Dreamcast games: How to crack common protections with Hex tools
Protection Cracks
Search and find 5EB0 0000 hould be changed to 9600 0000 twice in almost every game, normally these tend to be near the end of 1ST_READ.BIN and if there are more than 2 instances, they should be the two that are nearest together. If there is only one instance of this, DO NOT MODIFY IT, THE GAME IS NOT PROTECTED IN THIS MANNER. This pertains to AUDIO/DATA 11700/11702 selfbooting methods. Those of you using orignal LBA 45000 DATA/DATA or AUDIO/DATA do not have to worry about doing these hacks to the main binary. Though I do suggest using DATA/DATA over AUDIO/DATA as the audio is non-compressable data which will result in a lager image once compressed.
You may want to try these if a release does not boot:
Search and find 10320D8B and change it to 08000D8B (Dead or Alive 2 LE, Super Street Fighter II X, Super Puzzle Fighter II X Ooga Booga & Ready 2 Rumble Round 2[more to be found in Ooga Booga I am afraid)
Search and find CDE4436A and change it to 09000900 (Confidential Mission, Metropolis Street Racer, Rez, KOF 1999-2002)
Search and find CDEB22D1 and change it to 090022D1 (Evil Dead Hail to the King)
Search and find 02E0046A and change it to 00E004A0
Search and find 0BD23732028B and change it to 0BD20800028B (De La Jet Set Radio, Jet Set Radio)
Search and find 13E11022 and change it to 09E11022
Search and find 038926D324D40B43 and change it to 0900090009000900
Search and find 78A01A0C8E5D000070A3230C7AC9040058C9 and change it to D8A81A0CB4400200C0AB230C63A604004C45 (Virtua Striker ver.2000.1 (JP only tested so far)
Search for 0x493ae: 21 8b 23 a0 29 47 and change to 0x493ae: 09 00 23 a0 0c e7 to enable intro music on Gunbird
Super Street Fighter II X
Use Family Guys Selfboot Pack v1.4 32-bit Edition and TOSEC GDI files to ensure you are working with quality files. Simply open the 1ST_READ.BIN with a hex tool and look for this string 1032 0D8B and replace it with 0800 0D8B and run binpatch.exe with all options unchecked but changed LBA value to 45000 on DP2 files 2_DP.BIN, MAIGO.BIN, SG_DPLDR.BIN to crack protection of GDI files. BTW this hack also works for Super Puzzle Fighter 2 X to get it selfbooting and has similar DIP switches to alter as they are "Arcade Perfect" ports of the CPS2 boards.
RGB Protections
Centepiede RGB Fix
change 03 61 18 21 09 89 03 88 to 03 61 18 21 09 89 02 88
How to enable VGA
- open the file in the hex editor (preferably CDI format)
- search for the string "KATANA"
- shortly after, you should see "JUE" followed by some numbers
- change the number string after "JUE" to "0799A10"
- save the file ( I recommend over-writing the original file, so you don't accidentally burn your old, non-patched image)
NOTE: Some games even after being patched react weird, Bangai-o will only display in the upper corner of the screen while some games like PAL version of Skies of Arcadia will never work patched. But keep in mind the Dreamcast is region free and some games like Skies of Arcadia NTSC-U DO have VGA enabled.