Anthony Ryuki
Forum Noob
Hi there! As some of you may know, Namco System 246/256 games don't only come with a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM, but also with a security dongle that's electrically identical to a PS2 Memory Card.
Well, I managed to somewhat dissect the content of a dumped security dongle with the help of PCSX2.
First off, you need one of those dumps containing an 8448 KB file, not those 2-files dumps, though it is theoretically possible to merge them into one.
Rename the dump's extension to .ps2, then load it into the Memory Card manager in PCSX2. Push the Convert button: while this is normally used to extract saves from a Memory Card image, it will also extract files from these dongles.
Tekken 4 is used as the example here: the most interesting files are TK4DATA, TK4GAME and TK4LOAD. If you open TK4LOAD with a hex editor, you will see it has the header of an ELF file, meaning it is the main executable, and the other two files are apparently then combined with it.
Unfortunately, if you try to launch TK4LOAD on PCSX2, it will simply display a black screen, even if you create a DVD image with all files (included the ones from the original DVD) in it. But if you look at the logger, you can see it looks for files it can't find, which are probably also found in the Namco System 2x6's BIOS. I think looking into these files can be a step in making emulation of this system possible.
Last but not least, the fact that it's possible to read the content in those dumps proves that they aren't actually MagicGate encrypted like the physical dongles are.
Well, I managed to somewhat dissect the content of a dumped security dongle with the help of PCSX2.
First off, you need one of those dumps containing an 8448 KB file, not those 2-files dumps, though it is theoretically possible to merge them into one.
Rename the dump's extension to .ps2, then load it into the Memory Card manager in PCSX2. Push the Convert button: while this is normally used to extract saves from a Memory Card image, it will also extract files from these dongles.
Tekken 4 is used as the example here: the most interesting files are TK4DATA, TK4GAME and TK4LOAD. If you open TK4LOAD with a hex editor, you will see it has the header of an ELF file, meaning it is the main executable, and the other two files are apparently then combined with it.
Unfortunately, if you try to launch TK4LOAD on PCSX2, it will simply display a black screen, even if you create a DVD image with all files (included the ones from the original DVD) in it. But if you look at the logger, you can see it looks for files it can't find, which are probably also found in the Namco System 2x6's BIOS. I think looking into these files can be a step in making emulation of this system possible.
Last but not least, the fact that it's possible to read the content in those dumps proves that they aren't actually MagicGate encrypted like the physical dongles are.
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