Razor 1911 |
|
| Origin | Norway |
|---|---|
| Country | Norway |
| Years active | October 1985-present |
| Category | warez / demo |
| Founder(s) | Doctor No Insane TTM Sector9 |
| Website(s) | Razor 1911 |
Razor 1911 (RZR) is a warez and demo group.
Contents |
The group was originally founded as Razor 2992 by Doctor No, Insane TTM and Sector9 in Norway in October 1985 as a Commodore 64 software cracking group. Shortly after, they changed from 2992 to 1911 which translates to 777 in hexadecimal.
Between 1987 and 1988 the group began to move away from the Commodore 64 and migrated to a new hardware platform, coding demos and cracking games for the Amiga. In the very early 1990s Razor 1911 made another transition, this time to the IBM PC, foremost as a cracking group, but still continuing to release cracktro loaders, demos and music.
Razor was a supply group on diskette from 1992 until diskettes were abandoned for CD-ROMs. Throughout the 1990s Razor faced competition from many different groups, ranging from groups such as Tristar & Red Sector inc. (TRSi), Pirates with Attitude (PWA), The Dream Team (TDT) and Fairlight (FLT) in 1994 to Prestige, Hybrid (HBD), and others in 1995. Razor was revitalised by new members gained from another group, Nexus, who brought with them some UK suppliers and the leaders The Speed Racer (TSR), Hot Tuna and The Gecko. Razor had a handful of others throughout the 1990s, such as Zodact, The Renegade Chemist (TRC), The WiTcH KiNG, Butcher, SwiTch, Marauder, and Randall Flagg.
In 1995 diskette releases were rapidly being supplanted by CD-ROMs, and Razor 1911 moved into the CD-ripping scene. The crew that led Razor into this new chapter included members such as TSR, Pharaoh, Fatal Error, Third Son, Hot Tuna, Beowulf, Pitbull, Bunter, Manhunter, Vitas, and The Punisher.
Razor once again took on a new challenge when the ISO scene was formed. Razor 1911 began to release ISOs when they became the standard of the day, led most significantly by The Punisher. He was instrumental in Razor's recovery and its solid performance in the ISO scene. Following The Punisher's retirement, Razor was led by various different people and underwent some internal problems in the form of leadership challenges. This was solved when Pitbull, an old Razor member from the 1990s, took over the leadership role. The FBI claimed him to still be the leader of Razor at the time when "Operation Buccaneer", an international anti-piracy operation which led to raids at the homes of over 60 piracy suspects worldwide in 2001, was carried out even though NFOs and scene activity at the time points out The Renegade Chemist as actual leader of the group.
In 2001, two members of Razor 1911 were raided as part of international anti-piracy coop Operation Buccaneer, led by the United States Customs Service.
Immediately after the raid, Razor 1911 ceased activity for a short period of time. They released Atari Revival: Warlords 3D on May 1st, 2002, 6 months after the bust[2] and continued to release games on a regular basis until June 22nd, 2004. Razor's response to Operation Buccaneer shows that the busts only affected people alleged to be active members of the group by the FBI. In reality those who were busted had been ex-members for several years. Unlike most groups, Razor 1911 was not directly affected by Operation Fastlink in 2004, as Razor were still releasing games on a regular basis during the following months.
On June 22, 2006, Razor 1911 started releasing games again. They have been releasing games fairly consistently ever since, and as of 2010 are among the most prolific groups at cracking new releases.[3][4]
Shane Pitman is no longer involved with the group and has a prominent role on the Neowin.net forums, most notably as part of their moderating and news posting team.[1]
On April 22, 2011, Razor 1911's demo division won the public choice award[5] during the Scene.org Awards ceremony at The Gathering for their 64k intro Insert No Coins coded by Rez with music from Dubmood
On July 23, 1996, Razor 1911 released Quake the day after its release.[6][1] It was the first game supplied by The Punisher.[7]
On October 14, 2006, Razor 1911 released Battlefield 2142 to the scene four days before its official release.[8]
In 2007, Razor 1911 was the first group to successfully crack a Windows Vista-only game, Shadowrun, to run on Windows XP.[9] This event proved to support the widely-held belief that Microsoft was trying to release most new games for Vista only in order to boost sales of their operating system. Others made patches for Microsoft's PC game, Halo 2, that Razor 1911 released before.[10]
On November 11, 2007, Razor 1911 cracked and released the European version of Crysis five days before its official store launch date.[11]
On October 6, 2007, Razor1911 cracked and released the European version of FIFA 08 one day before the official release of the game.
On December 7, 2008, Razor 1911 released Grand Theft Auto IV five days after its release. In the process, they managed to crack the $200,000 SecuRom protection. Although a fix included in the 1.0.2.0 patch impaired functionality for players using cracked versions of the game (such as the inability to finish certain storyline missions and disabled in-game computer functions), the group still managed to provide a complete workaround.
On May 28, 2009, Razor 1911 released The Sims 3, two weeks before the official release of the game. Although it did have an error, Razor 1911 released the fix for it.
On November 10, 2009, Razor 1911 was the first to release Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with a working crack for the PC. Although they had very little experience in cracking Steam games, they made the release playable, but only with a steam account. Hours later, SKiDROW released a non-steam version of the game.
On November 20, 2009, Razor 1911 was the first again to release Left 4 Dead 2.
On January 21, 2010, Razor 1911 released Mass Effect 2, five days before the official release of the game.
On February 8, 2010, Razor 1911 released BioShock 2, one day before the official release of the game.
On February 16, 2010, Razor 1911 released Aliens vs. Predator 3 days before the official release of the game.
On February 23, 2010, Razor 1911 released Napoleon: Total War 3 days before the official EU release of the game, the same day as the American release of the game.
On March 2, 2010, Razor 1911 released Supreme Commander 2, the same day as the official release of the game.
On March 11, 2010, Razor 1911 released Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Chaos Rising the day after official release of the game.
On April 27, 2010, Razor 1911 released The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom, claiming to be the first to crack the new DRM by Ubisoft requiring a permanent internet connection.
On July 31, 2010, Razor 1911 released StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
On September 21, 2010, Razor 1911 released F1 2010 4 days before the official EU release of the game, the same day as the American release of the game.
On November 16, 2010, Razor 1911 released Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 one day before the official release of the game.
On December 6, 2010, Razor 1911 announced that they would host a mirror for WikiLeaks at http://wikileaks.razor1911.com/ .[12]
On June 9, 2011, Razor 1911 released Duke Nukem Forever, a few days before the official release of the game. However, the game had an error by deleting save files after the game was closed. SKiDROW released a fix a few hours later.
On November 1, 2011, Razor 1911 released a bypass for Battlefield 3 allowing users to play the game without being tied to EA's Origin service. In the release they stated the group 'doesn't accept and support the online DRM "Origin" from EA.'[13]
On November 10, 2011, Razor 1911 released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim the same day it was released in Australia and other parts of the world ahead of the western hemisphere.