Patches on Red Alert 3 Beta!

Banshee · Last edited by Banshee on Mon Aug 11, 2008 10:33 am; edited 1 time in total

Hey everyone! I'm sure many of you already got your hands on Red Alert 3 Beta. I have two working keys here and I'm willing to play it soon, but I'm desesperate with my final project (which is the reason why I'm barely posting news recently).

Anyway, during the time this place has been silent, EALA staff released two patches for the beta. Their main purpose was to not allow people to play LAN games and interface issues. I was actually curious about the LAN game when I've heard of it, but apparently, you can only do something like that hacking the executable (which still exists at the hard drive from those who patched the game due to the way the game is patched). Anyway, for curious people, here is a teaser:

Anyway, the changelog so far from patches 1.1 and 1.2 (thanks CNCNZ.com):

* Fixed an error with the online lobby chat window text getting corrupted. (1.2)
* Fixed graphical bug in main menu screen where Status of Liberty was missing and there was a green square at the bottom right of the screen.
* Fixed a bug which allowed hacking the game to allow LAN play.
* Removed "v1.0" from the main menu screen.

And if you wonder, technically, the beta has a lot of things inside it that were simply disabled for the beta instead of removed (like LAN game), a lot of singleplayer related bin/relo/manifest/imp files, etc. Of course, it is illegal to enable all these things. (And no, simply renaming these files inside .big files do nothing else than giving you blank screens)

Anyway, back to what is really valid, there will be ballance patches soon, and they should probably have most of these changes pointed at EA forums.

CCHyper · Defense Minister **Joined**: 07 Apr 2005

Huh? pd didnt make that video, even though it is now removed.

A Patch has been released by some dude YouTube what enables all the menu options, and its pretty easy to do. Im not at home but i remember the filename something like data/aptui/?_mainmenu3d_beta.bin or something, and all he did was find where the "orignal" XML had the toggle bool for each menu item and toggle to the 1 again #Tongue

Banshee · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 10:34 am Post subject:

Sorry. Then I've messed up. He posted the video here and since I know he's good at hacking exe files, I thought he did the video. My bad. The news was fixed.

CCHyper · Defense Minister **Joined**: 07 Apr 2005

Its cool, easy mistake to make.

Well, heres the new video by the "YouTube Dude" #Tongue

I actualy PMed him a few days before he released it and found out how the hack was done, but it was not until after he released it i found the offsets in the bin file.

From hes video description...

Quote:

I was bored so I desided to search for the LAN-mode in the Red Alert 3 Beta but what I found was more than that.

I was able to unlock the complete mainmenu of the game: tutorial, network, skirmish, campaign, replay browser and credits. Some of them don't work e.g. like tutorial or campaign because the data that would be necessary is not included in the beta the others work as they intended to work.

Here some facts to stop you bothering me:

- The game you see in the video IS the original Red Alert 3 Beta Client released by EA!
- I HAVE NOT modified the game engine itself or any files related to it!
- I HAVE NOT removed securom or any other kind of (copy) protection!
- I HAVE NOT hacked the installer to install either without a serial or with an invalid one! (As a matter of fact I HAVE a valid beta registration key!!!)
- I DO NOT and WILL NOT ever post any links for illegally downloading the Red Alert 3 Beta Client! Every link posted in the comments will be deleted!
- It was a proof-of-concept! I DO NOT do this (hacking or whatever you like to call it) as a profession, I was just trying out my skills!
- I DO NOT finish the tutorial yet! I will hand it in later the day!
- But I finished the small patch-program I told you. You can download it here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/136163027/ra3_unlocker.zip

The program has to run in the Red Alert 3 Beta main directory and is able to unlock v1.0 and v1.2 of the beta!
Installed .Net Framework v2 is necessary!
NOTE: The unlocker won't function proberly with the upcoming patch by EA! I'll then release a new version.

(Please always keep in mind that this program is for TESTING-PURPOSES ONLY and you use it at your OWN RISK!)
- I have read some posts on several (community) sites which contain phrases like "OMG WOW!!! this guy is (insert commendation or insult here) [...] why did he do all this?!" and the only ultimate answer I could give is: Because I can, period.