xREL.v3

ANSi JED

In Their 15th Year Of Glory, FairLight Released

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura c SIERRA

Supplied by: FAIRLIGHT            : : Release Date: June 21
Cracked by:  FAIRLIGHT                Game Type: RPG
Packaged by: FAIRLIGHT                Image Format: BIN/CUE

CDS: 2                                Protection: Sony Securom
CD1 archives: 46  x 15 MB             CD1: FLT-ARC1.001 - FLT-ARC1.046
CD2 archives: 51  x 15 MB             CD1: FLT-ARC2.001 - FLT-ARC2.051

System Requirements: P II 300, WinAll, 3d vid card

Game information :

Arcanum creates a compelling new world where magic and technology coexist
in an uneasy balance. As Arcanum opens, the mechanical age has only
recently arrived in this ancient land where Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and
other races have learned to survive in the new sprawling industrialized cities
But this radical shift from magic to technology has created a potentially
explosive situation. As the townspeople and other thinkers begin mass
production of light bulbs, batteries, eyeglasses and guns, the Mages grow
leery. This tightly wound setting is the starting point from which the character
must set out on his quest.

GAME FEATURES:

* Classless, point-based attribute system allows for limitless creativity
in guiding your character's development

* Complex stat system underlies every event taking place within
Arcanum

* Customize your character, including 8 basic stats (Strength and
Charisma), more than a dozen derived stats (Poison Resistance and
Character Speed), 16 primary skills (Gambling and Healing), 80 spells
within 16 colleges, and 56 technological degrees within 8 disciplines

* Automatic character management features let you delve into the
quest at hand for action-oriented players

* Explore a huge game environment, with dozens of cities, dungeons
and towns to find

* Meet more than 300 unique characters and 280 different monster
types across the land of Arcanum

* Multiple paths to victory abound in the scores of quests surrounding
the main storyline

* Accurate day/night cycles affect the gameplay, from combat to
thieving skills

* Take on a band of ogres in real-time, or plan your strategy through a
turn-based system of combat - you choose

* Take the adventure online cooperatively or competitively over the
Internet or LAN

Copy over the crack from cd1 or cd2 (on both CD's for your convenience)

SCENE NOTES:  *sigh*  Well, it seems FLT has come under attack through nfos
now and we have usually not gotten into nfo wars but we feel we must respond
to recent activities.  Please note this will be our only reply to this
issue as I'm sure razor will counter-reply however the average user does
not wish to read inside group propaganda, they just want to play the
game.

The 'truth' is only a perception, and whereas we believe in the truth
and try to stick to the truth wherever security is not compromised, not
all groups do that..not necessarily due to the fact they outright lie
but moreover because they don't have all the facts straight and so they
presume to know the truth

We will respond the the parts of the razor nfo in steps and not write a
dissertation on the state of the scene (not that it doesn't need one).
Razor nfo lines are preceeded by a * so you know which is which.

* Yesterday, Razor beat FLT on the release of LoMM.  We released the
* game to sites several minutes before FLT did - FLT even requested a nuke
* of their own release when it was clear the battle was lost.  Two hours
* later, FLT concocted a story to try to get revenge for us beating them.

Ok, right off the bat there is an untruth, not because Razor outright
lied but because they do not know the facts.  Here are the facts of that
happening which any FLT member who was present should be able to attest
to.  FLT had LOMM pre'd on all FLT sites about an hour before Razor
released however during the preing we were also testing and found out
the game is an online game and the only single play part is some
practice mode.  We at that time tested lan play thinking like Quake 3 if
the user can at least play some lan it is an ok release (not great but
ok).  However during our test we received CD authorization errors when
trying to connect two computers using the same CD key.  Later tests
showed that was a random occurrence..some users reported getting those
errors others did not.  So we told the traders do NOT release that game
in the pre dirs and will be given further instructions when we know
more.  However, when Razor released someone panicked and accidentally
let the damn thing fly DOH!  A chain reaction occurred and it was a
miserable state of affairs and I must say not a pretty picture for FLT.
We requested nuke right away as we knew the release was not working, not
because we lost a race..racing is fun and part of the scene and
sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but we did so because as we
felt the release was a non working version of what the game should
be (some multiplay available).  Oh geez this is already long-winded and
I apologize.

* Razor 1911 would like to clarify the events of yesterday all interested
* parties.  Quite simply, FLT has pulled yet another dirty trick in a long,
* long laundry list of dirty underhanded tricks.

He loves to call FLT the evil monsters of the iso scene yet really all he
ever does is talk about our underhanded tricks and has nothing to
substantiate them with facts.

The next part of their nfo goes into how they have started to release a
nice quality/quantity of games lately and how we felt that a threat and
so did nasty deeds to hold them down ('we are oppressed') like nuke
their releases because we raced them and nuked them for non-working
seeing how the end user loves to have non-working versions.  The also
bring up how we ordered a nuke of 911 Fire Rescue recently which is
totally absurd.  I just looked at 5 FLT hq and they all have that
release on their site.  When there is a race and FLT HQ has the release
done on their site and razor is not it is nuked...a simple fact.  It's
not who makes a dir first that wins, its who finishes the release first
that wins.  If it were the other way around we would just make a dir of
Quake 4 now and just wait it out.  FLT has pretty much stuck to the
principle if the release is done on enought FLT HQ's to race then we
race, if not then we don't.  A perfect example of that is given by Razor
in their own nfo:

* to perform very well, scoring lots of big titles that would have once
* automatically gone to FLT - No One Lives Forever, Giants, Quake 3 Team

FLT was preing both NOLF and Giants when Razor released.  They were done
on 2-3 HQ's but not enought to race so we deleted the dir and went on to
fight another day.

* Over the last few months, Deviance has put together a very nice run and
* clearly established themselves as a superior group to FLT.  In response,
* FLT has become more bitter than ever and is giving no quarter in its effor
* to discredit the competition wherever possible.  Because of Deviance's
* recent releasing prowess, it is very easy for them to pick on the little
* kid on the block, namely Razor 1911.  We pride ourselves in being a small,

Yes Deviance has done very well lately and I can promise you when I see
dirs made like ALONE.IN.THE.DARK.4-DEViANCE and
OPERATION.FLASHPOINT-DEViANCE I tighten up, say "shit wish that was FLT"
then proceed to download and play the games that they release (though I
wonder how many bytes difference the readme ...oh nevermind).  The point
is the iso scene is more competitive now then ever on all facets.. USA
and Europe games, and if you don't feel that desire to win on big titles
then I am not sure you are human, but I can promise you that we have
never knowlingly done anything to prevent another group from releasing a
game by discrediting the competition without valid reasons (e.g.
non-working releases, bad images etc.).

* on a LAN.  Our initial release included only a serial number - AS DID THE
* INITIAL FLT DUPE WHICH WAS LATER NUKED.  Worth noting also is the fact
* that the FLT sublabel Class did not release the game with the "crack"
* that FLT later used - only additional keys were included.

Heh, another fact not correct.  Class did release the same cracked
release however provided the extra keys in case the entries in the
registry (which is the same for everyone in a rip since the registry is
included during install) would have the same key and maybe prevent it
from working on lan with the cracks that were included.  If you read the
CLASS nfo carefully you would see that.  With our iso users put in any
key they wish and that gets embedded in the registry, however with the
rip every user has the same cd key and CLASS was being careful just in
case that caused problems (which it doesn't due to the cracks).

The next part of Razor's nfo is rebutted above with explanation again of
what happed with our first LOMM release non-cracked.

* I mentioned hypocrisy earlier.  If FLT truly believed in releasing the game
* in the manner in which they did, you would not have seen a Quake 3 release
* from FLT several years ago which included a key but no network play.  You

Again the facts are incorrect.  FLT's Quake 3 release was cracked to
work on lan play AND direct ip to ip.  Only later did IdSoftware do an
update patch that prevented that from working (unless you did not
upgrade).  Razor could have done research before stating that fact.
From the nfo found on isonews for Quake 3 FLT:

"Please note, when you are asked to enter a cd Key, enter anything or
just Hit escape.  While this game is INET play based, we have cracked
this release so directplay (IP to IP) or Lan play works.  If you want to
play Online fully (on all servers) you will need a valid key (like
Half-life). "

The only net play you could not play was onthe ID servers which had CD
key authorization.

* It is true that FLT has earned, through a lot of releases over the last
* couple of years, a place in scene memory. They do not, however, deserve the
* respect of their peers -and this is something we wish to make clear at this
* time.  While FLT may release a lot, they do not lift a finger to earn the
* respect of Razor, and I would also think Deviance feels the same way though
* I cannot speak for them, as FLT has screwed them over in shady ways on more
* than one occasion.  We do not respect FLT and until the group demonstrates
* its ability to behave in a responsible way towards its peers, we will no

It is difficult to earn the respect if their seniors are constantly
providing propaganda to the contrary.  Why don't you let people see the
truth for what it really is and stop dressing it down.  The last thing
FLT thinks when they release is "We have to stop Razor and Deviance from
releasing".  Our thoughts are more like "hurry up and get this damn
release pre'd before Razor or Deviance beats us to it!".  We are not
asking for your respect nor would we ever think of demanding it.
Respect comes an overall look at the scene and not a tunnel-visioned
view from a few people.

* Ultimately, the end user is who is hurt by the ruthless actions of FLT, and
* others who might choose to behave in an underhanded manner.  By using their
* substantial position in the scene to rob you of your choices, they are
* undermining what the competition between groups is all about - competition

How can the end user be hurt by fully cracked versions of games to play?  You
talk about how we release things just to piss you off but you are
incorrect.  You release Atlantis uncracked, we release it cracked (not 2
hours later mind you but minutes later)..same for Tribes II, however we
are the Evil monsters for trying to belittle Razor by releasing a
working release.  This does not hurt the end users, only egos.  "rob you
of choices"..???  Which should the user choose, a non-cracked
non-working version or a cracked one.  We have been accused in the past
of releasing repacks of games cracked that were uncracked previously and
why not just release the crack but in some cases that is more trouble
for the end user.  For instance with LOMM there are two cracked files to
copy over after installation and two during installation on the CD so
the end user cannot simply download the cracks and overwrite
files...they would have to remaster and we all know the end user either
doens't wasnt to be bothered with that or is not familiar enough with
remastering to do so.  Perhaps you are right though, perhaps in the
future we could release cracked files along with the repacked iso and
give the user some choice of how they want to proceed.

Ultimately folks it comes down to the truth.  Now I'm sure razor will
reply to this nfo in some fasion, however we have presented the truth
here and it is up to you, the end user now.  I would love nothign better
than to see the iso scene have nice fair competition and would be
willing to do whatever it takes to bring it closer to that
point...however I would also like world peace.

By the way, for future reference, the readme.txt of this release is
13,445 bytes.

Deep Thoughts, By FAiRLiGHT

I remember that one fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew what
was coming. "You don't have to tell me," I said. "I'm off the team, aren't I?"
"Well," said Coach, "you never were really ON the team. You made that uniform
you're wearing out of rags and towels, and your helmet is a toy space helmet.
You show up at practice and then either steal the ball and make us chase
you to get it back, or you try to tackle people at inappropriate times
." It was all true what he was saying. And yet, I thought something is
brewing inside the head of this Coach. He sees something in me, some kind of raw
talent that he can mold. But that's when I felt the handcuffs go on.

Wanna help flt? Don't ask for any tech support, disks OR
How to unrar an iso, emailapply*fairlight*nu!

/Team FairLight

Greetings to our friends in groups such as:

CLASS, RAZOR 1911, BACKLASH, MYTH, DEVIANCE, KALISTO, ECHELON, BMI & TITAN

QUALITY, TRADITION  AND PRIDE