[Travelsonic]

I was looking at the end of the SLPM file for DDRMAX2 [JP, duh], and noticed something I am curiou about.

Loaded the file into wordpad, made a png w/ a couple of screengrabs, since I'm too lazy to copy+paste ascii in FRHed.



I wonder, are these what I think these are, variable labels?

If so, there seems to be a small fair-ish amount of data between each ascii string - wonder if it is anything that may be useful in incorporating these in my disassembly of DDRMAX2's SLPM file [the disassembly leaving out all these labels]?

This post has been edited by Travelsonic: 14 September 2013 - 12:46 AM

[Andlabs]

What is the filename, slpm####.## (where ## are some numbers)?

[Travelsonic]

SLPM652.77

I also noticed the other US and JP releases from DDRMAX to DDR EXTREME had a shitload of these at the end of the respective files.

For MAX2JP [SLPM65277] at least, look at 0x17f5f8 and onward.

This post has been edited by Travelsonic: 14 September 2013 - 11:52 AM

[Andlabs]

Those are the main executable, and are standard ELF binaries that you can just load into IDA to get an automated disassembly (or use a PS2-specific disassembler which works differently, your choice). Not sure what that particular part of the file is, but it would be funny if the games were not stripped...

[Travelsonic]

Andlabs, on 14 September 2013 - 12:00 PM, said:

Those are the main executable, and are standard ELF binaries that you can just load into IDA to get an automated disassembly (or use a PS2-specific disassembler which works differently, your choice). Not sure what that particular part of the file is, but it would be funny if the games were not stripped...

Been using IDA Pro, it is really cool.

noticed this line at 0x17f5f8 for the SLPM file:

shstrtab debug line strtab symtab comment reginfo

After which is all the crap that made me impulsively start this thread.

I wonder.... if they actually left the debug information in - including symbol tables [and this is what I'm looking at]. Those strings above, combined with all those variable names being listed make me think so.


Wouldn't surprise me, beatmania Best Hits for the PS1 used a dummy.bin file to pad out the disk size that actually was a .lzh file containing the source code to beatmania 5th Mix - and a version of the code that was not only close to the final release, but with some tweaking one that could readily be compiled by anyone competent.

This post has been edited by Travelsonic: 14 September 2013 - 12:30 PM

[Travelsonic]

[pardon double post]
Doing some research, I found this page - and according to this guy,

Quote

"As a bonus, tons of PS2 ELF binaries leave their symbol table fully intact."

- which means that, assuming this is true, that it is most likely that Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series - including JP and US MAX, MAX2, EXTREME, and Dancing Stage mixes from that time, have that/this is what I found.

Squeegasm! />/>/> />/>/> />/>/> />/>/>

This post has been edited by Travelsonic: 14 September 2013 - 01:33 PM

[Travelsonic]

[PARDON TRIPLE POST please]

Assuming this is the symbol table, which I can safely say is the best bet, what would be the best means of interpreting the other data besides the literal strings present, unraveling so to speak how the data is laid out, if it is even possible?

[Andlabs]

If it's a standard ELF symbol table, IDA should have taken care of it for you (check to see if any function names are filled in, or even do a text search for some of the strings)... otherwise the format is known. If it's not standard, then...

This post has been edited by Andlabs: 16 September 2013 - 01:59 AM

[Travelsonic]

From what I can tell, it does follow the standards for the ELF format - so I guess that is excellent news.

[Travelsonic]

Just got some screenies up on the blog I started for hacking DDR games, so maybe this will be a better look at the data I'm trying to decode (screengrabs from FRHed, rather)