[Xeron_XTG]

Hi guys ^__^


as the title said ...........i'm totally beginner on ROMHacking stuff ,i wanna start from the scratch but idk from where i can start

(those rxxxx things i really have no clue)

besides i have few questions ....

 1/-there's few games on ps1/ps2 like Digimon World 3 ,you can find 3 files = total 36Mb i mean where's the other files???
 2/-every game has his own extensions ......wanna hack Onimusha : Warlords but no idea ,weird extensions
 3/- if anyone here is experienced or Advanced on Rom Hacking can you tell me from where i can start pleaaaaaaaaaaase ?
 4/- since Onimusha Warlords / Genma Onimusha almost the same files can i replace them ? how? same to pc ....

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jorpho]

1/-there's few games on ps1/ps2 like Digimon World 3 ,you can find 3 files = total 36Mb i mean where's the other files???

The Playstation accesses the data stored on the disc by means other than the ISO9660 filesystem.  In other words, it doesn't have to use "files".

2/-every game has his own extensions ......wanna hack Onimusha : Warlords but no idea ,weird extensions

Yes, games can store their data using different methods.

3/- if anyone here is experienced or Advanced on Rom Hacking can you tell me from where i can start pleaaaaaaaaaaase ?

The Newbie Package of REQUIRED Material

ROMHacking.net FAQ: You ask, we answer!
ROMHacking.net Getting Started Section: Newbies Go HERE!
ROMHacking.net Documents Section!
How to ask questions the smart way.
On the Essence of ROM Hacking
Talk with experienced people in our IRC chat and ask specific questions there.

[BlackDog61]

PS1 / PS2 quick additions to the mandatory package above:
- cdmage seems to open those PSX iso's correctly.
- some people use ecmtools to compress / uncompress their images.
- always explore from within the extracted iso, never the iso directly
- no$psx debugger sorta works... (no perfect solution for that)
- pcsx2 debugger works pretty well

And my 3, non-PS*-spectific, cents: sjisdump is a blessing, get it from RHDN's utility section.

[Rai]

To hack CD based games, you need a program that can extract files from the ISO.

You also need a program that can reinsert modified files.

"Game Graphic Studio" can extract files and reinsert modified files. It's what I use to hack PS2 games.

What's great about "Game Graphic Studio" is that you can reinsert files, without having to rebuild the ISO.

For PS2 ASM hacking, you need a good stable debugger. I would recommend "pcsx2dis" or the latest PCSX2 Orphis build for debugging PS2 games.

Both PS1 and PS2 both use MIPS processors.  If you search on google, you should be able to find some information on the basic MIPS opcodes.

If you want to insert new code; I would recommend "ARMIPS". Since PS1 and PS2 both use MIPS, "ARMIPS" can also be used on PS2 games. However, you won't be able to use the newer PS2 specific opcodes.

You can find Game Graphic Studio in the "Utilities" section.

You can get pcsx2dis here:
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PCSX2dis-v1-1-A-ps2dis-inspired-PCSX2-enabled-Game-Hacking-Tool-W-I-P-13-02-2015

ARMIPs should also be in the "Utilities" section.

[Xeron_XTG]

Thanks for the replies but what abt the 4th question?

how can i replace the files ? is there any chance?

[Rai]

Thanks for the replies but what abt the 4th question?

how can i replace the files ? is there any chance?

Download Game Graphic Studio, then open your ISO. After that, just right click the file and select "Import a file over this one...". Then select your new file  press "Open" and then your ISO will be patched with the new file.

[Xeron_XTG]

Ok , i tried to change files but

1/-they don't have "all" the same files ....xbox version got some extra files
2/-i tried to change some using Game Graphic Studio some works ...some not

any ideas?

[Rai]

Ok , i tried to change files but

1/-they don't have "all" the same files ....xbox version got some extra files
2/-i tried to change some using Game Graphic Studio some works ...some not

any ideas?

If you can't change the files; most likely the new files are a different size than the originals.

[Xeron_XTG]

If you can't change the files; most likely the new files are a different size than the originals.

i see ....what should i do? *stuck*

[Xeron_XTG]

guys another question : how can i recognize Games extension


can someone answer please?

[mz]

99% of the time, file extensions don't mean shit. They're mostly custom file formats or packages.

For the remaining 1%, just type the extension letters on Google and see if you find something useful.

[FAST6191]

By extension I assume you mean file format.

There is no simple answer. Any coder can make their own format to do anything they like, and game coders seem to really relish doing as such. Worse is they are not always great coders so they may reinvent the wheel when the rest of the world has moved onto spacecraft. If nothing else look no further than the idea of custom text encodings when the rest of the world settled on a handful of known formats for many many many years now.
Still
Pull apart games on the same system
Pull apart games from the same developer
Pull apart games in the same series
If there is a SDK for the system in question you might get something from it -- most of the GBA and DS devs making games used a sound format that Nintendo pushed that are known as Sappy and SDAT respectively. Newer systems do better than older ones for this sort of thing but older SDKs can still be valuable.
See if anybody else has pulled apart games from the same developer, system and series. Though game devs seem to have a bit of penchant
Float around game specific websites -- if you wanted to hack pokemon then a few hours floating around https://www.pokecommunity.com/ will likely get you far more than anything a more general Nintendo game hacking forum would get you.
You can also float around general websites like http://wiki.xentax.com/index.php/Game_File_Format_Central and https://wiki.vg-resource.com/wiki/Main_Page and https://wiki.vg-resource.com/wiki/Main_Page and the wiki here.

In the end though you are still going to have to learn how the file formats are made, the hardware they are for (I like nice abstract things but hardware does not and as you have to run it on hardware you have to play to it). People approach it in different ways depending upon their backgrounds, the systems they are working on (learning SQL is not going to help you hack NES games, helps tremendously for a lot of online games and world of warcraft and all sorts of things) and how tied to a given system they want to be.

[Xeron_XTG]

@mz @FAST6191 thanks for the reply but...

Of course ,the first thing you see in a game is the file extension ....i tried to google them but nothing made sense to me ...Right now ,on PlayStation 2 i'm focusing on Onimusha : Warlords but i really don't from where to start guys (what do i need to learn and how to open these files are my questions everytime)

Same to the game i wanna hack ,same files on the Pc version and on Xbox ,i thought they were encrypted but i'm not sure

i'm planning to start from 0 o'course (one of the first replies gave some useful links ,so if u have some it'll be apperciated )

[FAST6191]

Along with extensions there are file names, file sizes, directory names and the process of elimination -- if there is a big directory called sound then chances are that is going to be that and you can go looking elsewhere for graphics if that is what you wanted. PC games are occasionally seen to be encrypted but most console games rely on the protections of the host system or devs to shield things so the xbox game should just need to be pulled apart. Not sure what the kids are using for pulling apart xbox games these days but there are a dozen or so tools that can do it as that is how original xbox hacking worked for most people (you FTPed the extracted games to your xbox's hard drive).

What to learn? Computing. You can narrow it down a tiny bit (I mentioned SQL and how it is useful for modern online games but not so useful for NES stuff, same deal here) but many here have a broad familiarity with a large section of computing and use that to pull things apart. That and they have tools like debugging emulators (not sure where http://pcsx2.net/ is at for debugging right now, though probably not as nice as many other things we play with around here), the ability to poke files (if you think this does something you can sit there and try to analyse it but it might well be easier to just change it to something else and then run it and see if the results are what you predicted) and maybe a specific task (I want to edit this text or these graphics or this song is usually easier to approach than "I want to know everything about this game").

[Jorpho]

Are people still using Tile Molester Mod these days?  That's what I'd use – pick a promising-looking file and sort through the graphics modes until you find something recognizable.

It is more likely that you will run into compression before encryption, though, and trying to reverse-engineer an arbitrary compression format is not at all easy.

[Xeron_XTG]

i really apperciated your help but it's still unclear from where to start ....

But converting games from xbox to pc (same files ,but few more ......) ....


i'm really wanna start learn anything about consoles'n'stuff :p

[BlackDog61]

i really apperciated your help but it's still unclear from where to start ....

But converting games from xbox to pc (same files ,but few more ......) ....


i'm really wanna start learn anything about consoles'n'stuff :p

You sound like you have not read the links pointed by Jorpho. Have you?