20 years..
 

Last i when i create some post i spot some comment under my profile: Join Date: Jul 2004 Holy shit! That's 20 years... That's a long time. What's changing? What were we doing 20 years ago?

Tell us how you feel about it yourself. Here are some my memories:

People were chasing IDA 4.5 :)
OllyDbg 1.10 start to be popular
Armadillo was rolling on
Using SoftICE on Windows XP (Compuware Driver Suite)

Tools that we use:

• UPX v1.21
• Armadillo v2.6
• PE Explorer 1.90
• W32Dasm Patch - Bratalarm
• OllyDbg 1.08 released
• Crypto Checker 1.0
• LordPE
• Hiew 6.83
• SafeDisc 2
• PEiD v0.9
• PeLock 1.06
• Stripper 2.07
• Aspr 1.2x
• Aspack 2.xx
• Get Type 2
• PESpin 0.7
• FSG v2.0
• PECompact 2.38
• yoda's Crypter 1.3
• dUP 1.06
• CFF Explorer: new PE Editor
• Total Commander 6.0
• UltraEdit 10
• Winrar 3.30
• WinHex 10
• Hex Workshop
• Trial Reset
• Resource Tuner 1.95
• Freepascal 2.0
• HWiNFO32 1.53
• FAR Manager 1.70

Oldies, goldies

How fast 20 years just passed!

I remember SoftICE, w32dasm and winhex, masm and tasm in the very first place!

Then ollydbg, IDA, and LordPE

We were solving crackmes from crackmes.de. I remember there was a guy named Code_Inside and I was trying to crack his crackmes.Wooohooo long long time ago...

I guess I can not be alone here, who does remember Fravia & +Orc like me?

probably more than you think ;)

I'm since 2005 here
and yes I also know those tools you named in #1
time has gone too quickly, but that's life

I remember the Fravia days well. Had some fun with steganography challenges. sonagets ;).

I also reached out and had interesting conversations with the author Dodi of VB Decompiler. He even privately sent me the source to the VB3 decompiler and his upcoming VB4 one. It was fun back in those days.

Yeah! 20 years passed by in a flash. The days of Fravia were the golden days.
No politics, no nothing those days.
Once you crossed the 100 posts mark, BAM! You just automatically got the VIP status in the forum, lol!

I really miss those days.

Later was this decompiler decompiled and source released. Also was rewritten to VB6 that still runs today. There was floating license with my name.

I believe it was 100 posts of substance according to JMI...
But yeah, I also miss those days. No politics. Just fun and sharing all the way.

Yes, I remember Fravia, and I even clone his home page as
an indispensable and immortal memorial.

Who remembers Fravia & +Orc will remember krobar's collection :rolleyes:

Also do you know that old exetools site dated to 2002 is still working? :)

do you know why does it say "THIS DOMAIN IS FOR SALE ON SEDO.COM" ?

Domain was on sale from a long time.
See this old thread: https://forum.exetools.com/showthread.php?t=19984

First it was on sale for $100,000. Then asking price was reduced to $65,000.
If traffic goes up then the domain price also goes up... If it goes down then the price also falls.
Essential to keep the traffic up to keep the domain price high...

yes and I really miss JMI and his statements...

I joined back in 2002, I can't believe it's been this long.
I've learned a lot from this forum, and I helped as much as I could.
Worst memory is when I got demoted to friend after new rules were implemented. Did not contribute much since then.
Anyway, time flies indeed...

I think there are many of us who have been here long time and remember all, some of us are less active than others but still here

—
bedrock

This is sad. I didn't know that the domain was put up for sale... :eek:

Yes indeed!

20 yrs. a lot of time, indeed. ARTeam was funded in 2004, too

wow, 20 years ago, I was still a primary school student. I hadn't used a computer yet. :D

in next 20 yrs most probably humanity will become androids (chip in the head as Musk promised)
(or, we be lucky if AGI will not destroy us all)

25+ years passed since I read some +ORC and Fravia and CrackZ tutorials.

At that time, exetools provided some tools downloading pages and there was a ftp server ever.

Twenty years have slipped by, and what was once a vibrant community of skilled individuals sharing knowledge has devolved into a cesspool of opportunism. The reversing forums, once bustling with passionate experts eager to dissect and understand the intricacies of software and hardware, are now overrun by a horde of money-hungry amateurs.

It’s infuriating to witness the decline of genuine talent, replaced by a relentless pursuit of profit.

Gone are the days when members engaged in thoughtful discussions, exchanging ideas and honing their craft. Now, the focus is solely on monetizing every scrap of knowledge. The forums have become echo chambers for those who care little for the art of reversing and everything for the quick buck. It’s a disgrace! The few skilled individuals left are drowned out by the noise of self-proclaimed “experts” peddling half-baked solutions and overpriced services.

This shift reflects a broader societal decay, where integrity and passion are sacrificed at the altar of greed. The community that once thrived on collaboration and innovation is now a shadow of its former self, a grim reminder of what happens when the pursuit of knowledge is overshadowed by the insatiable desire for wealth. It’s time to wake up and reclaim the spirit of true craftsmanship before it’s too late!

This is probably the oldest forum I still keep on logging from time to time,
so many years passed... :D Tons and tons of nice software, the eternal IDA grail :D, the occassional drama... Let's see what happens next years ....

I joined in 2005, I miss Softice and Fravia days.

Saw this post and thought I just have to login and see when I joined ExeTools.

Golden days they were ;-), greetings to everyone then and now.

Edit: turns out it was 20 years ago.....

mamm0n's tale to his grandson probably not remembering the title correctly.

..edit.. found it.

hxxps://www.angelfire.com/ca/mammon/ice.html

Havent been an active member of EXETOOLS sadly, but I do remember the site since the days I´ve been hanging out in IRC Channels trying to study tutorials on how to crack. Anyone remember these channels? Some scene guys hung out there incognito too.

I still remember Armadillo, which I was able to deprotect using a tutorial. Never understood it fully though.

Great times!

Yes. Could see some of the old timers!!

It has been a long long time! Missing some of the legends!

RIP to all those who have reached the gates of heaven!

Without the contribution, the scene would not have been what it is today!

It takes a lot of effort and grit to stand-up to what one believes in!

And for spreading the learnt knowledge and effort to all those who were willing to learn and dedicate their time!

Long live friends!

I started with SoftICE, Hiew 6.83 and W32Dasm Patch - Bratalarm. They are interesting.

Some people still use Hiew! How about now?

Some of my friends still use Hiew for quick binary triage ;)!

Heck I still use HIEW regularely for my MS-DOS Reversing. Even bought a license and never regretted it. Such a sweet tool!

Hiew is good/fast also due shortcuts. Here is easy-to-use list of shortcuts in various scenarios:
A "must reading" for Hiew users!

According to the notes, I'm about 23 years on this forum. What a huge amount of time passed!
Now the reversing community and the scene have changed a lot comparing to the beginning of millennia. I remember late 1990s with astalavista, leoworld, zor.org and others. With personal pages hosted on geocities and xoom with cjb.net redirector :)

I believe Hiew will never die. One maybe because of habit and two and more important - muscle memory ;).

Out of nostalgia induced due to this thread: I still remember kiddie RE using W32Dasm/Hiew, BoundsChecker and Borland Resource Workshop (aka BRW), and lame hacks using SubSeven/etc.