Crack dot Com was a computer game development company co-founded by ex-id Software programmer Dave Taylor, and Jonathan Clark.[1]
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| Company type | Video game industry |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1996 |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Products | Abuse |
History
editCrack dot com started from home with a staff of just four people.[2] Their first completed game, which had Internal Revenue Service agents as the enemies, was never released.[2] The company released only one game, Abuse, an MS-DOS scrolling platform shooter which sold over 80,000 copies worldwide. Based on a public source code release, Abuse was ported to a wide variety of platforms including Microsoft Windows, MacOS, AIX, SGI Irix, Amiga/AmigaOS, and Linux.[3]
Prior to the company's closing in October 1998,[4] they were working on Golgotha, a hybrid of first-person shooter and real-time strategy. Citing publisher interference in the creative design of Abuse, Crack dot com opted not to accept any offers from publishers until the game was completed.[2] The game was never finished and Crack dot com made the source and data for Golgotha (as with Abuse) public domain.
The company experienced a setback on January 13, 1997[5] when their file server was broken into by way of their web server,[6] and the source code to Golgotha and also the Quake engine they had licensed from id was stolen.[7] This did result in a number of unofficial ports for Quake, including an SVGAlib version for Linux that was later mainlined by id,[8] as well as unauthorized ports to OS/2, Amiga, Java VMs, and Mac OS.[9] The source code for both Quake and Golgotha were later legally released.[10]
References
edit- ^ Jonathan Clark (26–30 October 1998). "So Long, Crack.com". loonygames. loonyboi productions. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
- ^ a b c "The Crack Alternative". Next Generation. No. 36. Imagine Media. December 1997. pp. 86–87.
- ^ Software, AntonioR (2023-06-12), Abuse README, retrieved 2023-06-29
- ^ sengan (22 October 1998). "Crack.com closes shop". Slashdot. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
- ^ "Bill Wall's list of 195 famous computer exploits". Fred Cohen & Associates. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
- ^ "Maximum Security: A Hacker's Guide to Protecting Your Internet Site and Network" (PDF). Angel722 Computer Publishing. p. 57-58. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
- ^ Savage, Annaliza (1997-01-10). "Hackers Hack Crack, Steal Quake". Wired. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
- ^ Wilson, Hamish (2023-02-27). "Building a Retro Linux Gaming Computer - Part 27: Lost Souls". GamingOnLinux. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
- ^ Hildinger, Colin L. (1997). "Quake for OS/2". OS/2 eZine!.
- ^ Mullen, Michael (2003-05-14). "Quake Source Code Released". GameSpot. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
External links
edit- official webpage (offline, archived)