WHOA! That's some nice brain you got there Smallhacker!
Smallhacker
Posts: 1753/2273 |
Originally posted by blackhole89
I considered releasing a program to the public, but then again, it would make it more probable one of the more skilled hackers makes a program that decodes it...
Keep the program for yourself and allow people to send their hacks to you for locking. That makes hacks locked with that method rarer, which makes it a bit harder to decode. |
blackhole89
Posts: 732/971 |
I made a new lockup method for my own hack (SMW:ALttP, if anybody remembers). It encrypts the master level pointer table and the overworld pointers in a special way (good enough not to be cracked by a random smwedit-type guy). I considered releasing a program to the public, but then again, it would make it more probable one of the more skilled hackers makes a program that decodes it... the problem about that is, there can't be an ideal lockup method for level etc. data in SMW ROMs. After all, the game itself needs to contain anything required to decode the data (or else it wouldn't be able to load anything itself, of course), and the only thing an intruder has to do is finding the corresponding pieces of code/key data. |
Surlent
Posts: 883/1077 |
I also could say: "You must not use my avatar" (as stupid as it sounds, it took several hours to rip that nasty animation despite that nasty error when closing the flame, since the Playstation 1 doesn't know layers and I had to split out every one of his 37 different frames from the background manually. Low output for that small sprite  ), but it is copyrighted by tri-Ace. You just could say something like "Please do NOT use my graphics", anyway, if a hack with stolen graphics is released, most of the people might recognize anyway if it was before or not.
Hence special palettes which were changed from the game - now they appear in another game.
Locking games is good for one thing - cheating through replacing levels, although you can't forbid that due to Game Genie codes. But I also won't recommend locking these too.
Then there might be people like "OMG I LOKED MY HAK I CANT UNLOK IT HLEP ME PLZ!!!!!111oneoneon", who just use something without paying attention to that. |
Atma X
Posts: 793/801 |
ya know,.... if you just change 1 or 2 byte(s) in the header, the rest of the header will most likely be exactly the same as the header in my rom,.... and in that case I can find what you changed by doing a simple compare between the two roms to see what's different in that area, find out what information should be written to those/that byte(s) (by looking at mine), and then change it back  . |
HyperLamer
Posts: 5068/8210 |
I can't see how the ROM would run with that being changed.  Plus, you just told everyone how to undo it anyway.  |
Sukasa
Posts: 877/1981 |
EDIT: HH just pointed out one dumb move i made. |
Wirtzzz
Posts: 3/24 |
Anyways if there is always a way of unlocking any way I lock it I should just let it unlocked and it would be good for newbies who want to learn hacking SMW faster.
Anyways it's not like I could make money out of Hacking a Rom file.
Just blame people that copies work for their lazyness.
Hehehe ! Anyways thanks a lot for the advices!
(And, no, there is not much ''outstanding'' things in my hacks
but still it has good levels in it,lol.) |
Pikachu025
Posts: 69/96 |
I think he wants to change the byte LM uses to see if the hack is locked or not. If RLM does just look for that variable and only proceeds if it's in the "locked"-state, it will keep some more guys away from your levels. |
HyperLamer
Posts: 5065/8210 |
I can't imagine it being a useless header byte that makes RLM abort. If you changed something there I'd expect the game to not work, unless it's checking things like expansion chips and SRAM size, which would be rather pointless. |
Smallhacker
Posts: 1746/2273 |
To be honest, I wish that RLM was never released. It would be much better if it was like "Send your hacks that you accidently locked to me and I'll unlock it for you".
*Glues myself to a random ASM hacker and demands a new locking system* |
Keikonium
Posts: 1362/-2459 |
Lock it and then change a header byte (I can't remember which one, but I will get back to you with it later) via hex editor. That way if someone wants to unlock your hack using RLM they will not be able to . RLM (at least the version I have, which I am pretty sure is the newest), looks for something in the header and then procedes with the unlocking. If the header doesn't match it will not unlock anything.
I have tested this a few times with my hack, and other peoples hacks, and all have worked. I will get back to you on which byte (if it even matters which one) to change.
But if you lock your hack, still keep a backup of an unlocked version . |
Glyph Phoenix
Posts: 293/745 |
I used to lock my hacks. It took me a while to figure out how stupid that is. You're taking something that doesn't belong to you, editing it, and then wasting your time copying and locking it to make it slightly harder for people to edit your work, which doesn't belong to them. And now that RLM is out, the lock won't even really keep people out. |
Juggling Joker
Posts: 910/1033 |
I doubt I will bother locking my next demo. As Craw here said, there isn't much point if a determined thief could still your work regardless (and really, it was possible before RLM was released, it just required more work and some savestate ripping knowledge). And besides, doesn't it increase the size of the IPS file? I would think that it would, even if it is a small difference. |
Alastor the Stylish
Posts: 6657/7620 |
You COULD lock your hack, but just know that if you do, if someone really wants something in it, there's a tool out for unlocking. If there's nothing really outstanding about it people probably won't go to the trouble but that would mean your hack isn't very good so eh. |
Wirtzzz
Posts: 2/24 |
I almost finished my hack.It's called Super mario world2: The hangover, and I'm not sure if i should lock it but I need some recomendations....What could people do with my hack? Is there other inconvenients?Anyways post something up. |
labmaster
