Need help with Silent Scope

[Excalibur007]

I finally got around to ripping Silent Scope last night (USA version). There was a 768 MB file called "SPECIAL.BIN" that was just a dummy, so I cut it to 515 MB and used it as the dummyfile placing it first on the disc with a sort. I kept the original sort order of the rest of the files, (SPECIAL.BIN is the 2nd file from the inside on a GDROM).

So on to my problem... I kept the lba of 45000, which I like to do whenever possible, and hacked the IP.BIN as usual. However, it gets past the S*ga screen, goes black like it's loading, then resets to the menu screen after a few seconds. There's obviously something I'm missing. Does anyone know what to do here?

Thanks,
-Ex

It might be that a security check triggers because either:

1) the SPECIAL.BIN doesn't have the correct size
2) the SPECIAL.BIN isn't in the original LBA sector

or a combination of both checks...

that's my wild guess... of course you could check other rips (like the one from ECH) to see how they did it.

[Excalibur007]

I was going to avoid mentioning echelon's rip, but I should probably add this: Echelon's was the JP version and they just made a 20 byte file called YARIGHT.BIN to replace SPECIAL.BIN and hexedited it into the 1st_read.bin in place of where it said "special.bin". It's in the same place where "snip_e.afs" is named in the 1st_read.bin if you wanted to take a look. Also, echelon just did the default alphabetical file order. Because of this, I would think that there is no check on the size or lba of SPECIAL.BIN... unless there's that much of a protection difference between the Japanese and USA versions.

I was thinking maybe there's an extra protection that needs edited like in Confidential mission or Jet Grind Radio.

[Warlock]

Please, no talk of warez boy's

[Darkfalz]

He's backing up his own game, I think that should be okay?

When I get those dummy protections I always keep as much as possible and hex edit the ISO file system to change the size of the file to original. There may be other protection (try the CDE4436A generic protection hack). Other than that, I dunno.

If any of these game developers had any brains with these "dummy" protections they'd put some important game data at the very end of the file, so you couldn't make it smaller. Not that it would deter a proper hacker, but just putting a big dummy file on there only stops the most inexperienced ripper.

[Warlock]

I realize he is backing up his own original and i have no problem with that but we are not allowed to talk or discuss "echelon's rip".

[Excalibur007]

Originally Posted by Darkfalz

When I get those dummy protections I always keep as much as possible and hex edit the ISO file system to change the size of the file to original. There may be other protection (try the CDE4436A generic protection hack). Other than that, I dunno.

I took your advice and hex edited the ISO file to say the special.bin was 768 MB. Works fine now. There IS a check on the size of that file. You can also hex edit the 1st_read.bin if you'd rather do that than patch the ISO. FYI, the size check is at offset 35780 (US version).
Thanks so much darkfalz for helping once again.
...One more GDROM to be put away.

-Ex