML page containing the full rule set for easy reading.

[Click Here] to download TXSRS10 from MediaFire

Other Articles Related To Scene Rules

• Zeroday.Scene.Rules.v2010.1-RULES – Download NFO
• Zero Day (0Day) Scene Rules For 2010
• Scene DVDR Releasing Standards 2010 (TDRS2K10)
• Scene XviD Release Standards 2009 (TXD2K9)
• Scene MP3 release rules 2.0 (2009)
• Scene DVDR Releasing Standards 2009 (TDRS2K9)

Read the rest of this article...

You favorite pirate magazine is back for another edition – Issue 39 of the The Game Scene Charts (TGSC) was pre’d on the 22nd of February 2010 (due to our own ignorance, this post again got delayed by a couple of weeks). This is the first TGSC issue for year 2010 and as the editorial says, it’s a fresh new start and a new year of rankings. If you are hearing about this magazine for the first time, TGSC is a publication that ranks and rates PC game release groups in the warez scene. Groups gain points based on the type of protection they have to crack, number of non nuked releases they pre and so on. Like most scene releases, TGSC is made by sceners and its targeted readership is other scene members. However as it usually happens TGSC too leaks onto P2P :p.

Speaking of Issue 39, this edition covers cracked PC games released on the month of January 2010. This month’s winner was FASiSO followed by RELOADED and PROPHET. Legendary Razro1911 (which is probably the oldest surviving PC game release group today) came up forth while DOX release group BreWerS took the fifth position. For a detailed analysis, points and overall standings, download and read the magazine :p

Download

[Click Here] to download Game Scene Charts Issue 39 from Mediafire.

Note: You do not need additional software to read TGSC. It’s a coded magazine with it’s own rending engine. Everything you need to run the magazine is self contained in a single executable file.

You may download older TGSC editions from our Scene section.

Read the rest of this article...

I know for a fact that a lot of you are waiting for this issue so here goes. TGSC or ‘The Game Scene Charts’ is a coded magazine for pirates, made by pirates. It’s a publication that comes directly from the warez scene and TGSC’s main purpose is to rank PC game release groups in the scene based on the number of pirated games they release in a particular period of time, usually a month. Groups gain points based on the type of protection they have to crack, number of non nuked releases they pre and so on. This month’s issue covers games pre’d on December 2009 – the magazine itself was released about a week ago, on on the 20th January 2009.

Unlike most publications you see out there, TGSC is not a simple PDF document. It’s a coded magazine that has background music, interactive menus, changeable skins and even an animated intro that resembles old school scene cracktros. Everything you need to run the mag is self contained within the executable (it has its own engine).

Speaking of this month’s rankings, SKIDROW again leads the pack followed by FASiSO and Bamboocha. Popular group RELOADED who held the second spot last month have dropped to the fifth position. It’s also interesting to see BreWeRs, a group that focuses primarily on DOX (trainers, fixes etc) gaining the 4th position in monthly rankings.

Download

You can download and read the full magazine from the link below. Please report broken links in the comments section.

[Click Here] to download from multiple one click hosting services (links created using MirrorCreator :p)

Related Articles

• The Game Scene Charts (TGSC) : Issue 37 - November 2009

Read the rest of this article...

It seems a lot of readers around here are interested about the warez scene. Articles in our Scene section have been getting a lot of hits lately and the post we published yesterday was no exception. We quoted the SceneNotice about updated zero day release rules and as some of you had commented, there is already a revised version of the same rule set been released. And another reader had requested for a download link to original NFO file instead of us pasting the entire content (without ASCII art of course) on the blog. Consider this article an extension to our previous post – you can now download the original 0Day rules NFO as well as updated v2010.1 set of rules.

Just to avoid any confusion, the original set of rules was titled Zeroday.Scene.Rules.v2010-RULES and was released on the 10th of January 2010. The revised version (titled Zeroday.Scene.Rules.v2010.1-RULES ) was released two days later on the 12th of January 2010. Both these releases may be downloaded from the links below.

[Click Here] to download Zeroday.Scene.Rules.v2010-RULES from MediaFire

[Click Here] to download Zeroday.Scene.Rules.v2010.1-RULES (Updated) from MediaFire

If you are looking for a good program to open .NFO files (on Windows they open with Microsoft System Information by default, which of course doesn’t let you view the file), we recommend you download and install DAMN NFO viewer. It’s lightweight and is compatible with almost all versions of Windows out there.

Read the rest of this article...

I’ve seen on several online forums folks talking about how the modern 0day scene is dying. While the current 0day scene may not be as powerful as what it was about 10 years back, it is far from dead. There are plenty of quality groups out there such as CORE (Challenge Of Reverse Engineering), ZWT (Zero Waiting Time), CRD (Crude), etc  who still pwn supposedly un-breakable software protection schemes within minutes. However, scene groups follow a strict set of rules and regulations when releasing cracks or key generators for software. For those who are interested, here are the updated zero day release rules for year 2010. It’d still be useful even if you aren’t interested in scene regulations – the document explains some of the common terminology associated with 0-day releases you probably download every day :)

Note: We re-formatted the original NFO to ensure readability after publishing on the blog.

[BEGIN NFO]

Introduction

This is intended as an addendum to the existing 0day rules. All the old rules are still valid, unless they have been altered or updated by this addendum. The 0day scene has gone through major changes in this decade. As technologies have changed, so have we, but our adaptations have left many grey areas in the current rules. The last rules update was years ago when programs were much smaller and transfer speeds much lower. The existing 0day rules did not address  problems of software encountered today, simply because at that date it did not exist. These changes have led to a series of loopholes which groups have been taking advantage of. The new rules we constructed aim to close these loopholes, as well as increase the general quality level of releases in the scene.

This document covers a new ruleset for 0day. These rules and guidelines are intended for release-groups in the first place, and sites secondary. We hope that in time many sites will take over the majority of these rules. The following groups have signed and committed to following these rules:

ACME AiR AGAiN ALiAS ARN BACKLASH BEAN BLiZZARD BRD CORE CRD CROSSFiRE DIGERATI DVT EMBRACE FALLEN FAS iNViSiBLE LND
MESMERiZE NGEN NULL ORiON OUTLAWS RiTUEL ROGUE
SHOCK SSG TBE UNLEASHED VACE ZWT

These rules will go into effect starting January 31st, 2010.

Release Name

[Developer.name.]Program.name.vVersion[.Language][.OS][.CPU]
[.Release.Type][.Additional.Tags]-Groupname

Developer.Name is only mandatory if the application name is not unique enough for duping. Groups should use some common sense to keep the directory name reasonable length.

The program name should be the official name of the application. Do not omit dashes, think of your dupe results.

The Language tag must be used only on NON english releases. Multilingual and bilingual are optional.

• Currently valid OS tags are:
• Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2k, WinXP, Win2k3, Vista, Win2k8, Win7 (can have an optional tag for more specific edition)
• [Distribution.]Linux
• MacOSX
• [FreeNetOpen]BSD
• [Open]Solaris
• AIX
• HPUX
• Open.Enterprise.Server (NetWare)

The Operating.System tag should be omitted when WinAll ( NT5 based windows and optionally earlier, always with latest official service pack). Using a UnixAll ( all of the operating systems above, excluding Windows, Linux or MacOSX) or a WinAll tag means your app *must* run on *all* of the operating systems that fall under it.

CPU should be omitted when x86, must be x64 for x86_64/EM64T, but not IA64! Currently valid CPU tags are:

• x86, x64, IA64, PPC, SPARC, SPARC64, RISC, Alpha

Release.Type can be omitted for Crack/Regged, but is mandatory for keygen releases. Possible tags are:

• Keygen.Only Keymaker.Only
• Incl.Keygen Incl.Keymaker
• Incl.Keygen.and.Patch Incl.Keymaker.and.Patch
• Cracked
• Regged

Additional.Tags like READ.NFO, DIRFIX, NFOFIX.. must go as follows:

• DevelopersName.ProgramName.v1.2.Regged.READ.NFO-GROUP
• DevelopersName.ProgramName.v1.2.Regged.DIRFIX-GROUP

You can use underscores or dots as seperator in the releasename, but do not mix them if there is no reason for it (e.g. a program name contains underscores and your seperator is a dot is a valid reason to mix)

The lists in this section are by no means complete. They are here to serve as a guideline for proper dirname construction.

Packaging

Filenames must be amed up to a maximum of 8.3 characters (filename/extension). Acceptable compression format at this time is any compression method that supports multiple volumes and long file names, followed by the traditional PKZIPing. Compressions other than RAR should include an extract utility or be a self-extracting archive.

The traditional packaging methods (zip/diz) shall be maintained, with a diz file being present in each zip. The diz file should contain as a bare minimum the number of the current disk and the maximum number of disks.

Suggested file_id.diz layout is as follows:
[xx/??], where ?? is the total nr of disks in the release. The total number of lines of your diz should not exceed 30.

On a side note: using ridiculous compressions that will save 10 disks but takes 10 hours to unpack are not an acceptable solution.

Release Size

Allowed split volume sizes are:

• 1,444,000 bytes
• 2,888,000 bytes
• 5,000,000 bytes
• 10,000,000 bytes
• 50,000,000 bytes

The utils disk limit is as of now 70 x 5,000,000 bytes or 35 x 10,000,000 bytes. This equates to a total of 350,000,000 bytes of compressed data. Oversize releases are allowed when no ISO release exists and the group (or an iso group they work with) is not in possession of the iso to release. In other words, there is NO size limit for 0day apps, except when an iso exists!

The games disk limit is as of now 80 x 5,000,000 bytes or 40 x 10,000,000 bytes. This equates to a total of 400,000,000 bytes of compressed data. Any release should have less than 100 volumes. In case 10,000,000 bytes do not suffice, you are allowed to use volumes of larger size; up to 50,000,000 bytes.

A size proper is valid when a group manages to reduce the size of the original release by at least 30 without sacrificing essential content:

• Documentation, help files, and other non functional items can be ripped from a release to decrease size. No functional parts of an application may be ripped.
• C++ redistributables, .NET framework, and other common operating system components may be ripped. The nfo should note what has been ripped and optionally include an url where it can be downloaded.
• A documentation addon is only allowed if the documentation cannot be downloaded freely and publicly (without registration) from the developers website.

Specific Release Type

All of these releases should provide functionality identical to that of a fully licensed copy.

• Cracked: The program file has been altered to register the program. Any nags/trial limitations should be removed. Any remnants of Trial in the app need to be removed. Any phone-home checks should be disabled!
• Regged: Any way to make an application registered without requiring
  modification of any of the applications executables/libraries. Must include a text file with the required information, serials should not be put in the release nfo. Please name this file carefully, as to deter possible webspiders looking for serial information.
• Keygen: A small standalone program which generates valid serials/keyfiles which are based on user input or hardware id.
  • Keygens can be written in any language but they should be native executables for the OS the application is meant for: Linux keygens for Linux applications, Mac keygens for Mac applications, etc. This means that if you do not follow this suggestion, you could get propered. However, you wont be nuked if there is no native keygen available.
  • A keygen that generates a system-dependant serial must explicitly warn the user of this fact, either in the nfo OR at runtime.
  • Windows keygens in java are allowed if the the program is coded in java or uses java. Same with any other interpreter language. If a library is included with the latest windows install, as is the case for VB6/.NET/VBScript currently, then keygens written in these languages are allowed without question. The motivation here is that a scene release should run on a clean OS install, introducing no additional dependencies other than those imposed by the application being released.
  • A console-based application that usually runs on headless systems (servers, etc) requires a console-based keygen.
  • Generic Keygens (All.Products) are allowed and dupe full releases for as long as the generic keygen continues to work for *every* application it was intended for.
  • Keygen.Only releases are releases that only contain the actual keygen, no installation files. They are meant as an addition to previous Crack/Regged releases.
  • A Keygen.and.Patch release combines a keygen with a crack to enable full functionality. You are still allowed to release a keygen.only for these releases.
• Retail: A store-bought supply is included in this release. You are allowed to release a retail after a previous release if there is an added benefit to using the retail version. In this case you are required to add a READ.NFO tag to your dirname and list the benefits when compared to the previous release.
• PROPER/WORKING: a proper of a previous scene-release that was not fully working should always include adequate proof and information for nukers to test and confirm the validity of the proper. This means including screenshots, pieces of code, or clear steps to reproduce the problems that occur with the release you are propering.
• READ.NFO: If you label a release READ.NFO, please have a clearly stated section in your nfo on what the READ.NFO is all about, dont make people guess. If you want people to read it for a certain reason, make sure they can.

Operating Systems

If a developer has not mentioned default or minimum requirements for operating system, the default is Windows XP, which is also a minimum.

If a program supports Windows Operating Systems before WinXP, then your crack *should* work on them aswell.

Optional: combine multiple operating system versions for the same CPU in 1 release if it remains within size limits, for example:

• FreeBSD5,6,7 x86 can be in a single release tagged FreeBSD
  If the installers are freely downloadable (available without registration) and the same keygen/crack works for every version, consider only including the latest version of the OS.

Please keep in mind that the contents of .tar.gz, .rpm, .deb and any other packaging system are generally identical. Please make a note in your nfo in case of exceptions.

Minor Updates

MU stands for Minor Update. This term denotes an update of a previously released application within a certain time-period, the MU-period. Major updates are allowed regardless of the last time a previous version was released. In this case, the nfo should include some motivation for considering this a major update (security- and stability-critical hotfixes for instance)

MU-period of 1 month, disregarding the number of days in a month. Examples:

• a release on 2010-01-01 will be out of mu on 2010-02-01
• a release on 2010-01-15 will be out of mu on 2010-02-15
• a release on 2010-01-29 will be out of mu on 2010-02-28
• a release on 2010-01-31 will be out of mu on 2010-02-28
• a release on 2010-02-28 will be out of mu on 2010-03-28
• a release on 2010-03-31 will be out of mu on 2010-04-30

This ensures no more than a single release of the same application per month, while keeping duping simple.

The minor update period is counted from the last valid release which contained the software itself. In other words, keymaker.only releases are not considered.

General Rules

If the age of the last modified file of an installed program is older than one (1) year it is not allowed to pre it without a READ.NFO or INTERNAL tag.

A group should release the newest version of the software available. Exceptions are possible when the software is not available publicly, or if it was never released before, which *must* be mentioned in the nfo-file. This means you can release an older version of an application, but *only* if it is newer than any existing release of the same app, and you have a valid reason for not releasing the latest version (for instance, it is very hard to get the supply, or the application takes months to crack).

There is a grace-period of 3 days: if a new version came out in the last 3 days before your release, you will not get nuked if you release the older one.

Releases should provide the same functionality as a retail copy of the application (where possible and reasonable). Examples:

• a virus scanner must be able to update
• a flexlm application should include every useful feature
• a keygen should provide either all, or the best license (watermarks are still allowed)

Your nfo should provide a minimum of useful information, including:

• (complete) application name
• (complete) version, including if it is a beta version
• the release date
• type of crack included
• short description of the application/game
• description on how to use the crack (important!)
• operating systems this release will work on
• pre-requisites for the application/game
• url to the applications website

If you do not want your work to be used by other groups (be it documents, cracking methods, tools, or similar), then make sure you don't give it out to anyone you cant trust. It is deemed public property as soon as it is publicly available, and you lose any exclusive rights to it.

Stealing cracks/keygens from P2P, WEB, or other scene groups is clearly not allowed!

Security should be everyones primary concern. Including nicknames or identities of people that have not given explicit permission in your nfos is absolutely not allowed, and may result in severe repercussions.

A big thanks to everyone involved in creating this document!
Last modified: 10 January 2010

[END NFO]

All releases pre’d after 31 January 2010 will be based on the updated set of rules. Anything that does not comply will likely get nuked.

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