scrolling source code in Liminality is real!

DracoLacertae · Post by **DracoLacertae** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 12:15 am

When watching Liminality, there is the scene where Tokuoka was talking about a back door into The World, the ALTIMIT desktop 'shattered' and a bunch of code scrolled on the screen. I freeze framed, and took a look at this code. The code is too perfect to be fictious; it is error-free C. Since I play around with a ps2 disassembler to make my own gameshark codes, I popped in the .hack infection executable, and was surprised the game was compiled with a full symboltable, containing all the function names. (full debugging information.) This gives names to all the functions and variables of the game. Comparing a section of disassembled .hack to the in-movie screenshots, the code matches:

http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~markws/d ... nality.jpg

(If you know MIPS assembly, don't take my word for it, read the code for your self.)

I tried reading the .hack data files for information (such as textures), but found it was probably compressed, and it would be just about impossible to extract any info without knowing the compression scheme. Using this screenshot http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~markws/dh/ungzip.jpg , I was able to determine the data files are simply compressed with GZIP. After that, the data files can be viewed uncompressed, revealing some swizzled texture data. (Which I have not decoded fully yet.)

It turns out the part of the game they show in Liminality is the part that reads and decompresses the data files! That, with the symboltable, which is usually left out when games are released, makes me think this was put in on purpose by the creators for actual game hackers to find.

Has anyone else discovered this link? When Tokuoka said there was a back door, I think he was alo referring to the ps2 game, not just The World.

I don't have the rest of the games; do the movies they come with also flash code on the screen?

Lunarcloud_88 · Post by **Lunarcloud_88** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 2:26 pm

no the other dvds dont, but i'm glad u spotted that! simple gzip compression! what exactly are you trying to do with that? make an altered version of the game?

alucard · Post by **alucard** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 4:23 pm

I wonder what you can really do with this code.... It may be totaly useless...

DracoLacertae · Post by **DracoLacertae** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 12:06 am

I am trying to either modify the game OR extract the texture & game model for use on a PC.

I've had limited success on other games, such as unlocking the 'debug stage' on soul calibur 2 from scratch (after a month of other hackers claiming it did not exist.)

http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~markws/sc2/sc2.html

There are videos on the site if anyone is interested.

If anyone knows any other coders/game hackers, let them know of what I'm trying to do. The thought of hacking .hack, a game about hacking a game, seems too cool to pass up. If I come up with anything really cool, I will probably release a .hack//HACKED video.

Lunarcloud_88 · Post by **Lunarcloud_88** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:25 pm

i'd love to see a version that i could play on my computer (though you'll probably not consider us linux users

). Let us know when u have done something and what you've done!

Bear · Post by **Bear** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:04 pm

Lunarcloud_88 wrote:i'd love to see a version that i could play on my computer (though you'll probably not consider us linux users :cry: ). Let us know when u have done something and what you've done!

If you mean the video, MPlayer should work fine. For the game, well, there's always VMware. ^_^

DracoLacertae · Post by **DracoLacertae** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 11:16 pm

i'd love to see a version that i could play on my computer (though you'll probably not consider us linux users )

I am a unix user, Linux at home and Solaris at school, so you need not cry.

I use windows too, (cygwin) , but unix is so much cooler.

I'm gonna go work on the .hack files right now. If anyone knows any coders interested, point them here.

Lunarcloud_88 · Post by **Lunarcloud_88** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 10:56 pm

Bear, thanks, but i know. I use Kmplayer to play everything and dont have enough juice in my machine for VMWare and i refuse to use wine (though cedega works okay. Also, i love your Mr. flibble/red dwarf reference in your title-esque thing. Also, i'm glad u use unix/linux/solaris, b/c i want a copy if possible. U haven't really officially said what u r going to do though.
DO u really know yet?

Bear · Post by **Bear** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:28 am

Lunarcloud_88 wrote:Bear, thanks, but i know. I use Kmplayer to play everything and dont have enough juice in my machine for VMWare and i refuse to use wine (though cedega works okay. Also, i love your Mr. flibble/red dwarf reference in your title-esque thing. Also, i'm glad u use unix/linux/solaris, b/c i want a copy if possible. U haven't really officially said what u r going to do though.
DO u really know yet?

Ah! Okay - and thanks. ^_^ I haven't yet looked at the code, but I do have the games lying around, and I'll see if I can figure something out.

Lunarcloud_88 · Post by **Lunarcloud_88** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 3:08 am

DracoLacertae, what i'd love to see most is a pc version of the root towns where people actually are everywhere. personally, i'd be using it to make silly bum stories/videos, a.k.a RVB. what do you think?

DracoLacertae · Post by **DracoLacertae** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:13 am

DracoLacertae, what i'd love to see most is a pc version of the root towns where people actually are everywhere. personally, i'd be using it to make silly bum stories/videos, a.k.a RVB. what do you think?

So would I. I would like to have people connect over the internet to a root town on a PC. Dungeons, etc could be randomly created.

I just don't have time for recreational hacking/programming because of school.

EDIT: I do have SOME time to work on this, but not a lot. I'm thinking of changing my focus a little but, I'll post some ideas later, maybe tonight.