In 1986, video game journalist Boris Schneider undertook one of the first documented fan translation efforts. Over the course of one weekend, he single-handedly cracked and translated the Commodore 64 version of Murder on the Mississippi into German by using a simple hex editor and a self-written disk editor. He then sent his translated version of the game to Activision, who gave him the means to make an official translation, which they released in Germany.