[Offer] The Godfather XDK Debug Hard Drive

EDIT:
DOWNLOAD LINK
https://mega.nz/#!jU4WRRYQ!2tfKif6OGDYOXuGXHEe-LHrnMktHOGsNbVlOiZptPeI

I recently acquired a DVT4 xbox dev kit. I decided to create an image of the hard drive to search for deleted files and I ended up finding a few deleted xbe's of the game "The Godfather". I've managed to find several other files pertaining to the game, but I just don't have time to recover every single file that's missing. I'd like this to be public so that other people can work on it, but I figured I'd check if anyone cares before I upload it.

It's an image of an entire OG xbox hard drive, byte for byte, so it's around 10GB. I'd be willing to upload it and give out all the information I've gathered pertaining to the recovered files. Some of the file allocation tables are even still there (for deleted files).

To be clear, the developer that had this kit before me (or possibly another owner), deleted the development part of this hard drive. I made a dump of this hard drive (byte for byte) and found "deleted" xbe's (and other files) pertaining to 'The Godfather'.

Let me know. Even if it's just one person, I'll upload it.

 

Go for it, I'm positive at least a few people here would be interested.

 

alright, I'll probably just let it upload overnight. Will post here when it's up.

 

I'll echo this sentiment. I enjoyed The Godfather quite a bit. There is one person in particular who would probably incorporate himself in this...

 

I'm glad to see that there is some interest in this! In my not so professional opinion, I'm willing to bet that there is a full debug version of this game on the hard drive image. My thought process is that the past owners of this DVT4 never actually had it running (other than licensed devs)... as I bought this kit in non-working condition.

It's a long shot. The developers would have had to wipe the hard drive, and then have it stop working pretty much immediately after to match my theory. Regardless of the history of this kit, here is what I know in regards to "The Godfather" on this hard drive image:

You can find xbe (executable xbox files) by searching for "XBEH" in a hex editor. This string shows up a few more times than there are executable files though. The only ones that should be pertinent are located at multiples of 0X10H (The leftmost byte on a line shown in a hex editor). When you start looking for them, you'll understand the format.

The debug version and retail version of the game look for a file called "cmd.txt"
It is just a txt file that contains something like this,
"-mainloop FrontEndMainLoop"
without quotes

You'll need another file called localetable.txt
I think I found it, and it contains the following string
"2EA12502A-EAenenEnglish1(none)frenFrench0(none)ssenStringIDs0(none)llenLongest0(none)"
Just search for it with a hex editor to get all the special return characters / hidden bytes.

I think the debug version of the game looks for some .str files.
They will start with a "coTS" header.

There are some leftover file allocation tables (is that what they're called?)
basically they point to the location of a file and tell how big the file is along with some other information. I made some notes on this, but I can't seem to find my notepad files right now. When I find them, they will be uploaded too.

(Note: from here down is recalled form memory and not guaranteed to be accurate)
From what I remember, a file allocation entry will start with two bytes. The first tells the xbox whether or not the file or folder has been deleted. If this byte is "E5" that means the file is dead to the system. It no longer exists. The next byte is a file attribute. I think 0x10 means it's a folder, otherwise it's pretty much a file. If it's a folder, go to it's 'location' and you'll find another file table pointing to all the files in this folder. The next however many bytes are the file name followed by the bytes "FF" to fill in the unused file name characters.

Next will come four bytes representing the first cluster of the file in ?Big Endian?. EG: if you see 01 03 01 02, it really means 02 01 03 01
Minus 01h
= 02 01 03 00
Times 4000h (size of cluster)
= 8040C00000 + (Start of this partition's data)

I understand that what I just wrote is pretty vague and just from my memory. If you have any questions, post them here and I might be able to answer. Look up fatx specifications, it helped me a lot.

If I find the time or motivation, I'm going to write a fatx file recovery tool. It will search files for some regular expression that matches two bytes, followed by a file name that is X bytes long (padded with FF), etc. and then follow that data to the first cluster containing the data of that file... You get the point. This would only work if the file table got left behind. In the case of the image I'm posting, I know for a fact that some of the file tables got destroyed, meaning that such a tool couldn't recover all files.

Use the PC side debug monitor to look for files that the xbe couldn't open. These files are the next things we need to look for.

At this point, I'm just rambling on and on. Feel free to continue the discussion with me. Here is the hard drive image:

[I'm getting an error trying to access my own link. Might just need to process. Post here if you're having issues]

https://mega.nz/#!jU4WRRYQ!2tfKif6OGDYOXuGXHEe-LHrnMktHOGsNbVlOiZptPeI

 

Link works fine but the forum messed it up a bit but here is a fully working Super Ultra Arcade Hyper Edition Link with "clickable" DLC.

https://mega.nz/#!jU4WRRYQ!2tfKif6OGDYOXuGXHEe-LHrnMktHOGsNbVlOiZptPeI

 

I'm noob here, but I'd like to check this img file too. Any way to open / extract it on pc?

 

any hex editor

 

ah, i thought it was recovered with getdataback or similar recovery tools, which gives files in the end and then an img was created from the hdd.

 

Hi guys.

I managed to get all the executable files "XBE"
Unfortunately most of them do not run, but there were also working files "XBE" - (2 xbe Full Debug) и (1 xbe pseudo Debug)

Tested on usual version (NTSC)
(Just put debug xbe the game folder)

https://mega.nz/#!D0QlQKjK!2d5Mdh1m6_fN6DRMJF-HK9FZciTMP8Q_q5M72-Q3DDY

For call Debug Menu
Simultaneously press: Back+Start
----

1. godfather_d.xbe - Debug version

2. godfather_r.xbe - Debug version

3. godfather_q.xbe - Debug Menu not is activated, but the game works as a Debug version...
----

There is still a problem with the fact that the game may hang with the error message (blue screen), most often when a player gets in the car. (Unfortunately I don't know how to solve this problem)
==========

Spoiler: Screenshots

I checked on his Debug Kit 128,
On a conventional xbox likely will not work.

 

The Godfather (Debug)
(NTSC)
Format - ISO
1,68 GB - WinRAR

Ready image Game.

https://mega.nz/#!v8AVRSCa!Nim9LstEPQfgwEl9-6PjHr9o-wENDNc8Tjsx39MfUHc

 

Very cool! I didn't think it'd work with the retail assets since they were all packed in .viv files.

Where can I find some cars to get into? I'd like to try PC side debug that error.

 

If you select: "PLAY LIVING WORLD (DEBUG ONLY)" when level starts the main character will fall down through the texture and die, then he will be in the hospital if to get out of the hospital and sit in any car the game freezes. (blue screen with error)

Spoiler: ScreenShot

 

Thanks I managed to get it to blue screen a few times. Seems like it's not closing files when it's done with them, or maybe the retail had more assets and it's trying to load more than it's expecting.

Here's a few screen caps of the debug:
http://imgur.com/a/Wbh1H

 

Tried this on an Xbox 360 XDK with no joys Anyone else try?

 

That's because it's for original Xbox.

 

Yes mate, some builds and retail games work on the 360, providing you have the compatability files, which I have on my XDK.

EDIT: The error

 

Interestingly some of the executable files did work on the 360

 

Works on the retail 64 RAM unit if launching with default_orig.xbe. Others not. Tried 4 XBE files (_d.xbe, _r.xbe, _q.xbe, default.xbe) same result.

 

Most likely because original is just retail .xex