| | | _) | __| _ \ __| __ \ _` | | | __ \ __| _ \ | _ \ __| __| \__ \ __/ ( | | ( | | | | | | ( | | __/ ( | ____/\___|\___|_.__/ \__,_|_|_| .__/ _| \___/ |\___|\___|\__| _| ___/ ~ Introduction ~ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓ On your way to see BILL (ソネザキ・マサキ) at SEA COTTAGE, ▓▓▒▒▒▒▒░░░▒▓▓ you find a pretty strange type of Pokéball lying on the ▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░▒▓ ground. You can't resist to pick up this ball with "SecBall" ▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒░░▒▓▓ written on it. Impossible though to open it: it is protected ▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓ with a password. Like anyone would have done, you plug it ▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓ into your PC with OAK's Special Linker and start ▓▓▒▒▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓ investigating. After a few hours playing with it, you are ▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▓▒▒▒▒▓▓▓ able to make a dump[1] of the memory. It looks like Z80 ▓▓▓▓▒S▒▓▓▓▓▓ ▓ Assembly, a bit different though… ▓▓░▓▒▒▒▓ ▓▓ ▓░░▓▓▓ ▓ Your quest can now begin. ▓▓░░░ ▓▓ ▓▓▓░░░░░▓▓▓ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ~ What you have to do ~ In order to break the seal, you must understand how it has been encrypted. When you get it, you'll certainly need to write a tool (you are of course free to choose whatever technology you prefer). You now have the password, well done, but your quest is not yet accomplished: it seems you are not the only one to have found a SecBall… It could be nice if you expand your tool to be able to crack all the other SecBall. This should not require much extra work, and will be greatly rewarded. ~ References ~ [1] secball.gb - SecBall memory dump [2] bgb.bircd.org - BGB, a good GB emulator/debugger [3] marc.rawer.de/Gameboy/Docs/GBCPUman.pdf - GameBoy CPU Manual Reference [4] gameboy.mongenel.com/asmschool.html - Beginner documentation [5] nocash.emubase.de/pandocs.htm - Pan Docs