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".

[Darkfalz]

Ah, I didn't notice that. Well spotted.

[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

[Darkfalz]

Originally Posted by Excalibur007

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

I always prefer doing modifications to the file system than to 1ST_READ.BIN

Nice to see you got it working. And again proves the sheer stupidity of these dummy "protections". At least put one byte at the end and check it!

[djgarf]

any chance of putting a little guide up on what to hex edit to achieve this so other people can use the infomation

[Excalibur007]

Originally Posted by djgarf

any chance of putting a little guide up on what to hex edit to achieve this so other people can use the infomation

Sure,
After you make your iso, look in the first bit of it where the TOC is at or just do a search for the name of the file you're wanting to edit. Once you find it, look just before it and you'll see the size listed in Big Endian/Little Endian back to back. For example: This file was supposed to be 805,306,368 bytes (3000000 hex) so it needed to show as "0000 0030 3000 0000" (byte flipped) in the ISO. Say you had replaced the file with one of only 16 bytes... It would say "1000 0000 0000 0010". You would replace this with the size you wanted the file to say.
Need to know how to convert the size from bytes to hex? Just use your calculator (right in windows) with the scientific option, and enter the size you want the file to be (decimal), then click the HEX option and you'll have the size in hex. Now just byte flip it and there you go.

Again, thanks goes to Darkfalz for pointing me in this direction.

-Ex

[DrEaMpLaY]

So how about Virtua Tennis 2 PAL big file?? Could you explain me how to hack 1st_read.bin if you have the game?? I like to make Virtua Tennis (1 & 2) Compilation Just take for eg small size ~ 1mb.

[Darkfalz]

Originally Posted by DrEaMpLaY

So how about Virtua Tennis 2 PAL big file?? Could you explain me how to hack 1st_read.bin if you have the game?? I like to make Virtua Tennis (1 & 2) Compilation Just take for eg small size ~ 1mb.

I did the same thing for Virtua Tennis 2, did hack 1ST_READ.BIN with generic protection hack (mentioned elsewhere in this thread) as well as making BIG512.BIN appear original size.