resently i was fooling around with tgf and i accidently made the game so that i got an error message.... here comes the odd part: whne i where going to click cancel i clicked debug. then visual c++ opened and i got some weird ascii vaules and some text in the lines and there where MANY lines... and i think that what i saw was the source to the gam file... that means if i change the right line i could be able to remove the protection of them
Beware of life ...so far noone have survived it.......
Integration thing. If XP detects visual c++, it makes a debug button and opens the .exe running in it. Useful if you're the 0.01% of the populace who understands what it does.
i'm one of those 0.01%, and of course you can remove the protection, it'll just take a 100 hundred years or so
"If Darl McBride was in charge, he'd probably make marriage unconstitutional too, since clearly it de-emphasizes the commercial nature of normal human interaction, and probably is a major impediment to the commercial growth of prostitution."
-- Linus Torvalds, December 5th 2003.
(Darl McBride is CEO of The SCO Group)
this place sucks but don't tell anyone, it's our little secret, ok?
"If Darl McBride was in charge, he'd probably make marriage unconstitutional too, since clearly it de-emphasizes the commercial nature of normal human interaction, and probably is a major impediment to the commercial growth of prostitution."
-- Linus Torvalds, December 5th 2003.
(Darl McBride is CEO of The SCO Group)
this place sucks but don't tell anyone, it's our little secret, ok?
You can't just change any old line and remove the copyright notice. you're most likely to just stop it from working altogether.
PS. you can view the assembly code of any exe anyway, with the window debugger
"Say you're hanging from a huge cliff at the top of mt. everest and a guy comes along and says he'll save you, and proceeds to throw religious pamphlets at you while simultaniously giving a sermon." - Dustin G
Back in the old click café days some hobby
hacker removed the protection code of my game
house of horror and released it as his own.
i can still remember the anger..
of course it is a problem, the cca is the same, it's just (as you said) built in the exe
"If Darl McBride was in charge, he'd probably make marriage unconstitutional too, since clearly it de-emphasizes the commercial nature of normal human interaction, and probably is a major impediment to the commercial growth of prostitution."
-- Linus Torvalds, December 5th 2003.
(Darl McBride is CEO of The SCO Group)
this place sucks but don't tell anyone, it's our little secret, ok?
Assault Andy Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
Registered 29/07/2002
Points 5686
1st September, 2003 at 04:35:15 -
Well, you didn't hear it from me. But i have a resource hacker which allows me to edit things you can't normally edit. So once you compile the a game into a .cca you can change things such as the bad looking "Password" box into a "cheat box." Very handy in-deed.
Yeah, I've built myself similar tools before. However, their uses are really limitted to reading in PAPPs.
Old .gam format used simply to change the first four bytes from GAPP to PAPP. If you changed em back, they'd unprotect the game again. Likely what happened in the case of Monkeycrew.
Clickteam then got wise to the number of users cracking open TGF files this way, and introduced a checksum/hash kind of thing to the format as well. This is the part of PAPP format that I still have problems with. It also seems to relocate and cull thousands of bytes from the original. This includes relocating a few resources like icon image, etc, into the exe. It's not uncommon for a 60kb GAPP to shrink down to just 6kb when protected.
Of course, if I ever did manage to crack PAPP, then I'd simply hand the editting app to CT. Their old .gam unprotector got destroyed in a system crash, apparently, and they can't be bothered to make a new one (since TGF is, according to CT, obsolete). However, they have stated (I think) that if someone wants the challenge, they can build one for CT (and only CT) to use.
But if someone knows a thing or two about Checksums, and feels like doing a good deed for the many TGF users in tears because they've lost the only opensource version of their games, then DC-Mail me, and I'll send you what I know so far of GAPP/PAPP file format. I have a spec written down for it, and a few nifty homemade hex tools if you want em...
Yeah, it's assembly, you get that with any EXE you load into C++. I learnt assembly, and I wouldnt recommend trying to edit a game that way unless your trying to do something simple like extract a BMP, or change some text.
Mike
"Now I guess we're... 'Path-E-Tech Management'" -Dilbert
Deleted User
2nd September, 2003 at 06:38:33 -
Resource hacer? Where did you get it, Assault Andy?
I also have Resource Hacker, very cool, you can extract Icons, Bmps and all sorts of stuuf from it, plus change the Properties Text, and the Menu stuff.
As AA said it is very handy. Pyry, ill look for it for you now, if not ill send you mine off my PC.
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... that means if i change the right line i could be able to remove the protection of them
Edited by the Author.
Mike 
