Anatoly Shashkin💾
Here's a question:
I'm expecting to get a game for which I'd like to patch the executable to create a no-cd version, as one doesn't exist currently.
How would I go about it, considering these factors:
- It's a 32 bit Windows 9x application.
- I have no knowledge of any modern reverse engineering tools.
- A no-cd patch for a different version of the same game already exists, and I can compare original & patched executables.
- I have a basic knowledge of assembly, but idk if it applies anymore.
Foone🏳️⚧️
@dosnostalgic I've done this stuff before (the pirated version of 3D Movie Maker on tpb includes my nocd patch) so I'd be happy to take a look
Foone🏳️⚧️
@dosnostalgic is the other version for the same OS? It might not be too hard then. I've tried and failed to do this kind of trick before, it's not very simple
Anatoly Shashkin💾
@foone I sort of wanna do it myself. As far as I know there's nothing in the code that's hidden or encrypted, and the original patch just introduced a jump or two. What are the chances that I can just look at the original & edited executables in whatever a modern tool is (do they really reverse into C now?), find the change, and then just edit the same piece in the other executable?
Anatoly Shashkin💾
@foone It's all the same. One is a Russian version, the other one is an English version.
Foone🏳️⚧️
@dosnostalgic kk, that may not be too hard. If they had to recompile the game between versions the offsets will be all different, but you can probably figure out the changes anyway.
I'd suggest finding the "hey where is the CD?" message in the unpatched version and see what displays it, so you'll know where the cd-check is.
Then go look at the same code in the patched version, and see how it got changed
Foone🏳️⚧️
@dosnostalgic Ghidra for static analysis. x64dbg for debugging
Anatoly Shashkin💾
@foone What's the go-to tool for Win32 executables?
０７６萌ＳＮＳ is a social network, courtesy of ０７６. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.2-beta0, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All ０７６萌ＳＮＳ content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.