ScuzzBlog: Diaries January 2025
Entry 29th January 2025: Post 1: A-TRAIN - Cracking good games.
A-TRAIN - Cracking good games.
The topic today is less about A-TRAIN and more about the cracking
crews that circulated illegal copies of the game. The copying of
disks was almost an acceptable behaviour amongst the Amiga community.
I would say my collected disk boxes over the years featured more
than a modest number of cracked and copied disks. So much so I
have a wall of the things alphabetically stacked against the rear
wall to my large table in the disk room.
Following on from my blogs this last week or so featuring on my
efforts to reconstruct disks, I thought I would grab a game from
the collection and see what cracked efforts were produced for it.
A-TRAIN was the creation of Maxis as most know and was a city builder
that featured trains at its heart. I purchased my copy new in 1994
when it came out for the Amiga 1200.
The grey disks that I show are cracked disks from an unknown origin
that are labelled with the name NPC distributing what he claims to
be a Skid Row game... re-released in 1992. If you read the links I
give in the last image in today’s collection you will see that Skid
Row are an international Amiga cracking group.
I was able to ADF copy the disks on the A1200 though I had to play
the game on the A500 in the disk room. The copy version is the
OCS/ECS version and the only difference, other than the Skid Row
reference, is the omission of the true creators name ArtDink and
there being no disk copying facility in the system drawer.
What is amazing is that I was able to ADF copy my original A1200
disks and play those without issue on the emulator.
Personally I never feel I have the proper game when using cracked
disks. If I have an interest in a game I will always try and buy
the original. Most important to me is the manual and box art plus
obviously the original disks.
I continue on my quest to have fun with old crap disks, and I have
more tomorrow, but this time a couple of really tatty CUAmiga disks
that are 'wheeshing' and 'whooshing' in a most troubling state.
A-TRAIN - Cracking good games.
If you can only see this CONTENT window
then click the image above for the full site
Last updated 29th January 2025
Chandraise Kingdom
Keep the Faith
scuzzscink 2025