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"Crack the SEGA Saturn copy protection" contest

Mr. Saturn - Feb 26, 2005

...

		mal	Mar 1, 2005
		Personally I think faster PCs and emulation are going to beat this endeavor, but I'm happy to be wrong.

		Drenholm	Mar 1, 2005
		I'm guessing the system disc won't work since the security code still can't be burnt? But thanks a lot for the rip of it, er... whoever..! The money sure sounds good... but I still haven't even looked at the security code area on a Saturn CD in depth, so I can't even guess at what is there..! It won't be me getting that money, anyway! The Magic Card sounds cool - I hadn't heard of those until now. :banana

		Mr. Saturn	Mar 1, 2005
		Emulators are not the same and a bad substitute for a real saturn...

dj898

Mar 1, 2005

Originally posted by Drenholm@Wed, 2005-03-02 @ 12:05 AM

I'm guessing the system disc won't work since the security code still can't be burnt? But thanks a lot for the rip of it, er... whoever..!

that's why I said into Saturn blank CD-R with the security ring...

mal

Mar 1, 2005

Originally posted by Mr. Saturn@Wed, 2005-03-02 @ 12:56 AM

Emulators are not the same and a bad substitute for a real saturn...

[post=130743]Quoted post[/post]

And?

All I'm saying is that any widespread interest in cracking the copy protection (if there is any now) will vanish once an emulator with decent compatability, high frame rate and ease of use comes along.

BTW, not once did I say that emulators were better or worse than real hardware. You brought that up.

Drenholm

Mar 1, 2005

Originally posted by Mr. Saturn+Tue, 2005-03-01 @ 01:56 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mr. Saturn @ Tue, 2005-03-01 @ 01:56 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'>Emulators are not the same and a bad substitute for a real saturn...[post=130743]Quoted post[/post][/b]

I would agree in general... however, I'd really love to play some of the games in amazing high-resolution graphics which the Saturn could never muster! But the emulation itself is such a tricky task, it may be a while before games can be played flawlessly.

Am I right in saying that Steve Snake, author of Kega, is working on an emulator? A member over at the The Will of the Ancients forums... said that it will "blow our minds"..!

Originally posted by dj898@Tue, 2005-03-01 @ 02:08 PM

that's why I said into Saturn blank CD-R with the security ring... [post=130744]Quoted post[/post]

Yeah... but where will we find one of those?

<!--QuoteBegin-m
al@Tue, 2005-03-01 @ 03:23 PM

And?

All I'm saying is that any widespread interest in cracking the copy protection (if there is any now) will vanish once an emulator with decent compatability, high frame rate and ease of use comes along.

BTW, not once did I say that emulators were better or worse than real hardware. You brought that up. [post=130748]Quoted post[/post][/quote]

I agree here - emulation will be most people's best friend once it is properly realised.

The 3D graphics will no doubt come to be better than the Saturn's own, but I'm sure there are not many other improvements upon the original hardware which can be made while still remaining faithful to the Saturn.

Anyway, I can only wish everyone best of luck with the copy protection investigation! :thumbs-up:

Borisz

Mar 1, 2005

Originally posted by Drenholm@Tue, 2005-03-01 @ 11:25 AM

Am I right in saying that Steve Snake, author of Kega, is working on an emulator? A member over at the The Will of the Ancients forums... said that it will "blow our minds"..! [post=130751]Quoted post[/post]

I think Kega Fusion is already mind blowing (there are like... 10 games in total that have bugs? And that's only when you count even the smallest sound bugs too.)

Of course a Saturn emu from Steve would totally rock my boat.

		Drenholm	Mar 2, 2005
		can't wait

		Quakester2000	Mar 5, 2005
		Maybe with that money raised you could get a former employee of sega saturn R&D to give a full low down and explination on the outer ring and ways of breaking it.

SkankinMonkey

Mar 5, 2005

Originally posted by Quakester2000@Fri, 2005-03-04 @ 07:48 PM

Maybe with that money raised you could get a former employee of sega saturn R&D to give a full low down and explination on the outer ring and ways of breaking it.

[post=130920]Quoted post[/post]

Or more likely he'd pocket the money and say 'get over it, you can swap'

		ExCyber	Mar 5, 2005
		You could also pay a professional reverse-engineering company (yes, they exist) to analyze it, but the deal would likely have to be structured carefully to remain legal.

		Drenholm	Mar 5, 2005
		Those would be good ideas... however legal they are!

		Mask of Destiny	Mar 5, 2005
		I'd imagine hiring a professional reverse engineering company to do it would be rather expensive though.

		mrkotfw	Mar 5, 2005
		here's a better idea, why not reverse engineer something that is already proven to bypass the security ring? (the mod board maybe?) there are people who still can't get their saturns to be modded

tsumake

Mar 5, 2005

Originally posted by Piratero@Sat, 2005-03-05 @ 07:06 PM

here's a better idea, why not reverse engineer something that is already proven to bypass the security ring? (the mod board maybe?) there are people who still can't get their saturns to be modded

[post=130950]Quoted post[/post]

That's a thought. But would that really be helpful? I don't know much technical info on the saturn, but isn't the modboard just a physical bypass of the protection system, not just a software one?

		vbt	Mar 5, 2005
		there is a small link with this topic but does some know how to display some text from ip.bin in order to see some results of tests.

		mrkotfw	Mar 5, 2005
		rip the first 32768 bytes from the iso or cdrom file using dd. if you want to insert it, use my tool...

Borisz

Mar 6, 2005

Originally posted by tsumake@Sat, 2005-03-05 @ 04:06 PM

That's a thought. But would that really be helpful? I don't know much technical info on the saturn, but isn't the modboard just a physical bypass of the protection system, not just a software one?

[post=130958]Quoted post[/post]

At least that would give us a clearer picture on what exactly we are trying to accomplish/bypass/reproducate.

		tsumake	Mar 6, 2005
		Good point. I hope someone finds a way to crack it. It would be great to finally store all those valuable saturn titles we all have (but still be able to play them on backups).

ExCyber

Mar 6, 2005

here's a better idea, why not reverse engineer something that is already proven to bypass the security ring? (the mod board maybe?)

I've seen no indication that the mod board actually touches any aspect of the signature itself. I suspect that it just modifies a "signature found" / "signature not found" packet from the reader MCU to the SH-1.

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