Scarface v1.00.2 *UPDATE + CRACK*

[DABhand]

Originally Posted by maciozo

chron, you've said it all i don't really care about the scene & it's rules. i can only invite you to see my fix & launch something like regmon - you'll see this release has activemark blinded (no browser or registry crap) & license routine activated. cheers

Well Activemark is a license checking protection. If it has activemark blindesided so is the License check.

Which means people can then get the game for free. And hence why im suprised no mod has closed and edited the link.

[chron]

this often works for online games with normal cracks too (if they dont use virtual filesystem or file encryption).

For Example gamesload.

[maciozo]

Originally Posted by DABhand

Well Activemark is a license checking protection. If it has activemark blindesided so is the License check.

Which means people can then get the game for free. And hence why im suprised no mod has closed and edited the link.

nada, the crack isn't compatible with the game edition you can get for free. the version i've cracked has protected download and it cannot be obtained by people who haven't paid for the digital download. thus you can leave the worries behind. pm if you still have doubts

[DABhand]

And may I ask how did you figure this out, that it doesnt work?


See the problem is this.


If it works on retail, why not the downloadable version also?


It just stinks is all. And I thought the downloadble version is the Activemark protected one.

[maciozo]

You've misunderstood. There are 2 digital download versions of this game. Both are protected by ActiveMARK. The other one (which can be downloaded by anyone) is protected by different version of protection so the crack doesn't work on it. Please PM me if you want more details according to this game & protection itself - I can't write those here for obvious reasons.
I also think that a working crack is better than no crack at all.

[DABhand]

But the Retail isnt activemark, so why does it work for that?


Its just a bit too silly.


If I was the publisher I would make sure at least that the digital versions executables wouldnt work with the retail for obvious reasons.

So did they make a boo-boo?


But hey :P


Interested on what you did with the activemark protection/wrapping.. You can send a PM if you want.

[BarryB]

The reason the Activemark EXE works on the retail is it's the same EXE just wrapped up in Activemark!

Also, a cracked Activemark EXE may not work on it's own Download version! Why? Because if the vendor has compressed any data files using the Activemark SDK, removing the Activemark protection also removes the ability to decrypt those data files, so the EXE won't work.

So a cracked Activemark EXE has more chance of running on a retail game than the download game it came from.

[maciozo]

Now we can all here just thank you that you generously decided NOT be the publisher

Heh, publisher goofs happen very often lately. And believe me, the "boo-boo" with ActiveMARK is really nothing special. Hitman Blood Money, Xpand Rally, F.E.A.R. - all the cracked updates have been based on ActiveMARK.
AM cracks don't always work - especially if the game was protected by StarForce before. This happens because of the encrypted resources which a cracked AM exe cannot read. Crack works however with most protections because it's like a unpacked unprotected exe + some AM shit which always lasts. So why not use it ?

[kosmiq]

I can't see the problem with an ActiveMark crack. Ok it works with the retail but so does every other crack uploaded to GCW. In todays world of internet anyone can obtain a game for free if they really want to and there is not much we can do to stop it.

However for legal customers cracks can be very sweet, I use them myself a lot whenever I can. I love my games but I'm too lazy to put in cd's all the time and image's ain't my thing.

As long as it works I am happy, no matter if it was Safedisc, Seucrom or activemark protected to start with. It works for me and that makes me happy.

[BarryB]

I forgot about SFFS, Activemark cracks will be useless for those as the SF protection deals with decrypting them, like AM does.

Also, most download games need to be purchased beforehand, so having an AM crack still doesn't let you 'play for free'!"

[DABhand]

Originally Posted by BarryB

The reason the Activemark EXE works on the retail is it's the same EXE just wrapped up in Activemark!

Also, a cracked Activemark EXE may not work on it's own Download version! Why? Because if the vendor has compressed any data files using the Activemark SDK, removing the Activemark protection also removes the ability to decrypt those data files, so the EXE won't work.

So a cracked Activemark EXE has more chance of running on a retail game than the download game it came from.

Just wrapped?

[maciozo]

not exactly. it is a wrapped exe, but obfuscated and integrated with activemark overlay. as far as i see there is no method to FULLY remove activemark to produce a virgin exe (you can strip many unuseful datas & imports though).

[DABhand]

I was wondering, I was about to say thats a pretty useless protection if its only wrapped hehehe.


Well if you have the original game and the OEP you could easily dump each section, .rdata etc and rejoin and fix the header.

[TippeX]

not quite that easy, then you have to 'pop' the files from the virtual file system (if used), fix api redirects and fix up other bits of code that have been mangled..

but all protections are essentially wrappers anyway..

[maciozo]

the key problem is dumping - it's not easy to produce a 100% compatible dump, especially to make it work under legacy system. and also comes patching. but the more you crack, the faster & the better you do it. check out another one which will be here soon