PDA

View Full Version : World War II GI Cheat Codes "Prefix"?


Rich Nagel
08-24-2008, 06:24 AM
Folks,

To save me a bunch of typing, below is several emails that I exchanged with Matt Saettler quite a few years ago, dealing with the cheat codes "prefix" for World War II GI (the "WW" characters that you type in when entering a cheat code, e.g. "WWUNLOCK"):

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Hello Matt,

I have a question about World War II GI. I realize that you don't provide tech
support for the game <G>, but was thinking that since you know quite a bit
about the internal workings of the game, maybe you could help.

Seems that the "W" key acts very strangely if it's assigned to any function
within the game. For me, I use the W key for "Crouch" (which of course is a
really important function in any FPS war-style game... to say the least <LOL>).

When I press W to crouch, the soldier jumps/shakes up and down very rapidly.
I've tried assigning other functions to the W key with almost the same
results... depending on what the specific function is, it seems that the W key
repeats the key presses very rapidly, even when you simply keep holding down
the key.

Makes it real difficult to play the game, as I set up all FPS shooters the same
way:

Q = Jump
W = Crouch
E = Mouse Look Toggle
R = Fire
T = Turn Around

with my left hand on the keyboard (1 finger for each of the QWERT keys), and my
right hand on the mouse.

I've got so used to playing FPS games like this, that's it's almost impossible
to learn a different set of keys... you can't teach an old dog new tricks, as
they say <LOL>.

Anyways, I've always had a hunch that it had something to do with the W key
being used for the prefix for the cheat codes (?). I don't suppose that you
would know any sort of fix for this? I was thinking that maybe some
modification to one of the CON files might correct it, or possibly hex editing
the EXE to change the cheat code prefix letter, but I don't know if any of that
would help.

I've looked through the EXE but could never discover where the cheat code
prefix was located (searching for a W hex value, or the keyboard scan code for
"W"). BTW, I've also searched for the "DN" cheat code prefix in Duke Nukem 3D's
EXE, but never had any luck finding it there either <G>. Again, I'm not really
sure if the cheat code prefix has anything to do with the WW2GI problem, but
it's simply a hunch that I had.


Any help would be greatly appreciated -:)

Rich Nagel

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Hi Rich,

You are correct, this is related to the cheat code. the problem is that
both the first and second letters are the same and it gets a little
confused...

It is checking for 'w', so you may be able to find that in the EXE and
modify it.

Good luck.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Hi Matt,

Many thanx for the info -:) I'll try searching for the W again in the EXE, I
never had much luck previously finding where the cheat code prefix was stored
in it. I remember quite some time ago trying to find it in Duke 3D, Redneck
Rampage, EDuke, and NAM (thinking that if I could find the location of their
cheat code prefixes, it might give me a clue as to where they were located in
the WW2GI.EXE), but never had any luck (searching for the hex value, or the
keyboard scan codes for the prefixes).


Thanx for the info and reply -:)

Rich

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


Anyhow, on to my question. Would anyone have any idea where the cheat codes prefix is stored in WW2GI's executable? How about in Duke Nukem 3D (or it's source code)? I've even browsed through Duke Nukem 3D's source code (although I'm no programmer, by any sense of the term), yet I can't even find in the source where the cheat codes prefix is? I thought that maybe if I could find the prefix within Duke Nukem 3D's source code, maybe that would give me a hint of where to find it in the executable, and in turn, in WW2GI's executable?

This is always something that drove me *NUTZ* with WW2GI... if I could somehow change the "WW" cheat codes prefix, I'd prolly play the game.

Hudson
08-26-2008, 12:15 AM
I'm not sure, but NAM/WW2GI may be compatible with eDuke32. They were both based on what was to become the first eDuke edition.

If that's the case, then you could just use "god" "give all" etc.

Superczar
08-26-2008, 12:23 AM
I disassembled the WW2GI.exe yesterday morning and unlike looking for say, a cd-check, I had a hell of a time finding any reference one way or another to the 'w' prefix, let alone changing a letter or whatnot elsewhere in the cheat code. Sorry man, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Thought I'd give it a try to help you, but alas, my experience and knowledge on this is limited. I've managed to remove a cd-check or nag screen on a couple programs before but this was too difficult and non-obvious.

Rich Nagel
08-26-2008, 11:59 AM
I'm not sure, but NAM/WW2GI may be compatible with eDuke32. They were both based on what was to become the first eDuke edition.

If that's the case, then you could just use "god" "give all" etc.

Thanks for the info, I'll check out Eduke32's WW2GI compatability ASAP -:) I never thought about that before, that Eduke32 was basically the "first version" of WW2GI (prolly NAM as well), but that makes sense, being that Matt was the man behind the two games.


I disassembled the WW2GI.exe yesterday morning and unlike looking for say, a cd-check, I had a hell of a time finding any reference one way or another to the 'w' prefix, let alone changing a letter or whatnot elsewhere in the cheat code. Sorry man, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Thought I'd give it a try to help you, but alas, my experience and knowledge on this is limited. I've managed to remove a cd-check or nag screen on a couple programs before but this was too difficult and non-obvious.

Thanks for the help, though -:) Yeah, that cheat code prefix seems to be non-existant <LOL>! Per my previous message, I've even tried to locate them for Duke Nukem 3D, Redneck Rampage, Shadow Warrior, NAM, Blood, perusing their EXEs, but had no luck at all. With Duke Nukem 3D, I *did* find a few "DN" references within the EXE, but hex editing them to other characters had either no effect, or caused DN3D to crash... leading me to believe that the prefixes were prolly encrypted within the games' executables.

Could anyone possibly tell me where in the Duke Nukem 3D source code that the cheat code prefix is located? Gave me an idea: Although I'm no programmer, I could compile the DN3D source, change the prefix (to something like "EO"), recompile, and then do a binary file compare.

Once I determined where in Duke 3D's EXE that the prefix was stored (as well as *how* it was actually stored - i.e. encrypted/keyboard scan code/etc...), I might be able to locate WW2GI's cheat code prefix within it's EXE -:)

MentalSentinel
08-26-2008, 12:02 PM
How do you run around? :S

cannot compute.

Rich Nagel
08-26-2008, 02:29 PM
How do you run around? :S cannot compute.


Huh???

Frenkel
08-26-2008, 02:58 PM
Could anyone possibly tell me where in the Duke Nukem 3D source code that the cheat code prefix is located? Gave me an idea: Although I'm no programmer, I could compile the DN3D source, change the prefix (to something like "EO"), recompile, and then do a binary file compare.

I think it's located in GAME.C on lines 6092 and 6098.

Sang
08-26-2008, 07:01 PM
I'm not sure, but NAM/WW2GI may be compatible with eDuke32.

Dunno about NAM but WW2GI is.

Daedolon
08-27-2008, 12:38 AM
I thought the prefix was "MS" (for obvious reasons) and not "WW"?

Dunno about NAM but WW2GI is.

NAM/Napalm plays on EDuke32 straight of the bat with the command line /gNAPALM.

TerminX
08-27-2008, 01:05 AM
It's MS in the DOS EDuke builds, WW in WW2GI and NVA in NAM.

Rich Nagel
08-27-2008, 02:52 AM
Thanks for the info and help, guys -:)

I had a looksie in the DN3D source code, and indeed did find the cheat code prefix for Duke ("DN"). Per my previous post, I was thinking of editing it and then recompiling... till I found that the open source version of Watcom was a 65MEG download... I'm on a SEVERELY lowly dialup connection <G>!

I think I'll give EDuke32 a shot. I had previously downloaded and tried with with WW2GI, but the Windows interface didn't seem to recognize the WW2GI.GRP file within it's list of "available games". I didn't know about the "/g" command line parameter, I'll have to redownload Eduke32 and try it again (I'm assuming for using Eduke32 with WW2GI, the command line parameter would be "/gWW2GI" ?).

Anyhoo, I wish that I could simply find the prefix within the stock WW2GI EXE, as it'd be simplier to simply use the original DOS EXE, verses Eduke32 <G>.

BTW, as far as the cheat prefix for NAM, it's *actually* "NV", not "NVA". In the game's executable, they simply added an "A" at the beginning of each of the cheat codes (except for the "UNLOCK" cheat). Use a hex editor and search for "ablood", you'll see what I'm referi4ng to.


@All, BTW, what did y'all think of NAM/NAPALM and WW2GI? Both (especially NAM) got really *BAD* reviews by the general public and gaming mags, but I myself have had a real blast throughout the years playing NAM... it can be extremely difficult, though! -:)

TerminX
08-27-2008, 02:57 AM
BTW, as far as the cheat prefix for NAM, it's *actually* "NV", not "NVA". In the game's executable, they simply added an "A" at the beginning of each of the cheat codes (except for the "UNLOCK" cheat). Use a hex editor and search for "ablood", you'll see what I'm referi4ng to.
Yes, as the leader of the EDuke32 project, which is more or less based directly on the WW2GI and NAM source through their use in the original EDuke, I know that. :p

As for NAM and WW2GI... eh, not a big fan of 'em. I added support for them to EDuke32 just because it was easy and I was looking for something to do. :p

Daedolon
08-27-2008, 03:02 AM
I didn't know about the "/g" command line parameter, I'll have to redownload Eduke32 and try it again (I'm assuming for using Eduke32 with WW2GI, the command line parameter would be "/gWW2GI" ?).

The /g suffix specifies the GRP file to be opened with the game. You also would need to extract the GAME.CON out of the particular game into the working directory of EDuke32 as well. Or you could rename the GAME.CON to something like NAM.CON so you could have the game in the same directory with the original Duke Nukem 3D without problems (this would require you to run the game with a /gNAM.GRP /xNAM.CON -command line.

TerminX
08-27-2008, 03:06 AM
NAM.CON and WW2GI.CON are the default CON search filenames for NAM and WW2GI, so you should be able to just drop the GRP into your Duke3D dir, rename its CON to match and select it from the startup window. With the current builds of EDuke32 you could probably put it in a subdir and load it as a Duke3D mod instead if you wanted to.

Daedolon
08-27-2008, 03:14 AM
With the current builds of EDuke32 you could probably put it in a subdir and load it as a Duke3D mod instead if you wanted to.

I just tried it since I hadn't seen it before, that's a nice feature. Although I can't run Napalm without renaming NAPALM.CON to GAME.CON.

EDIT: I'm also having trouble running WW2GI at all and Nuclear Winter wouldn't work until I renamed NWINTER.CON to NWGAME.CON.

Rich Nagel
08-27-2008, 10:11 AM
Folks,

I downloaded the latest snapshot of EDuke32 (eduke32_snapshot_20080826.zip), but seem to be having a problem.

EDuke crashes every time with an invalid page fault. I tried it with Duke Nukem 3D, NAM, as well as WW2GI, all with the same results... an invalid page fault.

P.S. After the crash, the resulting EDuke32 log file mentiones a SIGSEV fault at the end of the file.