viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12161
|darc| wrote:When the cracker who originally released it says they're identical I believe he means they're all literally exactly identical, just locked to different Dreamcasts. Otherwise what you're suggesting is that a second person at some point came in and cracked Yellow, Green, Orange, and Purple and released them and we know they're different?
Here is a post by familyguy @ assemblergames
https://assemblergames.com/threads/making-selfboot-bleemcast-games.69929/page-3
FG wrote:Color versions are all the same, they were simply locked to different modified bios for testers. Once cracked they're all the same.
IIRC, the original cracker did manage to isolate a binary for BC! that'd work like any executable, but it was lost in a HDD crash. If someone has the time, skills, and motivation; it should be possible to distill that from the cracked retails, but it'd be tedious.
Retail BC! bypasses the normal bootstrap, most of the IP.BIN content is a red herring.
Edit:
He also made unlocked retail versions that will try to load any game, but the compatibility is atrocious, much worse than the beta. I guess the discs were greatly optimized for each target game.
I am going by FG's word about all of the bleem beta colors being the same.
FG sticks with the belief that the 5 color bleemcast betas were locked to 5 different dreamcasts that had modified bioses...
The only reason people have this belief is based off of the leaked bleemcast beta all colors .nfo file.
I am not saying that a second person at some point came in and cracked yellow, green, orange, and purple.
I have asked many times for cracked versions of each color so i can simply compare the .bins myself in a hex editor...
Also if you find the cracked bleemcast betas out there, some claim to be yellow while others claim to be blue.
And many people say the bleemcast beta used in the selfboot script is the blue beta.
Ian tested different region psx games and found that the blue beta wouldn't boot the game but the yellow beta would.
This is why I think that region is the only difference in the colors.
Code: Select all
The full .nfo from the bleemcast beta all colors:
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This is most of the conversation between myself "Me" and the person I got these from "Betatester"
Of course this are not the real nicks we use, I changed that to hide our identities.
These betas are VERY real. They are not locked down to 1 game. They are betas to test all Playstation games.
Now here is the tricky part, each beta tester was given different color coded Dreamcasts.
The betas has something in the code at will look in the rom on the specified dreamcast. The discs will
ONLY work on that machine and no other. Some how this code needs to be removed so that it is usable on any dreamcast.
Only other thing missing is an audio.nra which is the audio track to make the cd selfbootable. It should be the
same track this is used in the Echelon Selfboot Kit but in Nero Burning Rom audio format.
[03:49] <Me> what did ya'll have to use to burn it anyways?
[03:50] <Betatester> I've never really looked at how it works, before. It looks like it's cutting the first 37376 bytes off the data part of the image, then appending something (That Rand gave us... Included) to the beginning in it's place
[03:50] <Betatester> Just Nero, and some program that Rand gave us. I think he made it.
[03:50] <Betatester> It looks like all it does is cuts up a binary file, though
[03:51] <Me> ok
[04:30] <Betatester> Well, each one was encoded to only work on that specific DC
[04:30] <Betatester> However, if you mean the burning process, no, it was the same for them all.
[05:16] <Me> i mean different color dc's got different builds
[05:24] <Betatester> Well, I'm really not sure if they were different builds or not. I'm thinking that he might have done some kind of encoding on them, AFTER he did the builds, to make it work on the individual DC's. But, I don't know that for sure. He might have had the encoding done during the build itself, in which case they would be different builds for each color
|darc| wrote:Also, Ian says they're just different config settings, but the binaries are encrypted differently
Additionally, doing this doesn't even make sense. The emulator can load different configurations based on checking the disc's title ID. They wouldn't develop an entire PlayStation emulator in assembly and then be unable to do simple detection of the region, necessitating sending out multiple different builds. Why on Earth would they do that?
Why on earth would they have 5 "different" betas that are said to be all the same?
The title ID of the psx game in reference to the bleem4DC.ini allegedly makes no difference.
|darc| wrote:It's not about admitting to intentionally leaking data, it's about showing up out of the blue one day years later and posting how much of a shame it was what that leaker did to them They didn't have to do that and no one asked them to
That would be very good PR wouldn't it?
The public position would be to show that they were disappointed in the leak.
Baring no responsibility for the leak while reaping the benefit of free research from those interested in cracking the files.
|darc| wrote:Right, so if you think it's such a big deal then why would you downplay it and act like it's "just an emulator ffs"
If you and others are interested in releasing 250+ selfboots many many years later, how can you claim Rand wouldn't care much if it were leaked, as if this leaked beta wouldn't be pretty significant competition to their later released product?
Because it was such an early build and in no way represents the final product released. True competition could garner something from it but to what extent?
How many sh4 asm coders truly were there that could reverse engineer a bleem!cast clone?
|darc| wrote:Apple has been rumored to have their employees work on fake projects so that if any information in the media pops up about these fake projects they can know which employees they cannot trust.
I'm not really sure Apple or Microsoft are comparable to the type of business bleem! was. If this product leaked their entire company could go under. Rand already believed that was the entire reason Sega went under. Even being a startup, an IBM websphere clone is not a piece of software whose dependence is threatened by an environment of rampant piracy. I don't think this is comparable to a games market on a console that is open season for thriving pirates.
I see your point here.
But I think it is absurd to think a small company such as bleem! would have created a work environment so entrenched in protecting IP that it would make top level security clearances and practices seem like a joke.
Of course piracy would hurt bleem! and I understand the protection would need to be severe to thwart any efforts. But to protect the bleem betas in this manner seems absolutely insane.
|darc| wrote:He believed the entire existence of his business and his ability to make a living only depended on it!
Rand used to rant about swimming upstream in trying to make a living off of emulation as everyone who was into emulation were just in it for piracy.
So I say again, if you don't understand how/why Rand would be motivated to do this -- then you just don't understand who Rand is.
But only Rand knows who he is.
Whatever he chooses to disclose is all anyone will ever know about him.
Its like that with everyone.
Its not like anyone here is buying a round of beers with him.
|darc| wrote:I haven't done any code analysis so no, I cannot confirm it.
Even if the cracking is way over your head, just think about what you're suggesting. Copy protection must check for something. It obviously can't check for anything on the CD-R because it's a basic image CD-R with instructions for anyone to burn it. Thus the copy protection must be checking for something on the Dreamcast otherwise why couldn't anyone just burn it and "test" it on their Dreamcast? How else could the beta work when it's being used by a tester but not work when it's being used by someone who is not a tester?
How do we know that the story is true about the locked bios to beta colors?
Its still based off the .nfo file from the "leaked" beta.
You believe that the testers were each sent modified dreamcasts also?
I think its utter bs.
Why wouldn't they at least wait until the beta was more useable and then send it out to testers?
Why would they want to use insane security measures to protect the IP of an early build that barely worked and very few people would even have the knowledge to reverse engineer?
|darc| wrote:Again, this is going out of your way to lie about it
So what evidence do you have FOR your theory other than speculation and dismissing anything contradictory?
The same amount of evidence that you have.
All hearsay and information from forum posts over the years.
The original thread from your stomping grounds at dcemulation.
The leaked beta .nfo
Unless you have more information than the rest of us do?
Ian Michael wrote:It was a fun not meant to be fact it's just speculation the thread he quoting from was not meant to be serous..
I respect rand a lot and he did talk to me in pm a few times but never about bleemcast.. Was about my own projects at the time..
Far as i know it was leaked on dcemulation irc channel by a tester thats it everything is is speculation
Like i said if anyone knows the truth it's DARC
I was given the uncracked version by someone in email asking me to crack them.. i never did that.. For one i did not know how.. at the time did not even know what bleem was and i was working on pcsx for dc.. which bleem leak pretty much killed all the other coders working on it..
Well, you tested the psx games with bleem beta?
And you found that different AUS region PAL would not boot?
This does not seem like speculation to me.
|darc| wrote:I don't want to claim that I know everything though. Sometimes I'm wrong But nothing about this theory sounds right to me, and now we know that we have no evidence that it has anything to do with the game regions.
The evidence is that Ian tested psx games and found that different AUS region PAL would not boot.