Leander Copy Protection - Page 2

gimbal · 05 August 2019, 12:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by jotd

Even for me (I suck at cracking)

Tsk tsk.

I wouldn't say you suck at cracking, I'd say you're really good at reverse engineering stuff which gives you limited success with cracking protections.

lantus360 · 05 August 2019, 15:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcbpete

Yeah just been looking around the web and it looks like this was mentioned here about a year ago - http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=89662. So I guess the question is, why on earth did Jon make that video if it's just nonsense ?!

views

jotd · 05 August 2019, 18:21

gimbal: good analysis (and thanks for the compliment). Let's rephrase that: I don't really care about cracking. If I can adapt someone else's crack for my whdload slaves, I happily do it (and credit the crackers/lockpick/whatever

).

I also released a few non-working/botched cracks through whdload/JST slaves (Sinbad, Lemmings JST, LOTRS)... sorry for that.

But I'd never had spent 30+ hours (like Harry did) for Unreal protection. This is brutal... I prefer being able to attack a protection like I did for a lot of Sierra/Lucasfilm games (replay protection data at the proper moment).

In this particular Leander case, I remember (through the mists of time, 1997 something...) I had the disk format already figured out (same as other Psyg. titles) and loader plugged so game intro + menu was running. Then another disk access blocked access to the game. I disabled it (thinking it was just a "disk in drive" check) and it worked.

What surprises me is that the "missing platform" bug because of wrong crack was never reported on whdload version of Leander. I admit that I never played that far without levelskip... So I may have been very lucky on that one. Nothing replaces a good old "play through the end" testing technique...

Retro1234 · 05 August 2019, 18:29

Maybe someone should look at the Broken Skid Row crack for the code in the Authors video.

mcbpete · 07 August 2019, 00:08

I have a response from Jon ! https://twitter.com/JonTt/status/1158767066955960320

(after pointing him to this thread)

Quote:

I think they’re right. I checked and couldn’t find one. It was what I was told was being used by our publisher, Psygnosis, but I guess they swapped approaches. I know for sure it was on the cards, but clearly didn’t get used.

Predseda · 07 August 2019, 09:00

Another urban legend revealed then.

05 August 2019, 18:21	#23
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,162	gimbal: good analysis (and thanks for the compliment). Let's rephrase that: I don't really care about cracking. If I can adapt someone else's crack for my whdload slaves, I happily do it (and credit the crackers/lockpick/whatever ). I also released a few non-working/botched cracks through whdload/JST slaves (Sinbad, Lemmings JST, LOTRS)... sorry for that. But I'd never had spent 30+ hours (like Harry did) for Unreal protection. This is brutal... I prefer being able to attack a protection like I did for a lot of Sierra/Lucasfilm games (replay protection data at the proper moment). In this particular Leander case, I remember (through the mists of time, 1997 something...) I had the disk format already figured out (same as other Psyg. titles) and loader plugged so game intro + menu was running. Then another disk access blocked access to the game. I disabled it (thinking it was just a "disk in drive" check) and it worked. What surprises me is that the "missing platform" bug because of wrong crack was never reported on whdload version of Leander. I admit that I never played that far without levelskip... So I may have been very lucky on that one. Nothing replaces a good old "play through the end" testing technique... Last edited by jotd; 05 August 2019 at 18:26.

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05 August 2019, 18:29	#24
Retro1234 Phone Homer Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: 5150 Posts: 5,773	Maybe someone should look at the Broken Skid Row crack for the code in the Authors video.

07 August 2019, 09:00	#26
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