CSDb release standards for cracks --------------------------------- The following rules were collected and assembled by the CSDb staff, with help and acknowledgement of a few people which represent the active cracking scene of today and/or have profound knowledge of the cracking scene of the past: - The Ignorance (Nostalgia) - Jazzcat (Onslaught) - Burglar (SCS*TRC) - Jihad (Hitmen) - Widdy (Genesis*Project) - Ian Coog (Hokuto Force) - Taper (Triad) Preamble: --------- In the past CSDb always tried to keep the philosophy "we shall not judge release quality" and we relied on the self-awareness of our users to do just that. However, the recent months showed us that this approach doesn't work anymore for the cracking scene. Since there is no more "authority" (such as countless disk mags in the past) that reviews and ranks cracks, which is somewhat fundamental for the competitive nature of the cracking scene, more and more sub standard releases surfaced, some of which we do not consider scene releases at all anymore. And our users started to question wether all and everything is considered a scene release these days, and demanded us to put an end to all the flaming and crap releases. So these rules were designed, loosely related to the old firstrelease rules (which were valid for almost 3 decades) with some more stuff added, and some other stuff changed to reflect the nature of CSDb (for example we do NOT only consider actual firstreleases, nor do we keep out "fake" releases per se). In some ways our rules are a lot less restrictive, and in other ways we demand more. However we tried to make sure that stuff that we think is "ok" does not clash with these rules, and that they aren't terribly unfair to newcomers either. We didn't design these rules to discriminate against newbies (or anyone else), but instead we think that rules like this are a necessary element in the learning process of every cracker. Goals: ------ - Motivate people to do more quality cracks. Quantity is nothing, quality is all. - More tension in the cracking scene. - Reward skill and effort - The best cracker should win. not the loudest, not the most annoying, not the most persistant. - Getting rid of rerereleases, 100%,101%,102% versions and similar nonsense. - Motivate crackers to release games that were never released before and make better versions than anyone before And last but not least: - Motivate people to upload more old cracks General Rules: -------------- - These rules are only valid for cracks (by our definition) released after 1/8-2008. whatever was released before must only comply with the old rules. However, all old rules also apply to new cracks, with the following additions and changes: - Definition of a crack: Until now a crack was loosely defined as "unauthorized modification" of a program. these standards extend the definition as follows: - A crack MUST be preceded by a crack intro, with the only exception of tools, which most people prefer without intros. - "frozen" games are NOT considered cracks. - The crack MUST have substantial value over the original. linking your intro infront of some freeware game aint cut it. We atleast expect decent training and packing. If a game was released before, subsequent releases must have substantial value over previous releases. - The appearance of the game must NOT be altered in any way. No changing of ingame texts into your groups name, no altering of the hiscore tables. Altered hiscore tables are acceptable if the game has an option to restore the original content. - If the game has a hiscore table, we expect a hiscore saver. Hiscore savers MUST be disabled when trainers are active. - If there are docs available (which we might check on the net) then we expect them to be included. - Cracks should be pal/ntsc fixed, unless the game itself does not allow it. Obviously, when the crack is pal/ntsc fixed then the intro MUST be fixed too. Please notice that there is a strong emphasis on "should be fixed", and games which are trivial to fix (such as many "oldies") MUST be fixed. Also notice that unlike the traditional firstrelease rules, we demand *all* cracks to comply with this rule, including previews and the like. - Ingame text MUST be translated to english, with the only exception beeing games which contain huge amounts of text. (such as adventures) - Any crack added to CSDb must be a valid release according to these rules. Whatever else will get deleted. "Oldschoolers" please notice that we do NOT make a difference between "full" releases and "previews" etc as it is/ was commonly done in the firstrelease scene. We think that these days every release deserves the same effort, preview or not. - So called "recracking" is generally and strongly frowned upon. For this reason each crack should somehow tell what kind of original was used (tape/ disk/cart ...). Recracks are only accepted if no original is available and all existing cracks have bugs. (If in doubt, search harder for an original or crack a different game.) In this case the release MUST state what other crack was used. Credit where credit is due! Notice that this rule was the most objected one by our reviewers, who most of the time would like to see recracks completely banned. However, we don't want to do that (yet) - but to stress it again: recracks should be a rare exception! - If a crack is accepted at atleast two of the following sites, which have been "official" release sites for atleast a decade, it will always be counted as a valid release on CSDb: The Digital Dungeon - ftp://ftp.scs-trc.net/pub/c64/ Banana Republic - ftp://ftp.elysium.pl/ Antidote - antidote.hopto.org:23 (telnet BBS) Note that uploading alone doesn't count, the release must be accepted by the particular site and be moved out of incoming for everyone to download. You also must point out yourself wether a release is available at the above mentioned sites since the CSDb staff will not actively (or regularly) check them. This is an intentional "loophole" in these rules. if those sites accept a release, then we must consider it beeing a valid scene release, no matter what our own rules say. (Keep in mind though, that those sites by themselves have rather strict rules on what they accept and what not) - Games made with game makers such as SEUCK (Shoot Em Up Construction Kit), GAC (Graphic Adventure Creator), RDK (Racing Destruction Kit), etc. are NOT considered valid releases. - Games that are written primarily in basic will NOT be considered a valid release, unless significant effort has been put into it, such as translating huge amount of text. Classic commercial titles such as "pirates!" are an exception to this rule, while most magazine type-ins are not. if in doubt, WE decide. - Generally every group can only release ONE version of a certain release. further updates are prohibited and will get deleted (see exceptions below). The 48 hour rule: ----------------- - After releasing a game, group A has 48 hours to release a possibly updated and/or fixed version of the same release, and during this period is also allowed to "silently" update its CSDb entry. Any updates after these 48h are prohibited and will get deleted and the original file restored. Please notice that this opportunity is meant for trivial fixes, such as a wrong filename, a typo in a scroller etc, NOT for uploading improved versions (like additional trainers). Also notice that if we notice that this rule will get abused we will remove it completely. As a countermeasure every time a "silent" update is made it must be stated in the comments, and explain what was changed. - If a second group B releases a better version within 48h, it will "steal" the release from group A who originally added it and the previous version from group A will get deleted. then the clock will get restarted for group B - If during these 48h someone is able to point out an older release of the same game (which must exist in CSDb, so an entry must have been created and the release must have been uploaded) which is better than the version that was just released, the new version will get deleted. - If within 48h anyone can prove that a release is a recrack, although the release itself doesnt say so, the release in question will get deleted. - If group C releases an even better version AFTER the 48h expired, it will NOT "steal" the previous release, and both versions will stay. How we judge if a release is "better" than another: --------------------------------------------------- - Onefiling. We expect cracks to be one in one file if it is possible. - Size. Good packing is expected (that includes levelpacking multiload releases) - Generally releases should work on a stock C64 with 1541 drive, everything else is a bonus. - The size of the main file should not exceed 202 blocks so it can be loaded by stock kernal load. - Filecopyable. track/sector loaders should be replaced so the crack can be copied file by file. - Amount of trainers. notice that so called "double trainers" will make your release worse, not better. Every double trainer will DECREASE the number of trainers we will count for your release. (so a release with "+2" as in "in- finite lives player 1" and "infinite lives player 2" will not only be counted as "+1", but instead be counted as if it had no trainer at all) - Translation to english. Translating lots of text is a huge effort which will always earn you a big plus. If there is only a little bit of text, such as a score display and "get ready" stuff, then a translation is EXPECTED. - Bugs. Bugs that exist in the crack but which do not exist in the original will earn you a big minus. On the other hand, fixing bugs which are in the original will give you a plus. - Releases made from a real original will always count more than recracks, obviously. Strategy Guide: --------------- For those who are new to the cracking scene, here are some hints: - Before you start with a crack, check what other versions of that game exist. Don't crack it if you dont think you can make it better than all the old versions. Do not rely only on CSDb for reference wether something has already been released. There are a lot of games which have been released that are not added to CSDb yet. Some sites you may want to check are: The Digital Dungeon - ftp://ftp.scs-trc.net/pub/c64/ Banana Republic - ftp://ftp.elysium.pl/ Antidote - antidote.hopto.org:23 (telnet BBS) Gamebase - http://www.gamebase64.com C64Games - http://c64games.de The List - http://www.atlantis-prophecy.org/onslaught/thelist.html - Use the original game (many are available for download on the net). Recracking is generally frowned upon. Generally only consider extending or fixing someone else's crack when no original can be found and existing cracks all have flaws. And even then, maybe still find another game. - Spend time on testing your release. Typically that would be considerably more time that it took to make the actual crack. You are in no hurry, so make sure everything works correctly. - If you are into competition, wait until some group releases a game, and then try to make a better version. - If you want to make a first release, try to make it the best version ever, so no other group will be able to beat you in 48h Final Words: ------------ These rules will get updated and finetuned over time, especially when we see that someone is trying to exploit them and find loopholes. Please realise that WE have the final word, and that WE decide wether a certain exception on the current rules will be made or not. if in doubt, choose a different release platform than CSDb. Last not least, nitpicking on the wording and interpretation is not tolerated. If in doubt, ask and we might update the rules to make more clear what we mean.
