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lame game tutorial #1: ripping/compression
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for german readers: There must be a german version of this tutor around...
FULL credits at EOF

wtf?
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Oh, common! You dont know what Im talkin bout ??? MANY guys bothered me not only about cracking games, no, they want to rip their favorite game! Since i had a little free time and BBK is the greatest BIATCH on earth *ggg* i decided to write this nice tutor!

target:
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Well, i make it short: Star Trek Armada *german* (should work for US as well)
Note: Star Trek Armada = STA (just 4 the dump 1s)

tools:
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Not much!
Win32 disassembler 	for cracking the poor CD check
WinRAR			my favorite compression tool, very handy
brain			the most important tool
IceTea			can be replaced by any non-alcoholic drink (gell BBK;)

examine the target:
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Just install your desired target...done ? Ok, first, we have to crack this bitch so it runs perfectly from your HD! Since this is not a cracking tutor ill only explain briefly how to fux0r the CD check!
Well, put out the CD but dont put her too far away!
Run STA,no itro? Strange... select single player, just choose one team...wtf? "Please insert Armada CD..blabla"
Fire up Win32dasm, disassemble Armada.exe, select "String Data References", search for "Please insert Armada CD..blabla", doubleclick, see this:

:0043E6BA 85F6 			test esi, esi
:0043E6BC 0F858b000000		jne 0043E74D		<-- the bad guy

* Possible StringData Ref from Data Obj -> "Please insert Armada CD"
                                  |
:0043E6C2 BFB8B45E00		mov edi, 005EB4B8
:0043E6C7 83C9FF		or ecx, FFFFFFFF

Well, simple CD check, just change this:

:0043E6BC 0F858b000000		jne 0043E74D

to this:

:0043E6BC 0F848b000000		je 0043E74D

If you dont know who to do dis...er, fuck...just grap any CD check tutor which will fully explain using Win32dasm and HexEditors for CD check cracking...done? Well, then lets go on...

Fine, STA runs nice from our HD!!!

Noticed the white screen on start up? If you run STA without cracking and WITH the CD, theres a real cool intro! So, well, just look through the CD...what do we see ? hm, setup...animations...STIntro.bik!!! Well, we could have used FileMon for this too, but since were intelligent and lazy crackers...
Just copy this file to...well...guess where??? Right! To <installdir>:/animations *ggg*
Run again...enjoyed the fine intro ?
Well, letz check the filesize:

Size of C:\gamez\Star Trek Armada 600 MB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Way too big guys!!!

ripping this bitch
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When you look trough the dirs youll notice 2 things you may compress: All the *.wav and all *.bmp!

Compressing all the waves is easy but costs a lot of time!!! Just select all waves and click "encode" *gg* Well, bout 10 hours later, all MP3s should be fine compressed!

NOTE: Well, you have to reconvert the MP3s if you want to play the game! So would be the best if 	you download a good DOS-MP3 converter and create a little BAT for unpacking all the MP3s 	and the BMPs !!!

Next step is to compress all Bitmaps by UHARC (included in tutor package):
Copy all BMPs to a tempdir, best will be if you leave all the pathnames intact: DO NOT simply throw all files to one dir! Keep the existing path (fe: <installdir>:\bitmaps\credit)
Then copy UHARC.EXE to the same dir and open a dos prompt,switch to the path and type:

"uharc a -m3 -mm+ -pf -r+ stabmps.uha"

The commandlines of UHARC are in the uhacom.txt ;)

After a while you have all the bmps compressed and nice donwsized :)

NOTE: Thats the commandline for unpacking the stabmps: "uharc e stabmps.uha"

Well, but what we have done was not actually a rip, just downsizing the game :/

If you REALLY want to RIP this bitch you have to replace all the *.bik (movies of the game) with 0 frame ones (included in this package) and replace all the *.wav with 0sex ones (0 sec WAV also included)! Then you have dramaticaly downsized the game but killed some essential game data! Its only useful if you play STA multiplayer only where you dont need the vids or any sounds!

The initial secret of game ripping is not big recoding of EXE or any kinda cracking! Most of the time you must "simply" replace existing files with smaller ones!!!

Any kina things you rip, you may release as an add on, but refer to the "official" rule set of game ripping (check riprules.txt)!

so, wanna rip like described in the riprules.txt ???
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Well, letz carefully check rules 1by1:

1. k, the disklimit will be fitted easily by our game ripping/compression!

    as an add on, we could release the intro movie (STIntro.bik), fits perfectly into the 35 x         2,915,000 limit *gg*

	packing our release with WinRAR (i prefer WinRAR, in my opinion a better packer than 			WinACE, but handling is nearly the same)

	Download WinRAR and install it, you now have full rightklick access to WinRAR...

	in your STA dir press CTR+A to highlight all files, rightklick and select "WinRAR/Add to 		archive..."
	a little Window should pop up... you only have to modify the "General" card
	Under Archive, you must enter a dir and a name to store your rip, format should be RAR, 		compression methode "Best". The Volume Size must be 2,915,000 ( as shown in official 			ruleset!) 
	
	Archiving Options: check "Create Solid Archive"
	
	NOTE: 	If youre afraid STA could get damaged, then check "Put recovery error" but that 			will make your release bigger!
		You also can make your release self extracting ("Create SFX Archive")

	All other cards beside "General" are unimportant, you may enter your information/ASCII 			Logo etc. under "Comment"...

	Finaly, smash "OK" to begin, while RARing you can smash "background" This will put WinRAR 	into background but it runs slower...

2. due to the fact that MYTH already released a fine, working rip and this here is a tutor, you   	can neglect this rule

3.    - all game executables that are needed, <-- well, theres only one and we cracked it                                                   already *g*
      - every level (single AND multiplayer), <-- we ripped nothing here, cool
      - every track (including practice),     <-- I think STA is no racing game, is it ?
      - all actor graphics & models etc,      <-- also ripped nothing
      - sound effects                         <-- well, just compressed, so its ok!
      - registry settings to play on the Internet (e.g. Zone/DirectPlay) <-- STA needs no 						regsettings we istalled it fine, so all INet 								things are ok!

4. hehe, UHARC rulezz!

5. since we just compressed some music etc. everything is ok!

6. Well, like i said above, were NOT allowed to rip out all the sound, effects etc, just    	compress them and leave the game full palyable

7. STA has no different textures etc, just read on...

8. hehehe, just leave out the Intro, replace STIntro.bik with 0frame one (included)
   if people bother you: Release as add on, even if forbidden :-P

9.    - cutscenes/movies	<-- all left in the game
      - commentary/speech	<-- same as above
      - music			<-- same as above
      - manual/documentation	<-- same as above (check <installdir>\help ;)
      - editor			<-- theres no editor :(

10. no damn kiddy game

11. no expansionpack seen till now :P

12. hm, hard point! Maybe release speech add ons or language selectors for existing rips...you      	decide

13. clear point, say what they can expect from you or leave the bullshit to other groups

14. well, check www.eminence-crew.de for my cracked update *rofl*

15. may the force be with you!!!

16. ask before you steal or give credits (like me ;)!!!

Well dudes! Now you hopefuly have ripped STA like described in the riprules!!cYA guys...

credits and EOF
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lame game tutorial #1: ripping/compression by -=|[ WebToaster -=- e! ]|=-

files included:

lgtut#1_eng.txt		<-- you reading this...
lgtut#1_ger.txt		<-- german version of my tutor
eminence.nfo		<-- NFO of my crew, as usual
file_id.diz		<-- file_id of my Crew, as usual
\files\ripped.avi	<-- 0frame AVI, for lame replace-ripping
\files\ripped.bik	<-- 0frame BIK, for lame replace-ripping
\files\ripped.wav	<-- 0frame WAV, for lame replace-ripping
\files\uharc.exe	<-- nice compression tool
\docs\riprules.txt	<-- the official ruleset for game ripping
\docs\uha_eng.txt	<-- simple description of UHA commandline
\docs\uha_ger.txt	<-- simple german description of UHA commandline

NOTE: I know, MYTH released a fine, working rip of STA, i _DO_NOT_ claim i would have made it better or smaller etc.! Im _NOT_ working in a release crew, just cracking for a (lame ?) WebGroup and who knows, maybe MYTH & CLASS hate me, my crew and my work?!? Would be great if anybody can answer this question *g*

contact
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eMail:	samuel.behl@gmx.de	<-- NOT my real name, just a nice fake ;)
ICQ#: 	23503198		<-- please, no request!!!

Would be nice to get a positive/negative feedback! Maybe i rewrite this tutor...

CyA@tha#

WebToaster [e!]	





                                                                               WT2k