Pre-Cracked
 

Ok, this is something I thought about posting a few days ago and the PrePatched thread made me decide to go ahead and post it, for the better part of the year I have been creating Pre-Cracked games that upon install to the user appear to be just like the retail install nothing extra to check nothing. but behind the scenes I have a few things going on. I have a file which is launched usually named Setup.exe and the old one is renamed to Cracked-Install.exe. This exe is a bat file converted to exe using EXEScript 3.0 with the silent option checked so you can not see the dos box. Once the install has finished it then changed directiory to CD\CRACK where it runs any update patches, then the original files that are replaced by the nocd patch are renamed to FILENAME.BAK and then the nocd patch is applied. but that is all transparent. Only thing you can see is original install then the updates install. on minor updates such as hotfixes like the Frontlines fuel of war, I show the update installing then since 2 files are only replaced aside from the cracked exe i just copied the 2 from the hotfix and had my script replace
them. I have done this with over 200 pc games. and it works on pc apps in the same way as well. One thing I do for my own personal collection is remake a menu that resembles the retail but with a button for Keygen. If this is a idea that the ops would be interested in me posting more on let me know in the mean time this is a example. This is what I did for Frontlines Fuel of War.

Update - Also there are certain games that once the original exe is launched it launches a secondary one that is copied to the pc then closed so the bat thinks it is closed and continues for these instead of using the code right after it, I use an if then else statement with a verification check on the exe and that it has been backed up before it proceeds. The updates on these kind of files are a lil hard as it takes a while to figure out exactly what was the last file to be copied. The good thing about all this is once its done and a new update comes out you can either replace the files on the disk or if need be you can have it run 2 updates exescript by default does not hide the code so a simple notepad and dragging your file into it will reveal the code at the bottom. The entire CD takes only a 50kb hit adding the cracked installer made this way.

P.S. can the ops add a poll to this I dont know how to add it after its allready submitted.

this will only work if you install in the default path.

yup, and because its bat -> exe, you can't easily edit it...
solution -> leave it as the bat...

Correct, But if you have a default path you install all games to just set it to there, I personally install to default path. If someone else wanted to take the code and modify it to using a variable which can be taken from the registry for each game as most games to have a registry key of default path or if you wanted to take the time to program it to strip the file path from the shortcut placed wherever desktop for isntance you can. This is just what I do and makes it alot easier to handle game installs for me personally. Also makes it so anyone can just borrow my disk and me not sit on the phone for 40 minutes while i try to teach them how to copy a crack. as for leaving it in .bat format, If you leave it in .bat format you will have the black ms dos box on the screen still. The reason i convert it to exe is to get rid of this with out using similar programs of hiderun.exe which seems to have problems with this method and also gets picked on by virusc scanners. The exescript program allows you to have the exe allready hide the box so its transparent.

This is how you would be able to pull an uncleaned up install directory for frontlines granted it would need to be chopped up and set as a variable then have the variable called up under the location of installation path.

Reg Query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\THQ\Frontlines: Fuel of War" /v InstallDir

Easiest way to accomplish this would be to create a variable at the begginging of the bat.

some mistake in quotes in copy command :)
and need variable for reading [if exist] where game was installed [that what u said already :P]

edit
but what if someone want only patch /crack game ? :) and if he run twice or more that bat ? u dont have orginal files but cracked version :P

Actually there is no mistakes in the copy command, Its the exact format ive used for my 200 other games i installed and it works flawlessly. Also when a User execs the bat/exe more then once it will fail upon over writing the bak up file as it allready exists. I did it on purpose this way, you can not rename a file that has that name allready from within a command prompt. If a user wants just the crack/patch if he attempts to install the game it will bring up the same way but 99% of all pc games when the install is exec after it is truly installed it will prompt to uninstall / repair / exit they just simply click Exit.

P.S. Im working on a way to put in a variable for install directory right now, so far ive been able to return a unclean value to the dos window and a clean return via vbs to a prompt but dont know how to return a vbs value to dos as a variable.

I still don't understand what the deal is with struggling to reformat the game into an installable package. Install the game, apply the latest official update, apply the no-CD patch for it, make sure that the game runs from any directory (or hack it to make it do so), export the necessary registry entries into a file and RAR it up. When you wanna play, unRAR the package, import the registry file, run the configuration program, if any, and there you go playing...

While I have done that for one game kill.switch I do not like doing it at all. I personally want to keep it as close to Retail looking as possible, as well as still getting all the work done for me. In a way it makes it more complicated to do it that way. CD-Key, for some games can only be set on install, some games require to create a profile during install, not to mention some shared components some games install / files you dont know about, sure you can monitor where they are installed to but i personally prefer factory installer, but with my own installer for crack / patch working in the background. It's just a option I offered up if its not that well liked its no big deal. I did gain one thing from the forum tho inspiration to make it a dynamically installed crack instead of factory install directory, ive got the scripts written up to return the value for one game so far just need to get it to send a call to a vbs and return that value back to the batch.