Triad C64

Triad is a Swedish cracking group founded in 1986. It is widely one of the most recognized software piracy organizations ever to operate on the Commodore 64 platform. The group is still active in the Commodore 64 scene.

History

In late 1986, Arrow and Fred, (two members of the group CoD), were swapping intensively with people all over the world. Typically, they would receive 4-8 parcels a day with new software. Arrow got in touch with Ixion in 3001 and soon began to realize that they had a stable access to originals. CoD and 3001 began a long time cooperation, as CoD had lots of contacts abroad. 3001 had rapid, short, high quality cracks. 3001 also knew Mr. Z and his friend "the old man" RND. These three gangs (3001, CoD and Mr Z + RND) with three distinct functions (Originals, Spreading and Cracking) saw a possibility of forming an interdependent Triad. As a result, Triad was founded on July 28, 1986 at 21.30 by Arrow, Fred, Skydive, Ixion, Lucifer, RND and Mr. Z. On August 8, 1986, Arrow and Fred spread a simple intro with a Swedish flag on top of the screen announcing the event.

When Ixion, (who had been functioning as the main organizer of Triad), quit the scene to concentrate on his university studies in 1988, the golden triangle was handed over to 801DC. 801DC put down a lot of work to keep Triad alive during troubling months before Jerry was taken into to group and the leadership was passed to him, with the blessing of the old founders. In 1991, 801DC was killed in an airplane accident, missed by all his friends in Triad.

In the autumn of 1986, Triad gained success when Ixion counted 80 cracked games within 3 months. Ixion and Skydive were both in the computer business (i.e. they worked in a computer store in Västerås, Sweden), having instant access to new games. However, another member of Triad knew about people at the importing company HK Electronics. (For personal reasons, this person will not be named.) HK Electronics was a company which was stared by Heikki Karbing, and was the dominant importer at the time. During the autumn of 1986, the members from Västerås understood that they couldn't buy the games through the store, as they could get them instantly through HK Electronics instead. They were instantly cracked.

In the spring of 1987, a Triad member got a call from HK Electronics inviting Triad to a chat. Sales had decreased by 80% in Västerås and 20% in Stockholm in just three months. They wanted to get Triad and other crackers on "better" thoughts, to think about what they were doing hurting the software vendors. Prior to this, one person had been trying to frame Triad. On January 1, 1993, friendly swap for non-profit was not illegal in Sweden, so no one could be punished for merely swapping any kind of software. However it was seen as a crime to sell such copies. (In fact it wasn't illegal, as the copyright law in Sweden was much too outdated, but they always caught individuals selling games for tax-crimes or other similar crimes, like running an unregistered enterprise.) Groups like Triad were all safe and legal.

For example: someone called a Triad swapper and wanted to buy a copy of the game Flight Simulator. The Triad swappers knew it was illegal to sell pirate software and didn't sell any copies. However Fred had an original of the same game around which he sold instead. Later, someone called Arrow and said he had talked to Ixion, who should have promised him to buy a game through Arrow. Arrow refused. "We're not into that kind of business", he replied. On running a double-check, he found out Ixion had never talked to that person. Many people thought Triad was a great group and wanted to join. There were two people who called themselves members of Triad, but were not. One of them had placed an advertisement in Dagens Nyheter (Sweden's biggest newspaper) offering games 3 days prior to release date! These were games which Triad had obtained in advance. Some members of Triad went to see the members at HK Electronics. They offered HK a "deal" - if HK would keep supplying Triad with originals, Triad would not spread the cracked games in Sweden at all, just abroad - mainly the United States. HK did not accept the idea. Unfortunately it is unknown about what happened then - just that the Triad member who had used his contacts at HK in order to obtain originals which was somehow put under pressure by HK. He did not like the idea and later resigned, reluctant to even talk about C64 and underground hacking for a long time. It is unclear whether it would be that he took this incident very hard. For a long time following this incident, Ixion refused to spread any Triad warez in Sweden. Only the most trustworthy were given the latest cracks.

Demos

During the leadership of Jerry, Triad evolved not only as a cracking group, but also as one of the finest demogroups ever to grace the Commodore 64 scene. Examples of well-known demos are; (1990) Suckpipe, Lickpipe, Red October, (1991) Utopia, Wisdom, (1992) 3RD Stone from the Sun, Red Storm, (1993) Mind Control, (1994) Portfolio 2, (1995) No Control, (1996) Mind Expander, (1998) Refugee, (1999) Horsing Around, (2000) 26KG, Manhood, (2001) Feedback, Emission, Manhood 2, (2002) Over the Edge, (2003) Macho Programming, Harmonious, The Set Up, (2004) Under The Edge, Borderline, Pride, (2005) The ThrockMorton Device, 78-80, Sphaeristerium (together with Instinct and Horizon).Triad has released more than 200 demos in various sizes during the years.

In 2000, Triad made a short appearance on the GameBoy Color scene and released the demo 'Stripped'.

Today, Triad continues to develop fresh content for the C64, such as animated demos, musical SID soundtracks and various software tools.Fact|date=January 2008

Members

Members have included Arrow, Fred, Ixion in 3001, Skydive, Ixion, Lucifer, RND, 801DC, and Mr Z.

A list of all members of Triad during the years, inactive as well as active, can be found at: http://noname.c64.org/csdb/group/?id=132 (unclear whether it is a complete list).

External links

* [http://www.df.lth.se/~triad/triad/ Triad website]
* [http://noname.c64.org/csdb/group/?id=132 Triad] at CSDb
* [http://www.c64-hof.com/groups/t/triad/history.htm Triad history] Written by King Fisher and Jerry of Triad (1996).
* [http://www.defacto2.net/web-magazines/scenelink/articles/triad.html King Fisher interview] A brief history of Triad and an interview conducted by HamsTeR of Scenelink.