Commercial products - 'Freax Volume 1. - The brief history of the demoscene'

Freax is the labour of love of one Tamas Polgar who had been working on this book since the mid 1990s. For Tamas this book is only the first half of a two part series that covers his fondest topic, The Scene.

This book begins by covering the history of computer graphics, demonstrations and their relation to the scene today including the history of Commodore, their legendary computer the C-64 and the underground pirate scene that ensues from its creation. Then it turns to the transformation of pirates into artists before the fragmentation of the old C-64 scene as the new multimedia super-computer the Commodore Amiga arrives. After the Amiga it recalls people's experiences of the downfall of Commodore with their personal realisations that autonomous standards and commodities have taken over from technical efficiency and human personalities.

Covered topics of interest to viewers of this site would probably include the origins of the first ever cracktro, the first ever cracking group, the origins of the couriers and the reasons behind elite speak. Terms such as cracking, training, 0-day warez, suppliers, demo groups are all defined in relation to the earliest cracking scene with why or how these originated.

The book is well presented and thorough. It is printed on a high quality glossy paper contained within a solid and durable cover that does not feel cheap or rough though the page bindings do look a little weak. There are good numbers of well sized photos and images contained within that are usually appropriate to the topic at hand. But it is a shame that the book is written by an author for whom English is clearly a second language. At times the text can be hard to read requiring some mental adjustment to get through it all. While the later chapters read a little dry with a seemingly endless index of chronicled events.

Fortunately there is so much content and history contained within the pages that you are often willing to forgive these short comings. So which even though Freax's list price is expensive you do need to remember that it is a self published, full colour/glossy hardcover 200+ page book.

So for people who do not mind spending a little money upfront this is a worthwhile purchase that covers a lot of in-depth information that simply cannot be found online.