Excitement

It's got to the exciting bit of the disassembly where stuff starts to make sense! Almost. And thanks to coding and words of wisdom from jvprat, we're really starting to get somewhere. Here's the proof:

http://code.google.com/p/t7gre/wiki/Opcodes

There's still a long way to go (there are 88 opcodes in all), but at least now I feel like I'm getting somewhere when I'm doing it. And it certainly helps to bat ideas around with someone!

Text

It's been a while. A lot has been going on in RL, but little in t7gre world.

But things change. Yesterday I had a play with reversing some of the font code, and actually got somewhere. I now have a (very) basic idea what the format of the font file is. Here's a picture, which proves nothing (I could have figured this bit out just from looking at the file in a hex editor).

It's an "A", in case you can't quite figure it out.

Caring and sharing

I'm find it difficult to completely separate myself from the project. I guess that's the problem with stuff you do out of interest. I don't have as much time as I used to though, so progress will be even slower than it was before.

By request, and because I may find myself dragged away from the project completely at some point, I've put the code that I've managed to get working on Google Code. Not intended for general consumption though.

Sadness

Well, unfortunately this project is going to have to be put on hold. Don't blame me, blame my employer: I'm having to spend all my spare time working stuff that will help me get another job. Hopefully one day I'll come back to it, but I don't have any idea of the timeframe for that. Any animation / digital effects companies want to give me a job as a pipeline software engineer?

Rollercoaster

You know those tight little rollercoasters that surprise you when they make an incredibly sharp turn that you weren't expecting? I'm trying to follow the t7g exe file in OllyDbg, and it's a bit like that. I'm not really at the stage where it's useful, it's just for fun and to try out OllyDbg. Though hopefully it'll all soak in by diffusion as I stare at the screens of assembly language...

Progress

Despite thinking that I would not get a chance to do anything with the project this week, I have. I'm slowing collecting reversing tools and information, and I'm making progress. I should point out that, at the moment, I'm only studying my extract_gjd tool, but I'm getting much more to grips with the way IDA works, and some of the basic processes involved in reversing. I'm still a little confused by what the first few lines of assembly do (in seemingly every program), but I can pick out most of the rest. I'm pretty sure it's just a case of getting my head properly screwed on and really sitting and working at it.

Unforgotten

I'm currently getting through the Reversing book that I mentioned in a comment to my last post. I realized early on that it wasn't a magic wand, the process is still going to involve a lot of learning-by-doing on my part, but it certainly puts me on the right track and has some helpful tips (even though it is directed at Win32). The problem is that I'm reading an electronic copy from our Uni library, and I'm much slower at reading electronic books (and find it less pleasant): it's not too expensive, I might have to buy a copy.

Have RL events to attend to for the next couple of weeks, then I'll be back to it...