Sector9 / Razor 1911, Megaforce, Active Cracking Crew 1992
Added on January 8th, 2007 (7863 views)
www.c64.com?type=3&id=191



Tell us something about yourself.
Name: Kjetil. Age: 35. Birthplace: Namsos Norway 1971, currently resides in Trondheim Norway. Job: System Administrator. Interests: traveling, good food, hiking.

What handle(s) did you use and how did you come up with it/them?
My handle was Sector9 (the skateboard brand did NOT exist in 1985). Prior to that (early 1985), I think I used the handles Popeye and 2001 (for some odd reason). In a temporary moment of madness I also used the nick Jaycee (how dull). I was a big fan of Section 8, and Sector9 is a blatant rip off, or should we say that I was heavily influenced by that name?

What group(s) were you in?
October 1985-July 1986: Razor 1911

July 1986-November 1986: Megaforce

November 1986-August 1987: Active Cracking Crew 1992

August 1987 and ever since: Razor 1911

What roles have you fulfilled?
My main function was as an organizer (in addition to swapper, coder, artist – whatever it took).

How long were you active for?
1985-1994 (except October 1991-August 1992 when I did my army service).

Tell us about those years and how you got into the scene in the first place.
Commodore 64 (1985-1987): We mainly made intros and a few multipart demos. Some of them were quite decent. I can recall that Mr. W and Tilt were quite early with some side-border stuff.

Amiga (1988-1991): The first two years we mainly did demos but in late 1989 we started getting into the cracking and BBS scene. We released quite a few cracks until 1991.

PC (1991-1994): We released a lot of games and some demos between 1991-94 when I had to drop out due to being scrutinized by our friends the police.

Describe a typical day for you in front of the computer.
On weekends and holidays it would probably involve programming until five in the morning, sleep until noon and do everyday business until approx ten in the evening where I had a go at programming again. I have always been way more creative at night, in fact I still am, which is a shame since I really am supposed to work from 8-16 and not after 22.

Did you personally invent any special techniques or tools to make things easier for you?
I made a joystick-based sprite editor on the C64. But then again, everybody did, right?

When you look at what you did back then, what are you most proud of?
On the C64, I guess I didn't really make anything outstanding, but I remember being very impressed with Mr.W and Tilt's Music Selector and their Border Demo.

Who were your heroes on the scene and why?
Jedi 2001, 1103 and ABC 1999 were the first crackers I heard about. It was after seeing their stuff that I decided to form my own group.

What, for you, was the coolest thing ever invented on the C64?
I was probably most impressed when I saw the top and bottom border removed for the first time. How was this possible? I quit the C64 scene before most of the other stuff came along (DYCP, FLI, etc.) so I enjoyed looking at them, and knew they were sophisticated yet none of it impressed me as much as the first removal of the border.

Did you go to any copy-parties, meetings or tradeshows?
After having attended the two legendary Danish Gold parties in 1987 and 1988, we held our own copy-party (and the first real one in Norway) in October 1988. I think we had approx 130 people coming from all over Scandinavia. It was even raided by the police but the officer left the party with a big grin and a pack of diskettes for his own C64. After that I attended a few more parties such as IT/IMP in Arendal, Norway in 1989, IT/Razor 1911/Abnormal/Hoaxers party in Trondheim, Norway in 1989, The party in Gothenburg, Sweden on Easter 1991, ECES in Eskilstuna, Sweden in 1991, and a few others as well. I stopped attending parties in 1991 though. Gamingcontests and hundreds of kids with little or no knowledge about the scene made me loose interest. DG's party in 1987 was the most interesting party I went to. I met a lot of legendary people at the time and no invitation simply meant no entrance. Great!

In your opinion, what was the scene all about?
Competing, bragging, showing off, being impressed, pushing limits and bonding with people all over the world within a set of mutually accepted and understood rules. Apparently, a brotherhood which has made a big impression on a lot of old sceners since there are more and more of these old-school scene websites popping up.

What were the particular highlights for you?
Event: DG party Odense 1987, Razor/IT/Abnormal/Hoaxers party in Trondheim 1989. Game: Winter Games and Fort Apocalypse. Demo: I always liked productions from 1001 crew, The Dutch USA-Team, Radwar/FCG/Red Sector, ECA 1998, and later on I saw some cool stuff from Rawhead, Panoramic Design and Mr Cursor.

Any cool stories to share with us?
The 1988 Danish Gold party in Tommerup outside Odense is worth mentioning. Some guys from Triad got drunk and trashed the overcrowded little cabin which DG for some odd reason had chosen as the partyplace. Shortly after, a small "f**k Triad" demo was released and shown in plenary to everybody's great amusement. I have a feeling that the accusations weren't fair though, but who cares? I still wonder how DG thought they were going to fit 350 people in a cabin that was at most 150 square meter. The place was like an anthill. We dragged our computer all the way from Norway and were among the lucky few ones that were able to get 0,5x0,5 meter on a table for our system.

Are you still in contact with any old C64 people today?
Occasionally people get in touch with me. Recently, one of my first contacts Zzap of Swedish Cracking Crew got in touch with me. We also have some guys from Danish Gold in our IRC channel. It's always enjoyable to talk to old scene people.

When did you get your C64 and do you still have it lying around somewhere?
I sold it in 1988. What was I thinking? Fortunately the emulators are quite good these days so I can play around with them whenever I feel like a trip down memory lane.

Was the C64 really as special as we like to think it was?
It represented a gateway to a new area for a whole generation of young people. It had certain advantages over the other systems at the time which really made it THE choice. Sorry Spectrum owners.

When can we expect to see some new C64 output from you? :)
Unfortunately never. I don't like wallowing in the past too much. The memories are enough for me.

Do you have a message for your old contacts and/or anyone reading this?
Try the emulators if you haven't already, they're great fun.

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