1000 Miglia (Simulmondo), protection fails

Marcuz · 15 March 2013, 20:27

I've put the control in the hands of my brother to play this game, since it's simply too hard for me, ever was.

However, he was able to get about 1/3 into it, when the protection check failed: a message stating that the car was stolen and that the driver is arrested ends the play.

I couldn't therefore test a successive check OR bug that I remembered from the disks I had around at the time: some version (possibly bad cracks) ended the game exactly halfway through when the gas finished and you were not able to buy any.

The game slave is very old, so maybe it doesn't work with the recent whdloads.

I wrote also a shorter report on the whdload site, for CFOU! to read, but since I'm not sure how to answer all the flags there, I prefer to write a bit more here, as follows.

Version tested in from KG packs, so the disks are the SPS version; the setup was a basic ClassicWB, 3.1, nothing fancy about it, on the last stable Winuae.

Whdload is version 17.1

If somebody else wants to try and check if it works either on older Whdload versions or on different setups, I'm eager to know different outcomes: this car game is really hard and frustrating!

CFou! · 15 March 2013, 20:47

hi Marco,

i think is caused by bad crash not by config problem...

Is it easy to see message?

have you savegame before message are displayed?

Marcuz · 15 March 2013, 22:37

Hi Bertrand, nice to see you around

It's easy in the sense that it happens for sure in each game, but it may happen after a while: last time happened at fourth stage of the run (after Florence).

It happens at the stop in town, not during the race.

To know if the gas problem is there too, I need to go past that stop tough, so I cannot know.

I'll try to make a savegame, hopefully I will not crash too much the car around and I'll get back to you.

Marcuz · 15 March 2013, 23:05

Ok I discovered that the only time you can save is at the start of the game or after you complete all the year race (of the seven that there are) and not during neither race nor city stops.
So my savegame is unuseful for you to test :/

Also, two things: first it's possible that there are protection checks like the one I described in all 7 years of races; secondly the gas thing: you can buy the gas at the start of one year race, but, even if you have it, if the car finishes it (and it happens at least once every year of race) the game says you don't have it.

It may happen with other spares too (tires etc) but the gas is the only one that eventually finishes while the others may or may not break, therefore you may not find yourself in the chance to check if the bug or protection check is there.

CFou! · 15 March 2013, 23:27

i am never play this game...

i am not found 'arresto' message in memory...

it's must by crypted or it's screen message.

can you sent to me dumps file exiting whdload when message is displayed?

Marcuz · 15 March 2013, 23:42

Sure, what's the code to add a rawkey for it, say to key "M" on the keyboard? And where do I write it? in the Info?
But I'll have to ask my brother to play in my stead, as for sure I'll not go far enough!

CFou! · 15 March 2013, 23:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcuz

Sure, what's the code to add a rawkey for it, say to key "M" on the keyboard? And where do I write it? in the Info?
But I'll have to ask my brother to play in my stead, as for sure I'll not go far enough!

use debugkey

read it
http://www.whdload.de/docs/en/opt.html#DebugKey

you must be in Expert mode (tooltype expert)

you can change key and dump path using s:whdload.prefs file
http://www.whdload.de/docs/en/opt.html#CoreDumpPath
http://whdload.de/docs/WHDLoad.prefs

StingRay · 17 March 2013, 02:31

Out of curiosity I just had a look at this game, it has a lot of checksum checks and the one which triggers the "stolen car" message is particularly sneaky! And yes, this message is of course encrypted. The game uses a totally innocent looking blitter routine to modify a word (the checksum value) which is later checked with another rather innocent looking instruction. I only checked the "dead" code in ReSource so far, i.e. didn't play the game yet. So far I'm quite entertained with the protection code, it's quite neat!

C-Fou!: If you don't mind I will update the WHDLoad patch so you don't have to waste time looking for all the protection checks. Let me know what you think.

CFou! · 17 March 2013, 02:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by StingRay

Out of curiosity I just had a look at this game, it has a lot of checksum checks and the one which triggers the "stolen car" message is particularly sneaky! And yes, this message is of course encrypted. The game uses a totally innocent looking blitter routine to modify a word (the checksum value) which is later checked with another rather innocent looking instruction. I only checked the "dead" code in ReSource so far, i.e. didn't play the game yet. So far I'm quite entertained with the protection code, it's quite neat!

C-Fou!: If you don't mind I will update the WHDLoad patch so you don't have to waste time looking for all the protection checks. Let me know what you think.

yes do it

you can patch it, i will send you source code of whdload patch by email

Marcuz · 17 March 2013, 02:54

If you like me to, tomorrow, or as soon as I grab hold of my brother the car race player, I'll post the coredump: the couple of times I tried, I managed to crash the car way before that point...

CFou! · 17 March 2013, 03:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by CFOU!

yes do it

you can patch it, i will send you source code of whdload patch by email

source are sent.

I had just used existing crack (btTR version)

I had not tested game because i don"t love it.... no bug report before...

regards,

BErtrand

StingRay · 17 March 2013, 03:15

I have just checked the available cracks, NONE of them has been done properly! Even though the Goonies crack (the BTTR version) states "100%" in the intro screen it is not 100%, they didn't find and disable all checksums. The CSL version is not done properly either, they restore the original instruction after the first manual check but there will be another manual check later in the game which is then uncracked.

Thanks for sending the sources, I'll most probably redo the complete patch as I have some other ideas with the game too (ripping data to files, no more kickemu etc.).

CFou! · 17 March 2013, 03:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcuz

If you like me to, tomorrow, or as soon as I grab hold of my brother the car race player, I'll post the coredump: the couple of times I tried, I managed to crash the car way before that point...

Stingray seems to have more free time than me. The update patch is in good hands.

StingRay · 17 March 2013, 03:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by CFOU!

Stingray seems to have more free time than me.

Not really! But I find nicely protected games quite entertaining so it's fun to patch them.

dlfrsilver · 17 March 2013, 04:41

I have this game in original

needs original images ?

StingRay · 17 March 2013, 09:41

Maybe yours is a different version so an upload won't hurt.

New patch is almost finished, doesn't need KickEmul anymore as I have patched all system calls. Intro can be skipped now too and checksums have of course been disabled. I'll just add a few more trainers and then the patch is finished.

Marcuz · 17 March 2013, 11:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by StingRay

Maybe yours is a different version so an upload won't hurt.

New patch is almost finished, doesn't need KickEmul anymore as I have patched all system calls. Intro can be skipped now too and checksums have of course been disabled. I'll just add a few more trainers and then the patch is finished.

That's great!

By the way, can you confirm that loosing the game because of no gas tank is available, when you actually had bought it in the repairs panel was due to a protection check and not a bug, and if the same happened for the other repairs too?

StingRay · 17 March 2013, 11:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcuz

By the way, can you confirm that loosing the game because of no gas tank is available, when you actually had bought it in the repairs panel was due to a protection check and not a bug, and if the same happened for the other repairs too?

Yes, this is caused by the missed checksum checks too (actually by the sneaky blitter checksum routine I mentioned above), it is not a bug! All fixed in the new patch of course! I have already successfully completed the game and needed to refuel once which worked without problems. Most probably the updated patch will be available this evening already.

Marcuz · 17 March 2013, 12:02

Woah! That was fast! I remember my bother playing this game hundreds of times when we were little, and he stubbornly trying to save enough gas to end a year of competitions races and usually be thrown out of the game around half year, when the car was not resulting stolen already...

Thank you StingRay!

dlfrsilver · 17 March 2013, 14:20

Heh it's not even preserved, i'll check my original

!

15 March 2013, 20:27	#1
Marcuz Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: . Age: 48 Posts: 5,562	1000 Miglia (Simulmondo), protection fails I've put the control in the hands of my brother to play this game, since it's simply too hard for me, ever was. However, he was able to get about 1/3 into it, when the protection check failed: a message stating that the car was stolen and that the driver is arrested ends the play. I couldn't therefore test a successive check OR bug that I remembered from the disks I had around at the time: some version (possibly bad cracks) ended the game exactly halfway through when the gas finished and you were not able to buy any. The game slave is very old, so maybe it doesn't work with the recent whdloads. I wrote also a shorter report on the whdload site, for CFOU! to read, but since I'm not sure how to answer all the flags there, I prefer to write a bit more here, as follows. Version tested in from KG packs, so the disks are the SPS version; the setup was a basic ClassicWB, 3.1, nothing fancy about it, on the last stable Winuae. Whdload is version 17.1 If somebody else wants to try and check if it works either on older Whdload versions or on different setups, I'm eager to know different outcomes: this car game is really hard and frustrating!

17 March 2013, 03:15	#12
StingRay move.l #$c0ff33,throat Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Berlin/Joymoney Posts: 6,863	I have just checked the available cracks, NONE of them has been done properly! Even though the Goonies crack (the BTTR version) states "100%" in the intro screen it is not 100%, they didn't find and disable all checksums. The CSL version is not done properly either, they restore the original instruction after the first manual check but there will be another manual check later in the game which is then uncracked. Thanks for sending the sources, I'll most probably redo the complete patch as I have some other ideas with the game too (ripping data to files, no more kickemu etc.). Last edited by StingRay; 17 March 2013 at 03:34. Reason: info about CSL version corrected

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15 March 2013, 20:47	#2
CFou! Moderator Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: France Age: 50 Posts: 4,277	hi Marco, i think is caused by bad crash not by config problem... Is it easy to see message? have you savegame before message are displayed?

15 March 2013, 22:37	#3
Marcuz Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: . Age: 48 Posts: 5,562	Hi Bertrand, nice to see you around It's easy in the sense that it happens for sure in each game, but it may happen after a while: last time happened at fourth stage of the run (after Florence). It happens at the stop in town, not during the race. To know if the gas problem is there too, I need to go past that stop tough, so I cannot know. I'll try to make a savegame, hopefully I will not crash too much the car around and I'll get back to you.

15 March 2013, 23:05	#4
Marcuz Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: . Age: 48 Posts: 5,562	Ok I discovered that the only time you can save is at the start of the game or after you complete all the year race (of the seven that there are) and not during neither race nor city stops. So my savegame is unuseful for you to test :/ Also, two things: first it's possible that there are protection checks like the one I described in all 7 years of races; secondly the gas thing: you can buy the gas at the start of one year race, but, even if you have it, if the car finishes it (and it happens at least once every year of race) the game says you don't have it. It may happen with other spares too (tires etc) but the gas is the only one that eventually finishes while the others may or may not break, therefore you may not find yourself in the chance to check if the bug or protection check is there.

15 March 2013, 23:27	#5
CFou! Moderator Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: France Age: 50 Posts: 4,277	i am never play this game... i am not found 'arresto' message in memory... it's must by crypted or it's screen message. can you sent to me dumps file exiting whdload when message is displayed?

15 March 2013, 23:42	#6
Marcuz Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: . Age: 48 Posts: 5,562	Sure, what's the code to add a rawkey for it, say to key "M" on the keyboard? And where do I write it? in the Info? But I'll have to ask my brother to play in my stead, as for sure I'll not go far enough!

17 March 2013, 02:31	#8
StingRay move.l #$c0ff33,throat Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Berlin/Joymoney Posts: 6,863	Out of curiosity I just had a look at this game, it has a lot of checksum checks and the one which triggers the "stolen car" message is particularly sneaky! And yes, this message is of course encrypted. The game uses a totally innocent looking blitter routine to modify a word (the checksum value) which is later checked with another rather innocent looking instruction. I only checked the "dead" code in ReSource so far, i.e. didn't play the game yet. So far I'm quite entertained with the protection code, it's quite neat! C-Fou!: If you don't mind I will update the WHDLoad patch so you don't have to waste time looking for all the protection checks. Let me know what you think.

17 March 2013, 02:54	#10
Marcuz Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: . Age: 48 Posts: 5,562	If you like me to, tomorrow, or as soon as I grab hold of my brother the car race player, I'll post the coredump: the couple of times I tried, I managed to crash the car way before that point...

17 March 2013, 04:41	#15
dlfrsilver CaptainM68K-SPS France Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Melun nearby Paris/France Age: 46 Posts: 10,413	I have this game in original needs original images ?

17 March 2013, 09:41	#16
StingRay move.l #$c0ff33,throat Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Berlin/Joymoney Posts: 6,863	Maybe yours is a different version so an upload won't hurt. New patch is almost finished, doesn't need KickEmul anymore as I have patched all system calls. Intro can be skipped now too and checksums have of course been disabled. I'll just add a few more trainers and then the patch is finished.

17 March 2013, 12:02	#19
Marcuz Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: . Age: 48 Posts: 5,562	Woah! That was fast! I remember my bother playing this game hundreds of times when we were little, and he stubbornly trying to save enough gas to end a year of competitions races and usually be thrown out of the game around half year, when the car was not resulting stolen already... Thank you StingRay!

17 March 2013, 14:20	#20
dlfrsilver CaptainM68K-SPS France Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Melun nearby Paris/France Age: 46 Posts: 10,413	Heh it's not even preserved, i'll check my original !

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