Deluxe Music Registration Card

[Pheonix]

I don't remember this back when I first got it, but it seems that EA, in their infinite stu...um...wisdom, put a required key code on the registration card. Back then, I always mailed those things in. There were some companies that would actually send nice little rewards back to those who did. I am now re-installing my Amiga systems, and am trying to install this title. Only, I no longer have the registration card. If it was on a detachable portion of the card, then I either didn't detach it, or have since lost it. If I was smart enough back then, not a guaranteed condition, to have written down a copy of the code, I have also lost that. I've tried to contact EA, and if any one else has also tried in the past you know how this next part goes.... EA seems to only support titles released in the last couple of years. They wont even let you contact support without owning a modern game. After an hour of just trying to send an e-mail, I gave up.

So, that leaves me here, asking if anyone knows how I can find out what the registration key is for my Deluxe Music (v2.0.) Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[emufan]

I cannot find a registration code, but there is a registered version on the ftp.

#1) i think i never played with this program, the other DMCS, but this seems new to me.
It can import and save-as midi files. cool

#2) found a release of DMCS 2.0 - which seems to be the same as the one above, but with a serial: 340305ea071215
maybe I was using DMCS 1 (!?) or just the c64 version. anyway, nice program.

[Pheonix]

I much prefer not to use cracked versions whenever I can. I've actually found several versions ready to go and attempted to figure out how EA encoded the serial number to try and reverse engineer what mine is. That proved to be un-workable, as those versions had the serial number stripped out.

So, I'm left with the only option being to disassemble the register program and work it out from there. Only, not being familiar with Amiga 68000 assembly, that is a long and arduous journey I was hoping someone else had already accomplished, and could say "look here" and "change this" that should tell you what the serial number is.

I guess a ML monitor with step advance capabilities would work as well. Not sure if one is available though. It could be something as simple as the registration program just decoding the given serial in a special way (CRC check, looking for a number letter pattern, etc...) then encoding the number into the DMusic program (so that it is "tagged".) DMusic itself would, of course, check this tag before running.

[emufan]

so you have an already installed version, which now ask for the old number?
if you want try to discover how the serial was saved into the binary (!?) ,
you can try the version I now put into the zone: Deluxe.Music_v2.0_with.SerialNumber.zip
the serial does work an it does install without problems. see image attached.

using the linux command 'diff", comparing original and registered binary, shows, they differ:

$ diff -u DMusic-orig DMusic-regd
Binary files DMusic-orig and DMusic-regd differ

hexdump'ing both binaries and 'diff' them, gives this:

$ diff -u DMusic-orig.diff DMusic-regd.diff
--- DMusic-orig.diff    2016-09-12 03:36:39.977155000 +0200
+++ DMusic-regd.diff    2016-09-12 03:36:56.530101700 +0200
@@ -19144,11 +19144,15 @@
 0004b080  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00  |................|
 0004b090  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
 *
-0004b2c0  24 4e 4f 52 45 47 00 00  4e 6f 62 6f 64 79 00 00  |$NOREG..Nobody..|
+0004b2b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 47 ba da 21  |............G▒▒!|
+0004b2c0  24 52 45 47 4f 4b 00 00  45 41 42 00 00 00 00 00  |$REGOK..EAB.....|
 0004b2d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
 *
-0004b320  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30  |........00000000|
-0004b330  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 14 5c 00 00 14 8c  |...........\....|
+0004b2f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  61 62 69 6d 65 2e 6e 65  |........abime.ne|
+0004b300  74 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |t...............|
+0004b310  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
+0004b320  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  33 34 30 33 30 35 65 61  |........340305ea|
+0004b330  30 37 31 32 31 35 00 00  00 00 14 5c 00 00 14 8c  |071215.....\....|
 0004b340  00 00 14 bc ff ff ff ff  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |...▒▒▒▒▒........|
 0004b350  00 00 80 08 00 04 80 08  00 2f 80 08 00 36 80 08  |........./...6..|
 0004b360  00 0a 80 08 00 0d 80 08  00 0f 80 08 00 11 80 08  |................|

so nothing seems encrypted, and you should be able to read the registering data in your binary

[Pheonix]

No, not an already installed version. I had, at first, assumed that it used a number already encoded on the disk. But I came to realize that wasn't the case. It seems to just check for a valid serial. But, the serial number is in a specific format, or has to come out to a specific CRC or some such. The problem is, without knowing what the registration program looks for, I can't even begin to figure out what number to give it. If it comes down to it, I'll just give up and use one of the cracked versions. I just don't like doing that.

More than likely, it works in a similar fashion as the CD Keys of the PC. It is in a formulaic sequence (K738-17P2-etc...) that is then translated into a serial number which is what ends up encoded into the program itself that lets it run. It can be anything as simple as a decimal representation of a hexadecimal code that translates to the serial number.

[emufan]

hmm, so you assume each serial number is unique?
you can at least try to use the serial number with your floppy disks.
the "DeluxeMusic/c/register" tool, is just small. one of the sceners here, should be able to decypher it,
usually to be done with Resource.

[Matt_H]

I don't think the software is sophisticated enough to require a specific (i.e., unique to your copy) serial number - I expect the one in post #2 will work.

[Pheonix]

I actually tried the one in post #2 I actually know more about programing a PC or C64 than an Amiga. So I had figured that it worked much like serial numbers do for a lot of PC CD-Rom software. What is on the package is a key that goes through a cypher to produce the actual serial number. So, the CD Key (and this is a made up number,) P73A-4G67-B9A7-07C3 would go through a cypher that results in 371189324 which would be the actual serial number that show up in the "about" screen (or in the case of DMCS, in the opening box.) What I suspect register does is take the registration number from the registration card (which is then supposed to be mailed in,) uses it to produce a serial number and does little more than look for a specific encoding pattern. If the pattern isn't matched you get a "bad serial" response.

I had "originally" thought that the serial number was encoded into the program somewhere, but now know that I was mistaken about that. All I really care about now is trying to figure out it's method of decoding (if it does,) and confirming that a serial number (or registration key,) is valid. Once I know that, I'll just invent my own key to get it up and running.

Barring someone deciding that since EA won't even let me "ask" about it, they are not likely to come to my house, grab my Amigas, hex edit DMCS, then track down the owner of the serial number. In order to get it up and running without using a cracked program or reverse engineering the registration program I would need someone to PM me their registration number from their registration card. I am loath to ask anyone to do that either. Happiest solution would be if I hadn't lost the registration number in the first place, followed by EA actually caring about customers from 20 years ago. Strike that, I'm upset enough to actually say "EA actually caring about customers at all."

I'm about to check out the program on the link given, ReSource, sounds like it may help I could wish for a tool like I use that would allow me to give the name of an executable, with any command line parameters, then would trace through the program marking variables (memory locations,) and such as they were written and read. I used it mainly for debugging my own software, but it could come in handy for this.

[Pheonix]

Well I'll be <snipped>. The serial code given in post #2 does work after all. I swear I tried it multiple times, and it came back with a bad serial message in all cases. Yes, I checked the case, yes I made sure to use 0 <zero> instead of O <capital oh>. I must have miss-typed something somewhere. Well, there went several hours of trying to teach myself assembly down the drain. <sigh> I hate assembly, I learned it on the C64 because it was the easiest to do on my own (at the time, no internet to get nice little C compilers from.) But I loved it when I got an Amiga, and a nice inexpensive C compiler HiSoft IIRC.

Well, back to my current quest... Re-installing my A2000 now that I have it fully up & running again. Had to replace the HDD, the one in it finally gave up the ghost. Been digging through boxes of my programs picking & choosing what I want to keep (and install,) and what is going into the sell/trade pile. Still need parts for my A4000 to get it up and running.

NOTE: It doesn't alter the number in any way, so it has to be a simple format and/or CRC check of the serial number to verify its authenticity.

[emufan]

good news
and i think they dont care anymore about their amiga history at all.
about to find another valid serial, sort of bruteforce, using the register shell tool
and let it run in an amigados script or arexx script, incrementing the numbers.
the installation script gives and idea how to check the status, for example line 166
after runing the register tool:

		(set regstatus (getenv "REGSTATUS"))

		(if (= regstatus "OK")
			(
				(set regstatus "PROCESSED")
				(set user_ok 1)

maybe easier than running through the asm code and learning how to use ReSource ( manual on bombjacks website )

[Pheonix]

I have it running now, turns out that a serial I got worked after all. I must have miss-typed it several times A brute force method of getting a list of serials would be possible. To be complete, though, would take a loooooong time though, just look at the possible number of combinations.

1 - loop an alpha numeric sequence of the correct size
      (14 Characters, by size in registered DMusic, that makes
       221,073,919,720,733,357,899,776 possible combinations)
2 - Try to Register
3 - Is Registered? (it returns a status)
  yes - a) Copy backup to overwrite now registered DMusic
        b) Increment Success Counter
        c) Output Successful sequence to text file
4 - Loop next sequence

I would want to have some sort of visual reference that it is actually running (still after the weeks or months it would have to run.) So I would either have a box up or a single line status in CLI showing a counter and an activity indicator. Something like a line that shows a rotating character (- to \ to | to / to - to \ to | to / for example,) followed by current success count, then CR with no LF.

It would take a long time though, even on an extremely powerful system. If I was willing to dedicate my PC to the task, I could reduce the time by running it in an emulator in Warp mode. My system has a quad core, so I would max out 1 CPU with the emulator (I don't think WinUAE utilizes more than 1 CPU.) It would still run approximately twice the speed of my 50Mhz A4000.

Looking at the 1 code I have that I know works, I could probably reduce that number considerably by assuming that the pattern would hold. That still makes 1,000,000,000,000 possible combinations. We're still talking an extremely long run time.

On the other hand, I had pretty much learned what I needed to start deciphering the register program. Still had a few issues that I was having a problem with. All things considered, it would take much less time, though much more actual work, to finish what I started and use the register program's disassembled code to figure out exactly how it validates the serial. Then I could just write a program to reverse the process and generate valid codes.

The only real problem I had left was figuring out how the command line variables are passed to a program in assembly. I know the answer in C, just not exactly how it's done in assembly.

[DamienD]

No offence Pheonix, I really do admire your dedication...

...but as others have already pointed out, software on the Amiga wasn't as complex in terms of a "CD Key" where on the PC it would go through a cypher process and generate a new code.

You have a working serial; use it with your original disks and be done with it

...unless of course you a glutton for punishment and want to waste weeks of your life

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Pheonix

The only real problem I had left was figuring out how the command line variables are passed to a program in assembly. I know the answer in C, just not exactly how it's done in assembly.

i'm clueless here. just had a look at the register program, disassembling it using ReSource.
I can see some libs get opened, but thats about it

go with DamienD's advice - enjoy the now running program.

what we really need is a serial for X-DVE_v3.10-ClassX-1998_needs.RegCode. download.
this is too time consuming but also a challenge

[Pheonix]

Oh, I'm happy. I haven't touched ReSource since I got the serial working.

I was just commenting on the program he wrote. Sorry if I implied otherwise. The program is nice, but would take forever to get anywhere. It would be much more efficient to trace through the program to find out exactly what it does. Does it just look at the format? Does it run a CRC check of some sort? Does it run it through a filter? All of those would be short & simple. The easiest method would be just to run an ASCII CRC on the characters and then look at the results. Not as complicated as modern CD-Key generation methods, but the same category of validation.

In the future, because of EA's total inattention, I might look into it more. Right now, though, I already have plenty of projects already on my plate. The only reason I've done as much as I have is I wanted to get DMCS back up and running. I'm moving on to the next issue I'm having with re-installing my A2000