00011: Digital Darkness History v1.1
By: The Smiling Bandit
Written 30 July 1996
Amended 9 December 1996
Chapter 1: The bulletin board system
Digital Darkness started as a bulletin board system, run by The Smiling Bandit. The board was home to quite a few morons and very few people worth pooling knowledge from, but it survived somehow. With the help of two very talented SysOps, Digital Darkness grew and changed greatly. Acid Happy did all the warez and alot of ANSI graphics, while Ice Man (Citadel) and I worked on uploading everything we could find. We only had a 100MB Zip Drive at first, so it was a real challenge trying to get anything meaningful online and try to run some warez. But somehow we managed to keep people calling. People seemed to call Digital Darkness for one reason: the message bases. The conversation and argument was surprisingly intelligent, considering the same people's postings on some of the other 7o3 NPA boards.
Then Digital Darkness got a new hard drive. Suddenly, the message board was turned into an elite board, complete with tons of hacking, phreaking, and warez. ANSI ads were being made by many members. Normal computer graphic ads were also being made. Digital Darkness was becoming THE board to be on.
So if you're in the 7o3 NPA or you don't mind calling long distance, give us a call at 7o3.63i.o57i.
[ NOTE: The board is no longer up. -oc ]
Chapter 2: The hacking group
The idea first came about in #hackersunite, an IRC channel on DALnet's server where The Smiling Bandit hung out as spamman. He had joined a hacking group called SDC, Society of Digital Criminals, and was also in their channel. Another of SDC's members, MrOrange, was in #hackersunite too. We got to talking about hacking in general, and groups in particular. SDC had been around for a week or two, and neither of us could see anything being done. So we decided to start our own group, accepting only the most elite members of the underground. We searched for a name, something menacing. Eventually, we decided on Digital Darkness.
I made an application, and gave it to some of our online friends, as well as some people on my Digital Darkness, the BBS. Applications soon came back in, with some very knowledgable people wanting in. So was born Digital Darkness, the hacking group.
Chapter 3: Our goals
Digital Darkness was formed to increase the power of hackers. The members of Digital Darkness are expected to share their hacking knowledge with each other, trade tips, and pool their expertise. We are planning on putting out both an electronic magazine, and a cookbook. We want to make some demos to exhibit our programming abilities, and maybe a few virii to get rid of those who get in our way. Teleconferencing will be a part of Digital Darkness, and all members must give their real first name and fone number in their application.
Chapter 4: The crash of Digital Darkness
Just as things were looking up for our fledgling group, my hard drive crashed, taking out my BBS and many Digital Darkness files. Whilst I was gone trying to re-install everything, my ISP was bought out, and the new software didn't work for me. So I disappeared from IRC. I continued to run my BBS, which was still growing despite periodic problems. Digital Darkness might have died then and there, but MrOrange, now known as Emperor Mephistopholes kept it alive, with help from Citadel. Digital Darkness somehow survived inactivity and disinterest, and came back stronger.
Chapter 5: The e-zine
Despite nearly begging for submissions, articles sent in were very few. The e-zine was taking forever for us to get it out. We finally got all of the articles we needed to put out the first issue, so I started to write the intro and get it ready...
Chapter 6: Digital Darkness Projects
Digital Darkness has a few projects underway. We're attempting a hostile takeover of some servers, as well as some voice mail systems. For some of the more benign projects, we are coding some demos, and I'm working on a door game. The door game is kind of phreakish in nature, and it's main purpose is to expand my knowledge of C++. It will be released as a Digital Darkness production.
Digital Darkness Zine 1-4
Written 30 July 1996
Amended 9 December 1996
Chapter 1: The bulletin board system
Digital Darkness started as a bulletin board system, run by The Smiling Bandit. The board was home to quite a few morons and very few people worth pooling knowledge from, but it survived somehow. With the help of two very talented SysOps, Digital Darkness grew and changed greatly. Acid Happy did all the warez and alot of ANSI graphics, while Ice Man (Citadel) and I worked on uploading everything we could find. We only had a 100MB Zip Drive at first, so it was a real challenge trying to get anything meaningful online and try to run some warez. But somehow we managed to keep people calling. People seemed to call Digital Darkness for one reason: the message bases. The conversation and argument was surprisingly intelligent, considering the same people's postings on some of the other 7o3 NPA boards.
Then Digital Darkness got a new hard drive. Suddenly, the message board was turned into an elite board, complete with tons of hacking, phreaking, and warez. ANSI ads were being made by many members. Normal computer graphic ads were also being made. Digital Darkness was becoming THE board to be on.
So if you're in the 7o3 NPA or you don't mind calling long distance, give us a call at 7o3.63i.o57i.
[ NOTE: The board is no longer up. -oc ]
Chapter 2: The hacking group
The idea first came about in #hackersunite, an IRC channel on DALnet's server where The Smiling Bandit hung out as spamman. He had joined a hacking group called SDC, Society of Digital Criminals, and was also in their channel. Another of SDC's members, MrOrange, was in #hackersunite too. We got to talking about hacking in general, and groups in particular. SDC had been around for a week or two, and neither of us could see anything being done. So we decided to start our own group, accepting only the most elite members of the underground. We searched for a name, something menacing. Eventually, we decided on Digital Darkness.
I made an application, and gave it to some of our online friends, as well as some people on my Digital Darkness, the BBS. Applications soon came back in, with some very knowledgable people wanting in. So was born Digital Darkness, the hacking group.
Chapter 3: Our goals
Digital Darkness was formed to increase the power of hackers. The members of Digital Darkness are expected to share their hacking knowledge with each other, trade tips, and pool their expertise. We are planning on putting out both an electronic magazine, and a cookbook. We want to make some demos to exhibit our programming abilities, and maybe a few virii to get rid of those who get in our way. Teleconferencing will be a part of Digital Darkness, and all members must give their real first name and fone number in their application.
Chapter 4: The crash of Digital Darkness
Just as things were looking up for our fledgling group, my hard drive crashed, taking out my BBS and many Digital Darkness files. Whilst I was gone trying to re-install everything, my ISP was bought out, and the new software didn't work for me. So I disappeared from IRC. I continued to run my BBS, which was still growing despite periodic problems. Digital Darkness might have died then and there, but MrOrange, now known as Emperor Mephistopholes kept it alive, with help from Citadel. Digital Darkness somehow survived inactivity and disinterest, and came back stronger.
Chapter 5: The e-zine
Despite nearly begging for submissions, articles sent in were very few. The e-zine was taking forever for us to get it out. We finally got all of the articles we needed to put out the first issue, so I started to write the intro and get it ready...
Chapter 6: Digital Darkness Projects
Digital Darkness has a few projects underway. We're attempting a hostile takeover of some servers, as well as some voice mail systems. For some of the more benign projects, we are coding some demos, and I'm working on a door game. The door game is kind of phreakish in nature, and it's main purpose is to expand my knowledge of C++. It will be released as a Digital Darkness production.
Digital Darkness Zine 1-4
