SimCity: Societies Update #3

[TippeX]

Originally Posted by DABhand

Impossible.

It would be like looking for the preverbial needle in the large haystack.

have to agree there, to crack anything you usually need the entire package, with earlier protections all you might have needed was the exe+dll's, nowadays its still probably possible, but would require a lot of skill, which doesn't seem to be there in the scene recently...

back in the days, there were even cases where you have to play the game the whole way through to make sure you got 'everything', i doubt things changed that much...

to 'remove' the protection as stated you usually need a mini/maxi image to even get the executable to the original entrypoint (unless you had another method, and there were very few people who worked in that 'area'... )..

so, really @FM-Staalker - you dont know what you're on about ...

[FM-Staalker]

I did say I used to be in the scene, and it has been quite a while....so, having outdated knowledge doesn't mean I don't know what I am talking about. It just means that it isn't useful anymore.

But to play on your point, I have seen games out the day of retail release with the crack already on the iso. You really think they are playing through these games the whole way through in a day or so? Most of the crackers I know have full time jobs, but I guess these days it could be done by people who don't.

Still, it isn't impossible to remove protections schemes from games without ever installing it. It just takes the proper software. Sure, it doesn't work as often as the other way around, but then again many of the cracks I have seen lately would make you think this is the way they are doing it.

It depends on which protection module the game has, but that should be a given.

Either way, I don't want to argue about who does what. In fact, I am not even the OP. I just added that it wasn't working on XP2. Hopefully someone else will find a fix for xp, if not--oh well.

[acal3000]

Originally Posted by DABhand

argghhhhhhhh my eyes! they burn at the large paragraph!

hehehe :P

Sorry I was bit tired the other night to make the correct punctuations

[DABhand]

Originally Posted by FM-Staalker

I did say I used to be in the scene, and it has been quite a while....so, having outdated knowledge doesn't mean I don't know what I am talking about. It just means that it isn't useful anymore.

But to play on your point, I have seen games out the day of retail release with the crack already on the iso. You really think they are playing through these games the whole way through in a day or so? Most of the crackers I know have full time jobs, but I guess these days it could be done by people who don't.

Still, it isn't impossible to remove protections schemes from games without ever installing it. It just takes the proper software. Sure, it doesn't work as often as the other way around, but then again many of the cracks I have seen lately would make you think this is the way they are doing it.

It depends on which protection module the game has, but that should be a given.

Either way, I don't want to argue about who does what. In fact, I am not even the OP. I just added that it wasn't working on XP2. Hopefully someone else will find a fix for xp, if not--oh well.

I'd say it only works with less than 1% of them.

You need the full game and protection available to unwrap the executable, dump it, find the oep, fix the import table etc

You cant do that with just a protected exe on its own. Sure there was unwrappers floating about but even that isnt enough. They need the media to find where the checks are etc.

Im guessing you used to be a curry and only heard stories.

[DABhand]

Originally Posted by acal3000

Sorry I was bit tired the other night to make the correct punctuations

No need to apologise acal, I was having a laugh with you

[FM-Staalker]

Ah, I see the problem. You misunderstand me.

I didn't mean to suggest they didn't have the full game, only that they didn't have it installed on their machines. Some actually do that, but most that I ever worked with just dumped the disk to the HD and worked on it.

I know of two people currently who never test their cracks, they just "know" they work. Sometimes they don't, though.

Anyway, it doesn't even matter. This crack is vista only, and perhaps it should be listed as such on the site?

[TippeX]

heh this is reminissent of the old cracks that only worked on xp due to that SetLastError or something import... any cracker worth his/her salt should test their cracks... they should also check new versions of the protection and see what might be possibly different... of course there are 'race conditions' ...

[FM-Staalker]

As an update, the mini-image YASU combo was suggested to work with DT 4.06. I couldn't get it to work.

SSC uses Securom 7.35.0008, and that is rumored to not be blacklisted by DT 4.06. I was told it does work with a full image, however, and so I will believe that.

I didn't test it because I have the original disk, and I didn't want to waste drive space with a full image.

But for those who have no choice, you might give 4.06 a try if you have it available.

Cheers.

[redef42]

download this "mini image" -> http://www.sendspace.com/file/4s0wb0
(( source -> http://fileforums.com/showthread.php?t=83068 ))

1- Apply the 3 patch of SCS
2- no need to replace the .exe (leave the original)
3- mount "mini image" (1.66Go) with dt 4.06, and use YASU
4- launch the game.

works fine on wxpsp2

[TippeX]

apparently it doesnt work for everyone...

[Hitman-tlb]

Well, for all u guys, Vitality has released fix for this now, all systems should be AOK now

[gta3freak_2001]

Originally Posted by redef42

download this "mini image" -> http://www.sendspace.com/file/4s0wb0
(( source -> http://fileforums.com/showthread.php?t=83068 ))

1- Apply the 3 patch of SCS
2- no need to replace the .exe (leave the original)
3- mount "mini image" (1.66Go) with dt 4.06, and use YASU
4- launch the game.

works fine on wxpsp2

Thank you I can confirm this does work with Patch 3 although pretty redundant now that the vitality crack has been updated.

[FM-Staalker]

Thanks to Vitality for the fix!

[BarryB]

Can we close this thread now then

[TippeX]

hope so, or we can move it to the 'we have no life' thread ;p (i 100% hate the sims, my views are not reflective of the forums or the other mods.. they're purely personal... so sorry to any of the women / kids / sims players offended by my comment... which is 100% true ;p)