Restunts - Revision history

HerrNove: /* External Links */

2026-01-17T00:51:35Z

External Links

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:51, 17 January 2026
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	== External Links ==		== External Links ==

	[https://marnetto.net/2025/02/20/broderbund-stunts-1 HerrNove's article on SuperSight (part 1)], which doubles as a hands-on introduction to Restunts.		* [https://github.com/4d-stunts/restunts Official repository]
			* [https://marnetto.net/2025/02/20/broderbund-stunts-1 HerrNove's article on SuperSight (part 1)], which doubles as a hands-on introduction to Restunts.

	[[Category:Modding]]		[[Category:Modding]]
	[[Category:Internals]]		[[Category:Internals]]

Duplode: Update the link to the Restunts repo

2025-08-17T11:47:08Z

Update the link to the Restunts repo

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:47, 17 August 2025
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	Many extensive forum threads make up vital parts of the history and progress of the project. At its current stage, the dissassembly was completed and recompilation was achieved successfully. Some mods have been created based on this source code and a huge amount of information was learned from reading and analysing it. The knowledge of the Stunts internals has increased significantly thanks to this project and variables and structures have been named and tagged, while the source is already very well commented in many sections. On the other hand, translation into C is minimal as of November 2023.		Many extensive forum threads make up vital parts of the history and progress of the project. At its current stage, the dissassembly was completed and recompilation was achieved successfully. Some mods have been created based on this source code and a huge amount of information was learned from reading and analysing it. The knowledge of the Stunts internals has increased significantly thanks to this project and variables and structures have been named and tagged, while the source is already very well commented in many sections. On the other hand, translation into C is minimal as of November 2023.

	The source code in its current status has been mirrored and can be found at https://~~bitbucket~~.~~org~~/~~dreadnaut~~/restunts/		The source code in its current status has been mirrored and can be found at https://github.com/4d-stunts/restunts

	== History ==		== History ==

Duplode: Mention SuperSight and link to HerrNove's article on it

2025-02-20T14:29:14Z

Mention SuperSight and link to HerrNove's article on it

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:29, 20 February 2025
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	* [[Stunts Ferrari Edition]] (by [[Daniel3D]])		* [[Stunts Ferrari Edition]] (by [[Daniel3D]])
	* [[Needle colour mod]] (by [[Cas]] and [[Daniel3D]])		* [[Needle colour mod]] (by [[Cas]] and [[Daniel3D]])
			* [[SuperSight]] (by [[HerrNove]])

			== External Links ==

			[https://marnetto.net/2025/02/20/broderbund-stunts-1 HerrNove's article on SuperSight (part 1)], which doubles as a hands-on introduction to Restunts.

	[[Category:Modding]]		[[Category:Modding]]
	[[Category:Internals]]		[[Category:Internals]]

Cas at 22:47, 6 November 2023

2023-11-06T22:47:55Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:47, 7 November 2023
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	* [[Stunts Ferrari Edition]] (by [[Daniel3D]])		* [[Stunts Ferrari Edition]] (by [[Daniel3D]])
	* [[Needle colour mod]] (by [[Cas]] and [[Daniel3D]])		* [[Needle colour mod]] (by [[Cas]] and [[Daniel3D]])

			[[Category:Modding]]
			[[Category:Internals]]

Cas at 20:32, 6 November 2023

2023-11-06T20:32:06Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:32, 6 November 2023
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	Restunts main executable (usually called [[GAME.EXE]]) is produced by eliminating the EXEPACK layer from LOAD.EXE and combining it with the video files on disk so that it no longer needs to combine in memory. This results in a much larger executable file, but one that's much simpler to analyse, decompile and mod. One byte is usually changed in the file: the flag that marks whether the copy protection system has already been disabled by the user. This means a crack is no longer necessary either.		Restunts main executable (usually called [[GAME.EXE]]) is produced by eliminating the EXEPACK layer from LOAD.EXE and combining it with the video files on disk so that it no longer needs to combine in memory. This results in a much larger executable file, but one that's much simpler to analyse, decompile and mod. One byte is usually changed in the file: the flag that marks whether the copy protection system has already been disabled by the user. This means a crack is no longer necessary either.

			== Mods ==

			A number of mods have been made by making changes to the Restunts code and recompiling it, plus, in some cases, creating graphics and other data. Some notable ones are:

			* [[Stunts Ferrari Edition]] (by [[Daniel3D]])
			* [[Needle colour mod]] (by [[Cas]] and [[Daniel3D]])

Cas: /* History */

2023-11-06T20:28:49Z

History

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:28, 6 November 2023
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	In January 2009 [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2303.0 another forum thread] was started by [[llm]], which might be the first thread in the ''reverse-engineering'' section of the forum, in which he described his first efforts in decompressing [[LOAD.EXE]]. [[dstien]] says in his thread that he has been working on this too and that he intends to find the way to combine LOAD.EXE with the DIF files to produce a static binary and make it easier to reverse-engineer the code. In 22 January, Cas posts a Zip file in this thread with what he's been doing. This includes the assembly source for [[STUNTS.COM]] as well as the beginning of [[LOAD.EXE]] after being unpacked, but not combined. The amount of code is significant considering it's been done manually. At this point, the Reverse Engineering subforum was created.		In January 2009 [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2303.0 another forum thread] was started by [[llm]], which might be the first thread in the ''reverse-engineering'' section of the forum, in which he described his first efforts in decompressing [[LOAD.EXE]]. [[dstien]] says in his thread that he has been working on this too and that he intends to find the way to combine LOAD.EXE with the DIF files to produce a static binary and make it easier to reverse-engineer the code. In 22 January, Cas posts a Zip file in this thread with what he's been doing. This includes the assembly source for [[STUNTS.COM]] as well as the beginning of [[LOAD.EXE]] after being unpacked, but not combined. The amount of code is significant considering it's been done manually. At this point, the Reverse Engineering subforum was created.

	In October 2009, [[clvn]] started [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2454.0 this thread] about bypassing [[LOAD.EXE]], in which he describes the procedure to combine the binary with the HDR/CMN/COD/DIF files for the different graphics cards. It's at this point that in becomes a lot more straightforward to decompile Stunts. Soon after, the whole code was extracted and it became possible to recompile it to the same [[GAME.EXE]] binary.		In October 2009, [[clvn]] started [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2454.0 this thread] about bypassing [[LOAD.EXE]], in which he describes the procedure to combine the binary with the HDR/CMN/COD/DIF files for the different graphics cards. It's at this point that in becomes a lot more straightforward to decompile Stunts. Soon after, the whole code was extracted and it became possible to recompile it to the same [[GAME.EXE]] binary. A lot of effort was put in using debugging symbol names and quite some human analysis to comment much of the code and assign function, variable and label names. Still, some large parts of the code remain quite obscure.

			Some small parts, especially the loading sections of the code, have already been ported to C.

	== Program Structure ==		== Program Structure ==

Cas at 20:25, 6 November 2023

2023-11-06T20:25:01Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:25, 6 November 2023
Line 17:		Line 17:
	In January 2009 [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2303.0 another forum thread] was started by [[llm]], which might be the first thread in the ''reverse-engineering'' section of the forum, in which he described his first efforts in decompressing [[LOAD.EXE]]. [[dstien]] says in his thread that he has been working on this too and that he intends to find the way to combine LOAD.EXE with the DIF files to produce a static binary and make it easier to reverse-engineer the code. In 22 January, Cas posts a Zip file in this thread with what he's been doing. This includes the assembly source for [[STUNTS.COM]] as well as the beginning of [[LOAD.EXE]] after being unpacked, but not combined. The amount of code is significant considering it's been done manually. At this point, the Reverse Engineering subforum was created.		In January 2009 [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2303.0 another forum thread] was started by [[llm]], which might be the first thread in the ''reverse-engineering'' section of the forum, in which he described his first efforts in decompressing [[LOAD.EXE]]. [[dstien]] says in his thread that he has been working on this too and that he intends to find the way to combine LOAD.EXE with the DIF files to produce a static binary and make it easier to reverse-engineer the code. In 22 January, Cas posts a Zip file in this thread with what he's been doing. This includes the assembly source for [[STUNTS.COM]] as well as the beginning of [[LOAD.EXE]] after being unpacked, but not combined. The amount of code is significant considering it's been done manually. At this point, the Reverse Engineering subforum was created.

	In October 2009, [[clvn]] started [[https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2454.0 this thread]] about bypassing [[LOAD.EXE]], in which he describes the procedure to combine the binary with the HDR/CMN/COD/DIF files for the different graphics cards. It's at this point that in becomes a lot more straightforward to decompile Stunts.		In October 2009, [[clvn]] started [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2454.0 this thread] about bypassing [[LOAD.EXE]], in which he describes the procedure to combine the binary with the HDR/CMN/COD/DIF files for the different graphics cards. It's at this point that in becomes a lot more straightforward to decompile Stunts. Soon after, the whole code was extracted and it became possible to recompile it to the same [[GAME.EXE]] binary.

	== ~~Temporary~~ ==		== Program Structure ==

	~~The following~~ is ~~temporary information I~~'~~m using~~ to ~~build this article:~~		Stunts main executable is called [[LOAD.EXE]]. In the form it's originally distributed, it has a compression layer based on [https://moddingwiki.shikadi.net/wiki/Microsoft_EXEPACK EXEPACK]. When run, it quickly proceeds to decompress in memory and run from there. LOAD.EXE accepts command line parameters to specify graphics card and sound driver. Depending on the graphics card, it reads HDR/COD/CMN/DIF files which are then decompressed in memory as well and combined with the code. From that point onwards, the actual game code begins executing.

	~~https://forum~~.~~stunts~~.~~hu/index~~.~~php?topic=1137~~.0		Most distributions of Stunts (if not all) include a loader called [[STUNTS.COM]], a tiny assembly-language program that reads the configuration from [[SETUP.CFG]] and passes parameters to [[LOAD.EXE]] based on the contents. This way, [[SETUP.EXE]] will be able to make it more comfortable for the user to configure and run the game.
	~~https://forum~~.~~stunts~~.~~hu/index~~.~~php?topic=2303.0~~
	~~https://forum~~.~~stunts~~.~~hu/index~~.~~php?topic=2454~~.0		Many distributions also have a crack like STUNT.COM or STUNTS_K.EXE that disable the copy protection system by acting on the game binary code while load in memory.
	~~https~~:~~//forum~~.~~stunts~~.~~hu/index.php?topic=2482.0~~
	~~> Trackdata~~		Restunts main executable (usually called [[GAME.EXE]]) is produced by eliminating the EXEPACK layer from LOAD.EXE and combining it with the video files on disk so that it no longer needs to combine in memory. This results in a much larger executable file, but one that's much simpler to analyse, decompile and mod. One byte is usually changed in the file: the flag that marks whether the copy protection system has already been disabled by the user. This means a crack is no longer necessary either.
	~~> Stunts Cartography~~
	~~> Resource file format~~

Cas: /* History */

2023-11-06T20:06:35Z

History

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:06, 6 November 2023
Line 15:		Line 15:
	In March 2008, [[dstien]] posts his analysis on RES files in the first thread and later, he mentions that he has reversed the first decompession pass. Soon, many community members become interested in start participating. This marks the beginning of the complete understanding of Stunts data files and opens the door to car making, among many other things. Another great contributor throughout this thread is [[Duplode]]. This investigation apparently led to the development of wiki articles such as: [[Resource file format]].		In March 2008, [[dstien]] posts his analysis on RES files in the first thread and later, he mentions that he has reversed the first decompession pass. Soon, many community members become interested in start participating. This marks the beginning of the complete understanding of Stunts data files and opens the door to car making, among many other things. Another great contributor throughout this thread is [[Duplode]]. This investigation apparently led to the development of wiki articles such as: [[Resource file format]].

	In ~~early~~ 2009 [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2303.0 another forum thread] was started by [[llm]], which might be the first thread in the ''reverse-engineering'' section of the forum, in which he described his first efforts in decompressing [[LOAD.EXE]]. [[dstien]] says in his thread that he has been working on this too and that he intends to find the way to combine LOAD.EXE with the DIF files to produce a static binary and make it easier to reverse-engineer the code. In 22 January, Cas posts a Zip file in this thread with what he's been doing. This includes the assembly source for [[STUNTS.COM]] as well as the beginning of [[LOAD.EXE]] after being unpacked, but not combined. The amount of code is significant considering it's been done manually. At this point, the Reverse Engineering subforum was created.		In January 2009 [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2303.0 another forum thread] was started by [[llm]], which might be the first thread in the ''reverse-engineering'' section of the forum, in which he described his first efforts in decompressing [[LOAD.EXE]]. [[dstien]] says in his thread that he has been working on this too and that he intends to find the way to combine LOAD.EXE with the DIF files to produce a static binary and make it easier to reverse-engineer the code. In 22 January, Cas posts a Zip file in this thread with what he's been doing. This includes the assembly source for [[STUNTS.COM]] as well as the beginning of [[LOAD.EXE]] after being unpacked, but not combined. The amount of code is significant considering it's been done manually. At this point, the Reverse Engineering subforum was created.

			In October 2009, [[clvn]] started [[https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2454.0 this thread]] about bypassing [[LOAD.EXE]], in which he describes the procedure to combine the binary with the HDR/CMN/COD/DIF files for the different graphics cards. It's at this point that in becomes a lot more straightforward to decompile Stunts.

	== Temporary ==		== Temporary ==

Cas: /* History */

2023-11-06T19:43:03Z

History

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:43, 6 November 2023
Line 11:		Line 11:
	In July 2004, [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=1137.0 a forum thread] was started by user [[Cyberman]] in which he tells about his observations on file compression in Stunts. He noticed that the "P" in file extensions stands for "packed". He later continues to notice that the main executable appears to be combined with DIF files for the different graphics cards. While this thread does not progress much at that point, it would later become a spark that starts a fire.		In July 2004, [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=1137.0 a forum thread] was started by user [[Cyberman]] in which he tells about his observations on file compression in Stunts. He noticed that the "P" in file extensions stands for "packed". He later continues to notice that the main executable appears to be combined with DIF files for the different graphics cards. While this thread does not progress much at that point, it would later become a spark that starts a fire.

	In May 2006, an anonymous user started [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=1663.msg22912#msg22912 this one] asking about obtaining the source code. [[Bonzai Joe]] answers that [[Kevin Pickell]] has already said the source code does not exist any more. [[Cas]] says later that he has begun disassembling LOAD.EXE, but it's very large and would be better to split it and work in a team. He managed to decompress the binary, but he didn't combine it with the DIF files at that point. This was later abandoned when Cas entered hiatus. Yet, he does talk about what the different car files contain, showing that this was already well known back then. He says he has disassembled [[STUNTS.COM]] and that it's nothing but a loader for LOAD.EXE that passes parameters based on the configuration.		In May 2006, an anonymous user started [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=1663.msg22912#msg22912 this one] asking about obtaining the source code. [[Bonzai Joe]] answers that [[Kevin Pickell]] has already said the source code does not exist any more. [[Cas]] says later that he has begun disassembling [[LOAD.EXE]], but it's very large and would be better to split it and work in a team. He managed to decompress the binary, but he didn't combine it with the DIF files at that point. This was later abandoned when Cas entered hiatus. Yet, he does talk about what the different car files contain, showing that this was already well known back then. He says he has disassembled [[STUNTS.COM]] and that it's nothing but a loader for LOAD.EXE that passes parameters based on the configuration.

	In March 2008, [[dstien]] posts his analysis on RES files in the first thread and later, he mentions that he has reversed the first decompession pass. Soon, many community members become interested in start participating. This marks the beginning of the complete understanding of Stunts data files and opens the door to car making, among many other things. Another great contributor throughout this thread is [[Duplode]]. This investigation apparently led to the development of wiki articles such as: [[Resource file format]].		In March 2008, [[dstien]] posts his analysis on RES files in the first thread and later, he mentions that he has reversed the first decompession pass. Soon, many community members become interested in start participating. This marks the beginning of the complete understanding of Stunts data files and opens the door to car making, among many other things. Another great contributor throughout this thread is [[Duplode]]. This investigation apparently led to the development of wiki articles such as: [[Resource file format]].

	In early 2009 [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2303.0 another forum thread] was started by [[llm]], which might be the first thread in the ''reverse-engineering'' section of the forum, in which he described his first efforts in decompressing [[LOAD.EXE]]. [[dstien]] says in his thread that he has been working on this too and that he intends to find the way to combine LOAD.EXE with the DIF files to produce a static binary and make it easier to reverse-engineer the code.		In early 2009 [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2303.0 another forum thread] was started by [[llm]], which might be the first thread in the ''reverse-engineering'' section of the forum, in which he described his first efforts in decompressing [[LOAD.EXE]]. [[dstien]] says in his thread that he has been working on this too and that he intends to find the way to combine LOAD.EXE with the DIF files to produce a static binary and make it easier to reverse-engineer the code. In 22 January, Cas posts a Zip file in this thread with what he's been doing. This includes the assembly source for [[STUNTS.COM]] as well as the beginning of [[LOAD.EXE]] after being unpacked, but not combined. The amount of code is significant considering it's been done manually. At this point, the Reverse Engineering subforum was created.

	== Temporary ==		== Temporary ==

Cas: /* History */

2023-11-06T19:25:55Z

History

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:25, 6 November 2023
Line 11:		Line 11:
	In July 2004, [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=1137.0 a forum thread] was started by user [[Cyberman]] in which he tells about his observations on file compression in Stunts. He noticed that the "P" in file extensions stands for "packed". He later continues to notice that the main executable appears to be combined with DIF files for the different graphics cards. While this thread does not progress much at that point, it would later become a spark that starts a fire.		In July 2004, [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=1137.0 a forum thread] was started by user [[Cyberman]] in which he tells about his observations on file compression in Stunts. He noticed that the "P" in file extensions stands for "packed". He later continues to notice that the main executable appears to be combined with DIF files for the different graphics cards. While this thread does not progress much at that point, it would later become a spark that starts a fire.

	In ~~March 2008~~, [[~~dstien~~]] ~~posts his analysis on RES files in~~ the ~~same thread and~~ later~~, he mentions~~ that he has ~~reversed the first decompession pass~~. ~~Soon~~, ~~many community members become interested~~ in ~~start participating~~. This ~~marks~~ the ~~beginning of the complete understanding of Stunts data~~ files and ~~opens~~ the ~~door to carmaking, among many other things~~.		In May 2006, an anonymous user started [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=1663.msg22912#msg22912 this one] asking about obtaining the source code. [[Bonzai Joe]] answers that [[Kevin Pickell]] has already said the source code does not exist any more. [[Cas]] says later that he has begun disassembling LOAD.EXE, but it's very large and would be better to split it and work in a team. He managed to decompress the binary, but he didn't combine it with the DIF files at that point. This was later abandoned when Cas entered hiatus. Yet, he does talk about what the different car files contain, showing that this was already well known back then. He says he has disassembled [[STUNTS.COM]] and that it's nothing but a loader for LOAD.EXE that passes parameters based on the configuration.

	In early 2009 [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2303.0 a forum thread] was started by [[llm]], which might be the first thread in the ''reverse-engineering'' section of the forum, in which he described his first efforts in decompressing [[LOAD.EXE]]. [[dstien]] ~~mentioned~~ that the ~~[[Resource file format]] wiki article already existed~~		In March 2008, [[dstien]] posts his analysis on RES files in the first thread and later, he mentions that he has reversed the first decompession pass. Soon, many community members become interested in start participating. This marks the beginning of the complete understanding of Stunts data files and opens the door to car making, among many other things. Another great contributor throughout this thread is [[Duplode]]. This investigation apparently led to the development of wiki articles such as: [[Resource file format]].

			In early 2009 [https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2303.0 another forum thread] was started by [[llm]], which might be the first thread in the ''reverse-engineering'' section of the forum, in which he described his first efforts in decompressing [[LOAD.EXE]]. [[dstien]] says in his thread that he has been working on this too and that he intends to find the way to combine LOAD.EXE with the DIF files to produce a static binary and make it easier to reverse-engineer the code.

	== Temporary ==		== Temporary ==