"Hacking" games in Fossapup on the example of iQPuzzle

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Grey
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"Hacking" games in Fossapup on the example of iQPuzzle

Post by Grey »

Usually small Linux distributions are not perceived as gaming. But what the hell. Fossapup consumes few computer resources, and therefore games will get a lot of resources. But how to add lives and score in games, or vice versa, reduce the number of moves to impress our friends? Windows users use Cheat Engine, but what about us? It's easy.

We need GameConqueror from PPM. This is a Python GUI for the scanmem utility (debugging utility designed to isolate the address of an arbitrary variable in an executing process). But here's the bad luck and in Fossapup GameConqueror does not start after installation from the PPM.

gameconqueror_error.png
gameconqueror_error.png (23.44 KiB) Viewed 470 times

So go to the /usr/bin/ folder and delete everything in the gameconqueror file (except for the first line, of course) And write the following:

Code: Select all

cd /usr/share/gameconqueror
./GameConqueror.py

Now it starts up. Let's "hack" iQPuzzle as an example. Run Menu>>Fun>>iQPuzzle. Run Menu>>Utility>>Game Conqueror
Choosing a process in Game Conqueror(ctrl+F) using filter and this is of course iqpuzzle.
For example, we make three moves in iQPuzzle. Then we insert the value 3 into the Game Conqueror and scan by clicking on the magnifying glass icon. There are a lot of matches.
We make two more moves in the game and they become 5. Give the value 5 to the Game Conqueror and do a scan. Now we only have a few matches.
We make two more moves in the game and they become 7. Give the value 7 to the Game Conqueror and do a scan. Voila! We have one match.
Add a match to the cheat list by double clicking on it. We can see it in the built-in hex editor. But let's, for example, change 7 to 14 on the cheat list. After that we make a move in the game and there are 15 moves. Now, after each turn in the game, we see how the value in the Game Conqueror changes.
Congratulations, we hacked the game! :thumbup2:
Now we can put any value in the game and trick our friends by saying that we have collected a piece in iQPuzzle for a champion number of moves :D
But this is a smart game and must be played fairly. Let's apply our knowledge and tricks to especially complex arcades, for example.
P.S. And of course, by setting the checkbox in the cheat list, we can "freeze" the value so that the game cannot reduce our number of lives.

gameconqueror.png
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Fossapup OS, Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, 64 GB RAM, GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB, Sound Blaster Audigy Rx with amplifier + Yamaha speakers for loud sound, USB Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro V3 + headphones for quiet sound.

OldAcer
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Re: "Hacking" games in Fossapup on the example of iQPuzzle

Post by OldAcer »

Grey wrote: Thu Nov 26, 2020 3:20 am

We can see it in the built-in hex editor.

Built into what? "GameConqueror" which you were discussing, or Fossapup?

By hex editor, I mean a program which will open any file, not just text files, and that hopefully has a read-only mode that will not change the file.

In a previous Puppy, it either had one in its menu, or I had found one that worked. Now I have Xenial 7.5 and I don't see anything in the Utility or Document menu that sounds like one, and I find no mention of a puppy-available one. I've tried to download a couple (ghex2, hexedit) without getting them to work. Just wondering if Fossapup had one.

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Re: "Hacking" games in Fossapup on the example of iQPuzzle

Post by ThruHammer »

SFR's favorite! Look @ wxHexEditor in Fossa's repo.

But then I think Grey was eluding to the fact that Game Conqueror itself has its own built-in hex editor.

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Re: "Hacking" games in Fossapup on the example of iQPuzzle

Post by Grey »

The program has a built-in hex editor for making changes to the open program. Primitive (essentially a memory editor), but nonetheless. Bless Hex Editor is a good third-party one. And wxHexEditor, which has already mentioned ThruHammer above.

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Re: "Hacking" games in Fossapup on the example of iQPuzzle

Post by Grey »

OldAcer wrote: Fri Mar 26, 2021 7:38 pm

By hex editor, I mean a program which will open any file, not just text files, and that hopefully has a read-only mode that will not change the file.
In a previous Puppy, it either had one in its menu, or I had found one that worked. Now I have Xenial 7.5 and I don't see anything in the Utility or Document menu that sounds like one, and I find no mention of a puppy-available one. I've tried to download a couple (ghex2, hexedit) without getting them to work. Just wondering if Fossapup had one.

Oh, I forgot. Fossapup has BusyBox v1.31.0. This means that you can use the hexedit command. Like this: hexedit SOME_FILE
You can view files with the hexdump command with a bunch of options or hd SOME_FILE (alias for hexdump -C).
Someone, please check if there is something like this in Xenialpup.
Options for hexdump:
---------------------------------------------------------------------\
-b One-byte octal display
-c One-byte character display
-C Canonical hex+ASCII, 16 bytes per line
-d Two-byte decimal display
-e FORMAT STRING
-f FORMAT FILE
-n LENGTH Interpret only LENGTH bytes of input
-o Two-byte octal display
-s OFFSET Skip OFFSET bytes
-v Display all input data
-x Two-byte hexadecimal display
-R Reverse of 'hexdump -Cv'
----------------------------------------------------------------------/

Fossapup OS, Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, 64 GB RAM, GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB, Sound Blaster Audigy Rx with amplifier + Yamaha speakers for loud sound, USB Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro V3 + headphones for quiet sound.

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