Atari 8Bit Game Patches

[Materion]

Thank You for Your great job !! Thats amazing that so many games gets cheats and now they are playable as I don't have patience to play them without cheats ;). I hope more cheats will come for games in future ;)). Can I sometimes send a game title so You could try to find cheats for it ?

 

One more time kudos for Your work - its amazing ;).

Edited March 1, 2021 by Materion

[Materion]

For example these games - would be nice if You could look and try to cheat them. If there is too much work with it then it's okay :D. 

 

Callisto.xexCONAN (V1,S2).ATRCONAN (V1,S1).ATRCaveman.xexDark Abyss.xexCrumble's Crisis.atr

[EddyFree]

On Monday, March 01, 2021 at 10:19 AM, Materion said:

For example these games - would be nice if You could look and try to cheat them.

Sure, why not. However, I was unable to do Callisto as it appears "packed" or otherwise obfuscated.

Caveman:
--------
Infinite Lives = [C6D1A5:EAEAXX]
Invincible To Enemies = [ADAE04:A901EA]
Kill The Timer = [CEAC04:EAEAEA]

 

Dark Abyss:
-----------
Unlimited Ships = [CE754B:EAEAEA]
Unlimited Energy/Invincible = [CEB34C:A901EA]

 

Crumble's Crisis(DISK):
-----------------------
Hitting Structures Doesn't Take Energy = [24205453:XXEAEAEA]
Hitting Moving Objects Doesn't Take Energy = [33205453:XXEAEAEA]
Disable Lightning = [D0034C49:EAEAXXXX]

 

Conan(DISK, Patches Applied To Side 1):
---------------------------------------
Infinite Lives = [CE4B0330:A901EAXX]
Unlimited Blades = [CE4E03:A901EA][19EE4E03:XXEAEAEA] (Must Use BOTH)

 

 

[Materion]

Oh thank You very much ! I have one more game if You could try - would be very thankful. Didnt You think about some patreon or something so people can donate for Your help ? I would like to thank You even in small donation for Your dedication and knowledge.

 

If You could hack these games too I would be very thankful :). I have collection of games from A-Z and playing it from A-Z so if I find games that would be nice to be hacked I will post it from time to time. 

Around the Planet (1994)(Mirage)(PL).atr Around the Planet.xex BOULDER DASH III.XEX Crypts of Egypt.xex

Edited March 3, 2021 by Materion

[Materion]

Also this would be great - another polish game - sorry that another post but I can't edit earlier one. When I will play some more games in future and find that some needs cheats I will post here and If You will have will to hack them then it would be great :). You are awesome, man ! 

DENEB.ATR

[Mclaneinc]

You can help a little if you check the files are not packed, an easy was to tell is small file size and flickering lines on the screen when it first loads and you might see "Decrunching" on the screen or a number counting down

 

Those are packed files, that means you can't read the code straight away so they can't be patched.

 

And just remember that hacking the game takes a bit of time, sometimes its straight forward and its a known value but coders use all sorts of sly tricks to hide or protect their code so it can take a bit of time so give a thought to his free time

 

 

[Materion]

Thank You I will try to search for not packed files :). Yes I know hacking game takes time, sorry if You took it as demand from me. I really appreciate his work and just send games that would be nice to have cheats  if he is willing to do it, if not it's okay too - he have a life too :). Another proposition - if we have Draconus 1 hacked would be nice t o hav e Draconus 2,3,4 hacked too :D.

Draconus II.xex Draconus III.xex Draconus IV.xex

[Mclaneinc]

Its ok, I didn't take it as a demand, just a little reminder...

 

I'm glad you know its a bit of work to do these things but I bet Eddy appreciates the fact that someone is using and enjoying his work..He's very good at it and goes the extra mile to find funky little cheats like stopping the bird in Pharaoh's Curse, most people would just have done the lives.. 

[Materion]

Yeah I can see he is pro at it - it's very impressive. I don't know how to do this at all but I can imagine it takes a big knowledge and skill to do it. It's good that there is someone like Eddy that do this because many games for Atari didn't have cheats and some of them are really hard and not enjoyable without cheats.

Comparing it to C64 games where almost all of it have trainers build in Atari was left out but now we have a chance thanks to Eddie to move forward with it ;).

[Mclaneinc]

 

It does require knowledge but you can actually do basic cheats just by recognising op codes. Say a game starts you with 5 lives you can search the file for A9 05 which translates to LDA (Load the accumulator) with 5, normally its followed with a Store command which look like 8D 0C 90(STA) which means Store it and the 0C 90 gets swapped around to mean stored at address $900C. So if you find a string that says A9 05 8D then its possible its the one for your lives but A9 05 is a very common set of opcodes and you will find loads of them (normally).

 

Things like health bars are very different and the above method would be useless. In this circumstance it helps to be able to read the code and understand what its doing so some assembler knowledge is key. As I said in the other post some author check to see if their code has been changed by comparing it with what should be there, some use the same location for multiple things and use indexing to swap bits in and out to point to different locations.

 

So yes, its not just pick up an Action Replay and let it find the cheat, on the Atari those of us who do or did cheats do it by hand and use our training to do it. There's actually a lot of pre cheated games out there, I did a lot of them back in the day but people sort of frowned upon it, many did want a fancy hackers screen. I used an OS called Omnimon to do my stuff, its allowed you to jump into the game as it was running and disassemble the code. I could then restart the game and see if the location I'd found was right and then I could patch the code in one of a few ways.

 

So yeah, Eddy works hard, he's very thorough, he finds odd little locations that others would simply not bother with, so full credit to him, I bet he has a well thumbed copy of Mapping the Atari as well  Sort of the hackers bible if you will.

 

If you use an emulator there are plenty of cheats for Altirra and Atariwin plus..

 

Paul.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Mclaneinc

[FULS]

Updated.

 

Atari Game Cheats.pdf

 

Thank You EddyFree !!!

[EddyFree]

On Wednesday, March 03, 2021 at 5:12 AM, Materion said:

Didnt You think about some patreon or something so people can donate for Your help ? I would

like to thank You even in small donation for Your dedication and knowledge.

No need. I have benefited from hundreds of "freeware" software titles and such over the years. And it's in that spirit that I contribute this information for those who can benefit from it.

 

As for the Game Patches you requested, the only one I have for you is DENEB, which was a slight challenge due to it's use of much indexing and self-modifying code.

 

"Around The Planet.xex" has a built-in trainer, so really no need to patch that one.

"Crypts of Egypt.xex" is a packed executable.

"Boulder DASH III.xex" is from First Star and can use the same cheat patches I posted for Boulder Dash.

The "Draconus 2,3,4" games appear to use the same "engine" as the original Draconus, although relocated in memory. Therefore, the patches I posted for Draconus should work on them also. That's one of the advantages of the search/replace method as opposed to direct byte-location patching.

I will include the DENEB patch in a new post with a few more I've made.

 

[EddyFree]

Thanks for the kind words from the both of you.

 

Finding the patches does take a little knowledge but isn't very difficult if you know some assembly language, the memory layout of the Atari, and are familiar with typical over-all program structure so you have an idea of where the game programmer might locate certain data. It is true that it can take some time though, depending on the game programmer's technique.

 

As for the thumbed copy of Mapping The Atari, I do have one that I've had since about 1985 but it hasn't been thumbed since the early 90's. Today, I just load up the TXT version in notepad. I find that Notepad's "search" function is much quicker than my thumb too.

 

[EddyFree]

 

And, here's the next round of Cheat Patches:

 

DENEB:
-----
Infinite Lives = [B50015011502D001:A9058D0634EAEAEA]

 

Threshold:
---------
Unlimited Ships = [CE8F77:EAEAEA]
Unlimited Fuel = [200D76:CE5A77][EE5A77:EAEAEA] (Must Use Both)
Weapon Doesn't Overheat = [CE5977:EAEAEA]

 

Caverns Of Khafka:
-----------------
Infinite Lives = [CE6725:EAEAEA]
Kill Bonus Timer = [205235:EAEAEA]

 

Crystal Raider:
--------------
Infinite Lives = [CE9F3B:EAEAEA]
Don't Need Oxygen = [E9018D:XX00XX]
Quick Death = [20320E:EAEAEA]

 

Canyon Climber:
--------------
Infinite Lives = [CE0905:EAEAEA]

 

Stealth:
-------
Infinite Lives = [CECCAB:A901EA]
No Energy Loss = [F5F494:EAEAXX]
Distance To Tower Halved = [A901859A:XX50XX9B]

 

 

[EddyFree]

 

Time for a few more.

Red Max:
-------
Infinite Lives = [CEAB38:A901EA]
Unlimited Fuel = [CE7738:A901EA]
Unlimited Shield = [CE7838:A901EA]

 

Red Sky:
-------
Infinite Lives = [990E2185:EAEAEAXX]
No Initial Bomb Onslaught = [205525A6:EAEAEAXX]

 

ROTO:
----
Infinite Lives/Packs = [018D5F:00XXXX]
Unlimited Fuel = [018D5E:00XXXX]

 

Serpentine:
----------
Infinite Lives = [C69020:EAEAXX]
Start Max Length After Each Death = [048583:0CXXXX]

 

Sneakers:
--------
Infinite Lives = [CE796C:A901EA]

What games am I missing? I only want to do "good games". Obviously they can't be "packed". And I'm no fan of "demo games"(the ones where the game sucks but the music is cool).

 

 

[tane]

11 hours ago, EddyFree said:

What games am I missing?

? Sea Dragon

 

Here is a small collection with good titles: Collection.7z (some of them are atr, the xex should be in fandal, atarimania, atarionline, homesoft).

[eegad]

If I may throw in a request...  How about either infinite lives or invincibility for Har'em?  Would love to finally make it all the way through. 

 

[Mclaneinc]

46 minutes ago, eegad said:

If I may throw in a request...  How about either infinite lives or invincibility for Har'em?  Would love to finally make it all the way through. 

 

 

If you want to play it on Altirra then here's my inf lives cheat..

Har'em.atcheats

[eegad]

Much thanks Mclaneinc - nope, I like to play games on the original hardware, but providing me with the "# lives" address saved me some work in patching it myself.  ?

[EddyFree]

8 hours ago, eegad said:

If I may throw in a request...  How about either infinite lives or invincibility for Har'em?

 

The Har'em game on the Homesoft Collection appears to be packed. Do you have a copy that isn't packed?

 

 

[Mclaneinc]

All the versions I have are packed hence the Altirra version..Its a simple store at $2b, didn't disassemble it but I'd bet there's a DEC in there..

[eegad]

I grabbed the version on atarimania,  ran it through a dissassembler,  and yes I just replaced the DEC $2B with NOPs. 

[Xuel]

@EddyFree Have you written anything about the methods that you use to develop your patches? I would love to read about the process that you go through.

[FULS]

Updated.

 

Atari Game Cheats.pdf

 

Thanks again EddyFree !!

[Mclaneinc]

On 4/27/2021 at 9:08 AM, Xuel said:

@EddyFree Have you written anything about the methods that you use to develop your patches? I would love to read about the process that you go through.

Yes, so would I, as a fellow 'cheater' I always appreciate how others do it and how they approach the more obscure trainer options like life bars, level selectors etc. Normally its just a case with level selectors of finding an incremental address that roughly matches per the screen level indicator and energy bars are usually set values like 100 or 255 and DEC'ed with hits but I've found in the past programmers counting upwards rather than down and so on and so forth so I'd love to read how Eddy approaches all this..