-------------Meteor Mission------------ A 4am crack 2016-03-09 --------------------------------------- Name: Meteor Mission Genre: educational Year: 1983 Authors: Jerry Chaffin, Bill Maxwell, Barbara Thompson Publisher: Developmental Learning Materials (DLM) Media: single-sided 5.25-inch floppy OS: Diversi-DOS (T02,S02 has the string "C1982 DSR" backwards) Previous cracks: none Identical cracks: #491 Alien Addition rev. 2 #420 Fact or Opinion #419 Who What When Where #351 Home Row This appears to be a later version of Meteor Multiplication with a different name. ~ Chapter 0 In Which Various Automated Tools Fail In Interesting Ways COPYA immediate disk read error Locksmith Fast Disk Backup unable to read any track EDD 4 bit copy (no sync, no count) works Copy ][+ nibble editor modified address and data epilogues ("DA AA EB" instead of "DE AA EB") Disk Fixer ["O" -> "Input/Output Control"] set Address Epilogue to "DA AA EB" set Data Epilogue to "DA AA EB" all tracks readable T00 -> looks like a DOS 3.3 RWTS T11 -> DOS 3.3 disk catalog T01,S09 -> startup program is "HELLO" Why didn't COPYA work? modified epilogue bytes (every track) Why didn't Locksmith FDB work? modified epilogue bytes (every track) EDD worked. What does that tell us? no half or quarter tracks almost certainly no nibble check (just structural changes to epilogue) Next steps: 1. capture RWTS with AUTOTRACE 2. convert disk to standard format with Advanced Demuffin 3. patch RWTS to read standard format ~ Chapter 1 In Which We Attempt To Use The Original Disk As A Weapon Against Itself [S6,D1=original disk] [S6,D2=blank disk] [S5,D1=my work disk] ]PR#5 CAPTURING BOOT0 ...reboots slot 6... ...reboots slot 5... SAVING BOOT0 CAPTURING BOOT1 ...reboots slot 6... ...reboots slot 5... SAVING BOOT1 SAVING RWTS ]BRUN ADVANCED DEMUFFIN 1.5 ["5" to switch to slot 5] ["R" to load a new RWTS module] --> At $B8, load "RWTS" from drive 1 ["6" to switch to slot 6] ["C" to convert disk] --v-- ADVANCED DEMUFFIN 1.5 (C) 1983, 2014 ORIGINAL BY THE STACK UPDATES BY 4AM =======PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE======= TRK:................................... +.5: 0123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012 SC0:................................... SC1:................................... SC2:................................... SC3:................................... SC4:................................... SC5:................................... SC6:................................... SC7:................................... SC8:................................... SC9:................................... SCA:................................... SCB:................................... SCC:................................... SCD:................................... SCE:................................... SCF:................................... ======================================= 16SC $00,$00-$22,$0F BY1.0 S6,D1->S6,D2 --^-- ]PR#5 ... ]CATALOG,S6,D2 C1983 DSR^C#254 285 FREE A 002 HELLO *B 016 LOGO1 *B 003 DEFAULT *B 021 LOGO2 *B 017 LOGO3 B 012 MMS-STARTUP.OBJ B 020 MMS-CONTROL.OBJ B 051 MMS-CREATE.OBJ *B 018 LIB B 032 MMS-GAME.OBJ *B 015 MMS-SHAPEBUNDLE B 004 GAME-LIST ]RUN HELLO ...works... [S6,D1=demuffin'd copy] ]PR#6 ...grinds then crashes... My demuffin'd copy can not read itself, because it's still looking for the non- standard epilogue bytes. This is so common, I wrote a tool to fix it for me automatically: "Post-Demuffin Patcher". (I am not good with names.) I included the binary on my work disk, but you can download the source code at https://archive.org/details/ PostDemuffinPatcher4am It does a lot more than just fix non- standard epilogue bytes, but it looks like that's the only thing this disk needs. But let's find out! ~ Chapter 2 In Which We Remove All Traces Of Copy Protection Using An Automated Tool That I Wrote For Just Such An Occasion [S6,D1=demuffin'd copy] [S5,D1=my work disk] ]PR#5 ]BRUN PDP T00,S03,$91 change DA to DE T00,S03,$35 change DA to DE T00,S02,$9E change DA to DE Quod erat liberandum. --------------------------------------- A 4am crack No. 644 ------------------EOF------------------