Cheat Engine

[caricatur]

I'm trying to hack an old game for dos. ("the punisher" by Paragon Software) I've tried using the dosbox emulator, but the assembly instructions are more complicated, and when i open the file manually or use the "look for this code in a file" i get squat. The thing about this game is that it has several programs that get run when they're needed.

Dosbox adapts to this and lists the propper name of the program being run, but cmd just lists the first one i ran (in a separate process listing). Scanning this is useless as it's just a sound driver loader, and it doesn't have the data of the other programs. Is there a way to get ce to look at a process that isn't even listed?

I tried using CE on a different computer but it doesn't let me attach the debugger to the dos window. That might be because it doesn't support the kernel mode or process watcher like my XP box does.

The variable pointer i'm trying to affect is one for bullets, unfortunately it also affects moving (you can't run and shoot at the same time) and the time display. If i nop it, if i assemble it differently it crashes eventually whenever i enter a new area, my attempts at code cave almoast always result in immediate crashes. Trying to decipher the code isn't easy since it is really cycling through pointer values. And I'm not sure which program data i'm looking at (dosbox seems to load all the programs at the same time) And freezing values is meaningless since it allocates them to a different memory area each time you start a mission.

The code values are alot different (higher values, more elaborate coding), so looking at the program isn't helpful as none of the functions i'm trying to access even exist in the orignal executable.

I've been playing around w/ this for over a month now. I've given up trying a few times already, but i keep coming back and trying something different once in a while. The bullets aren't even imortant, the game isn't hard. But this provides a few challenges i'm trying to overcome - A) hacking an original executable B) defeating DMA C)isolating the efect of changes for a very specific funtion.

Some of these challenges might disappear if i got access to just the original software, and i'm sure i could make my life easier by learning from a windows based program instead, but I don't want to give up on this yet. I'm sure there must be a way to do this. An intelligent response would be appreciated. I'm sure there are people out there who still play dos games (or remember playing them) Thanks

[Dark Byte]

The debugger of ce is focused on 32-bit code only. So 16-bit dos code will not be able to get disassembled properly (unlesss it's a 32-bit extension you're using)

also, attach to ntvdm.exe for dos games, not cmd.exe

[caricatur]

thanks for the clarification. Attaching to ntvdm didn't help though. Very few values changed. Looks like it's still searching adlib.com and not go.exe which is the one i want to hack.