Arcticfox 100%

StingRay · 24 December 2020, 00:04

It's Christmas time again and, just like last year, I have finally finished a release that I started several years ago (2014 to be exact). This time it's Arcticfox which was finally cracked and fixed to run on (hopefully) all Amigas. Game was nicely protected and had certain bugs which needed to be fixed.

For more information check the .nfo file on disk.

Merry Christmas everyone.

jotd · 24 December 2020, 00:08

that's about time

I remember game first attempting to read the protected track with trackdisk device, and if that worked, didn't even call the protection as this was the sign of a copied disk. I also remember that those old EA protections completely fail on a 512k kickstart because somehow they're reading a zero page word and somehow expect to find $00FC there. If it's something else like $00F8, the protection fails...

This kind of protection was also present on Marble Madness, Archon, Archon 2, possibly One on One...

If you made fixes, maybe it would be nice to have them for the whdload version.

StingRay · 24 December 2020, 00:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by jotd

If you made fixes, maybe it would be nice to have them for the whdload version.

I'll send you detailed info about the fixes in the next days so you can update the WHDLoad patch.

BarryB · 24 December 2020, 01:00

Nice one, thanks

Supamax · 24 December 2020, 02:03

Great, thanks!

lesta_smsc · 24 December 2020, 02:24

Great release thank you! I remember this game as a bridge between Epic and Campaign lol.

NeoHippie2016 · 24 December 2020, 07:50

Thank you for the release, @StingRay!

ross · 24 December 2020, 10:44

Asman · 24 December 2020, 10:55

Nice. Great cracktro. Love it

skan · 24 December 2020, 11:03

Meister Sting0r strikes back!

Superman · 24 December 2020, 11:04

Nice work Stingray.

DamienD · 24 December 2020, 16:45

Awesome, thanks Sting

Gilbert · 24 December 2020, 17:19

Artic Fox and Marble Madness were the 2 games I originally wanted an Amiga for. But I never got Artic Fox in the end. Seems crazy it took so long to hack. Good work!

A500 · 24 December 2020, 21:34

One of my all-time favourites, thanks and merry Christmas!

TjLaZer · 25 December 2020, 08:59

Thanks so much!

Tested quickly on my A500 NTSC KS 1.3, A3000 030 KS 2.1 and A4000 060 KS 3.1 works fine, but on A1200 Vampire 2 get black screen with music playing and game starts. Tried turtle mode too. No big deal though!

skan · 25 December 2020, 10:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

Thanks so much!

Tested quickly on my A500 NTSC KS 1.3, A3000 030 KS 2.1 and A4000 060 KS 3.1 works fine, but on A1200 Vampire 2 get black screen with music playing and game starts. Tried turtle mode too. No big deal though!

He said it runs on all Amigas!

StingRay · 25 December 2020, 11:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gilbert

But I never got Artic Fox in the end. Seems crazy it took so long to hack.

The actual cracking didn't take that long, I had the first working version ready in 2014. As I had coded a generic decrypter for the EA encryption, the encrypted binary was easily converted to a standard Amiga executable. Patching the game to load its files with dos.library instead of the trackloader was also quickly done. However, as I had converted the game to 100% Amiga DOS (original was trackloaded) I faced an annoying problem with sprite 0 which the game uses. As Amiga OS uses it too for the mouse pointer, there were graphics glitches in the game. Tried to fix it, but without real success. And then was so annoyed that I worked on other projects meanwhile.

Basically, all of the work (cracking, fixing, intro coding) was done in a few weeks. These few weeks were spread over 6 years though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

but on A1200 Vampire 2 get black screen with music playing and game starts.

I may have a look, I'll most probably need your help for testing as I don't have any Vampire based machine at my disposal.

britelite · 25 December 2020, 12:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by StingRay

I may have a look, I'll most probably need your help for testing as I don't have any Vampire based machine at my disposal.

Isn't this a case of the Vampire needing fixing and not the game?

StingRay · 25 December 2020, 12:38

Not necessarily. It can still be a bug in the game code which was just not triggered on slow machines by pure luck. I do know where you are coming from though and wouldn't lose much sleep over this issue. However, if it's easy to fix, then why not do it?

Galahad/FLT · 25 December 2020, 14:18

Good work, its effort enough to crack this old shit let alone fixing it.

25 December 2020, 08:59	#15
TjLaZer Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Tacoma, WA USA Age: 52 Posts: 1,914	Thanks so much! Tested quickly on my A500 NTSC KS 1.3, A3000 030 KS 2.1 and A4000 060 KS 3.1 works fine, but on A1200 Vampire 2 get black screen with music playing and game starts. Tried turtle mode too. No big deal though! Attached Thumbnails

25 December 2020, 12:38	#19
StingRay move.l #$c0ff33,throat Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Berlin/Joymoney Posts: 6,863	Not necessarily. It can still be a bug in the game code which was just not triggered on slow machines by pure luck. I do know where you are coming from though and wouldn't lose much sleep over this issue. However, if it's easy to fix, then why not do it? Last edited by StingRay; 25 December 2020 at 13:40. Reason: typo

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24 December 2020, 00:08	#2
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,144	that's about time I remember game first attempting to read the protected track with trackdisk device, and if that worked, didn't even call the protection as this was the sign of a copied disk. I also remember that those old EA protections completely fail on a 512k kickstart because somehow they're reading a zero page word and somehow expect to find $00FC there. If it's something else like $00F8, the protection fails... This kind of protection was also present on Marble Madness, Archon, Archon 2, possibly One on One... If you made fixes, maybe it would be nice to have them for the whdload version.

24 December 2020, 01:00	#4
BarryB Amigaholic Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: UK Posts: 4,665	Nice one, thanks

24 December 2020, 02:03	#5
Supamax Da Digger :) Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Monza, Italy Posts: 2,822	Great, thanks!

24 December 2020, 02:24	#6
lesta_smsc Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 3,172	Great release thank you! I remember this game as a bridge between Epic and Campaign lol.

24 December 2020, 07:50	#7
NeoHippie2016 Freak Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Gladbeck Age: 47 Posts: 580	Thank you for the release, @StingRay!

24 December 2020, 10:44	#8
ross Defendit numerus Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Crossing the Rubicon Age: 53 Posts: 4,468

24 December 2020, 10:55	#9
Asman 68k Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Somewhere Posts: 828	Nice. Great cracktro. Love it

24 December 2020, 11:03	#10
skan Dream Merchant Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Dreamlands Posts: 530	Meister Sting0r strikes back!

24 December 2020, 11:04	#11
Superman Super Member Join Date: Sep 2014 Location: Wakefield Age: 48 Posts: 1,333	Nice work Stingray.

24 December 2020, 16:45	#12
DamienD Banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London / Sydney Age: 47 Posts: 20,420	Awesome, thanks Sting

24 December 2020, 17:19	#13
Gilbert Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: UK Posts: 318	Artic Fox and Marble Madness were the 2 games I originally wanted an Amiga for. But I never got Artic Fox in the end. Seems crazy it took so long to hack. Good work!

24 December 2020, 21:34	#14
A500 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Finland Posts: 361	One of my all-time favourites, thanks and merry Christmas!

25 December 2020, 14:18	#20
Galahad/FLT Going nowhere Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: United Kingdom Age: 50 Posts: 8,986	Good work, its effort enough to crack this old shit let alone fixing it.

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