REQ: McDonald Land *DEMO* (AmigaDOS)

andreas · 14 July 2003, 15:11

Yeah, that thing exists.
I even have it here ... unfortunately with a LAMER! block that has destroyed one binary file, making the game unable to start up!

Does anyone have a clean copy?
As I'm writing above, the full release is NDOS, but the demo was in plain AmigaDOS format.

derSammler · 14 July 2003, 15:25

The LAMER virus only overwrites the block's primary type. Should be no problem to fix this...

andreas · 14 July 2003, 16:14

*BZZT * You are WRONG!!

At least regarding my type of lamer virus. Read this!

Also look here to see that there are dozens of LAMER! derivatives.

derSammler · 14 July 2003, 16:17

Next time please write it more exactly. You didn't say that the disk is infected with the LAMER Exterminator 4. And don't tell me that I'm wrong when you write down the wrong / incomplete virus name...

andreas · 14 July 2003, 16:18

I meant LAMER* family, you could've thought at least so far. On the link I gave you, there's all listed under Lamer*.

btw: it's LAMER Exterminator* family, version above is only an example for a common "representative". Can't determine version number, only knowing that block #1297 is irreparably lost.

btw²: actually, I took the 'Lamer' name from my virus killer, VT-Schutz v3.17. No '... Exterminator' suffix given, instead program just says block destroyed by Lamer.

That's definitely enough I have to know!

(= rien ne va plus

)

derSammler · 14 July 2003, 16:22

Can you upload an ADF of the disk to the zone ?

andreas · 14 July 2003, 16:25

done

P.S. Good luck!

P.P.S. Check block #1297

derSammler · 14 July 2003, 16:38

This can be fixed. You have to restore the block header and the pointers. I'll try my best...

andreas · 14 July 2003, 16:45

???
This is a data block, man!
Block #1297 is the 106th data block of file DATA00.BIN, and if there is only Lamer! crap, the complete file is lost!
Or not?
I wouldn't recommend skipping from 1296 to 1298...

derSammler · 14 July 2003, 16:56

I know... Extract the file DATA00.BIN and look at it with a hex editor. You'll see that the file is filled with the word "Lamer". But far more than 488 bytes are filled with "Lamer", because the pointer to the next block is damaged too. If you correct this, you can fix a lot of this damage. Maybe enough to get the game working with only some graphics errors...

andreas · 14 July 2003, 17:01

Ah, that is what you mean. I was just wondering, how can you GUESS the data after the xxxxxxxx 000001E8 longwords on the block mentioned?
If Lamer! has overwritten it, there's no chance to get it back. I thought that I read somewhere that some Lamer! clones BACKUP the block they recently destroyed. Not that I'm aware of, though.
Moreover, if it's no graphics data but some game code thing, you're completely out of luck.

derSammler · 14 July 2003, 17:07

Getting the data back was easy.

The block has to start with:

$00000008000004A60000006A000001E800000512

Now it's time to fix the checksum...

derSammler · 14 July 2003, 18:15

F*ck, the damaged file is compressed. The decompressor crashes while trying to decompress it. I need a program which can handle this format to recompress the file. Someone knows which compression format starts with "FIRE" ?

andreas · 14 July 2003, 22:22

Yes, this is FireCruncher, as the name suggests.

xfddecrunch (Aminet) did decrunch it perfectly!

Feltzkrone · 18 July 2003, 10:45

I don't think that one can repair the damaged file. In any case of compression format the unpacked size depends on the compressed data. The chances are more than high that the data following the damaged block will be (unpacked) located at the wrong address in memory, meaning all data from the damaged block on will be 'damaged', because it won't be unpacked to the correct address.

If you think about the fact, that around half of the file is damaged, either the game wouldn't run at all (code damaged) or the graphics, sound or level errors will be extreme! At least the game code (if existing in this file) MUST be in its unchanged form (i.e. be in compressed file before the damaged block) if you want to get the game working.

Adeptus · 21 July 2003, 05:59

I think I have this... it was on a magazine coverdisk?
Only prob is, I have no Amiga FDD to read it with - CD32 is currently my only Amiga

If it's worth it, I'll post it to you, for cost of postage only.
(Or to someone else closer, who can upload it?)

MethodGit · 22 July 2003, 00:53

Indeed it was in a playable form on a magazine coverdisk - The One December 1992 to be exact.

I remember having the disk originally and playing the demo on my A500 a reasonable amount of times. Heck, you lucky, lucky people - why not try it out (and experiment with the files) for yourself by grabbing the ADZ directly from this rather helpful page?

andreas · 22 July 2003, 01:34

"Manchmal (aber nur manchmal) ... ist der Mann doch wirklich zu was zu gebrauchen ..."

(german saying, meaning sort of "this was a real helpful post of yours"

)

Yeah, thanks bud!
This is a compact, but it might just be crunched!

BTW: This RASCAL of a German "Amiga PD seller" must have snatched a LOT of games from The One and selling them solo as "PD" afterwards!

Nevermind...I will try if I can rescue the standalone version I uploaded before...thanks a million so far!

andreas · 22 July 2003, 02:32

Interestingly, there were no crunchers involved...

Now I had a suspicion. I looked at the disk name, displayed as Demo on the Workbench.
Then I looked at the name with a hex editor: the string was in fact DemoONE (A)!
As you know, there's a bug in the old Amiga filesystem (OFS): if the disk was given a LONGER name, and then you turn it into a SHORTER name, the characters beyond the new name length don't get deleted! Just the length bit is decreased in value, so that you only see those four characters in WB.

Fact is: this thing *IS* a rip of The One coverdisk, with some modifications made (among them: devs:system-configuration) and the second game deleted!
Even all those *.BIN files were located at exactly the same place as on my copy.

Case closed.
Thanks again MG.

derSammler · 23 July 2003, 11:56

Quote:

Originally posted by andreas
As you know, there's a bug in the old Amiga filesystem (OFS): if the disk was given a LONGER name, and then you turn it into a SHORTER name, the characters beyond the new name length don't get deleted! Just the length bit is decreased in value, so that you only see those four characters in WB.

That has nothing to do with OFS and it's also not a bug...

14 July 2003, 16:14	#3
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	BZZT You are WRONG!! At least regarding my type of lamer virus. Read this! Also look here to see that there are dozens of LAMER! derivatives. Last edited by andreas; 15 July 2003 at 03:03.

14 July 2003, 16:18	#5
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	I meant LAMER* family, you could've thought at least so far. On the link I gave you, there's all listed under Lamer. btw: it's LAMER Exterminator family, version above is only an example for a common "representative". Can't determine version number, only knowing that block #1297 is irreparably lost. btw²: actually, I took the 'Lamer' name from my virus killer, VT-Schutz v3.17. No '... Exterminator' suffix given, instead program just says block destroyed by Lamer. That's definitely enough I have to know! (= rien ne va plus ) Last edited by andreas; 14 July 2003 at 16:30.

14 July 2003, 16:25	#7
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	done P.S. Good luck! P.P.S. Check block #1297 Last edited by andreas; 14 July 2003 at 16:30.

14 July 2003, 17:01	#11
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	Ah, that is what you mean. I was just wondering, how can you GUESS the data after the xxxxxxxx 000001E8 longwords on the block mentioned? If Lamer! has overwritten it, there's no chance to get it back. I thought that I read somewhere that some Lamer! clones BACKUP the block they recently destroyed. Not that I'm aware of, though. Moreover, if it's no graphics data but some game code thing, you're completely out of luck. Last edited by andreas; 15 July 2003 at 03:02.

14 July 2003, 22:22	#14
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	Yes, this is FireCruncher, as the name suggests. xfddecrunch (Aminet) did decrunch it perfectly! Last edited by andreas; 18 July 2003 at 11:22.

14 July 2003, 15:11	#1
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	*REQ: McDonald Land DEMO* (AmigaDOS)** Yeah, that thing exists. I even have it here ... unfortunately with a LAMER! block that has destroyed one binary file, making the game unable to start up! Does anyone have a clean copy? As I'm writing above, the full release is NDOS, but the demo was in plain AmigaDOS format.

14 July 2003, 15:25	#2
derSammler Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 1,667	The LAMER virus only overwrites the block's primary type. Should be no problem to fix this...

14 July 2003, 16:17	#4
derSammler Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 1,667	Next time please write it more exactly. You didn't say that the disk is infected with the LAMER Exterminator 4. And don't tell me that I'm wrong when you write down the wrong / incomplete virus name...

14 July 2003, 16:22	#6
derSammler Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 1,667	Can you upload an ADF of the disk to the zone ?

14 July 2003, 16:38	#8
derSammler Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 1,667	This can be fixed. You have to restore the block header and the pointers. I'll try my best...

14 July 2003, 16:45	#9
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	??? This is a data block, man! Block #1297 is the 106th data block of file DATA00.BIN, and if there is only Lamer! crap, the complete file is lost! Or not? I wouldn't recommend skipping from 1296 to 1298...

14 July 2003, 16:56	#10
derSammler Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 1,667	I know... Extract the file DATA00.BIN and look at it with a hex editor. You'll see that the file is filled with the word "Lamer". But far more than 488 bytes are filled with "Lamer", because the pointer to the next block is damaged too. If you correct this, you can fix a lot of this damage. Maybe enough to get the game working with only some graphics errors...

14 July 2003, 17:07	#12
derSammler Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 1,667	Getting the data back was easy. The block has to start with: $00000008000004A60000006A000001E800000512 Now it's time to fix the checksum...

14 July 2003, 18:15	#13
derSammler Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 1,667	F*ck, the damaged file is compressed. The decompressor crashes while trying to decompress it. I need a program which can handle this format to recompress the file. Someone knows which compression format starts with "FIRE" ?

18 July 2003, 10:45	#15
Feltzkrone Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 103	I don't think that one can repair the damaged file. In any case of compression format the unpacked size depends on the compressed data. The chances are more than high that the data following the damaged block will be (unpacked) located at the wrong address in memory, meaning all data from the damaged block on will be 'damaged', because it won't be unpacked to the correct address. If you think about the fact, that around half of the file is damaged, either the game wouldn't run at all (code damaged) or the graphics, sound or level errors will be extreme! At least the game code (if existing in this file) MUST be in its unchanged form (i.e. be in compressed file before the damaged block) if you want to get the game working.

21 July 2003, 05:59	#16
Adeptus epun umop ap!sdn Join Date: May 2003 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 285	I think I have this... it was on a magazine coverdisk? Only prob is, I have no Amiga FDD to read it with - CD32 is currently my only Amiga If it's worth it, I'll post it to you, for cost of postage only. (Or to someone else closer, who can upload it?)

22 July 2003, 00:53	#17
MethodGit Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: The Streets Age: 40 Posts: 2,731	Indeed it was in a playable form on a magazine coverdisk - The One December 1992 to be exact. I remember having the disk originally and playing the demo on my A500 a reasonable amount of times. Heck, you lucky, lucky people - why not try it out (and experiment with the files) for yourself by grabbing the ADZ directly from this rather helpful page?

22 July 2003, 01:34	#18
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	PERFECT! "Manchmal (aber nur manchmal) ... ist der Mann doch wirklich zu was zu gebrauchen ..." (german saying, meaning sort of "this was a real helpful post of yours" ) Yeah, thanks bud! This is a compact, but it might just be crunched! BTW: This RASCAL of a German "Amiga PD seller" must have snatched a LOT of games from The One and selling them solo as "PD" afterwards! Nevermind...I will try if I can rescue the standalone version I uploaded before...thanks a million so far! Last edited by andreas; 22 July 2003 at 02:32.

22 July 2003, 02:32	#19
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	THAT DID IT! Interestingly, there were no crunchers involved... Now I had a suspicion. I looked at the disk name, displayed as Demo on the Workbench. Then I looked at the name with a hex editor: the string was in fact DemoONE (A)! As you know, there's a bug in the old Amiga filesystem (OFS): if the disk was given a LONGER name, and then you turn it into a SHORTER name, the characters beyond the new name length don't get deleted! Just the length bit is decreased in value, so that you only see those four characters in WB. Fact is: *this thing IS* a rip of The One coverdisk*, with some modifications made (among them: devs:system-configuration) and the second game deleted! Even all those .BIN files were located at exactly the same place as on my copy. Case closed. Thanks again MG.

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