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Kalisto is a console warez group established in March 1998, [1] a subsidiary of Fairlight, [2] which specializes in the release and distribution of PlayStation (PS1) and PlayStation 2 (PS2) ISO images, briefly moonlighting on the Dreamcast platform in mid to late 2000.
Kalisto entered into the Dreamcast scene on June 26, 2000, with the release of the title Evolution: The World of Sacred Device . [3] By August 19, 2000, Kalisto had determined how to rip and redistribute Dreamcast GD-ROMs as CD-ROM ISOs without the need for a swappable "bootdisk" CD-ROM. [4] A few weeks later, with their release of Ganbare! Nippon! Olympics 2000 on September 2, 2000, Kalisto claimed that Sega provided a financial incentive for them to stop releasing games for the Dreamcast platform: [5]
Sega has offered us stock options to stop releasing DC, so this will be it, our last release. Thanks to all who have supported us throughout our stay in the DC scene. Take note this is NOT a joke. We are really stopping all DC operations with this release. We will continue on with the PSX. Bye.
While the claim of stock options was allegedly a joke, [1] Kalisto ceased all releases for the Dreamcast shortly after and focused on PlayStation games. (although Kalisto did return for one final rip and released the U.S. version of Shenmue on November 9, 2000) [6] [7] A new group called Echelon emerged on September 4, 2000, picking up the slack to later become the leading release group for the Dreamcast. [8] [9] At the time of this transition, there was much speculation that Kalisto and Echelon were one and the same. On September 19, 2000, Echelon releases the Dreamcast Self-Booting Tutorial with which it was possible to make Self-boot Dreamcast disks that work on the Dreamcast without the need of the Utopia Boot-Disk. [10] It was later revealed on November 15, 2005, in Echelon's Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King American PS2 nfo, that Echelon was indeed Kalisto. The nfo stated "We errr Kalisto released it on November 2nd 2001 as Dragon_Warrior_VII_USA_PS1-KALISTO", referring to the previous game in the series and then the nfo ended with -- the dragon warrior of KALiSTO. [11]
In 2004, Kalisto was named as one of six groups targeted as part of Operation Fastlink by the United States Department of Justice. [12] The group lost a major archive site that was located in the Netherlands. [13] Their supplier Seth "Basilisk" Kleinberg was arrested in the process. [14]
The Dreamcast is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo's GameCube, and Microsoft's Xbox. The Dreamcast was Sega's final console; its 2001 discontinuation ended the company's eighteen years in the console market.
Warez is a common computing and broader cultural term referring to pirated software that is distributed via the Internet. Warez is used most commonly as a noun, a plural form of ware, and is intended to be pronounced like the word wares. The circumvention of copy protection (cracking) is an essential step in generating warez, and based on this common mechanism, the software-focused definition has been extended to include other copyright-protected materials, including movies and games. The global array of warez groups has been referred to as "The Scene", deriving from its earlier description as "the warez scene". Distribution and trade of copyrighted works without payment of fees or royalties generally violates national and international copyright laws and agreements. The term warez covers supported as well as unsupported (abandonware) items, and legal prohibitions governing creation and distribution of warez cover both profit-driven and "enthusiast" generators and distributors of such items.
Shenmue is a 1999 action-adventure game developed and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It follows the teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki as he sets out in revenge for the murder of his father in 1980s Yokosuka, Japan. The player explores an open world, fighting opponents in brawler battles and encountering quick time events. The environmental detail was considered unprecedented, with numerous interactive objects, a day-and-night system, variable weather effects, non-player characters with daily schedules and various minigames.
.nfo is a filename extension for text files that accompany warez scene releases of pirated software or media.
In the history of video games, the sixth generation era is the era of computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld gaming devices available at the turn of the 21st century, starting on November 27, 1998. Platforms in the sixth generation include consoles from four companies: the Sega Dreamcast (DC), Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2), Nintendo GameCube (GC), and Microsoft Xbox. This era began on November 27, 1998, with the Japanese release of the Dreamcast, which was joined by the PlayStation 2 on March 4, 2000, the GameCube on September 14, 2001 and the Xbox on November 15, 2001, respectively. On March 31, 2001, the Dreamcast was among the first to be discontinued. Xbox in 2006, GameCube in 2007 and PlayStation 2 was the last, in January 2013. Meanwhile, the seventh generation of consoles started on November 22, 2005, with the launch of the Xbox 360.
A warez group is a tightly organised group of people involved in creating and/or distributing warez such as movies, music or software ("warez") in The Scene. There are different types of these groups in the Scene: release groups and courier groups. Groups often compete, as being the first to bring out a new quality release can bring status and respect – a type of "vanity contest". The warez groups care about the image others have of them.
The Humble Guys (THG) were a cracking group for the IBM PC during the late 1980s founded by two friends known by the pseudonyms Candyman and Fabulous Furlough. The group was also noticed in the demoscene for some of their cracktros.
Shenmue II is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It was directed, produced and written by Yu Suzuki. Like the original Shenmue (1999), Shenmue II consists of open-world environments, brawler battles and quick-time events. It features a day-and-night system, variable weather effects, non-player characters with daily schedules, and various minigames. The player controls the teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki as he arrives in Hong Kong in 1987 in pursuit of his father's killer. His journey takes him to Kowloon and the mountains of Guilin, where he meets a girl who is part of his destiny.
The Warez scene, often referred to as The Scene, is a worldwide, underground, organized network of pirate groups specializing in obtaining and illegally releasing digital media for free before their official sale date. The Scene distributes all forms of digital media, including computer games, movies, TV shows, music, and pornography. The Scene is meant to be hidden from the public, only being shared with those within the community. However, as files were commonly leaked outside the community and their popularity grew, some individuals from The Scene began leaking files and uploading them to filehosts, torrents and ed2k.
Virtua Tennis 2, known as Tennis 2K2 in North America and Power Smash 2 in Japan, is a sequel to Virtua Tennis that was released for the Sega Dreamcast, Sega NAOMI arcade unit and Sony's PlayStation 2 in 2001–2002. New features included the ability to slice and play as female players such as Monica Seles, Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport and the males such as Patrick Rafter, Magnus Norman, Thomas Enqvist and Carlos Moyá and mixed doubles matches. The game was created and produced by Hitmaker, with Acclaim Entertainment publishing it in Europe for the PS2. This was the last Virtua Tennis game to be released for the Dreamcast following its discontinuation.
CLASS (CLS) was a notorious and prolific warez group that existed between January 1, 1997, and January 9, 2004. The group was the target of federal raids such as Operation Fastlink. They specialized in cracked games, and sometimes had elaborate art in the cracktro or release. They were a global group and had many members worldwide. Class used their group abbreviation, CLS, as a suffix at the end of the files they released.
GD-ROM is a proprietary optical disc format originally used for the Dreamcast video game console, as well as its arcade counterpart, the Sega NAOMI and select Triforce arcade board titles. It was developed by Yamaha to curb piracy common to standard CDs and to offer increased storage capacity without the expense of the fledgling DVD-ROM. It is similar to the standard CD-ROM except that the pits on the disc are packed more closely together, resulting in a higher storage capacity of 1 gigabyte, a 30% increase over a conventional CD's capacity of 700 megabytes.
Echelon is a warez group which specializes in the illegal release and distribution of copyrighted console games, such as Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 ISO images. They also created demos on both platforms.
F355 Challenge is a racing simulation arcade video game based on the race car and Ferrari event. It was developed by the AM2 division of Sega for the Sega Naomi Multiboard arcade system board under the direction of Yu Suzuki, and was later ported to the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 home video game consoles under the names F355 Challenge: Passione Rossa and Ferrari F355 Challenge respectively for both American and European releases. The only model of car featured in the game is the Ferrari F355 Challenge model. The game was considered the most accurate simulation of the F355 possible up until that time.
Standards in the warez scene are defined by groups of people who have been involved in its activities for several years and have established connections to large groups. These people form a committee, which creates drafts for approval of the large groups. Outside the warez scene, often referred to as p2p, there are no global rules similar to the scene, although some groups and individuals could have their own internal guidelines they follow.
Utopia bootdisk is a booting program released on June 22, 2000 and created by the warez group Utopia, designed for playing pirated Sega Dreamcast games on standard CD-R discs. The bootdisk also allows the play of imported official Dreamcast GD-ROMs, bypassing the Dreamcast's region lockout. The Utopia bootdisk does not defeat the security used on original GD-ROM disks; instead, it uses an alternative boot method in the Dreamcast BIOS, which was originally intended for use with MIL-CDs. When loaded into a standard Dreamcast, the screen will display a spinning 3-D rendering of a reindeer alongside a message to insert a disc. Once a new disc is inserted and the Dreamcast lid is closed, the disc boots. Eventually, the bootdisk was rendered obsolete by "self-booting" pirate releases—games released in MIL-CD format that could boot without the need of the Utopia bootdisk. The bootdisk was developed using a pirated version of the Sega Katana SDK, with code to render the reindeer taken from an early Dreamcast teapot demo.
Myth was a warez group, focused on cracking and ripping PC games. Besides ripped games, the group also released trainers and cracked updates for games. Myth's slogan, "Myth, always ahead of the Class", was referring to the rival group class that existed from 1997 to 2004.
The iSONEWS was a warez news website originally created by orm who later deferred management of the website to krazy8 and mandarin. TheiSONews supplied release details and NFOs of warez games and programs, without actually supplying them, or supplying any information on where to find them. Later it was also called a fan site that has become an unofficial hub of DivX news.
Razor 1911 (RZR) is a warez and demogroup founded in Norway, 1986. It was the first ever such group to be initially founded exclusively as a demogroup, before moving into warez in 1987. According to the US Justice Department, Razor 1911 is the oldest software cracking group that is still active on the internet. Razor 1911 ran the diskmag 'Propaganda' until 1995.
Kalisto started back in March 1998 with 3 core members. [...] Our infamous Sega Stock Options hoax
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)Have fun with our first DC release
today we present you the first SELF BOOTABLE game for your Dreamcast
Since ECHELON didn't do this one yet, we felt the need to fill the void. [...] you have to understand that we are retired in the DC scene, and this is out of the ordinary for us.
As promised earlier, here's the Shenmue Passport disc.
And a new group breaks into the bustling Dreamcast scene. We had the skills to do most things that KALISTO has done while they were doing it, but hey, why bother if they're doing all releases already? Now that KALISTO has stopped, we thought it would be a good time to emerge and start releasing for the public.
In cooperation with U.S. customs agents, the Dutch anti-piracy group Fiscal and Economic Crime Service (FIOD-ECD) raided 20 universities within the Netherlands. The groups FairLight and Kalisto had significant European resources and many key sites hosted at technical universities within the Netherlands. The Netherlands is infamous for its fast and abundant bandwidth. Two topsites were detained from local universities along with one major archive site belonging to the Kalisto group.
Seth Kleinberg, executive Editor of www.game-over.net, a PC and console game-reviewing Web site, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. Seth faces a maximum sentence of ten years with additional costs for the damage he caused the software industry. Seth, or Basilisk as he was known in the scene, was a supplier and cracker for the group FairLight and a supplier of console games to another group called Kalisto. Seth was supplying titles that were given to www.game-over.net as review copies. Being able to supply such a large stream of releases helped Seth become a senior member in FairLight and a leading supplier in Kalisto.