Crack intros first appeared on
Apple II computers in the late 1970s or early 1980s, of the software itself. Crack intros only became more sophisticated on more advanced systems such as the
Amiga,
Atari ST, and some
IBM PC compatibles with sound cards. These intros feature big, colourful
effects,
music, and
scrollers. Cracking groups would use the intros not just to gain credit for cracking, but to advertise their
BBSes, greet friends, and gain themselves recognition. Messages were frequently of a vulgar nature, and on some occasions made threats of violence against software companies or the members of some rival crack-group. 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. Crack intros and other small software created by
software crackers such as
keygens and
patches that remove protection from commercial applications often use
chiptunes made in
music trackers for background music. These chiptunes are now still accessible as downloadable
musicdisks or
musicpacks. ==See also==