A "cracktro" is a short introductory demo that preceeds a cracked game, programmed by the crackers themselves. Back in the day (and I'm talking about the 1980s here), you could find them most commonly attached to Commodore 64 and Amiga games. The C64 and Amiga were at the height of their popularity and offered some of the best (and toughest to crack) games of their era. Cracktros usually offered a scroller (a good way to recruit in those days), great SID music, and fantastic graphics. Cracktros gave cracker groups a chance to prove that they weren't just two-bit pirates, they were ARTISTS!

Sadly, the cracktro has faded into extinction in recent years, due to the rise of the CD-ROM disc and the x86 PC.