Editing .nfo (section)

== History ==

NFO files were first introduced by "Fabulous Furlough" of the elite [[IBM PC|PC]] warez organization called [[The Humble Guys]], or THG.<ref name=textfiles /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.textfiles.com/piracy/HUMBLE/|title=NFO files by THG}} Evidence of the very first NFO files by The Humble Guys.</ref> The THG group would first upload their package to their world headquarters, "Candyland BBS" or later "The P.I.T.S. BBS", to establish distribution immediately.  Such organizations are also known as [[warez group]]s or [[software cracking|crack groups]]. The first use came in 1990 on the THG release of the PC game ''[[Knights of Legend]]''.<ref name="firstnfo" /> This file was used in lieu of the more common [[readme|README.TXT]] or README.1ST file names.<ref name="textfiles">{{cite web |url=http://www.defacto2.net/file/download/a53981 |title=Online Software Piracy of the Last Millennium |first=Ben |last=Garrett |date=2004-04-27 |publisher=defacto2.net |format=pdf}}<!-- http://www.defacto2.net/file/detail/a53981 --></ref> The perpetuation of this file extension legacy was carried on by warez groups which followed after THG and is still in use to this day. Hence its strong presence on [[Usenet]] newsgroups that carry binaries and on [[P2P file sharing|P2P file trading]] networks.

The Humble Guys later became a [[demogroup]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pouet.net/groups.php?which=1673|title=Demo's from The Humble Guys}}</ref> thus bringing the .nfo file tradition into the demoscene. More than forty thousand demoscene productions have an NFO file next to the program file.<ref>{{cite conference |url=http://www.cerc-conf.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CERC-2013-proceedings.pdf |title=Preventing Digital Subcultures from becoming Victims of the Technological Change |last=Hastik |first=Canan |year=2013 |publisher=Collaborative European Research Conference 2012 |pages=167–176 |location=Cork |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213020608/http://cerc.cit.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Proceedings.pdf |archive-date=2013-12-13 |url-status=dead |access-date=2013-12-13 }}</ref>

Before [[Windows 95]] was introduced, NFO files also sometimes used ANSI-escape sequences to generate animated ASCII art ([[ANSI art]]). These animations, however, required [[ANSI.SYS]] to be loaded by the [[COMMAND.COM|DOS shell]]. If the user's computer wasn't already configured to load the ANSI.SYS driver, viewing ANSI art required reconfiguring and rebooting. Because of this, ANSI art was much less common, and getting ANSI art to display correctly on a Windows 95 PC often proved more difficult, leading to a decline of such art in NFO files.

The ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) [[code page 437]] character set was originally designed by IBM for the earliest DOS PCs so many years ago.  Therefore, it was not destined to become standardized throughout the non-English world. Recently to aid internationalization, instead of using the old code page 437 extended ASCII characters, modern ASCII art uses the current [[de facto]] web standard [[ISO-8859-1]]/[[ISO-8859-15]] or [[Unicode]] [[UTF-8]] characters.

=== Usage of NFO files in publishing of warez ===
The files have been explained as essentially being the [[press release]]s of the warez scene.<ref name="eweek">{{cite web |url=http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Tracking-the-Crackers-A-Look-at-Software-Piracy/ |title=Tracking the Crackers—A Look at Software Piracy |work=[[eWeek]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130122133911/http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Tracking-the-Crackers-A-Look-at-Software-Piracy/ |archive-date=2013-01-22 |url-status=live |date=2008-11-14 |issn=1530-6283 |first=Brian |last=Prince }}</ref> They are commonly associated with [[warez groups]] who include them to declare credit of said release.<ref name="thenewyorker">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/the-man-who-broke-the-music-business |title=The Man Who Broke the Music Business - The dawn of online piracy |date=2015-04-27 |first=Stephen |last=Witt |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |quote=NFO files were a way for Scene crews to brag about their scores, shout out important associates, and advertise to potential recruits.}}</ref> NFO files were ubiquitous, and sometimes required, during the era of the [[Bulletin Board System|BBS]]. The file was a stamp of authenticity, explicitly explaining what group released the software and described what modifications (or cracks) were applied if any.<ref name="WarezWars">{{cite magazine |first=David |last=McCandless |title=Warez Wars |url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.04/ff_warez.html |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |date=April 1997|quote=NFO files do more than brag or supply installation instructions; they testify that the ware is a bona fide release, guaranteed to work. And this is more than just posturing; a group's reputation is paramount.}}</ref>  Once a software was "packaged" with an NFO and then released, it was then officially owned by that group and no other group could ethically re-release that particular package{{jargon inline|date=October 2024}}.  A typical warez NFO file was elaborate and highly decorated, and usually included a large [[ASCII art]] logo along with software release and extended warez group information.  The most important information is which group, which cracker and which member actually tested and packaged. The designers of these NFO files, who worked closely or within the warez groups, frequently incorporated [[extended ASCII]] characters from the character set [[code page 437]] in the file.

As of 2019, NFO files can still be found in many [[ZIP file format|ZIP]] archives. In modern-day warez NFO files, a large ASCII art logo is frequently shown at the top, followed by textual information below.