I have WinXP SP1, and am using Softice 4.05 NT with the XP patch. I am new to Softice but am eager to learn it.

I want to run Mechwarrior4 and Softice at the same time but Mech4 keeps detecting Softice and then closes itself. I tried using that FrogsIce clone called "NT ALL 0.6" but this still doesn't work.

If anyone can find a solution to getting Softice running with Mechwarrior4 it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Hello Nick !

Don't you care about reading manuals or FAQs?

If you know that a tool named FrogsICE exists, you must have tested it and found out that it doesn't work on NT based systems. It contains a file called Code.txt where all ways it prevents SoftICE from detection are described.

So if you know that a program can open the SoftICE video driver to test if SoftICE is loaded, then why don't you set SoftICE to break as soon as a file with the name of the video driver is opened and skip the check?

The next point is why do you want to have SoftICE and MechWarrior running at the same time?

Do you want to disable the copy-protection? Do you want to find some ingame data to create a trainer? (I won't judge over that now) Do you think you can cheat in multiplayer games? (same as before)

If you want to bypass the copy-protection, search for posts about SafeDisc on the board. I know it's no usual "insert CD or I won't run" protection, but it's SafeDisc.

If you want to get some in-game data, remove the copy-protection. It's SafeDisc which checks for SoftICE, not the game. Either unpack it maually (good exercise) or find a crack for it (bad exercise). Then continue your research.

I think Mechwarrior4 actually uses Safecast.

Anyway, the reason I am doing it is not really to cheat but to edit a number in the game code. I can do it with "newbie" gamehack tools to some extent, but they are easily defeated because Mech4 uses DMA-(Dynamic Memory Allocation).

Because it uses DMA it means that when I edit a value in memory or even freeze it in memory it does nothing because the value has moved to a different memory location. So my only solution is to use Softice to change the value of the raw game code.

This is the tutorial I am learning DMA from: http://files.joako.com/Great%20new%20dynamicmem%20tut.txt



As an aside:
The Devs of Mech4 keep claiming that it is "unhackable", And to a certain extent they have been proven correct because after over 2 years since release mech4 has no publically known cracks/hacks while typical games like Warcraft3 have had cheats only weeks after they have come out.

There are rumors that some people uses "packet editors" to cheat online, but I think this has been debunked by the fact that DirectX prevents it or something like that. I actually wouldn't mind reading some tutorials on packet editing.

Hello Nick !

So you don't want to cheat? You only want to change a "number"? And you would also like some packet editing tutorial?
I think it's very obvious to all of us what you want to do.

What makes you sure it uses SafeCast? Only because it doesn't ask for the CD every time you start it? SafeDisc and SafeCast are very similar after all. So it wouldn't be a big difference if it uses SafeCast.

So you want to follow your tutorial.
Do you know ASM?
Have you ever worked with SoftICE before?
Can't you explain your problem with your own words instead of quoting every second word from the tutorial?

"As an aside:"
I could find 4 cracks and about 20 pages with cheats/trainers for MechWarrior 4 just by using Google for five minutes.
Your tutorial has also some "bugs". Do what I suggested you in my previous post. I haven't said anything new now.

Nick, mech4 does indeed use safedisk
Thats the only softice check you will encounter.
As for cheats the game is very well known to be secure against online hackers/crackers and as yet there isnt any working cheat. Its very interesting, i had a look at this game some time back as a request for a friend. The game doesnt even let you connect to the online servers with a altered exe. And the very first version of it mearly sent a single packet which determined to the server if the game had been modified. Since then its incredably more complicated and the game does outright checks all over the place at the servers request. Give in with this quest

Well I am still gonna try to modify the .exe

And Dakien plz show me one hack that will allow me to cheat online, because I really don't believe you found one. I and just about everyone on the large Mech4 message boards have not found any. I don't want to sound disrespectful but I have been playing this game for over two years and there has been no sign of any hacks/cracks so if you found one it would be a miracle.

As for Safedisc/Safecast I will try both unless Safedisc works right away.

Anyway thanks for the help guys, I have always respected reversers and the cracking community.

Hello Nick !

You never said anything about online cheating. You said "after over 2 years since release mech4 has no publically known cracks/hacks".
From my point of view a crack is something which disables a CD check or removes the protection and a hack is something which modifies the game to execute in a different way. (=non-official add-on)
Since I doubt you're talking about a "hack", but rather about a trainer, I looked for them.

I looked around in the pages Google gave me and found out that the cheats work only in single-player games. (what a suprise)
I also found four different multiplayer trainers. One said it works only in LANs, two said they would run with the 2.0 update and one had no special description. They had all the "heat off" and the "more speed" options, one had also "unlimited ammo".

I have no way to test them or to verify that they really work nor do I know if the 2.0 update is outdated , but I won't give any links to cheaters who're too stupid to use Google.

The main part in reversing is searching, so you should search for FrogsICE alternatives before asking for them. Use the search function of this board and you'll find many topics discussing how to hide SoftICE from detection.

And just something more from my side you should think about. If you really belive that nobody found any cheats in two years, then why should you be the choosen one who finds them all just by disabling the SoftICE detection and following some outdated tutorial telling you that code you want to patch is always located at the same memory address?

I'm sorry that this has to end up this way, but your answers didn't tell anything about what you tried and where your problem is. It looked like you're simply ignoring my advices. We don't know the problem you're stuck at. If you don't tell us what your problem is, we can't help you. If it's only hiding SoftICE, then use the search function.

back when mech 4 came out i made a multiplayer trainer but didn't release it, it had things such as infinite jump jets, unlimited ammo, and i was able to have my armor weigh nothing even when it was maxed out, which allowed me to have the best engine and all the weapons i had slots for. however i do not know if they increased their protection in updates, hopefully they have. just search for the value of lets say ammo, once you get the value BPM on it, and then change the SUB command to ADD and your ammo will increase as you fire it. same thing with jump jets and what not, the armor thing is too complicated to explain.

Interesting. Did you edit the .exe or did the trainer just change the value of a memory address? If you changed a memory address then mech4 may not use DMA afterall.

I can actually change my score and change the timer pretty easily when I'm online, but only when I am hosting a game. So I wonder if your trainer worked even if someone else was hosting?

I am kinda confused how you changed the speed value considering it's a float value.

EDIT: I would like to know how you got Softice running with Mech4? Thanks.

Just as a general discussion with games that have tons of checks to protect against modifications using checksums disk read memory reads etc...the truth is though most of them never are cracked they all are POSSIBLE. Remember if they have the program read memory you can fake it. If it reads the disk you can fake it. If it does a checksum you can fake it. Any checks can be faked since they are executed locally. However the effort required in doing this is enormous. So all your patches you have to make sure if that memory is attempted to be read, you return a fake response. If it checks the memory area you added or injected code then you fake a response as if its not there. If you cover all that you should be ok. If you modified the disk best be advised to have a backup of the original file and have it check that one for verification. That works for checksums too however for memory that can be a bit tricky. Fact of the matter is it takes a lot of time energy and unless Mech4 cheats mean the world to you probably not worth it. In fact Mech5 will probably be out before you can get around it. Not to mention all they have to do is release a minor or any kind of update to make a ton more work for you. Good luck though with whatever approach you take.

Snatch

Well, I have tried so many progs to try and unwrap safedisc from MW4 but none of them work. The razor1911 No_cd patch does not work either. I am still getting told to "insert disc 2". Why the hell can't they test a no_cd crack before they release it?

I am really at the point of giving up now, there seems to be no way of removing safedisc from MW4. All I want to do is run MW4 and Softice at the same time, but this has proven to be an impossibe task.

I have tried all the no_cd cracks/patches on the gamefix site and have looked at all the forum posts on GamecopyWorld and have tried all the safedisc unwrappers I could find.

So many times with this game ppl release a "fix" and neglect to actually test if it works and so they are just releasing garbage.

Hello Nick !

A No-CD crack is not necessarily something which allows you to play automatically without CD.

Some of them allow you to use backup CDs, some tell you something like "copy the AUDIO folder from the CD to your game directory" and some can be used just by overwriting the .EXE.

The message you got could mean that you've either not done a full install (I don't know if it's possible), you forgot to copy files from the CD to your HD (or change a registry entry) or that you only got a "backup-CD" patch.

"insert disc 2" is no SafeDisc message. This looks like the protection was removed (=no SoftICE detection any more) and the game itself only reads some files from CD.

So you can insert your CD and start debugging.

No-CD means game is able to be run without the cd with some conditions like maybe copying some material from the cd
Fixed-EXE means the exe can only be used with a backup copy of the game. Most just for commercial protections like cdilla.

^chaos^ if you try that now and your a client you get disconnected from the server as if there was some problem

Uradox