The goal of these cracks is on the one hand – to allow the games to run without the original disc / mounted image, or without a CD drive / driver at all, and on the other hand – to have the game correctly detect the disc, if it is inserted, and play the CD music.
Important: All Rayman DOS games are compressed PMODE/W applications. Before patching, they must be decompressed using PMWUNLIT, otherwise the relevant instructions will not be found at the expected offsets.
Rayman (EU) v1.12
File size: 425,468 bytes (compressed), 928,110 bytes (uncompressed)
- This version has several additional protection layers, which were removed in the later version 1.21, which require three more offsets to patch:
- Immediately upon startup: checks the executing program name and exits immediately (with no message) if the name is not RAYMAN.EXE. You’ll want to patch this out if you plan on retaining the original file and using a different name for the CD-cracked one.
- After the startup, logo and intro animation and before loading the main menu: checks the size and checksum of RAYMAN.EXE in the game directory (at this point it does not care about the name of the running program). You don’t need this patch if you retain the original unmodified RAYMAN.EXE.
- Before loading any level 7+ in any world after the first: checks the intro/conclusion video files on the CD and exits if they are not found / invalid.
0x8E968: 75 → EB
0x8E997: 75 0F → B0 00
0x8EA58: 01 → 00
0x8EA6B: 0F 84 71 01 00 00 → 90 90 90 90 90 90
0x8EA79: 75 → EB
0x8EA93: 25 FF 00 → E9 A5 01
0x8ED5C: 53 → C3 (video file check)
0x8EF2C: 53 → C3 (RAYMAN.EXE check)
0x8F10E: 74 → EB (program filename check)
Rayman (US) v1.12
File size: 424,549 bytes (compressed), 927,014 bytes (uncompressed)
- This version is present in some North-American releases, such as Softkey or SmartSaver; it is unprotected (as mentioned in the startup banner) and requires no cracking.
Rayman (IT-SP-DU) v1.20
File size: 430,247 bytes (compressed), 934,930 bytes (uncompressed)
- This version implements the same multiple protection layers as EU v1.12. The patch offsets appear identical except shifted up by 0x1560.
0x8FEC8: 75 → EB
0x8FEF7: 75 0F → B0 00
0x8FFB8: 01 → 00
0x8FFCB: 0F 84 71 01 00 00 → 90 90 90 90 90 90
0x8FFD9: 75 → EB
0x8FFF3: 25 FF 00 → E9 A5 01
0x902BC: 53 → C3 (video file check)
0x9048C: 53 → C3 (RAYMAN.EXE check)
0x9066E: 74 → EB (program filename check)
Rayman (US) v1.21
File size: 428,743 bytes (compressed), 934,282 bytes (uncompressed)
- This version is included in English Rayman Gold bundles (including those from the UK).
0x8FBF4: 75 → EB
0x8FC23: 75 0F → B0 00
0x8FCE4: 01 → 00
0x8FCF7: 0F 84 71 01 00 00 → 90 90 90 90 90 90
0x8FD05: 75 → EB
0x8FD1F: 25 FF 00 → E9 A5 01
Rayman (FR) v1.21
File size: 428,669 bytes (compressed), 934,282 bytes (uncompressed)
- This version is included in the French Rayman Collector bundle.
0x8FC14: 75 → EB
0x8FC43: 75 0F → B0 00
0x8FD04: 01 → 00
0x8FD17: 0F 84 71 01 00 00 → 90 90 90 90 90 90
0x8FD25: 75 → EB
0x8FD3F: 25 FF 00 → E9 A5 01
Rayman Designer / Rayman Gold v1.01
File size (Designer): 440,664 / 440,662 (compressed), 820,922 (uncompressed)
File size (Gold): 440,660 bytes (compressed), 820,906 bytes (uncompressed)
- This version is included in Rayman Gold / Rayman Collector bundles
0x90750: 01 → 00
0x90763: 0F 84 84 01 00 00 → 90 90 90 90 90 90
0x90771: 75 → EB
0x9078B: 25 FF 00 → E9 B8 01
Rayman By His Fans / Par Ses Fans v1.01
File size: 442,330 bytes (compressed), 939,346 bytes (uncompressed)
- This version is included in Rayman Forever / Rayman Collector bundles. An extra patch offset is required compared to the Designer/60 Levels apps to bypass a “Limited Version” error in case no CD driver is present.
0xA3EC0: 01 → 00
0xA3EC9: 01 → 00
0xA3EF3: 0F 84 6C 01 00 00 → 90 90 90 90 90 90
0xA3F00: 75 → EB
0xA3F1E: 25 FF 00 → E9 A6 01
Rayman 60 Levels / 60 Niveaux Inédits v1.01
File size: 403,024 bytes (compressed), 749,938 bytes (uncompressed)
- This version is included in Rayman Collector / Rayman Compilation bundles.
0x81260: 01 → 00
0x81273: 0F 84 84 01 00 00 → 90 90 90 90 90 90
0x81281: 75 → EB
0x8129B: 25 FF 00 → E9 B8 01
Known Limitations
- Running any of the spinoff titles without a CD in the drive sets the music to “off”, and the next time the game is run with a CD, the music will have to be switched “on” manually in the game options.
- US v1.21 has a bug (unrelated to the CD protection) in the routine for loading the intro/conclusion video files (INTRO.DAT and CONCLU.DAT). If they are present in the game directory, a general protection fault and a crash occurs when the game tries to access them. This bug was probably missed because this version only shipped in Designer and later bundles, which never included the videos. FR v1.21 is free of this bug.
A longer write-up detailing the process of discovering these patches is available.
Cloaked Thargoid 