The entire HexRays suite costs around $30k.

You can get other versions of IDAPro for cheaper, and they actually make old versions available for free -- although this may just be the x86/amd-64 decompilers.

The nice thing about IDAPro is that you get one interface you can use to decompile multiple hardware instruction sets -- including PPC and 68K.

For home users, there's also IDA Home: https://www.hex-rays.com/products/idahome/ for $1/day ($365/year).

More details on the different variants at https://www.hex-rays.com/order/

I list all this purely as a satisfied customer.

If you want something similar but free, I recommend https://ghidra-sre.org/

The latter is required.

Remember, this topic is named "Calling all hackers - a list of old software that needs hacking".

The old s-boxes and bsng keys are of no use regarding this list of software that needs hacking - otherwise there would be no point to the list (they would already have cracks/hacks available).

What's about populating the list with the kind of copy protection is used, be it serial number, key disc or dongle? This is partly there but in the most cases it isn't clear what to do.

Serial numbers are usually very easy to discover because they are statically encoded in the executable.

A more advanced protection is the so-called "activation" - the copy protection generates some code based on the fingerprinting of the user machine; the user sends this code to the software vendor that returns some sort of activation code that authorizes the software to run only on this particular machine. Interlok's challenge-response authorization is one example of this technique.

Key disc based protections are harder to break but they all have one common weakness: once the software has been authorized for a particular machine, no key disc is required. The whole story thus boils down to the question how to make a particular machine to appear "authorized". A lot of protected MacOS software I saw in the past uses hidden files for this purpose. To authorize a machine, it's usually enough to fake an expected hidden file. Interlok's authorizations are hidden too, except they are resided in the reserved space of the partition table so you can format the disc without loosing your authorizations.

The most hardest kind of copy protection is a dongle. Breaking it requires analyzing the whole executable to understand how the dongle works. Dongles' complexity can vary from very simple like performing some basic arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction or multiplication, to very complex like implementing cryptographic algorithms, random number generators and even virtual machines. It would be interesting to estimate the number of software packages that require dongles. My perception is that dongle-based protection is not very widespread although the pro class software of the late 90s uses iLok more often.

For OS 9 software, it's probably better to test using QEMU-PPC than SheepShaver. For one, there's an integrated debugger; for another, the emulation is significantly more accurate, especially around the edges where copy protection usually lurks.

Hi Franky, I took the program over to my G4 eMac and installed it there.

Unfortunately the serial will be of no use. The activation part requires an online connection to their servers to OK the serial. So, that's not looking promising... But the patched version seems to work fine without it.

Got a working S/N for SoftWindows 1.0.3.

Thanks, we might now be halfway there.
There has been a long struggle to find a working serial for the 68k side.

But: Your serial many only work for PPC Macintosh installs. It doesn't work for me on 68k Mac.
We are still hoping for a 68k serial that works for this version of SoftWindows.

[Edit] The PPC side is not working for me either. What type of Mac did you install this to?

Do you own an actual Performa Mac? because the errors I'm getting are it complains that I am not using a Performa Mac (68k & PPC) I've been trying to install this on Basilisk II and SheepShaver and even using Gestalt changers to try and trick the installer into thinking I'm running it on Performa hardware, but so far no go.

@powermax: You are a genius !!!

The first 4 (including your first one on the SW 1x page) all work, but claim that the Mac is not a Performa and ask for another serial to activate SoftWindows on that particular Mac (Basilisk II and SheepShaver and my C660av).

However, your #5 serial above works on any Mac including Basilisk II running Mac OS 8.1 and earlier and also on SheepShaver too. It completely bypasses the Performa checks that SW v1.0.3 throws up on the other codes.

#5: 2350-0100-2267-0007 <-- works on Mac OS 8.1 Basilisk II !!!!!! Gold !!!!

m68k can now rest easy on this one, cbone

@Bolkonskij: You can add SoftWindows v1.0.3 and credit powermax, in your list of Success stories!

I can remove the now unnecessary "Wish I were" files from the SW 1x page and update the description.

powermax; What's next on your list of seemingly unsolvable puzzles?
I personally would like to see the time-bomb removed from the OS X version of SoundJam MP, if you're interested enough to take a look. It died on us recently with an expiry notice after working fine since the early 2k's. View some of the posts on that page down to galgot's first post. Looking at the lengths he is going to, to try and keep using this, I think he would be a very happy person if it was possible to neutralize the time-bomb code in it.

Wow: those are scary-amazing hacking skills, PowerMax! you have cracked one of our most sought-after Mac serial cases we've had in some time, seemingly without breaking a sweat, lol!

But in all earnest, thank you for pitching in for this; we'll definitely put this little baby to good use for sure, fingers crossed for m68k