FairLight are a legendary Swedish-based demo and cracking group, born in april 1987 on the c64 by two members of the West Coast Crackers (WCC), No.1 and Sir Galahad. They decided they wanted new names, and thus became known as Strider and Black Shadow, respectively. They almost immediately recruited another Swedish cracker, Gollum. The july 1st release Road Runner Multitrainer listed Strider, Gollum, Black Shadow and Nighthawk as members. The next two members were coder and cracker Woodo (ex Razor Express) from Denmark and Belgian graphician The Hobbit. The first months were spent cracking games. The group was voted #8 cracker group of the month in Illegal 18 (july 1987), then #6 in Illegal 19 (august 1987). Towards the third quarter of 87, they opened their first BBS, The Pleasure Dome in Sweden. The november release Colossus Bridge V4.0 listed Strider, Gollum, Woodo, Black Shadow, The Hobbit, Gandalf and Dragonlance as members at that time. Black Shadow got more and more active on the amiga, but still found time for a few cracks on the c64 now and then - but his last known work on the c64 was in december of this year. On the 18th to the 21st of december they coarranged the Triad & Fairlight Copy Party 1987 in Stockholm, Sweden. Belgian coder Gandalf, who was last heard from in december of this year, later became Lord Blitter on the amiga.
1988 begun with the departure of Woodo in january or february, who left the scene to work on games. He released a small note (written using his own tool Woowriter) with the dramatic name "Woodo is dead!!!" to announce it. His place was temporarily filled by subgroup The Platoon (TPL), consisting of cracker HAM, Brain and Orco. They joined in february, but left pretty quickly. Dragonlance (who had first appeared in november last year) also ceased to be a member sometime around january or february of 1988. This meant that, in the beginning of march, only Gollum and Strider were left as active C64 members! Then, on the 14th of march founder Strider released his final C64 crack, and left to work exclusively on the Amiga. He returned for a couple of cracks in april and may, but was eventually gone for good. Gollum was now the sole active C64 member! Happily he managed to recruit the Swedish members of Front (Saruman, Olo, Audrey and Getafix) in july, gaining two new crackers in Saruman and Olo. The article The History of Fairlight in Exceller 8 2 mentioned that Excalibur, Sharp, 4042, X and Y joining in late spring of this year. Y was later dismissed, and 4042 and Sharp also left after a short while, and X changed his handle to Exolon. In late autumn, Excalibur left for Abyss, while Doppelganger of Abyss went the other way and left Abyss for Fairlight. Fox Fights Back + in october listed Black Shadow, The Sarge, Strider, The Hobbit, Excalibur and Gollum as members. Griffith also joined towards the end of the year.
1989 looked a lot better. In march they had FOUR active crackers; The Alchemist, Bacchus, Gollum and Viper! May saw the group travelling to the Equinoxe and Horizon Party in Eskilstuna, where they recruited Seagull and Smirnoff from AVT, and came 3rd in the demo competition with Pernod and Judge's Algot's Revenge. They were also at the Defiers Party 1989 in may, where they came 2nd with another Pernod & Judge demo; Megabmxninja. In late may Viper was visited by the police, who confiscated some addresses and stuff, but he didn't leave the scene. The news was publicly announced in a note spread with some cracks done around the 1st of june. Originals were a problem during this time too (early summer), and all their cracks were spread with notes requesting new suppliers. Following Karl XII/GB's appearance on swedish national tv in late may, selling out the entire carding and phreaking scene, important members The Alchemist and Zaphod decided to leave the scene around june or july. This was followed by more bad news when longtime member The Hobbit also left the scene soon after. December brought even more bad news, as swedish musician Danko decided to leave the group, and swedes Pernod and Judge left for Horizon. This left Fairlight without much of its former demopower, and the search began for replacements. The Alchemist had been back for some time, though under an 'anonymous' handle, but began signing his own cracks again in december - Galdregon's Domain wrote in its scroller, "as the alchemist is on the run again and is again signing his work". Gollum and The Sarge were busy making the game No Mercy under the label Twisted Minds, which got released around early 1990 through Double Density and Digital Marketing.
The january 1990 Amiga release Cabal ++++++ welcomed Spike as a new member of the group. January began with more problems on the c64 side, as Bacchus left his job in a computer shop (from which he had been taking originals home to crack) to go back to the university. The already desperate original shortage just got worse. The search for new demomaking members eventually turned them to the danish demo subgroup Brain Using Demo Section (BUDS) from Nato, who first collaborated with FLT before becoming full members soon after. The Nato connection continued further, when Fairlight and Nato went into a very shortlived cracking cooperation around march. Swedish coders Dino and Rowdy joined from Altobrows in january, and the fact was announced in Rowdy's demo Official Version in march. It was also around this time we first saw ads for a Fairlight board, The Boardgasm. Viper was kicked from the group in march or april, due to extensive lying. Aaron (Strider's little brother) became a troublesome member, letting his big mouth get him into all sorts of trouble with other groups, and getting himself generally unpopular throughout the scene. Fairlight was a co-arranger of the Swedish Elite Easter Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden in april of 1990, where the two Finns Servant (supply) and Rockstar (crack) joined from Contex, hopefully stopping the desperate search for originals. Unfortunately their member-ship was shortlived, and by late may the two departed for Extasy. May or june saw swedish graphician Visual leaving the group for Dynamix. RT changed his handle to Gerwin late may. Then in early june, something dramatic happened: Bacchus claimed he was going to quit. He'd found the girl of his dreams, and was leaving the scene. BUT not until the girl returned from interrail that summer, on the 10th of july - so for one full month Bacchus would devote his entire life to cracking new games, and then leave. The news of Bacchus' leaving meant two other members also found no more reason to continue as part of the scene, and so Rowdy and The Alchemist also left. Dino and Seagull remained as crackers, and still with no regular supplier. Around july, cracker Ghost joined from Ruthless, but his stay was short and he became groupless. Another cracker showed up, signing his cracks with 'Wild 1' - this was in fact an alternative handle used by Watchman. Their longtime war with fellow swedes Censor finally ended in october, after conference calls and negotiations the two groups decided to collaborate on a small peace demo called Eye Damage, made by Censor. Also in october, new Swedish coder Harlekin joined from a small, unknown local group. Most of the group visited Censor's party in Gothenburg in november, and Harlekin and the others planned a small demo release, but nothing came of it. The demo, "Algot", was released independently in the early days of december, and was the group's first demo since march. Another Swedish cracker, Watchman, joined from Triad around november. Bacchus still couldn't keep his hands off cracking, despite having officially left the scene, and several cracks from his hand appeared in october, november and december. At the conclusion of the year, nearly the entire group travelled to Odense, Denmark to attend the Dexion X-Mas Conference 1990, and released their best demo this year - Vir Optimus - for the competition there. It was unfortunately unplaced.
1991 would be the year Gaston did all the Amiga cracks. Exolon and The Black Shadow remained on the memberlist, but did not crack anything. Supplying was mostly handled by Splatt! and Drone No. 5 (who by the end of the year was mysteriously not on the memberlist any longer) with the occasional game from JBM, Luke & Chuck, Stik and Stone. C64 cracker Bacchus decided to face the fact that he couldn't stay away in january, and became relatively active again. "I'm not 100% back, but I'm not 100% gone either" he wrote in a scroller. Triad's "Gamer's Guide" (who had released its first issue late last year) quickly became an important part of the c64 cracking scene, and this was probably the reason for him abandoning the new intro he'd been using in the last months of 1990 for his old, shorter one. The slideshow The Sargeshow was released in the first months, and its scrollers also told about Gollum and The Sarge's new game, Rubicon (released through software house Hewson). The 'cracker team' Duncan & Turner started releasing games, probably around february or march - but this was in fact just Rowdy under a different handle. A new supplier, Englishman Suckpipe, also helped the situation, by bringing in a lot of new originals. Flood's c64 bbs Wonderland was advertised in intros, starting around march. A private meeting was held at easter time, at the end of march at Bacchus' place in Lund, where Gollum's return to cracking was announced. He would only work on big projects. The group visited the big swedish easter party held by Horizon, but no releases were made there. The may intro The Fuck Shop BBS Announcement for the Amiga announced the new German bbs The Fuck Shop. Cracks continued to appear in june, now with Harlekin doing a few too. On the 16th of July, Aaron's packages at the post office did not get sent on, but was confiscated due to faked stamps. He was called to the police for questioning on the 20th, but probably won't face any charges. Ogami released some standalone pictures as well the Stan Kajman Pictureshow in july. All were coded by Harlekin. A c64 demo called Legoland was released mid october, at an internal meeting at Harlekin's place. A few cracks were released late this year, at least in october, in cooperation with Triad - and originals were apparently plentiful, judging from comments made by Aaron in the documentation for their joint release of "Turbo Charge" on the 14th of october. The november release Lemmings II was dedicated to Sniffy (of subgroup Diamonds and Rust) who apparently "got busted". Sledgehammer (sysop Head Trauma) was announced as a new member in november, but his stay must have been brief, since he was NOT on a memberlist published the following month. Towards the end of the year (november or december) Flatliners lost its WHQ status, but Pizzaman remained on the memberlist (did he close?). The new WHQ was Apocalypse with its sysop POW. The december release Realms listed Strider, Gaston, Rebel, JBM, Damage, Exolon, Black Shadow, Genius, Splatt, Sarge, Pizzaman, POW, Silencer, Luke & Chuck, ToM and Tiger. Among the members that came and went were original suppliers Stone and Stik. Tiger's Italian BBS ICC BBS was listed in september and october, but only his name and not the board in november and december. The mid december release of Robocop 3 welcomed Ramius as a new member. Swedish c64 swapper Enduro joined from Intruders in december.
Skyhigh 1 (january 1993) reported that Oxidy, Ed and Avalon had joined the group. Sysop and cracker Lexi joined Legend in 1993, but would later return. April brought a new diskmagazine from the group; Reformation 1 (april) was a merger between the former magazines World News and Emanuelle, and in the first issue Fairlight were voted #9 overall group. German Mendrake joined in may because of the promise of some first releases, but was immediately kicked the same month, after he joined a second group. He will therefore stay in Bodycount only. He later rejoined again in 1997. Reformation 3 was released in june; coeditor Enduro then went to the army on june 14th, meaning he would have to cut back on his swapping duties. Bacchus moved to Stockholm this month. A late june release by Fairlight pc listed Strider, Black Shadow (as sysop of Seventh Heaven), Dragon (as sysop of Dragon's Lair), Will Stanton (as sysop of Dyer's Eve), Izzy & Newkid, Sniper, Don Corleone and Coq Rogue as members of that section at the time. September 1st saw the release of Reformation 4, which announced the controversy concerning Austrian writer Ayatollah and his subsequent leaving the c64 scene for the snes. It also announced Swedish graphician Ranger (ex Noice, new 12/92)'s leaving the c64 scene (footnote: There is a chance he returned to active duty later, as part of Noice again), as well as Lexi's return to the group and Alchemist's return to the scene. Dishy joined from Dominators in august as a swapper and supplier. Reformation 5 was released at the end of october, and announced their old dutch sysop Duvel was let go, after no contact for a very long time. It also announced HCL and VDK (Vodka)/Booze Design and Bappalander/Light had joined on a trial basis.
Swedish cracker and sysop Lexi (Cyberdome BBS) released "The SidPlay Collection" in august of 1994, as his farewell to the c64 scene, which he was leaving for the SNES scene.
The november 1995 cracktro for Worms ECS/AGA mentioned that the bbs Braindead was no longer a part of the group.
Fairlight coorganized the demoparty Siliconvention 1997 in march. Towards the end of 1997, Bacchus took a big step towards a real comeback for Fairlight. Seeing no real future in a cracking section, he focused instead on forming a powerful demoscene group, and recruited several members towards this end. Around november swedes Gum, Logger, Wiggen, Hollowman and Rooster from Alter were allowed in on trial, provided they deliver a demo for The Party 1997 to prove themselves worthy of membership. Then two weeks before The Party established editors Duke and Sun Dancer joined, bringing with them a new diskmag project, "Scene+". Bacchus made Duke the new main organizer of the c64 section, and he quickly recruited the Dane Crossfire and the Germans Goat, Mendrake and L.A. Style from Motiv8. The entire diskmag (using existing code, mind you) was then put together in just 10 days, and Scene+ 1 was released at The Party 1997, rounding off what was perhaps the most important month in Fairlight history for quite some time.
After a period of dormancy Fairlight returned to the pc iso scene in 1998.
The Fairlight pc demo division was born in february of 2000, from various members of the Razor 1911 demo division that left the group after some internal trouble. The original members were Pantaloon, Graffik, Fireblade, Musik, Smash, Illuminator, Oyise and Case. Some time later that year (july?) also the Fairlight Music Division was launched; its forming members were Andromeda, Azazel, Loxley, Keith303, Norfair, Smash and Xerxes. Thanks to the article in Hugi #20 for some background information. The subgroup's first releases were the demo Absolut Vodka and the intro FLT Rox - both at Remedy 2000 in july. Oyise left for Aardbei in november.
Swedish coder and musician Puterman joined from Civitas in the first months of 2003. The group won the 4k competition at TUM in december with Blueberry.
An article in the news section of Vandalism News 59 from june 2012 detailed how Danko had rejoined the group after years away, and listed a full active memberstatus for the c64 section; Avalon, Bacchus, Danko, Hollowman, Louie64, Maktone, Oxidy, Pantaloon, Puterman, Reed, Sledge, Tempest, Vodka, Wiklund and Zabutom.
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Zoo 2013
- 8th - 10th November 2013
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SILIConvention 1997
- 28th - 31st March 1997
(C64)
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Summer Computer Conference (SCC) 1996
- 12th - 14th July 1996
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Amega Party 1991
- 28th - 30th June 1991
