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Over the weekend I reverse-engineered the password routines in Arena: Maze of Death and found a previously-unknown cheat password, as well as writing a password generator. I've added both here:

http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/ArenaMazeOfDeath-GG

I'm interested to know how well it works in its embedded form compared to the standalone version (which you can also download and use offline). It uses HTML5 form elements so it looks better in modern browsers.

I RE'd Bubble Bobble yesterday and there's a password generator here:

http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/BubbleBobble-SMS

Feedback is welcome.

Excellent, they are lovely piece of software.
Unlike the Arena one, the Bubble Bobble password generate doesn't seem to update automatically when a check is pressed. Maybe consider writing a description of the password encoding, as those as relatively interesting read as well, for those technically inclined (although we won't want that for every game).

The automatic updating is in fact very difficult to achieve, due to cross-browser differences in Javascript events. I intend to remove that, in fact, because it is problematic - depending on the browser, some of the fields update in different ways, or not at all (e.g. deleting text in IE) and I'd rather have you need to press buttons consistently than inconsistently.

Both of these also contain a description of the password algorithm in the source. It's not particularly useful information, though.

Don't bother with the automatic updating if its tricky to get working. Now saw the description in the source, maybe that could be moved to a string so the application can optionally display it? I enjoy reading those.

Maxim wrote

It uses HTML5 form elements so it looks better in modern browsers.

Nice... Range type is awesome. Worked fine on latest Chrome for Linux.

Arena maze of death gen is broken on IE9.

The input boxes don't load with any default values and pressing encode results in an 'undefined' error.

encode.JPG (35.29 KB)

Hmm, I'll have to look for a computer with IE9... I fixed a very similar error on IE8, did you test it on a recent version?

Yes, latest version.

If you have IE specific code that may be why since IE9 is mostly standards compliant now.

Should be fixed now. It turns out I had fixed IE8 but not actually uploaded it. The bug: IE doesn't support using [] to grab a character from a string except in IE9 in standards mode. The charAt() function works fine.

Another day, another password generator.

http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/AlexKiddHighTechWorld-SMS

Finally, we learn that in the ~170 bits of information available in the game's passwords (allowing 10^52 combinations), the only thing encoded is the time, which needs 9 bits (480 combinations). The rest is just there to make it *really* hard to guess passwords.

Bonus: type "javascript:all()" into the address bar on that page to see all 480 passwords. Sadly, none has anything funny in it.

I forgot to post about this one which I made last Saturday.

http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/PuzzleBobble-GG

Money, money, money!

http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/CasinoGames-SMS

Fairly simple, and there's a 10% chance that any given valid account number will match your name!

Casino Games (1).png (4.36 KB)

I am rich!

Maxim wrote

Finally, we learn that in the ~170 bits of information available in the game's passwords (allowing 10^52 combinations),

Well, the Japanese version only had 46 characters for the passwords because that is a complete kana set. So the unneeded 6 characters I suppose are there just to have a complete alphabet on screen, making it look nicer?

I'd guessed as much but hadn't made the effort to check :) It's almost certainly the same code underneath - I may see if I can support it.

if you want to not worry abt cross-browser inconsistencies, use jquery or something.

One of my self-imposed rules is that there are zero external dependencies on the generators; they are always encapsulated entirely in a single HTML file - including using data: uris for images. This allows easy download and offline use without accompanying data folders.

Brilliant work, Maxim!

After a long break, not least because I tried to reverse Ecco the Dolphin which is quite nasty code, here's an account number generator for Ghostbusters:

http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/Ghostbusters-SMS

Any requests? I'd like to cover some RPGs, but they will require a huge amount of work to figure out what events/items all the bits represent.

Mega Man and Golvellius should be reasonnably interesting and not too hard?

I did Golvellius some years ago (!) but there was a large amount of bits that needed to be identified - all the barriers, as well as equipment levels.

Mega Man is interesting in terms of the password entry system, but underneath it's just a lookup table.

http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/MegaMan-GG

The lookup table for restoring the difficulty has a mistake, as noted on the page.

Road Rash done:

http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/RoadRash-SMS

It was surprisingly difficult to do partly due to the four checksums it has embedded in it. One of the values is a mystery counter which I can't account for, so it probably doesn't matter what it is set to.

Author	Message
Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Password generators Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 6:30 pm Last edited by Maxim on Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:10 am; edited 1 time in total
	Over the weekend I reverse-engineered the password routines in Arena: Maze of Death and found a previously-unknown cheat password, as well as writing a password generator. I've added both here: http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/ArenaMazeOfDeath-GG I'm interested to know how well it works in its embedded form compared to the standalone version (which you can also download and use offline). It uses HTML5 form elements so it looks better in modern browsers.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Bubble Bobble Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:08 am
	I RE'd Bubble Bobble yesterday and there's a password generator here: http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/BubbleBobble-SMS Feedback is welcome.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 6320 Location: London, UK	Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:14 am
	Excellent, they are lovely piece of software. Unlike the Arena one, the Bubble Bobble password generate doesn't seem to update automatically when a check is pressed. Maybe consider writing a description of the password encoding, as those as relatively interesting read as well, for those technically inclined (although we won't want that for every game).

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:06 am
	The automatic updating is in fact very difficult to achieve, due to cross-browser differences in Javascript events. I intend to remove that, in fact, because it is problematic - depending on the browser, some of the fields update in different ways, or not at all (e.g. deleting text in IE) and I'd rather have you need to press buttons consistently than inconsistently. Both of these also contain a description of the password algorithm in the source. It's not particularly useful information, though.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 6320 Location: London, UK	Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:40 am
	Don't bother with the automatic updating if its tricky to get working. Now saw the description in the source, maybe that could be moved to a string so the application can optionally display it? I enjoy reading those.

Niloct Joined: 25 Dec 2005 Posts: 408 Location: São Paulo - Brazil	Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 3:11 pm
	Maxim wrote It uses HTML5 form elements so it looks better in modern browsers. Nice... Range type is awesome. Worked fine on latest Chrome for Linux.

djbass Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 512 Location: Melbourne, Australia	Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 7:05 pm
	Arena maze of death gen is broken on IE9. The input boxes don't load with any default values and pressing encode results in an 'undefined' error. encode.JPG (35.29 KB)

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 7:25 pm
	Hmm, I'll have to look for a computer with IE9... I fixed a very similar error on IE8, did you test it on a recent version?

djbass Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 512 Location: Melbourne, Australia	Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 2:07 am
	Yes, latest version. If you have IE specific code that may be why since IE9 is mostly standards compliant now.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 8:49 am
	Should be fixed now. It turns out I had fixed IE8 but not actually uploaded it. The bug: IE doesn't support using [] to grab a character from a string except in IE9 in standards mode. The charAt() function works fine.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Alex Kidd: High Tech World password generator Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 7:20 pm Last edited by Maxim on Tue Jun 21, 2011 7:23 pm; edited 1 time in total
	Another day, another password generator. http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/AlexKiddHighTechWorld-SMS Finally, we learn that in the ~170 bits of information available in the game's passwords (allowing 10^52 combinations), the only thing encoded is the time, which needs 9 bits (480 combinations). The rest is just there to make it really hard to guess passwords. Bonus: type "javascript:all()" into the address bar on that page to see all 480 passwords. Sadly, none has anything funny in it.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Puzzle Bobble / Bust-a-Move Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 7:22 pm
	I forgot to post about this one which I made last Saturday. http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/PuzzleBobble-GG

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Casino Games Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 6:54 pm
	Money, money, money! http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/CasinoGames-SMS Fairly simple, and there's a 10% chance that any given valid account number will match your name! Casino Games (1).png (4.36 KB) I am rich!

KingMike Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 90	Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:27 pm
KingMike Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 90	Maxim wrote Finally, we learn that in the ~170 bits of information available in the game's passwords (allowing 10^52 combinations), Well, the Japanese version only had 46 characters for the passwords because that is a complete kana set. So the unneeded 6 characters I suppose are there just to have a complete alphabet on screen, making it look nicer?

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 8:20 am
	I'd guessed as much but hadn't made the effort to check :) It's almost certainly the same code underneath - I may see if I can support it.

neologix Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 63 Location: New York, NY, USA	Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 12:38 am
	if you want to not worry abt cross-browser inconsistencies, use jquery or something.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 8:27 am
	One of my self-imposed rules is that there are zero external dependencies on the generators; they are always encapsulated entirely in a single HTML file - including using data: uris for images. This allows easy download and offline use without accompanying data folders.

MaRkiSH Joined: 13 Jul 2001 Posts: 182 Location: Perth, Australia	Sehr gut! Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 4:51 pm
	Brilliant work, Maxim!

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Ghostbusters Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 8:00 pm
	After a long break, not least because I tried to reverse Ecco the Dolphin which is quite nasty code, here's an account number generator for Ghostbusters: http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/Ghostbusters-SMS

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:08 am
	Any requests? I'd like to cover some RPGs, but they will require a huge amount of work to figure out what events/items all the bits represent.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 6320 Location: London, UK	Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:32 am
	Mega Man and Golvellius should be reasonnably interesting and not too hard?

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 10:03 am
	I did Golvellius some years ago (!) but there was a large amount of bits that needed to be identified - all the barriers, as well as equipment levels.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:23 pm
	Mega Man is interesting in terms of the password entry system, but underneath it's just a lookup table. http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/MegaMan-GG The lookup table for restoring the difficulty has a mistake, as noted on the page.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8984 Location: London	Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:04 pm
	Road Rash done: http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/RoadRash-SMS It was surprisingly difficult to do partly due to the four checksums it has embedded in it. One of the values is a mystery counter which I can't account for, so it probably doesn't matter what it is set to.

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