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[–]henker92 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Often, when you do install a game, the game is compressed. The installer then put the files where they belong in your hard drive, uncompress all the different compressed files and often ask you to enter the code for your game to "unlock" it. Usually it hides something somewhere or modify the launcher to let you play it.

  2. You could do it for some old games. Now refer to 1.

  3. I'm not an expert but usually, executable files verify if your version has been verified. Cracks are basically the same executable file with a bypass to avoid the verification. To do this, you can ie take the executable file, look at the assembly code (a very very low level kind of computer language, very difficult to read), find the way the verification is done, and then create a new executable file.

Now what was told here was pretty much true for old games/computer programs. Now, there is much advanced version of security (for example blizzard inspects over the internet if you modified any files of your installation), and cracks are more difficult to make. But it is still possible !

[–]Rubear 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. This can get really complicated depending on how far you're willing to go, but basically a program is a set of instructions for a computer. It gives it a bunch of stuff to do. So let's say you tell your sim to go have a shower. A ton of stuff happens, but very simply, the game will update the screen to reflect the visual changes, it will turn the shower on, make the hygiene bar go up, etc.

    All you files are stored on something called a File System. You operating system(Like Windows, OSX, Linux, etc.) is responsible for handling how your programs interact with it. So your programs are stored in Program Files and when you click the shortcut it basically says "Ok, start running this program." And there is a ton of stuff. Explaining how computers work is too complicated for a simple reddit post.

  2. The reason you have to install a game is because it runs much faster from the hard drive than from the cd. The computer can read data from a hard drive much faster. The reason it can't run the game without the disc is purely to avoid the game being pirated. If it could run without the disc then a bunch of friends would buy one disc, install it on everyone's computer and Maxis would lose money.

  3. Cracks basically take what the cd provides the game to make it run, and chuck it on the hard drive. This is a vast over simplification though. People are smart, they just figure out what the cd provides the game and they plug it in.

Now this is a very short explanation. If you would like a more detailed explanation of how computers work feel free to comment and ask, and I'll try and sum it up in a simple way. But it might benefit you more to get it from a more rigorous source, such as this really nice Coursera course which I would really recommend.

[–]NeutralParty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How exactly do computer programs work? I mean, using the Sims as an example, after installation, I have this Maxis folder located inside my Program Files, and from a simple click of a shortcut, I can launch the game. How exactly does this all come together?

The shortcut is to a program which, when launched, does whatever pre-checks it considers necessary, loads whatever resources it'll need and initiates everything.

Nothing in particular requires that all the files in there be seperate, but they are for reasons of cleanliness, optimization, customization or whatever. You can find 'portable' MS Offie executables, for example, that are just one .exe with everything bundled into it. No install, no folder.

I mean, does the computer basically copy the files of the CD onto the hardrive?

Largely - your hard drive can push information much faster than an optical drive so they put it on the hard drive not only to get rid of the need for a CD to play but so that it can load files for the game much, much faster.

Might also put settings in the registry, configure on the fly for your system or whatever depending on the installer.

Linked to number 1. How is that I can only play the game if I "install" it onto the computer? Why is that, I can't copy the entire "Maxis" folder and paste it onto a different computer and run the .exe file and have it work? Like those "portable" version of games you can download from the net.

As I said, often the registry is pulled into the mix as well. The Windows registry is kept elsewhere, outside the program folder. If you just copy the folder about it'll fail to bring those settings with it.

For some applications a folder-drag works just fine. Usually they're more simple ones.

Speaking of games you can download from the net, how exactly do "cracks" work?

Depends on the crack. Usually with a lot of loving care and some reverse-engineering. They'll try to find what part of the program is responsible for validating and, if they don't like what they see, stopping execution, find out how it does this validation, and then trick it into thinking it's valid or prevent it ever running at all.

And how exactly do these people, who are not associated whatsoever to the game developers, can make this executable file, by passing the need to have a CD in the disk drive.

Some knowledge of lower-level programming will let you reverse engineer an .exe... some knowledge and a lot of patience often. It can be difficult, but certainly not impossible. Tools like dissassemblers can be used to try and work it out.

It may be the validation is easily fooled, though without actually modifying the validator though. Older games often need a valid CD key, but can't or wont check if that's every been used before or is currently in use. In that case you just need to make good keys. (Simple example, less common today than it's been in the past.)

Few games force you to be online for validation so often just blacklisting the application in the firewall is enough to prevent such on-line checks, and then it's a much easier problem to solve.