Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM

Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by distantsounds on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @12:17PM (#15961762)

This stuff has been documented in private circles for over a decade now, and hasn't been made public because these games aren't available to play outside of owning a cabinet in Japan or acquiring the data via less-legit methods. While it's a fun exercise to explore, the real-world application is sadly limited to grey-market implementations that Konami frowns upon, which reinforces why the exposure has been limited.

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by yerasame on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @12:24PM (#15961842)

If you're in said private circles, you might recognize the author.

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by distantsounds on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @12:30PM (#15961907)

The author is not in any 'private circle', he just happened to come across data and started poking at it.

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by vernie on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @01:02PM (#15962251)

It looks like he's worked on a bunch of projects related to Konami rhythm games. Surely he's part of some community.

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by Fej on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @03:38PM (#15964020)

He is.

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by yerasame on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @12:48PM (#15962110)

Didn't say he's in private circles -- only that you might recognize the author if you were.

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by distantsounds on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @01:00PM (#15962229)

i'm fully aware of who the author is, and my point still stands.

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by russelg on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @02:43AM (#15967784)

:^)

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by RealityCzech on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @12:22PM (#15961816)

Information wants to be free.

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by tzs on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @08:27PM (#15966190)

Almost everyone leaves out the full quote. It is:

> On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.

--Stewart Brand at the first Hackers Conference in 1984

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by Fej on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @03:12PM (#15963778)

Perhaps, but the details could put certain people in life-altering danger. The safety of these people has very rightly taken precedence over publishing information which could be quite literally incriminating (although they almost certainly wouldn't be prosecuted for it, just sued for all they're worth).

Konami has contacted some insiders and some arcades with stern legal warnings and they are taken very seriously. There's a joke in the community - "konmai will sue" - but it's not just a joke.

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by distantsounds on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @12:28PM (#15961885)

Not sure how releasing this information benefits anyone. The games are sold and distributed by Konami directly, and only to licensed arcades.

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by csydas on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @12:34PM (#15961953)

Well, the process itself regardless of the data is interesting. Likewise, surely for archival purposes once the games are decommissioned and people want to preserve them it will be useful to have, no?

I find your response just a bit weird; it's a nice break down of niche and likely easily lost technology once Konami et. al. are done with it. It's a nice read, well written, serves those looking to archive these games in the future, and also is a great high level overview of the reverse engineering process.

Is the issue that it has no immediate benefit to you?

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by yerasame on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @12:55PM (#15962173)

There's a lot of politics in this particular scene regarding game and network services cracking.

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Re:Unravelling Konami's Arcade DRM by distantsounds on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @12:44PM (#15962065)

Sure, when the service and games are decommissioned it would make sense. But Konami is still churning these games out every 9 months to a year.

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