I Hacked "A Bugs Life" Game - It Was Weird
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- Let's hack Bugs Life Game
Become a member to get early access to videos - / @nathanbaggs
☕ - I also have coffee | 0xcoffee.com - ☕
Tools:
🐉 - Ghidra - github.com/Nat...
🐛 - x64dbg - github.com/x64...
🔎 - CFF Explorer - ntcore.com/exp...
💭 All views are my own 💭
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Want early access to new videos and some behind the scenes content? Consider becoming a channel member ruclips.net/channel/UCQvW_89l7f-hCMP1pzGm4xwjoin
☕ - I also have coffee | 0xcoffee.com - ☕
If you are curious about the compatibility stuff in windows you can get your hands on Application Compatibility Toolkit which is shipped as part of the ADK (tool kit for deploying windows in an enterprise environment). It lets you create your own compatability shims and view the existing ones. Can do all kinds of cool stuff like redirecting api calls to file paths or even tell windows to load a old memory manager for specific applications. It also handles those compatability messages that popup to tell you that you can't run certain applications on windows.
Should also mention ADK is a free download, I just can't link it in yt comments because it will flag it as spam.
Thanks for the tip, will check it out
windows shims are a truly scary and evil dark art
The Old New Thing blog is written by a Microsoft engineer who wrote Windows compatibility code. In one famous story, a team member went to a software store and bought every product on the shelves.
Definitely this, there's an entry in the Application section of the Compatibility Administrator, System Database for A bugs Life and it matches on the filename bugs.exe, there are a huge no of games listed in there. WIthout the ADK to see them Windows tends to quietly apply a lot (and I mean a lot) of compatibility fixes. It comes as a bit of a surprise to see just how many have been applied.
Your Application Name Version 2.0 was an absolute banger as a kid!
One of my favourites
If this kind of video (probably including a distribution platform like RUclips) had existed 20-30y ago we'd either have DRM way more advanced than Denuvo or the whole concept of copy protection would've been dropped completely because a bunch of kids/teenagers with too much time on their hands would've created a far bigger cracking scene.
These videos just make me giddy because it demystifies the whole concept of cracking and give you enough pointers to start setting your own copy protection ablaze that never had any right to exist. I want 2025 to be the year where a bunch of games from the 90/00s that fell off the wayside are being cracked wide open and are able to reenter our culture at broad.
More advanced than Denuvo? There's already no person touching it anymore. And the people that used to, took multiple weeks if not months to crack it. How much more advanced do you want to go than that?
This game will be full of BUGS! 🐛
Can’t believe I missed that pun
disliked because I like
From memory, the "two drive" bug existed on a couple of games on the era: I figured that a lot of games just assumed drive D was the disk drive so if you had multiple drives (or something else assigned to D, like a network share) it would just fail.
I think it stems from an oversight since it was fairly rare for anyone to actually have or need two cd-rom drives. I can't recall which game it was but my family had a game like that and it took us way too long to figure out what the issue was. It turned out to be because my father replaced the cd-rom drive but left the old one installed. The game was trying to find the cd stuff from the old drive since it was the first drive it found.
cant believe my favorite british comedy is about reverse engineering
The accessibility compatibility issue makes a lot of sense. When I was at Microsoft, I knew that we spent a lot of time patching old applications on the fly, but I hadn't actually seen how it worked before. That was a neat side quest.
a Travellers Tale game mentioned, incredible stuff. I actually reverse engineer the file formats that TT have made for their LEGO Games specifically. This was really cool to see!
The PC port of Wipeout XL had an annoying CD requirement (presumably for the music). Fortunately, there was some kind of human readable config file I was able to edit that told it which drive to look at by default. I changed it from D to C and made sure I'd copied the folder structure from the CD onto my hard drive and it worked from then on without the CD.
Nice!
Legend. Every disassembler should play dialup noises during initial analysis.
Though not for the whole thing given some modern DRM results in initial analysis taking many hours.
One thing I've seen as a warning in several games is "Do not play when under the effects of drugs or medication"
Ah, I'll never be able to play this game then, thanks!
If you liked this video, be sure to eax.
Is it okay if I just push the like button and xchg my thoughts with others in the comments?
I could never finish this game as a kid because the game would never save correctly and my parents only gave me limited computer time every day. Everyday I'd get a little further. I'd speedrun the first levels as quickly as I could just so I could make it to the later levels and make a little more progress before my time was up, knowing that tomorrow I'd have to start back from zero.
Weirdly, as a kid this didn't even bother me too much. I enjoyed the game
You basically played the bug's life version of outer wilds I'm kinda jealous
the inches not making any sense joke was hilarious! another great video again, I love your reverse engineering format
The dry British wit reading the manual is golden.
Bro can read 6502 assembly like a champ but gets lost at 1" tall.
"I am nearly 35 years old and I have kids and I can decompile all the classic games." -- That's a nice humblebrag. Good for you.
These vids really make me want to hunt down the old hotwheel game cds I have. I remember those never running right on windows 7+.
It sounds like you could've just made an ISO and mounted it, though I suppose that's less fun (minus the bug where it finds the wrong drive, which might be intentional so it won't find virtual drives.)
Ah yes, the Windows Compatibility Shims. Now you know what happens when you select an old version of Windows in the Compatibility tab in Properties - it just returns a different function for that import! Fun implication of this: GetProcAddress may return an address that isn't actually in the module you passed to it.
The fact this game was actually my childhood, damn, surreal
How far away must you sit with a wireless controller?
The wavelength of 2.4G, probably.
@@alejandroknopf So about 5 inches? Wireless seems to be bad for you then, probably.
The cable size is zero so you have to mount the monitor onto your face probably
Your ability to reverse engineer and clearly articulate the deep-dive process makes complex concepts incredibly easy to grasp. The way you break everything down step by step is truly impressive! Thanks for sharing :)
your videos make me want to get deeper intro programming beyond the scripting i do in pre made engines for my own games
Do it!
Ah the good old days of the "nocd" patches 😊 those were super handy even you owned said games to avoid needing CD inserted
Yes, you finally did one for a game I actually played as a kid, swear I had like a back and forth PC and PS1 versions for these Disney games (and some other non-Disney ones too!)
"Not every game can be a winner" - I know this intro must have been meant for another video, because A Bug's Life is a BANGER (as is its soundtrack) 😤
thank you so much for doing real hacking and being so straight to the point while still entertaining. hope you'll find some sleep to finally be able to play this game! cheers
I’m just a maverick breaking all the safety rules
If you're looking for a challenge, there's 3D edutainment game released in 2007 that had an online-only requirement, yet had a offline port that was released in India. Both versions are floating out there. I wonder if the online-only version of the game is able to be changed in a way to get it to run offline without having to make a server emulator.
Love this kind of videos. Keep on going👍
0:47 surprised you said nothing about bugsexe
Bro just basically teaching people how to make a game trainer. Nostalgia
I had this game on PS1 when I was a kid! Never managed to finish it, but many good memories!
Not sure why my parents bought this game, I never even saw the movie.
I enjoy listening to this thinking its making me smarter as i kinda follow along ok but then realise I have absolutely no idea how to do this myself. I used to bang around with 68k on the Amiga but that was a lifetime ago now :(. Enjoy your content, thanks for posting :)
Great video as always! Have you ever tried to make a no-cd version of a CD-Cops protected game? I tried my hand at it with an old Norwegian game a while ago but got a little stuck at decrypting it. I think there are no-cd versions already out there (but what is the fun in that!). The game is called «Flåklypa Grand Prix/Pinchcliffe Grand Prix» if you are curious :)
Love your reverse engineering videos 🫶
I'd love for you to dig into the installer and figure out what that blank yes/no dialog was actually picking, I'm betting its completely pointless, but still..
another great video! i do game hacking for a living so i enjoy this format a lot :)
"Your application name" with the shuddering "Yes" or "No" "Question"...
Now I wonder, if John Burton could tell, how that happened
3:33 That is such an awesome setup!
I mean, almost all games from the 90's and early 2000 are notoriously reliant on the CD drive being the letter D, otherwise it wont run (not just bugs life). Creating as many vurtual drives as possible or having multiple disc drives won't make it work, it always asks for the D drive (or the first drive in a sequence of drives). I had to change the drive letter of my external CD-rom for it to work, otherwise it would check the internal one always (and its broken).
is that a tv or a monitor
Yes
Model number? There's so much room for activities @@nathanbaggs!
the reaction @0:24 is so good.
There’s a bug in a bug’s life… who would’ve thought…
Hot Wheels Stunt Track Driver had the same bug with multiple cd/dvd drives. *ALWAYS* had to have the disc in D. Actually its even worse now a-days with multiple storage drives in a PC. My "D:" drive is a 2tb mechanical drive.
8:06 What a sensible user would do… 😂 is quitting. Gosh, so much pain and suffering I perceive…. you are a true hero!
12:24 Is this the illusion of choice people keep talking about?
Yes or No?
nathan what is the game your making called
0:56 Decompiling FUN - that's a rad name for k-pop band.
Which big monitor do you use? How big is it and do you recommend it? I'm looking to buy one and replace my 2 27" monitors
I used to love playing this game, however on the PS1. The PC version of the game looks a bit better.
I’m not convinced (:
@@nathanbaggs Both of the games look great in their own ways, that's a better answer then. The PS1 graphics and the PC version through gameplay at least looks graphically different due to how it's all rendered, at least that is how I perceive it. 🐱
At the time, they were probably using neither Jira nor Agile. They were more likely using something called CVS and Waterfall, if anything at all. Most companies back then just FTP'd the source around if they even had that as well. Sometimes, it was usually just one guy who did all the programming, and it was on his computer and if you needed a copy, he'd just give you a floppy with the latest copy of whatever he had at the time. Software development in the 90s sucked ass.
you kinda look like my programming professor
Maybe I am your programming professor
50,000 moons ago I would spend 100s of hours figuring out a game... and run it on the colleges PDP-1170 machine assy was so much easier ... lol
I love the oration and the way your brain works on problems, there is nothing wrong with the snarky smart a** either . Damn smart guy and great videos thank you!
I spent SO many hours playing this game when I was a little kid
Would it not be possible to mount the .iso as D: drive?
You could provided you knew this was the problem, you'd just need to assign a different drive letter for your real CD drive and then you would not need any patch (assuming what's shown in the video is all it took to fix it)
Holy disassembler, batman, is that an 8k monitor?
4k
do you have the ui size set to 50% cus there's no way it's that small@@nathanbaggs
@ well, it IS a pretty big monitor, I guess that'd make sense.
I was here before Disney files a false dmca claim
Very nice! Thx!
How about trying the Dungeon Siege 2 Broken world rabbit hole which causes a massive performance hit on most hardware configurations? Thus will be very interesting I promise ;)
Your Application Name. I heard it got mixed reviews back in the day, i honestly preferred My Application Name.
Both have their merits
A bugs life should be a game about game development 😅
5:35 thats genius.
I agree.
Hacking the "A Bug's Life" game IS weird.
At least it’s version 2.0! Would have hated to see the 1.0 installer version
I wish I had your skills to overcome the disc requirement for Gulf War: Operation Desert Hammer by 3DO. Not only does the game force the disc to be in the drive, but a copy of the disc does not work. On top of that, there are FMVs and CD audio that stream off the disc that will not work without it.
wtf i found the green elephant guy
"There is a bug here" well duh what do you think the game is about??
No I don't own the legitimate copy 🙂
That screen is massive
you should compare games like "A Bugs Life" Pc with the PS1 Port, I would love to see the difference between the two
Omg I had this wonky ass game on Nintendo 64 as a kid. Ahaha I can't help but remember how creepy it was.
6:07 white frame insertion :(
Yeah wtf is that lool?? I tried to freeze on that frame but couldn't hit it.
I remember playing this on my Nintendo 64, at the time I thought it was a good game!
Lasertag!?
edit: nice Subscribe placement.
I still have the disc for that game XD
I hope you will check Lego Racers next time!
A lot of what you done here could be done easier with Frida (although not permanent, at least not just like that)
I suspect after this, used copies on eBay will go up? I’m going to bid for a copy for a cool £2.28. Not you copy is it?
Don’t tell anyone but this is really just a pump and dump scheme for used copies of old Disney games
But you didn't answer!! Yes or No?
Maybe
Funny but we used MS Project! not jira
I happen to have a copy of this game. I think.
TWO CD Drives!!!
ruclips.net/video/yIeqW7CYKdQ/видео.html
Always interesting
Extremely dull video. Thanks
No worries!
very cool :)
if you consider "video game" to be a very bad shorthand for "electronic game", namely a worse name in meaning but practically the best we've got, the warning makes sense; pull the dial a little back, make "game" mean what it means in its original hunting context and it makes different sense: it is good you don't have to play if you are tired; you should thank the god of games that you can postpone your ritualistic sacrifice to any particular rabbit hole. Do you know about Bruegel's "Children's Games"? over 90 games children played during the mid 1500s. Most ancient shareware cashgrab I can find. I like these kinds of videos because I am never paying any attention to the funny asm.
3:35 OMFG! You need to do a workstation porn tour! WHAT AN WHY!
Do I need a 43 inch 4k TV to be an effective programmer?
No, the pixels are too small. You'll want one that's at least 50", it will be much easier to read.
A 50" 4K screen is much nicer than the equivalent four 1080p screens I would otherwise use concurrently.