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A crack intro, commonly abbreviated as cracktro, is a small introduction sequence added to and cracked software aimed to inform the user which cracking crew or individual cracker removed the software's copy protection and distributed the crack or keygen.
As time went on, crack intros became a medium to demonstrate the purported superiority of a cracking group. Such intros grew very complex, sometimes exceeding the size and complexity of the software itself. Crack intros only became more sophisticated on more advanced systems such as the Amiga, Atari ST, and some IBM PC compatibles with sound cards. These intros feature big, colourful effects, chiptune, and scrollers.
Cracking groups would use the intros not just to gain credit for cracking, but to advertise their BBSes, greet friends, and gain themselves recognition. Messages were frequently of a vulgar nature, and on some occasions made threats of violence against software companies or the members of some rival crack-group.
Crack-intro programming eventually became an art form in its own right, and people started coding intros without attaching them to a crack just to show off how well they could program. This practice evolved into the demoscene.
Crack intros and other small software created by Software cracker such as Keygen and patches that remove protection from commercial applications often use made in for background music. These chiptunes are now still accessible as downloadable musicdisks or musicpacks.
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