Posted: 3/23/2007 6:57 AM
Post subject: Corrupting the minds...
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Rick
Former player
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
OK, so recently I've been trying to play around with ROM corrupters so I could replicate some of those things on YouTube where they've put, say, Super Mario Bros, Metroid, etc. with different strange versions with them. I've never used a ROM corrupter before. I'm using Sapros right now because that's the only one that's worked on Vista right now. Anyway, I don't really know how to work a ROM corruptor. Since there's many people who dig around in code and have more knowledge than I, could someone give me a hand to guide me in the right direction of this? YouTube vids for examples I am talking about are here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN0sY0rX8rI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1m4M3Qlzc8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPlkqXLXwDk Thanks in advance!
http://wiki.rustedlogic.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor The Cutting Room Floor wiki.
Posted: 3/23/2007 8:53 PM
(Edited: 3/27/2007 4:50 PM)
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CtrlAltDestroy
Active player (328)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
I've used Corrupt, the one that Foxblitz uses. If you were using that one, I could give you a hand. Basically, Corrupt (and any other rom corrupter I imagine) will make a copy of your rom with changes you specify to certain byte ranges. Corrupt has functions to randomize a certain byte range, or shift them, or convert them all to the same value, and other things. Depending on what area of the data you've affected, you should get different results. You could screw up the map data and get crazy levels, or you could screw up the tile data and get garbled graphics (although screwing with the pointer tables to the tiles is much funnier) You could even mess up the sound effects or the music. However, the real fun comes when you locate the pointer tables or the opcodes for the physics engine. They're kind of hard to find because if you corrupt a large range in an attempt to locate them, the rom will be unplayable. You have to narrow it down a lot before you can get any funky physics to play with.
Posted: 3/24/2007 12:23 AM
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Rick
Former player
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
I've also tried using Corrupt on Vista here (I didn't have a choice for my new laptop, blah. >_<), and it won't even let me run it, so I'm stuck using Sapros for my corruptor. It seems like it's essentially the same thing though, but more simplified. So pretty much, you just have to know some values and plug 'em in, basically? Also, how much would you recommend for a range if I'm just playing around with stuff?
http://wiki.rustedlogic.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor The Cutting Room Floor wiki.
Posted: 3/24/2007 1:44 AM
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creaothceann
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 4/7/2005
Posts: 1874
Location: Germany
There's also MS Virtual PC and DOSBox.
Posted: 3/24/2007 2:51 AM
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ventuz
He/Him
Player (125)
Joined: 10/4/2004
Posts: 940
To some people, they use it to figure out what effect they do to game, and then they narrow it down to see which one of ROM address that did the effect on the game they are looking for. You can do the same concept without using "corrupt" program, you can just open any hex editor and change bytes to something else you want. Like for example, you go to 0x1000 and then hold down 0 a bunch until 0x1500 or so and then save as file.
Posted: 3/24/2007 7:03 AM
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Dwedit
He/Him
Joined: 3/24/2006
Posts: 692
Location: Chicago
Really glad to see that people are having fun with my Rom Corruptor program.
Posted: 3/25/2007 5:25 AM
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Rick
Former player
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
Oh hey! I didn't know you came here too. Awesome! You think there might be a chance of giving the program a little update so it's more Vista-friendly? Try as I might, I can't get CORRUPT to work on Vista, so I've had to use something else instead.
http://wiki.rustedlogic.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor The Cutting Room Floor wiki.