Company:Crack dot Com
.jpg) | |
| Type | Video game industry |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1996 |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Products | Abuse |
Crack dot Com was a computer game development company co-founded by ex-id Software programmer Dave Taylor, and Jonathan Clark.[1]
History
Crack 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
- ↑ Jonathan Clark (26–30 October 1998). "So Long, Crack.com". loonygames. loonyboi productions. http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.10/guest/.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "The Crack Alternative". Next Generation (Imagine Media) (36): 86–87. December 1997.
- ↑ Software, AntonioR (2023-06-12), Abuse README, https://github.com/antrad/Abuse_1996, retrieved 2023-06-29
- ↑ sengan (22 October 1998). "Crack.com closes shop". Slashdot. http://slashdot.org/articles/98/10/23/0135218.shtml.
- ↑ "Bill Wall's list of 195 famous computer exploits". http://all.net/journal/50/hacks.html.
- ↑ "Maximum Security: A Hacker's Guide to Protecting Your Internet Site and Network". Angel722 Computer Publishing. p. 57-58. http://www.worldcolleges.info/sites/default/files/_Inter.pdf.
- ↑ Savage, Annaliza (1997-01-10). "Hackers Hack Crack, Steal Quake". https://www.wired.com/1997/01/hackers-hack-crack-steal-quake/.
- ↑ Wilson, Hamish (2023-02-27). "Building a Retro Linux Gaming Computer - Part 27: Lost Souls". https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/02/building-a-retro-linux-gaming-computer-part-27-lost-souls/. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
- ↑ Hildinger, Colin L. (1997). "Quake for OS/2". http://www.os2ezine.com/v2n6/quake.htm.
- ↑ Mullen, Michael (2003-05-14). "Quake Source Code Released". https://www.gamespot.com/articles/quake-source-code-released/1100-2440299/.
External links
- official webpage (offline, archived)
 |  |
