What to crack next after Battle Chess?

[Sektor 83]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

You're on the right track with Stunt Car Racer, it can be cracked two different ways, either to single file it, or get to the code thats been encrypted

Phew, so I'm not losing my mind after all! I was thinking "hang on, if everything is in memory here, can't this be single-filed?" etc. but after not being able to get it working through loading the memory back in through the Action Replay and setting up the registers etc. I kinda started to wonder if it actually could be done that way or not

I'll give it a touch more thought!

[dlfrsilver]

Stormlord is a piss poor story, the copylock decrypts the real non crypted bootblock lol just a story of picking it then save the right bootsector on the disk and voila

[Sektor 83]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Stormlord is a piss poor story, the copylock decrypts the real non crypted bootblock lol just a story of picking it then save the right bootsector on the disk and voila

Argh, spoilers!!!

I've made a bit of progress with Xenon 2 at least. I've managed to grab everything from memory when the game actually starts (not including the intro), and then I wrote that back to disk as tracks on my 'work' disk, and then ripped the bootblock from the original disk and wrote that back to my 'work' disk also so I could use it (to my own evil ends) to load the data in. Just got to find a way of getting past the disk check, and then I guess it's just a case of setting up registers and jumping straight to the game. I think I can do this, because on my 'new' disk, the game loads in and does the disk check, but if I break into the replay at that point and execute where the game code is, the game runs!!

Edit: Ah, figured it out! After the game has loaded, the copylock is the first thing it executes. Knowing that the game data is in memory, I just changed the copylock code to set up all the registers and jump into the game from there = no disk check/any possible crap affecting the loaded-in data, but straight into the game. I had to change the amount of data the loader loaded in as well, because I wanted to make sure it loaded everything! It seems to be working alright at the moment, going to playtest it to find out!

(And for those that are arsed about such things, the key = $7670CF6B).

[malko]

Even if five years old, this thread (and the previous related to Battle Chess) was really enjoyable for a reading .
Sad, it stopped...

For the one interested (as far as I know these lectures are no more available in shops or internet. If it's not the case, remove the link or let me know) : I know there are plenty of books related to machine code but by following this link you can find two beginners books (or more advanced knowledgeable readings) .

[jotd]

stupidest protection ever: Night Shift.

The executable is packed with a modified version of some PP exe packer to add a diskcheck. Use XFDDecrunch and it unpacks the executable: protection gone.

The fight stopped before it started. Cracked by XFDDecrunch.

[StingRay]

That's quite stupid indeed. It doesn't beat the Century "protection" though.

[jotd]

you mean there was just no protection?

About Xenon 2, I was really amazed when I found that the coders had forgot to delete the binary code for RN check and instructions on how to use it from the keydisk provided by Rob Northen... of course, I copied that and tried to run it

[StingRay]

Nope, there was no protection at all. Just a load of nonsense text from the coders and a bit of "let's torture the stepper motor a bit" fun. Game was quite crappy too.

[ghosty777]

@StingRay - Haha that was funny ..Made me laugh, anyway

[solidcore]

Wouldn't it of made sense for a hardcore copy protection where by the game plans to read back some of the protection memory to reflect on whether the game itself worked properly or not such as boss has infinite life if copy protect has been patched or nopped? . Not dissimilar From the anti mod protection on PlayStation and spyro

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by solidcore

Wouldn't it of made sense for a hardcore copy protection where by the game plans to read back some of the protection memory to reflect on whether the game itself worked properly or not such as boss has infinite life if copy protect has been patched or nopped? . Not dissimilar From the anti mod protection on PlayStation and spyro

You're talking about checksums, where the game checks certain areas of memory to detect if changes have been made to the code, because the programmer knows that the code has to be changed for it to be be cracked.

Done for years on the Amiga, i'm afraid there are no new copy protection techniques anymore, they originated on 8bit machines like the C64, and simply evolved on the Amiga.

[solidcore]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

You're talking about checksums, where the game checks certain areas of memory to detect if changes have been made to the code, because the programmer knows that the code has to be changed for it to be be cracked.

Done for years on the Amiga, i'm afraid there are no new copy protection techniques anymore, they originated on 8bit machines like the C64, and simply evolved on the Amiga.

yep yep, Fair enough, can you name a game that once cracked had such problems occur later on in the gameplay? I'm so curious .

[ross]

Originally Posted by solidcore

yep yep, Fair enough, can you name a game that once cracked had such problems occur later on in the gameplay? I'm so curious .

Dungeon Master

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by solidcore

yep yep, Fair enough, can you name a game that once cracked had such problems occur later on in the gameplay? I'm so curious .

Jurassic Park - game gets ridiculously tough in places
Nitro - After level 1, the car will skid no matter what you do
Hook - crashes the game
Kick Off 2, Player Manager series - Crashes the game
Premier Manager 3 Deluxe - crashes the game or corrupts graphics or removes certain gameplay elements
Unreal - crashes the game

Lots and lots of them, and Ross' example shows just how early in the Amigas life they were around.

[solidcore]

@ross, @galahad, great examples of games. Certainly like the side-effects haha nitro car will kid no matter what you do?! wow awesome outcome, way better than a crash. and fair play to jurassic park as well to include a hidden hard-mode lol.

[Hewitson]

Is there any bad crack of Nitro? I would like to see the results.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Is there any bad crack of Nitro? I would like to see the results.

No. Because the checksums were so poorly implemented, it was possible to crack the game without even touching the code that the checksums check.

First race is fine, then the second race the car is like its on ice all the time, it just skids everywhere.