I'm putting this here for later--I don't need another distraction right now. :)

Spoiler alert: I wasn't planning to include too much detail but that makes it not that useful so you know, dont read this.

Original: http://www.reddit.com/r/ReverseEngineering/comments/hysxk/job_security_analyst_and_an_atari_2600_crackme/

File: http://pastebin.com/CtPKn9bp

23 June 2011¶

• Linked pastebin entry starts with begin 644 challenge.bin.Z so do the uudecode & gunzip dance.

• Viewing the resulting file shows the start of the file is ASCII with the remainder of the file binary data. Part of the ASCII text points to:

  • http://pastebin.com/HNXx3QTJ

  Which provides the helpful note at the bottom:

    FYI. Atari 2600.
  

  So, interestingly enough, apparently a valid 2600 ROM can begin with ASCII text. :)

• Find an Atari 2600 emulator:

  • Stella

  And, why not, a disassembler for the 6507 CPU used too (handily enough this disassembler is actually Atarti 2600 specific):

  • distella -- "Yes, disassemble, Stephanie!"

• distella ships with a .exe binary but I was able to build it with:

      gcc distella.c
  

  Running the executable without a ROM file resulted in a bus error on OS X--seeming due to a strcpy issue.

• Oh, yeah, so, I tried setting the first key as PLANET or planet but that caused a "ROM Integrity" complaint so I guess it's not that easy. :)

• Anyway, this was supposed to avoid the distraction, so stopping here.