In the intro for News Letter Volume 1 (july 1989), Mind Shadow tells the story of the group's inception; "about 3 months ago I was trying to start up a group called KORT (Knight's of the Round Table). I had no idea that there already existed a group called TKRT. (And TKRT was a loser cracking group stealing cracks at that). When I found out I abandoned the idea of starting up a group because I met Laughing Gas. We both has the same idea. We wanted to have not a hacking group, but a pirate group that gave out information on new products, clues to games, and any other business doings in the pirate world. I met Laughing Gas and he suggested a group called API and asked me to join. I agreed and that is basically how we came to be." It went on to list Sturm Brightblade, piro and Missing Link as the rest of the members at that time. Newsletter Issue #2 explained, "Black Sabbath has left the BBS community for good, and his board went with
him naturally."