EHM The Blue Line

YZG wrote:There are various games online that got redone into a free version that is continuously updated and developped, thus evolving from the original concept to get better - OpenTTD is one such for Transport Tycoon Deluxe.

YZG wrote:I'd agree with you Primis, EHM is probably no harder to crack and decompile than any other game. But the problem is that it was built using the same game engine that is still (unless it has been totally rebuilt without my knowledge) in use in the still active Football Manager series. So there lies a greyer area of the already grey abandonware area: the game was indeed abandoned, and thus would be considered abandonware, but possibly uses large chunks of codes still in use in active titles by the same company, which SI may not appreciate seeing exposed to the public.

On the other hand, 5 or 6 new iterations of Football Manager have been released since NHL EHM and while NHL EHM's code may reflect a good part of what the game's engine was with FM 2007, it may well have vastly changed since; I don't think SI makes any penny anymore with FM 2007 either.

- YZG

toffeenut2006 wrote: i think you may well be right which would scupper my plan of, if I ever win the lottery, of buying EHM off SI.

Midas wrote:I would advise checking out the breakaway forums to see some of what they've done with regards to the .exe.

YZG wrote:

toffeenut2006 wrote: i think you may well be right which would scupper my plan of, if I ever win the lottery, of buying EHM off SI.

Oh, you have that plan? I remember some guy once mentioned he had such intentions on the forums over at SI, was that you?

That's a thing worthy taking into acount, but I don't think it totally rules your chances out. EHM has never been very lucrative for SI, so you could possibly bargain it at a very decent price, especially considering it's better for them to sell a "dead thing" for peanuts than keeping it at no benefit. As far as source code goes, you could perhaps negotiate a clause where you agree to totally rewrite some sensitive parts of coding and to refrain from releasing the code as open source or divulgating parts or totality of the sensitive code. Actually, since that possibly amounts to a fair percentage of the whole thing, you may even bargain it cheaper because of that.

SI needs to want to sell, though. But I see no reason to keep something that has been abandoned. Have you been in touch with them yet?

EDIT: Just noticed the "if I ever win the lottery". Still, my point remains true. Buying the rights to this game might be cheaper than one thinks.

- YZG

chuck wrote:

Midas wrote:I would advise checking out the breakaway forums to see some of what they've done with regards to the .exe.

Do you mean this? http://www.thebreakaway.net/forums/show ... ager/page5

This is what prompted me to start looking at the exe. The people on that site have managed to tweak roster restrictions and change some names but not much else. Still very impressive tho. I want to change the start date.

JohnLocke wrote:1) How did you go about finding the start date in the hex code of the exe? Is there simply a string that states the date or is there more to it than that?

The great Tapani found the start dates, I don't really know how exactly, he can look at code in a hex editor and actually understand what is happening. I have since written a tool for editing the start year but was only able to do so because I found the required offsets by observing which were edited by his patch.

It isn't as simple as changing one value, the start year is stored in multiple places. In some places it is stored relative to the actual start year.

Edit:- Technical details:

JohnLocke wrote:These are literal offsets (add 0x400000 for Olly offsets)

Start Year:
0x13386, 0x140e5, 0x224f0, 0x44270, 0x44297, 0x5f4ee, 0x5f97c, 0x5f981, 0x16fc63, 0x18b387, 0x1aee53, 0x1bab86, 0x1bac32, 0x1bb6ab, 0x1bc8b2, 0x1c3068, 0x1db242, 0x2673c3, 0x267495, 0x267582, 0x26766d, 0x26775a, 0x267829, 0x2678f8, 0x2679c6, 0x267aa1, 0x267b81, 0x267c6d, 0x267d5a, 0x267e55, 0x267f50, 0x268043, 0x268149, 0x268236, 0x268324, 0x268411, 0x2684ff, 0x2685ed, 0x2686bc, 0x2687ac, 0x268899, 0x268987, 0x268a77, 0x268b65, 0x268c54, 0x268d40, 0x268e2f, 0x268f1d, 0x26900b, 0x2690da, 0x37d858, 0x3d2410, 0x41b93d, 0x430591, 0x430598, 0x4305dc, 0x430a64, 0x430f8e, 0x430fb4, 0x43129a, 0x4312b4, 0x431608, 0x431622, 0x4318ad, 0x4318c6, 0x431b54, 0x431b6d, 0x431e66, 0x431e80, 0x4320b3, 0x4320cd, 0x432324, 0x432577, 0x43290d, 0x433055, 0x43339d, 0x4336eb, 0x433c84, 0x433f8e, 0x434382, 0x43475d, 0x434aad, 0x434dfd, 0x435297, 0x435c39, 0x435fca, 0x43668e, 0x436a55, 0x436d68, 0x4371a5, 0x4371d5, 0x4374e9, 0x43805d, 0x438357, 0x43869f, 0x456ce0, 0x4fddd2, 0x5041f3


Start Year - 3 0x3e6819

Start Year - 1 0x55fd1, 0xdc02c, 0x12d2e2, 0x3e68fe, 0x3e691f, 0x45e98f

Start Year + 1 0xdc135

Start Year + 2 0x29e84e, 0x45b841, 0x45b898, 0x45c40c

Start Year + 3 0xdc113, 0x19ba24

2) Is the start date also coded into any of the data files or the database?

No, the .dat files only store data about things (people, clubs, stadia etc).


3) Did you have to modify anything in the database in order to make it compatible with the modified start date?

No, just edit the required offsets and the game does the rest.

tongo1 wrote:A few more things worth mentioning:

Tapani himself's not around here any more.

It's unlikely you'll be able to change start year using a hex editor, you'll need a disassembler.

Update teams release databases with dates adjusted for original start year (2001). So for 2010, dates of birth, contract dates etc. are decreased by 9. This is to avoid very young players and contracts all in the future. When using TapaniPatch with a start year of 2010, it increases these dates by 9.

nino33 wrote:WOW! Pretty cool!

Primis wrote:This is good progress.

Can we get a separate thread just for stuff like this now?