So You Want To Be a Hacker? Part IV: Compression Formats

Posted by Edward Keyes on July 27th 2006 to Production Process, So You Want To Be a Hacker?

Game data archives almost always employ some type of compression for their contents, and sometimes will even mix and match different algorithms for different types of files. Understanding the typical compression formats is therefore crucial to the success of a game hacker.

Moreover, you need to be able to recognize the common algorithms just from their compressed data alone, so when you’re staring at hex dumps, you will know how to proceed. In today’s installment, we’ll go through some of the most popular formats, how they work, and how you can recognize them “in the wild”. (more…)

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So You Want To Be a Hacker? Part III: Code Prototyping

Posted by Edward Keyes on June 12th 2006 to Production Process, So You Want To Be a Hacker?

In the last installment, we analyzed the Cross+Channel archive format with our trusty hex editor, and after a proof-of-concept manual image extraction, we believe we know what’s going on in that file. But of course there’s only one way to be sure: build some tools, and try to modify the game!

So today we’re going to run through some quick code prototyping to create some suitable tools for dealing with the archives. My intention is to make this as simple and straightforward as possible, so if you come out of this installment saying, “You mean that’s all I have to write to hack a game?!” then… mission accomplished. (more…)

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So You Want To Be a Hacker? Part II: The Hex Editor

Posted by Edward Keyes on May 29th 2006 to Production Process, So You Want To Be a Hacker?

Let’s get started, then. Today we’ll be looking at a simple example archive format, as a springboard to talk about the “standard” parts of a game data file. Keeping this sort of template in mind as you gaze at an unknown format will be a great help to try to make sense of the random-looking bytes you run across.

The game we’ll be looking at for the moment is Cross+Channel (the trial edition download link is at the bottom of that page), which has a translation project already in progress. So, grab a copy if you like, and let’s take a look. (more…)

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So You Want To Be a Hacker? Part I: Abilities and Responsibilities

Posted by Edward Keyes on May 24th 2006 to Production Process, So You Want To Be a Hacker?

“I want to translate games, but I don’t know any Japanese.” If I had a byte for every time I’ve heard that, I could replace my hard drive…

Fortunately, there is another path than that of the translator — a skill-set completely different from juggling kanji and wondering where all the pronouns went. And yet, the job is equally valuable, for how can a translator translate without the script that you provide, and how can a graphic-editor edit without the images that you extract, and how can a player play without the very game that you put back together for him?

So, the question becomes, do you want to be a hacker? (more…)

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