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Proudly Presents

Diablo (c) Blizzard Entertainment

Cracked by │ Cyber                  │   Release date │ Jan. 13th, 1997
Stripped by │ Cyber                  │     Protection │ Numerous CD-checks,
Supplied by │ MindBender             │                │ MPQ-encryption
Packaged by │ Cyber & HOSON          │      Game type │ Arcade / RPG
Playtesting │ Cyber & HOSON          │           Size │ 50 x 2.88

Min. Req's │ Pentium 60+, 8MB RAM (16MB for network play), Windows 95 with
DirectX 2.0+ installed.

RELEASE INFO:

First of all, this release is intended for the vast amount of gameplayers
out there and our own FTP sites. We don't recommend you to get this game
through a modem connection, but we know there are hundreds of people out
there with fast internet access who will download this game without hesi-
tating. We are aware of the fact that we are way over our heads putting
this release out, but then again, as previously stated, it's not intended
for the "inner" core of the elite "scene", but rather for the folks out
there who will enjoy playing this game. Quality software deserves to be
distributed, thus making the world a happier place to live in! :)

Diablo is modeled to be a role-playing game, focusing heavily on adventure
and real-time action. The atmosphere is reminiscent of the Dungeons and
Dragons RPG, providing a large dose of dungeon-romping spiced up with
magic, traps, and, of course, plenty of monsters. Intricate NPC (Non-
Player Character) interaction is also present, along with complete multi-
player support should the action elements ever become tiresome. Overall,
Diablo is designed to breathe life into the faltering computer RPG market
as a fresh and innovative game.

The graphics and animation are stunning, providing a sense of realism
never found before in an RPG. The programming is top-notch, it's even
quite smooth on a 486DX2-80, considering it uses DirectX.

We have tested the game with both modem and battle.net connection, just
to ensure 100% functionality.

Special thanks to DEAD IMAGE and LE VEY for helpin out with the original
so that we had the chance to play-test before release.

Also many thanks to OKKU@CHALMERS for programming the Hybrid Win 95 "intro"
(which uses DirectX BTW!!)

STRIPPING AND CRACKING INFO:

From the journals of Cyber,

DIABLO - A TALE OF BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS
(Cyber's cracking notes)

The first thing I had to do was to remove the CD-check, a simple 5 min job
(although I admit I was a bit puzzled at first - this is my first win95
crack)

Then began the work of ripping out data, and this was the tricky part.
What I had to work with in the beginning was a 506-meg data file which was
not in any format I had ever seen before, but due to the fact that all
Windows DLLs must export the names of their functions, I was soon able to
locate the open- and readroutines. After a whole lot of fiddling I had
figured out the file format, and the decryptionroutines used. Yes, almost
all data was encrypted, but not all of it was compressed. The WAVs were
just scrambled so that they couldn't be compressed with ARJ etc. I
decrypted all WAVs using my homemade MPQ-manipulator. It made little sense
to decrypt the compressed files, since that probably wouldn't have made the
data file any smaller anyway. As I'm sure you all understand, something had
to go from the data file. The first files I removed were the animations
(intro, Blizzard's logo, ending, etc) but believe me - I've seen them all
and you're not missing much. Next came the WAVs I thought one could do
without. These unfortunately include the very mood-enhancing background
tunes. It's a shame they had to be removed, but hey - they were 12 megs
each, and there were quite a few of them. Next I removed all speech (it
showed up as text) and the characters' comments. The file was still
around 150 megs. I began to realize that this game would never fit onto
50 disks, it even seemed unlikely that it would take under 65. Even when
all possible sorts of data was removed (no sound at all, no loading-
pictures, no background gfx, etc) it still took about 75 disks. So why
didn't I remove all those files and make a sound add-on? Well, there are
two major reasons:

1) The data file doesn't store the names of its files, it just stores a
table of values who are the results of a hashing algorithm applied to the
filenames. Because of this you can't explicitly say what a file is called,
even if you know where it begins and ends. You can draw some conclusions
from the file flags (encrypted and/or packed), but the only real source of
information is what the fileopen routine is called with. This meant that
throwing away what appeared to be unused file entries seemed like a
dangerous action - you never know, maybe those files are used later in the
game. The filenames could be composed in the exe, or encrypted, or hidden,
or whatever. I only removed files when I was sure of their contents and
purpose. If Blizzard put in dummy files who are never actually used, they
sure fooled me.

2) Since the game would never make the 50 disk limit, it made no sense to
butcher it when you could release a fully enjoyable <100 disk version. I
still removed all sorts of speech, though (100 disks was sort of a 'magic'
limit). The sounds the monsters make were thus taken out (e.g. The Butcher
on level 2 said 'more meat for my axe' or something like that), but the
other effects were left in the game.

Then we tried to play the game over the Internet. But we failed! The game
just came up with some BS about being unable to register the current
version. Hmmm... After a few scratches in the back of my head and some
practical experiments I came to the conclusion that something somewhere
checked if the EXE and the DLLs were altered. I did what I could to locate
it but the boys at Blizzard had been veeery sneaky indeed: the check
routines were in a DLL which was hidden in an encrypted file which was
hidden somewhere in another file. Very stealthy! I managed to relocate
these routines and alter them, but the guys who came up with this
protection deserve a pat on the back. My hat's off to you, guys!

So this is it. A game to big to be spread, but fully enjoyable and
playable. Enjoy!

Your friend,

Cyber/HYBRID

INSTALLATION GUIDE:

Unzip the files and run INSTALL.EXE. Then just type 'DIABLO'.
We apologize for the use of a DOS installer, but our Windows version
isn't ready yet.
NOTE that you NEED DirectX 2+ installed on your system and that product
isn't supplied with this game (not on the rip, anyway).

HYBRID NEWS & EVENTS:

WITHDRAWAL

Animal, Dogfriend and Drake has left Hybrid, and are now proud members of
Class. We wish them good luck!

GREETINGS:

Razor 1911, Prestige, Class, and Reflux.

MindBender, Dead Image, Replicator, Manhunter, Mad Turnip, Shadow Master,
Angel Face, Animal, Dogfriend, Zimpzon, Phandral, TWK/ATX, Steel Pulse,
Rygar, Le Vey, Netra and everyone at Blizzard!

Official Hybrid Membership

HOSON

Agony, Angel Face, Cyber, Eci, Golomufu, Grifter, Hot Tuna, Id Mud,
Jammer, Le Vey, MindBender, Mad Turnip, Mr.Terry, Netra,
Phoenix, Replicator, Teacher, and Violator.

The Official Hybrid couriers

Netcoordinator: AGONY

Fronthead, Hurricane, and Nine.

Axxxxxx Lxxxxx...............[ftp]......................WHQ

How to get in touch with us:

http//:www.hybreed.com

Today's wise quote:

"WE are THE BEST."