Ripping problems

Hmm, sounds like the same problem that i had with system shock 2, but if i remember, it was because i did put a 0winceos/renamed to 1st_read, rather than use bincon to do the job.

there is also a program called shoometsu selfboot batch script in portuguese, he creates a ip.bin for the 1st_read, and can make the iiso in .mds or .cdi.

 

@ASSEMblergames,
Original unhacked ip.bin would help.

FG

 

There's probably a custom protection. I can't find a CD001 string in the bootbin. This is a string that always is right before the LBA reference of the bin. This bootbin (1st_read.bin) is the weirdest I've seen yet.

Looking into it ...

FG

 

I remember in the Propeller Arena NFO they mention a copy protection which was bugging them, and was finally cracked by Megalexxx. After a quick Google search I found this:

"Regarding the protection, I heard it's much the same as Confidential Mission, with the added twist that one of the hex codes you usually search for (a long word, or 4 bytes) turned out to be split into two words of 2 bytes each, with another 2 bytes separating them. Megalexx was the one who discovered that little nasty and got PA to finally boot."

I don't know if this will help at all, but figured i'd post it...

 

Yeah, it could be of help, but as we're making the game boots from lba 45000 it shouldn't be a problem. Worth checking though.

My main guess is that binhack doesn't find the lba reference in the bootbin then simply stops, before creating ip.hak.

@ASSEMblergames
I've attached a ip.hak file. Flag it read-only, put it in the same folder as selfboot.bat and ip.bin then make the selfboot nrg file.

This file was hacked manually to put the size of the bootbin and the bootstrap in it. Gimme news.

Cheers,

FG

 

good luck.

 

That manual ip.hak did the trick but there is a new issue - mounting the shiny new selfboot.nrg works in nullDC on X:\ but once you .cdi it, it loads then crashes after the Licence screen.

There is an inclination from some of the commands thrown about the game could be WinCE in disguise, but it doesn't look like it.

 

get well soon and dont work to much on this.

 

What do you mean it did the trick? Try it on a real DC.
Man this game is pain in the ass!

FG

 

Ha shit! This is a pain in the ass to figure out then ...
Try it in chancast/makaron just to see.

Post a nulldc dump of the gdi running also.
And tell me what it is the single density of the gd-r (track01.iso)

FG

 

It did the trick in that it allowed booting from X:\ but not so much in that it crashes in the .cdi - for what ever reason the image TOC gets messed up and combinations of dummied or undummied and sorting or unsorted make no diffrence. The .cdi needs extra TLC.

 

Try to boot the cd-r in nullDC

 

I remember reading that by adding the custom (megalex) image at the booting proces (at the licensed screen) the Propellor Arena security got defeated. Perhaps it's worth the shot to add a logo (or just a blank image) to the booting proces, to see if it works?

 

Would be easy and not risky, worth trying. White is R,G,B=128,128,128 for the sega screen. Just put a file named logo.png along in my pack. Of the right size, I can't remember it ...

FG