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Forums > C64 Coding > If it were 1987 again....
2023-07-20 15:41
Knight Rider

Registered: Mar 2005
Posts: 116
If it were 1987 again....

I was watching Robin's video https://youtu.be/yVtKKb3wkYc regarding cracking from an original cassette. And it stirred a little interest in me again. To be honest I can't even remember how now but I cracked Wizball from original cassette using a Trilogic Expert (2nd version with botched ESM daughter board) and very likely V2.9 of the monitor software.

I did this again now on real hardware (as I wasn't having much luck with WinVICE 3.7), just for laughs and to try to stir up memories of way back then. Defeating Freeload now was much easier for me than back then.

I used the following packers:

MCC Compressor
then
Card Cruncher V4 (no idea who lent me this cartridge, but probably Tork&Torky)

(usual one was Matcham Time Cruncher V3.1 or a hacked version which ended up becoming Time Cruncher V3.1)

I ended up with 182 blocks incl. intro in Wizball

So it leads me to the next question, back in the day (for me) the best cracks had the smallest disk block size.

What packers did you use then on a real C64 in 1987, and what would you use now on real hardware (a. released upto 1987 and then anytime). What block size can you achieve ?

Exomizer V3.02 gives 144 blocks when no additional parameters are given.
TRIAD Wizball + is 166 with intro
Krejzi Packer $005E-$FFFF + Matcham Time Cruncher V3.1 gives 161 blocks
MCC Compressor + Matcham Time Cruncher V3.1 gives 165 blocks
Beast-Link/64k + Byte Boiler 256k V1.0 gives 148 blocks
Byte-Buster V4.1 + Byte Boiler 256k V1.0 gives 148 blocks
 
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2023-08-03 14:13
chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11149
No shit. I know all that. This is not "freezer" though. And its not what those pathetic ram-pattern detectors were trying to defeat either.
2023-08-03 14:22
Martin Piper

Registered: Nov 2007
Posts: 646
It is a freezer, in the sense it can record RAM allowing it to be analysed, compressed and restored with self extracting code later on. It's just tools to do a job.
2023-08-03 14:43
chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11149
Yeah, whatever floats your boat >_<
2023-08-03 14:54
Martin Piper

Registered: Nov 2007
Posts: 646
Quote: Yeah, whatever floats your boat >_<

I cannot help it if you lack the knowledge and imagination to provide factually accurate information about specific topics.
2023-08-03 14:57
chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11149
Yes, that's it! >_<
2023-08-03 15:42
AlexC

Registered: Jan 2008
Posts: 293
While we are debating memory freezeres definitions it would be worth mentioning that C128 via particular MMU configuration allowed to enter C64 mode, load program into memory, reset system, enter C128 mode and monitor and crack it from there if I remember correctly.
2023-08-03 16:05
chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11149
Thats only slightly better than regular "reset cracking" though. But sure, people used that :)
2023-08-05 02:44
Fungus

Registered: Sep 2002
Posts: 629
Sledgehammer 2 for RLE, Squeezer for crunching, usually an REU version from Antitrack for speed. Level Squeezer for level crunching levels.

Moved to AB Cruncher then Byteboiler. Level AB2 or Level Crusher later. Along with my own packers.

On PC used PUCruncher, then Exomizer.

Bacchus interesting, I'll have to look that up. I've considered doing videos on how to crack stuff, but I figured most of the world would find that extremely boring, haha.

Martin you have the biggest case of Dunning Kruger I've ever witnessed. Look, if you weren't there, have photos of, or used such systems back then which you already admitted you didn't, then hush and quit arguing with straw man nonsense and hypothesis.

SoftICE was a PC thing (and buggy as hell), not for 8 bit computers. Any kind of such hardware like that possibly existed, was in house only. A bunch of kids churning out budget titles for tape houses barely could afford a computer and disk drive let alone such development hardware. That kind of stuff didn't become normal until the 90s unless you were Nintendo or Atari using VAPS machines. Surely not for cracking games.
2023-08-05 05:57
Martin Piper

Registered: Nov 2007
Posts: 646
Fungus you don't seem to know I worked in the games industry where I used all sorts of hardware debuggers, including ICE systems. The older dev software and hardware was still very much available. So yes, I was there. That's how I know about this stuff. I don't know what you think "I admitted" because I didn't.
2023-08-05 07:02
Fungus

Registered: Sep 2002
Posts: 629
You literally said you didn't have a freezer cart.

You weren't working as a software dev back then.

I don't get why you always argue with people about everything, and have to be right, and have to prove you're smart or something. It comes off really bad, and ME saying that is something...

Groepaz is and was a professional developer too, as are MANY MANY people here.

If you want some respect, try showing some.

Also not everything is about you and your experiences.

Back to on topic now, thanks.
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