$D@BUG

      by Gansgter of Mad vision


]I write this article because I feel 
]that D-Bug are a crew who have been 
]overlooked by most people.
]Few people have heard of them outside
]of the U.K. In fact, not many people
]have heard of them in the U.K. either.
]Even worse is the fact that few people
]have got any of their menus.

Let me explain about D-Bug. They are 
more or less 3 people. 
Firstly, there is Hot Knife.
He is the main cracker,filer, trainer
etc. He is better known as Vapour of 
Automation (R.I.P.). This is a name 
that most people will have heard of.
In his time he has cracked hundreds of 
games, and taken part in the production
of over 600 cd's !!!
He is one of the most experienced of
the cracking guys on the ST, and is
something of a veteran, or perhaps one
of the reminders of the good old days 
of the ST. Either way, there is no 
doubting the talent that this guy has.
He has been around since the birth of
the ST scene, and he is the person who
invented the idea of a menu/cd/compil.
His cds for LSD were the first of their
kind in the world. So all the cd crews
must thank Vapour / Hot Knife for his
idea. Since Automation died, Vapour has
largely been forgotten by the majority
of the ST scene. But he is still here
with us, all these years later, and he
still continues with his productions.

]Then there is Cyrano Jones.
]He is also a cracker,filer,trainer etc.
]but he is also a good coder too. He is
]better known as The Law of The BBC and
]also of the Unnameables / Automation.
]He has cracked many games too, and is
]capable of doing all the usual bits to
]a game (Filing, Linking, Training etc.)
]But these days, his role in D-Bug seems
]to be more that of a coder than a main
]cracker. He has cracked some games for
]D-Bug, but these are fewer than you 
]would have imagined from someone of his
]capabilities. Apparently he has a bit
]of a problem getting hold of originals
]and also he is studying at a university
]currently, so he does not have much
]time to do cracking. Most of the D-Bug
]menus were put together by him. I am 
]informed that Hot Knife cracks games 
]and trains them and all the other bits,
]he then passes them down to Cyrano who
]proceeds with putting them onto compils
]and releasing them.

]The third member of D-Bug is Iceman.
]He was formerly known as Apollo of the
]Guardians Of Logik / Automation. As you
]may have noticed, they are all ex crew
]members of Automation. He is a cracker,
]filer, and has coded a few intros for 
]his former crews (BBC, GOL). He also
]supplies originals for the group. Most
]people overseas will not have heard of
]this guy since he was very inactive in
]the last couple of years, though to his
]credit, I must say that he is the only
]person to have cracked, filed a game
]called Moon Walker 100% on BBC menu 52,
]he also coded the full screen intro.

Other people associated with the crew
are ;- The Pup, Slammin Mac Daddy.
The Pup is their main original supplier
and has supplied over 70% of the games
on D-Bug productions. Slammin Mac Daddy
is the tester for the group. He insures
that the menus are working fine. He was
also a member of Automation (The Flavor
Fave and Stan The Man).


D-Bug always use games that they have 
cracked themselves. They never use 
cracks from other crews. But they do
use Shareware and PD to fill the space
on their disks.
All games work 100% and are usually 
trained and have ram disks too. Bearing
this in mind, it would appear to be a 
big surprise that not many people out 
in Europe have heard of them.
Let me explain. This problem is mainly
due to the fact that D-Bug dont care if
a game is old. They will still crack 
any originals they get, no matter how
old they are, just as long as they have
not been done previously for Automation
This leads me to believe that it is the
aim of Vapour to crack EVERY game that 
has ever been released onto the ST. 
This is a great idea, but unfortunately
not many people are interested in cds 
that contain games that were released
many months ago. Most D-Bug cds contain
games which are a little old, but which
they have cracked recently. These days,
most people dont give a shit if a game
is 100% and is trained and ram-disked
and all the other stuff, they just want
new games, and VERY fast too. So they
dont care if D-Bug do a version that is
much better than everybody elses. Only
because the game is now quite old. All
the spreaders in this country dont send
D-Bug stuff across the English Channel
because they know that the menus will 
have old stuff on them, and that the 
guys in France will not be interested
in swapping them. This is a big shame,
when you consider just how good D-Bug
stuff is. I for one always send D-Bug
stuff to all my contacts. I am one of 
the few who has had EVERY D-Bug cd. So
if people bothered to load up the games
on a D-Bug production, they will surely
be amazed by the quality, and be safe 
in the knowledge that everything will
always work 100% all the time.

]At the time of writing this, D-Bug have
]made over 70 cds.

]I hope many more of you will keep any
]D-Bug disks that you have, and will try
]to spread them to others too. They are
]worth keeping.