Reverse engineering Animal Crossing's developer mode

https://jamchamb.github.io/2018/06/09/animal-crossing-developer-mode.html

by beefhash • 8 years ago

180 20 8 years ago

jamchamb.github.io

ngcc_hk• 8 years ago

Find the post interesting.

Wonder anyone know how the environment should be ... 1) Buy IDA which ver? 2) somehow Load the rom from ... how?

voltagex_2• 8 years ago

1. Whichever version of IDA supports PowerPC (probably the paid one)

2. It's not a single file "ROM" in this case - you'd take a disc image you either created yourself or somehow acquired, convert it to ISO, then extract the .dol files for analysis.

pjc50• 8 years ago

Looks like there are plugins. https://gbatemp.net/threads/reverse-engineering-disassemblin...

kevinwang• 8 years ago

amazing work

Firerouge• 8 years ago

TL;DR using a second controller in port two to enter:

(L+R bumper & Z), D-UP, C-DOWN, C-UP, D-DOWN, D-LEFT, C-LEFT, C-RIGHT, D-RIGHT, A+B, START

Unlocks the GameCube animal crossing debug mode without requiring a modded disk/console.

Makes you wonder what other games have hidden key combos yet to be discovered.

voltagex_2• 8 years ago

Jak and Daxter had a debug mode that was only found recently, too: https://jadtech.miraheze.org/wiki/Debug_Mode

slipstream-2• 8 years ago

Interestingly enough, this is the same key combo used to show information on a crash in several N64 games, including Doubutsu no Mori (the original N64 version of Animal Crossing).

StringyBob• 8 years ago

It's based on the Konami code [0] a version of which made it into a mouldy peaches song [1]

[0] http://contra.wikia.com/wiki/Konami_Code

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceV62E-c86g&t=92

Boulth• 8 years ago

Wow, what an excellent post!

It reminds me of Temporal Flux, an editor for SNES game Chrono Trigger that is so elaborate that entire new games were created with it.

thewizardofaus2• 8 years ago

This is awesome. I love reverse engineering software. There is something so magical about it. I once spent a whole summer reverse engineering crackmes but never moved to actual software hmm.

kchr• 8 years ago

What are crackmes?

exikyut2• 8 years ago

Small binaries that employ a reduced set of programming/anti-debugging/obfuscation/etc techniques. Sometimes you have an idea what sort of techniques you're up against, sometimes you don't but you have a general idea of difficulty. In all cases the idea is that the possibility domain is bounded and smallish rather than completely unknown.

The idea is you conquer progressively more complicated crackmes and this helps you learn how to tackle random binaries you'll find in the wild.

Generally the step up after crackmes is to find virus payloads/samples and try and unravel those. I understand Stuxnet uses some of the most complex techniques to date: https://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/media/secu... (ref: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17099969, also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2212922)

alekratz• 8 years ago

The debug code (up down up down left left right right B+A start) looks really similar to the Konami code (up up down down left right left right B A start). It's like the debugging equivalent to "don't forget to drink your ovaltine".

Willson50• 8 years ago

I'm assuming they changed it just enough that normal players wouldn't find it by accident.

WorldMaker• 8 years ago

Even Konami varied it some between games.

augbog• 8 years ago

Amazing post! Makes me want to get into ROM hacking :)

danbolt• 8 years ago

I really enjoyed reading this as Animal Crossing had a big impression on me as a child. It was engaging and full of character, but didn't have the same structure as other adventure/platformer games I had owned. It opened my eyes up to how interactive media could feature content that was exploratory, rather than goal-oriented.

A few weeks ago, a coworker said they were surprised about Minecraft's enduring popularity, as its gameplay seemed somewhat "pointless" to them. I think games like Animal Crossing help show that games don't necessarily need to exist as an existential need or pastime, and that their value can come from simply allowing your to express yourself in some space. Or, The Elder Scrolls has had a lot of enduring popularity, and I think a lot of that comes from making a character and casually having fun.

Reverse engineering Animal Crossing's developer mode

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