Taking a look inside iPod Games

[Swad]

Curious about those new iPod Games of yours? Go forth and learn...

 

Dissecting iPod Games

 

- Modifying the games is difficult at best, if not impossible, because of the checksumming of every file in the bundle, and then the certificate against the manifest.

- Game resource files, particularly audio, aren't obfuscated and can be extracted successfully.

- Homebrew is probably an impossibility at this point because of the expectation of a signed cert from Apple.

- The fact that there are platform identifiers in the plists makes me wonder what Apple's future plans entail. Maybe this would just be for later iPod revisions, or maybe they're just looking forward. Still, quite interesting.

 

What's inside an iPod game?

 

Manifest.plist seems to contain information used by the iPod itself, but possibly iTunes. It contains references to the Description.xml files used by iTunes. It also references the executable used by the iPod, and apparently the loading artwork. I’m sure it does a lot more, but I haven’t gotten too far into it.

 

Mini Golf contains several non-DRM AAC files that are used for background sounds. Sound effects are in the various bank folders and are in WAV format.

 

iTunes apparently generates a copy of the game just for you when downloading. It inserts your name and email address (iTunes store user name) into the archive.

 

The .bin.sinf file in Resources contains your name, and iTunesMetaData contains your email address.

[non sequitur]

mini golf kicks ass. i bet that someone can find a way by the firmware though, PSPs could only run signed code and look where they are now.

[Swad]

I wouldn't think it'd be that hard to hack - you just distribute all the game files and then have a patcher to change your name and email address. I doubt they'd ever know.