(Aug 29, 2026 11:31 PM)Terry A. Davis Wrote:  Since you've made other threads, and not returned to this one, I presume you've lost interest?

Quote:Nope, I still have interest on how to reverse the game.

I used x32dbg and x64dbg disassemblers.

Quote:I just want to learn the concept and what people do to reverse engineer fully.

I tried to do this with simcity 4 rush hour and airline tycoon. The simcity 4 is hard because so many things are obfuscated

Quote:the airline tycoon the strings are not obfuscated. You can easily see only system functions like functions from windows api.

other than that the game functions seem to be from other libraries and don't know how I can see them.
I am guessing I have to disassemble them right?

Quote:I just want to know what is best practice and is there way I can run the program like IDA another paid disassembler?
I want to use free tools.

Quote:I want to run the game in the x32dbg and watch the code and registers change. I think it's better to watch the program start and flow thru.
but don't know if it calls a function will it hop to the dll code?

Quote:I am new to reverse engineering but I have used cheat engine and do know I can scan the memory and change numbers.
I know how to jump from logic that checks if you have a legit key or copy.

I know the basics.. do know the keygen how to make them but it requires you to reverse the code that generates the keys.
how ever I want to be able to watch the program run step by step and read the values to figure out what's going on.

Quote:Most functions are not names it's normally hex values in memory locations that gets loaded pointers and sometimes put on the stack.
I know assembly language. in x86. I just want to know if there's a way I can run the code without having it run on my system.
Just want to watch each step of line of code gets executed.

Quote:I currently been looking at things statically. I want to learn how to do this the right way. maybe read a book or if there's tutorials that makes it easier to understand.

(Aug 27, 2026 03:54 PM)Terry A. Davis Wrote:  First off, I think this would've been better in the RE section.

Now that is out of the way. This might shock you, but Cheat Engine can be very helpful here.
Figure out if the game uses ASLR - that will stunt things, not make it impossible, but make it a bit harder, by any metric of harder.

You can use Cheat Engine to find values, and track what reads/modifies them, then from there, you can take that address into something like IDA.

Can you articulate what more you want to do, how much you know about RE, and everything of that nature? I don't particularly want to hold your hand since my 'tism has already got me going on 2 RE projects, but I can happily share what I know, and explain my knowledge to help you accomplish what you might want to do.

Quote:I have used cheat engine for a long time. I don't think it's a good too to reverse engineer games. I feel it's good in changing values in the game while it runs.
I never was an advance user where making scripts for it. I only used it to change money values for airline tycoon and simcity 4 rush hour.

I want to run a game without running it on my computer. Meaning just want a tool to execute the code and show line by line what is going on.
If it uses dlls it should jump over to that code.

Right now I know basics. I know assembly code. I written a basic OS in assembly and some programs in it.

Quote:I just want to get used to using a disassembler to learn how programs work. Right now using x32dbg and I can read the .exe file
but I haven't got it to run a program. I know it has the functionality to it but tried it a few times and my computer just overheated and crashed.
I got a new CPU. So, don't know if it's going to give me problems.

Quote:You don't have to hold my hand. I just want to know how people do it. I know about IDA but don't want to spend the money.
Most people use that. I know about ghidra.



I just want to know how to reverse engineer programs of today's. obfuscated programs. I already know how cracked programs are patch.
I done fake examples to do it. Those are really easy. It's mainly reading the logic. It's typeing in a wrong key and getting a string that says error or sorry wrong key. You take that string and used tools like what I use to search for the string in the strings section and then you look around that code at the assembly to figure out the logical jumps. You just patch it by adding in a jump to the hex value of the either the function or the label where after you put the correct key it takes you too.

Quote:I know the easy basic. The easy stuff. I want to learn how to people tackle down the obfuscated harder programs. Or if code is encrypted
and gets decrypted on the fly. I want to learn how to reverse engineer programs of today. I know it's hard and isn't easy but want to know the methods.
what do people look for in the code that gives them hints as to what encrypting they're using and how that encryption gets decrypted.

Quote:all I know is that for obfuscated stuff you need to find the code that deobfuscates the code at run time. for encryption you need to find the code that decrypts the code at run time. I know this is the goal. But it's easier said than done.

even when games used online servers. Hackers found ways to create their own programs to act like the servers and bypass all the checks and executes the code.

Quote:I just want to know what I should do to tackle reading the code of airline tycoon and how to reverse engineer it.
I want to make my own mods to the game. I always wanted to do this as a kid.
I think by doing this it will help me better with writing my own assembly code.

Quote:I want to do this just to learn. I been reading books but the books get you so far and won't show you latest concepts or what the industry is using.
Normally the industry uses the latest stuff and then years later you get books publish talking about how it works. By then the industry is using something else. You cannot learn latest stuff. It's always stuff that becomes outdated.

Quote:like QR codes we been using it for years There's lots of tutorials about it and lots of program that can make it. In 2030 it's going to replace the bar codes.
However, QR is old tech. Now it's going to be an industry standard in 2030 so there's books on it and other materials on it that anyone can use it.

My point is that you need to reverse engineer to learn the latest tricks people are using in the industry.

(Aug 30, 2026 03:30 PM)Terry A. Davis Wrote:  If you truly have written your own OS in ASM, you should know how to do what you're asking, or have an intuition to do it if you didn't vibe code it.

Not sure how that would've happened with what you asked it to do, disassembly isn't that resource intensive since it's just deciphering hex into instructions. So you might have had more underlying issues than just this.

That is exactly what cracking is. For obfuscation there is no golden key, you need to work out all the tricks it uses, and counter it, no special tricks to teach.

You run it, set breakpoints, and work through it one line at a time, there is no golden key unless the obfuscation is already cracked by people.

Yes - they do that by looking at expected behavior and mirroring the logic, there is no simple this is how you do it, since stuff like that is hard. You need to look at how the game handles inbound outbound stuff, and work backwards, to see what you can understand from there.

You said you made your own OS, even basic, which means you know how it works, though I figure you're being a bit ... let's just say bold. So you should know what you need to do, start with working out the file format the game uses to load content, find functions that load said content, and work backwards of how you'd make your own thing to do it, to decipher obfuscated code, you'll need to find how the game does it internally, since ultimately even obfuscated code can be defeated, without knowing what tool they did to do it, you're out of luck for any silver bullet.

Building blocks teach you more than the results, there is nothing for what the industry teaches, you need to have that understanding of how things work at the low level to see how building block stuff was built on-top of it.

Which is only done by doing.

Quote:I think I get it now.

No, writing your own OS is easier than reverse engineering a program. Why? what you just said is like saying why can't you reverse engineer the program. Just email the programmer and ask for the source code.

Quote:You wouldn't need to reverse engineer programs if they handed you the source code. Just because I know assembly and know how to write programs. Doesn't mean I should be able to reserve engineer easily. It doesn't work that way. I am asking for how people tackle such problems.

Normally people would advice work doing x y c first. I watched a video where he said step one is look at the strings. He said what he does instead of reading the code he said to look at the strings for hints. He used an old progarm where the strings were not obfuscated.

Quote:He ran an example showing how to write your own keygen but the example is easy because in the strings you can figure out where the key gets generated. He explains that software companies make keygens to assign a key to each copy. So, the example was a fake program. it would take program files burn it to cd-rom before it burns it. It used a key generator to make a key and then encrypt it and and embed it into the .exe file then it had a function and a key used to decrypt it. It would store it in some dll file. The guy showed to search the strings for clues. This narrow down where to look for the code we need.
he would run the program and find the function that just makes the key. He copy's that code and then decrypts the key.

He then would take the key and use various standard encryption methods. He would then encrypt it and see the results to see if it matched what he saw before the decryption. It matched and he would then use both to make a keygen program. It was an easy fake program to just demonstration what you need to do.

My point seeing various videos on it people have their own method on talking such a project. That guy says first check the strings to see if it gives you clue. He gives a check list on where to look next. Yet, most videos only show those methods works well if you already know how the program works or if it's a fake program it would deliverable be made easily to reverse. They tell you that real current programs do a lot of various obfuscation methods to make it a lot harder and they said could take months or years to be able to do it.

Quote:just because I know how to make a program in ASM and an OS doesn't mean reverse engineering is easy for me. I am trying to learn how to tackle it.
Since, reversing a game has a lot of code. It's not an easy task. It's a lot easier to write your own programs than it is to look at machine code that is heavily obfuscated to reverse engineer it and succeed.