Shw wrote on 12.04.12 at 12:48:21:
Hi Galahad
you'll find quite a lot of old cracks are absolute.
Usually (Law might be able to chip in with more specifics) crackers ran the PRG through a monitor then saved it out as a binary file once they'd skipped protections etc. PRG's are relocated automatically when they are loaded into a monitor.
It all depends how Rob saved the file, if he left the relocation table in, it is possible to de-relocate the program.
Anyway I'll have a look at his version when I get in from work.
Did Amiga use a similar way to relocate exe's?
Shw
I don't specifically need to use Was (not was)'s version, as I know I can crack the original and thats files already, its only because i've been working with his version, but his is significantly altered from the original.
I can crack the original, and so long as I can force relocate the program file to a lower memory address, gives me all the room I need and means I don't need to use more than 512k chip ram, because I can then covert the Atari ST screen directly to Amiga in enough memory space (gotta love only 4 bitplanes!!)
I don't think theres any reloc information left in Was (not was)'s crack, but that doesn't bother me because I can start cleanly from the original.
On Amiga, all the reloc information is in the executable, and AmigaDOS sorts out the relocating before executing the program much like the ST does, but on the Amiga, the relocatable information can be quite big and complex.
Quite easy to build your own relocator, or a quick method is to use an absolute cruncher like Defjam, Tetragon or Double Action or anything like that, and then depack again.
I'll try the routine above, assuming it works, it'll solve the problem right away.