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Street Rod

Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2002 1:36 pm
by Joey
hey, i need someone really good with computers. there is a classic car game called street rod. it can be downloaded from www.streetrod3.com I wanted someone to tell me what language it was written in, or how i can view its info and edit it. i tried opening files with c++, but it was all in binary. is there anyway i can edit it? i would like to edit street rod 1. then 2.

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2002 2:50 pm
by df
wow. Street Rod!! cool. I remmeber writing copyprotection cracks for this and cheats. money cheats and stuff. From memory, I liked sr1 more than I liked sr2...

man this brings back memories..

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2002 12:37 pm
by Joey
its really awesome. i didnt think many people even played it.what were the cracks you made? also, what language was it made in. and......... how can I view the source for it to make my own add ons on it?

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2002 12:45 pm
by Joey
oh yah and df, did u know sr3 is being made? you can check out some alpha versions at www.streetrod3.com but i would like an answer from someone about what language it was written in. and maybe what programs i can use to edit the game.

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2002 2:04 pm
by HwM
Joey wrote: its really awesome. i didnt think many people even played it.what were the cracks you made? also, what language was it made in. and......... how can I view the source for it to make my own add ons on it?
As he said, the crack he made was for the copy-protection... The game itself is probably programmed in some high-level language, so 'viewing the source' would be a very difficult task... Somewhat hacking the game would work, but it'll need time and much knowledge...

BTW: Street Rod 1 was IMHO way better than the sequel... Since one of the differences was that part 1 was actually playable...

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2002 3:24 pm
by Joey
first off, what does ihmo mean. second, what do u mean 1 is more playable than 2? they are the same. i think 2 is better though, there is way more engine parts to buy.

this may be helpful to people trying to help me find out how to view the source. a while ago, i tried opening some files with visual c++ 6.0 everything was binary. that may help somehow. is there a way to like, decompile binary to see what the commands were? i dont even know if that makes sense cause im not fimiliar with binary.

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2002 3:27 pm
by Joey
also, there are copy protections? the ones i downloaded are fine. i go into one and it says like what color is it one page..... blah blah blah. i just click on anyone and it goes into the game. on sr2, it asks me what is the 4th letter on page .... you know like that. i just type any letter and click okay and it works. i dont know, but it works.

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2002 3:40 pm
by HwM
Joey wrote: first off, what does ihmo mean. second, what do u mean 1 is more playable than 2? they are the same. i think 2 is better though, there is way more engine parts to buy.

this may be helpful to people trying to help me find out how to view the source. a while ago, i tried opening some files with visual c++ 6.0 everything was binary. that may help somehow. is there a way to like, decompile binary to see what the commands were? i dont even know if that makes sense cause im not fimiliar with binary.
IMHO: In My Humble Opinion...

I found Street Rod 2 hard to play, since I haven't played it for a long time, I don't remember all the details, but...
The Aquaduct race was fairly easy, but the Mulholland drive just was just hard... But actually the main thing I didn't like about the sequel that it didn't improve anything... Graphics were still EGA, though a bit more detailed. AdLib sound was better than the original, however, after a short while in the game, it would be horribly mutilated by all kinds of random noise... I just thought it could be better, since the games are pretty much the same regarding the rest...

About the copy-protection: Yes, that's the copy-protection, both games had the 'choose the right key' thing... Your copy is cracked...

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2002 4:15 pm
by Joey
oh. well thanx hwm.


someone, please, i need an answer. i really wanna check it out or make my own stuff for it.

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2002 12:52 pm
by beyondsociety
You could somehow convert the binary code to hex and use a hex editor. Not a good way to go.

Do a search for a binary editor.

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2002 12:59 pm
by Joey
k thanx. but what will a binary editor do? can i view words so i can understand commands?

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2002 4:21 pm
by ark
there is no practical way to take a compiled program and retrieve the C++ source code for it. Unlike AGI, where the language is based on a predefined set of variables and flags and the structure of the compiled code is extremely simple and so it can be easily decompiled, decompiling machine code into a language like C++ is not so easy.

First of all, variable names are not saved...the AGI Studio decompiler is able to come up with things like isset(f5) because that command is stored in the compiled file as F7 05 I think. The decompiler knows that F7 means "isset()" and it knows that isset is expecting a flag. The 05 tells it that the flag number is 5, so it can easily reconstruct isset(f5) from the compiled code. In C++ compiled code, things aren't that simple. First of all, the user defines variable names, and second of all the user can define functions and give them their own names. These names are not stored in the compiled executable, so the decompiler would have to come up with its own names for them.

There's also the fact that most C++ compilers optimize the code they produce, so the code that decompiler might produce wouldn't necessarily even have the same structure as the code that the original author wrote.

The complexities of decompiling a C++ program are numerous. Basically, even if you could find something to decompile the C++ code, it would probably be unreadable (even decompiled AGI code isn't too good about readability).

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2002 12:43 pm
by Joey
so are you saying binary is c++? and, what will a binary editor do?

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2002 3:31 pm
by ark
binary is just a way of writing numbers, just like decimal or hexadecimal. so, no, binary is not C++ code. Incidentally, I think Visual C++ opens so-called "binary" files in its built-in hex editor...if you're seeing any of the letters A-F on the screen in the editor window, then you're looking at a hexadecimal representation of the file.

When you compile a C++ program, the compiler gives you machine code in the form of an executable file (ends in .exe on windows and MS-DOS systems). There is no practical way to convert an EXE file back into C++ code.

It is highly doubtful you will be able to edit the game you are trying to edit, unless maybe you get very good at assembly language or directly editing machine code.

Re:Street Rod

Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2002 3:42 pm
by Joey
ok (sigh) thanx Jelle. I have no idea what wither of those things are. I do know .exe. i have viewed binary, so i know what it looks like. But that was very useful info. once you compile a .exe file, it is very very very very very very very...... hard to get the source from it. thanx for the help.


oh yah, Jelle, if you could look at the game for me. maybe you could identify the files and see what language it was written in. if its too much, forget it. but if you have spare time and could take a look, that would be helpful.