Gen VI Pokemon File format discovered

[The Outrage]

The only reason Serebii took down those pages of those event legendaries (if they are legitimate) would be because he received that information from an inside source that could be compromised. If the games were hacked, he could have freely posted them without arousing suspicion.

The only good thing I see about this is that we can get the cool in-game artwork of Trainer classes. The way stats are calculated didn't change (easily verifiable by using the equation to calculate stats of known Pokemon), and we were able to calculate the new Pokemon, the Megas, as well as Pokemon who had their stat distribution changed using an existing equation. Given the ease at which we can breed perfect IV Pokemon, we basically hold an entire variable constant that way as well. There really isn't much else in terms of utility I can thing of other than spoiling events and speeding up the discovery of egg moves.

I'd presume it will take a while for them to actually get anywhere far with this, and I'm not really clued into all the technical side of it all. But I am more excited as I'm always excited for new information haha

They got to it within two weeks of the game's release. I'm assuming that there's more motivation to crack the 3DS's code for Pokemon than other games like Animal Crossing.

Datamined the game is not only reveal the event pokemon. Is revealing things that will be legal with Pokemon Banked and some of them are legal NOW, and knowing the details of every legal pokemon that is in the game. Whats happen if ywe want to reveal allt he legal thinks, we ahve to do illegal things that extract data from the game, including the event pokemon.

The bank is hosted on a cloud server. I doubt Game Freak has planned every single event they'll release from now until the end of Pokemon (as the bank is supposedly going to carry over to new generations) or even the end of this generation. They can update it on their side without us ever knowing since the Bank App only gives us the ability to access their servers.

 

[Harmonica]

Yeah I'm afraid Wondertrade won't be safe anymore once the game is hackable. Wondertrade is addicting and I throw my leftover pokemon from breeding in there to earn pokemiles to by rare candies. And IV breeding and getting shinies is so much easier and quicker now.

 

[jernflapping]

You people shouldn't worry about hacked pokemon. There's no way to find out the relation between PID and stats, nature, shiny etc without going through the ASM of the game. If Nintendo was able to ban ~1500 or so back in BW tourneys, they have the measures to know how their RNG works to find hacks with even the slightest changes to the fundamental parts of the pokemon; e.g. shiny check, IVs buffing, nature swapping for pokemon created in gen 6. And that is still a long ways away before anyone figures it out.

They aren't datamining the game either. They're just spoofing GTS, into a private server so they can sniff packets. I mean look at that Gible's name, Wireshark, and it's kinda obvious how they're doing it on the low end level. Only thing you got to worry about is getting the event pokemon after zygarde and the event items that unlock stuff in game; which does kinda ruin surprises. But we were all wanting leaks back before prerelease; so its kinda no different.

 

[SupersonicScolipede]

Does this mean that we can access the code in its entirety and then "make sense" of it to find out things like the significance of the Hex Maniac in Lumiose, and then hack the code? Or are we only able to access repositories of things like Pokemon and items and not the whole code itself, in a "read only" copy? I'm under the impression (correct me if I'm wrong) that the 3DS and its games are encrypted well enough that hacking them is very difficult, but hopefully (if I'm correct) we'll now able to access things like events, trainer artwork, and sprites (from the PC).

 

[Heredity]

We can't access anything.

 

[BigBadBatter]

We can really only get the pokemon themselves, nothing else. It may be possible to get the event legendaries with the correct editing, but remember this has only been a recent discovery.

 

[Heredity]

No, at this point we can't get anything. Knowing what the file format is is different to actually reading it, and/or decompressing it.

 

[Eevee]

Knowing the Pokémon struct format doesn't tell us much about the games at all. That would be like trying to figure out how Photoshop works based on looking at a .png file.

We got nothin'.

 

[Genwunner]

Knowing the Pokémon struct format doesn't tell us much about the games at all. That would be like trying to figure out how Photoshop works based on looking at a .png file.

We got nothin'.

That comment is so negative and short sighted.

A simple lesson in Supply and Demand, there is a huge demand for hacking these games, to get all the information that they contain, so someone will inevitably supply that information. There's hundreds of super smart people out there working on cracking this and eventually they will succeed, the only question is when, and again due to the demand there is a lot of enthusiasm for this.

We've paid for these games, and so are entitled to know about/play them how we want.

Not to mention Datel, people's jobs depend on cracking this game, some people may enjoy the unknown and that's fine, don't read the info then, but don't try and deprive others who want to know, and deprive others of jobs.

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

Honestly, im gonna say I hate this happened. I dont want hacked Pokemon made and thrown all over Wonder Trade, which is a cool and fun feature, and having hacks all through it is going to ruin it. I want my game completely hack-free. I also really want the event legends to be a surprise, I know we know the names but Id like to wait to see the Pokemon themselves :/

 

[Stratelier]

Knowing the Pokémon struct format doesn't tell us much about the games at all. That would be like trying to figure out how Photoshop works based on looking at a .png file.

While that is an apt comparison, there's still a lot you can tell about an image file by inspecting it closely with the right perspective in mind.

In the case of the XY save file, this doesn't mean hackers have access to things stored on the ROM side (exact battle mechanics, character artwork, etc.) but it does mean that depending on what else has to be broken they can generate lists of items (based on attempts to insert those items into the player's inventory), unrevealed Pokemon and/or formes (based on attempts to insert them into the party or PC box storage), and so on.

 

[randomspot555]

Knowing the Pokémon struct format doesn't tell us much about the games at all. That would be like trying to figure out how Photoshop works based on looking at a .png file.

We got nothin'.

There isn't a "we got nothin" because the structure means the Pokemon as data has changed.

It's important to stress that, at this stage, this is purely being done for game research. There is no publicly available program to actually produce Pokemon for Gen 6.

Knowing the Pokémon struct format doesn't tell us much about the games at all. That would be like trying to figure out how Photoshop works based on looking at a .png file.

We got nothin'.

That comment is so negative and short sighted.

A simple lesson in Supply and Demand, there is a huge demand for hacking these games, to get all the information that they contain, so someone will inevitably supply that information. There's hundreds of super smart people out there working on cracking this and eventually they will succeed, the only question is when, and again due to the demand there is a lot of enthusiasm for this.

We've paid for these games, and so are entitled to know about/play them how we want.

Not to mention Datel, people's jobs depend on cracking this game, some people may enjoy the unknown and that's fine, don't read the info then, but don't try and deprive others who want to know, and deprive others of jobs.

You've paid for the games but you aren't entitled to anything. Game Freak, Nintendo, or whatever video game producer/distributor is free to limit how much gamers can actually see inside the game. If the safeguards in place are enough to prevent that from happening is a whole other matter.

Datel is a fairly large company and won't be hurting if they can't make an AR for the 3DS.

Honestly, im gonna say I hate this happened. I dont want hacked Pokemon made and thrown all over Wonder Trade, which is a cool and fun feature, and having hacks all through it is going to ruin it. I want my game completely hack-free. I also really want the event legends to be a surprise, I know we know the names but Id like to wait to see the Pokemon themselves :/

There's some anecdotal evidence that already is hacking fairly deep in the world of 2ch (Japanese version of 4chan). I know some buddies who swear on Random Battles they've spotted unobtainable Pokemon like the Therian trios.

That said, keeping one's game hack free is an incredibly easy task. It does mean you can't just carlessly use Wonder Trade and GTS, but that's a restriction you have to put on yourself. Even if there was no hacking for Gen 6, hacked Pokemon that fall within the legal boundaries of the game would make it through Bank anyway and there'd at least be those floating around.

I would usually reserve 1 cart per gen as my hack free cart in case I ever participated in VGC. That meant no online trading at all and everything in the game was something I raised myself. It isn't that hard to do. But it does mean you have to restrict and monitor any online activity you do.

 

[jernflapping]

No, at this point we can't get anything. Knowing what the file format is is different to actually reading it, and/or decompressing it.

Umm, the file format can be read. it's not that they discovered .pkx like that's a Nintendo file format they made up, they just decided to name it .pkx. They sniffed packets that were going through their router, maybe did some decryption, found out which ones were used for the pokemon themselves, and found 236 bytes dedicated to a pokemon when traded. I mean how can it not be read; just figure out the encryption, which apparently were the same block shuffling type encryption used in Gen IV and Gen V, and you can guess and check by altering bytes to the file and sending them back to the game. Look at the data structure they linked.

 

[Himura’s Umbreon]

In the last Gen hacked pokémon was a "normal" things and a bunch of us(me include) have some pokés in that way. But now I am a hack free just because don't have any hack in this Gen(yet), and I like that, because I know that every flawless poké I see was made of hard work and no for pure hack.
In Brazil almost every person who has a Nintendo Ds has hacked or pirate games, but this does not work with 3DS and I liked. I love the way all people are trying to discover things in this game, Why ruin this?

 

[Stratelier]

We've paid for these games, and so are entitled to know about/play them how we want.

/gamer entitlement

When you purchase a book, you are entitled to a physical item with ink printed on paper sheets, you did NOT purchase the underlying narrative or the author's original manuscript/notes/reference documents/etc. Movie DVDs and video games are conceptually similar to this, you purchased a finished, packaged product.

Now if you want to disassemble that product on your own terms then that's basically on your own head, but then there's the matter that if you know how to take it apart you might be able to start copying it at the expense of the rightful creator. Where do you draw the line? Where should the law draw that line?

BTW, if this was discovered by packet sniffing, then this doesn't necessarily mean that they've cracked the game's internal save file -- it just means they've cracked the file format used for trading Pokemon data to/from another player. (One such thread mentions packets sniffed from Wonder Trades.) It means they can possibly spoof Pokemon and items, but that is all.

So far the one interesting note I spotted is that they've apparently verified that when a Pokemon hatches with inherited egg moves, those moves are permanently noted in the Pokemon's metadata which is presumably what enables the Move Reminder to re-teach those moves to that individual Pokemon (but not other Pokemon of the same species).

 

[Eevee]

That comment is so negative and short sighted.

A simple lesson in Supply and Demand, there is a huge demand for hacking these games, to get all the information that they contain, so someone will inevitably supply that information. There's hundreds of super smart people out there working on cracking this and eventually they will succeed, the only question is when, and again due to the demand there is a lot of enthusiasm for this.

Supply and demand is about economics, not mathematics. I would be very surprised if the Pokémon community broke AES.

Not to say that's the only option; you could donate to the chip decapping fundraiser if you really wanted to help speed the process along.

We've paid for these games, and so are entitled to know about/play them how we want.

US legal shenanigans for software sales are usually that you buy a license to play the game, not the game itself.

While that is an apt comparison, there's still a lot you can tell about an image file by inspecting it closely with the right perspective in mind.

I was originally going to compare to Microsoft Word, but then I remembered what the .doc format actually is.

it does mean that depending on what else has to be broken they can generate lists of items (based on attempts to insert those items into the player's inventory), unrevealed Pokemon and/or formes (based on attempts to insert them into the party or PC box storage), and so on.

Assuming they can write Pokémon structs back into the game, which I'm not terribly confident about.

Also my interests are mostly related to extracting game assets as in years past. Not-yet-released Pokémon are interesting, but (a) I don't want to know about them anyway, (b) I still can't get clean models/movelists/etc. of them, and (c) it's not of much practical value beyond fanservice when no one can get one.

There isn't a "we got nothin" because the structure means the Pokemon as data has changed.

But that doesn't tell us much of anything—either the fields are the same, correspond to new features we already know about, or correspond to new features we don't know about yet and thus can't very well guess

I don't mean to be a wet blanket or suggest that this isn't interesting or worthwhile hackery (it totally is), but it's not a foot in the door.

You've paid for the games but you aren't entitled to anything. Game Freak, Nintendo, or whatever video game producer/distributor is free to limit how much gamers can actually see inside the game. If the safeguards in place are enough to prevent that from happening is a whole other matter.

The entitlement is an open philosophical question. I'm inclined to err on the side of RMS. Not that it has much practical impact on what Game Freak does.

That said, keeping one's game hack free is an incredibly easy task. It does mean you can't just carlessly use Wonder Trade and GTS, but that's a restriction you have to put on yourself. Even if there was no hacking for Gen 6, hacked Pokemon that fall within the legal boundaries of the game would make it through Bank anyway and there'd at least be those floating around.

As the games become ever more networked, the "economic" impact of cheated Pokémon becomes greater. Cheating is lame because it negates the effort of other players, and when you have hundreds of them scrolling by on your touch screen, it's hard to consider the trade-centric Pokémon a purely single-player game. The GTS in particular was nigh worthless before now.

On the other hand, legal cheated Pokémon are far less valuable now, with how much easier it is to breed near-perfect genes. Smart move.

 

[SupersonicScolipede]

Oh, I see I was completely wrong. I was misconstruing this to mean that the actual game code had been cracked, not the file format used for internet trades.

 

[Heredity]

No, at this point we can't get anything. Knowing what the file format is is different to actually reading it, and/or decompressing it.

Umm, the file format can be read. it's not that they discovered .pkx like that's a Nintendo file format they made up, they just decided to name it .pkx. They sniffed packets that were going through their router, maybe did some decryption, found out which ones were used for the pokemon themselves, and found 236 bytes dedicated to a pokemon when traded. I mean how can it not be read; just figure out the encryption, which apparently were the same block shuffling type encryption used in Gen IV and Gen V, and you can guess and check by altering bytes to the file and sending them back to the game. Look at the data structure they linked.

A whole lotta conjecture right here, buddy. It's almost like you think this is all magic, given the 'maybe' and 'just figure out the encryption.' Seeing a file is a lot different to reading it and/or decompressing it. I can sure see a WinRAR file, but unless I have the method to actually be able to read and unpack it, I sure as hell can't do shit with it.

Also, completed laughed at what's in bold. Dude, custom compression and file formats aren't new at all.

That comment is so negative and short sighted.

A simple lesson in Supply and Demand, there is a huge demand for hacking these games, to get all the information that they contain, so someone will inevitably supply that information. There's hundreds of super smart people out there working on cracking this and eventually they will succeed, the only question is when, and again due to the demand there is a lot of enthusiasm for this.

We've paid for these games, and so are entitled to know about/play them how we want.

Not to mention Datel, people's jobs depend on cracking this game, some people may enjoy the unknown and that's fine, don't read the info then, but don't try and deprive others who want to know, and deprive others of jobs.

Watch out guys, we just entered Fantasy Cracker/Hacker Land where hundreds of smart people are just doing this, their jobs depend on it!

You've already stated you know jack shit about the technical side of this. Don't sit there and type like you know about the community surrounding said technical information, especially when you've made it sound like a salary-centred job of some sort with hundreds of employees taking on a mutual goal. It honestly just sounds like a couple of guys up to no good, making trouble in this here neighbour.

FYI, Datel provides a tool. The cheat codes they 'supply' aren't always 100% them, and in some cases they're not even involved with said codes. This isn't the NES/SNES/GEN era, if they publish a book containing codes they're usually just from internet sources.

I'm inclined to err on the side of RMS.

Stallman is the last person I expected to be referenced here. If you actually erred on RMS' stance, you wouldn't be pro-hacking or cracking. That's not something he believes in. FOSS isn't about that in slightest, it has to adhere to his standards from the get go - not be leaked. Pokemon X and Y are not Free and Open Source Software (free as in freedom, not price).

RMS feels we are, as a people, entitled to be able to buy and the modify a piece of software as much as we like. Basically, buying right to freedom of use and distribution after that. However, that does not mean you take something propriety and leak it to the world 'for justice' or something. He wants businesses to work with him, not have him work against them. Due to no one actually wanting to work with him, he decided to provide FOSS software himself via the Free Software Foundation as a method of convincing. He's not going to want you breaking any laws, or feeling entitled in a system not designed for entitlement of freedom of use. He would like for you to try and convince businesses to go FOSS though.

...Basically 'I bought this, I'll do what I want with it' isn't RMS' 'philosophy.'

 

[jernflapping]

A whole lotta conjecture right here, buddy. It's almost like you think this is all magic, given the 'maybe' and 'just figure out the encryption.' Seeing a file is a lot different to reading it and/or decompressing it. I can sure see a WinRAR file, but unless I have the method to actually be able to read and unpack it, I sure as hell can't do shit with it.

Also, completed laughed at what's in bold. Dude, custom compression and file formats aren't new at all.

you clearly have no idea what you're talking about. funny considering you said this in the same post:

You've already stated you know jack shit about the technical side of this. Don't sit there and type like you know about the community surrounding said technical information

1. file extensions don't mean anything. they went with .pkx for convenience
2. pkx aren't compressed. They're raw data; 232 bytes long.
3. you have no idea what compressed means
4. what the hell are you talking about being able to read them. you don't need some magic program; you just need to edit bitwise. you know with a hex editor or something; hell you can do this with notepad if you want
5. you think encryption is a big deal thats unsolvable; hell no its not. there is nothing magic about that. i have no idea how send/response over wireless is done thats why i said 'maybe' and 'just figure out the encryption', for all i know, the connection might be unencrypted. its like the difference between http and https.

 

[Eevee]

A whole lotta conjecture right here, buddy. It's almost like you think this is all magic, given the 'maybe' and 'just figure out the encryption.' Seeing a file is a lot different to reading it and/or decompressing it. I can sure see a WinRAR file, but unless I have the method to actually be able to read and unpack it, I sure as hell can't do shit with it.

What are you even arguing here? They already figured out most of the format: it's largely the same as the old format. C structs are not wizardry.

It honestly just sounds like a couple of guys up to no good, making trouble in this here neighbour.

I have it on good authority that some of the best technical advances start this way.

Stallman is the last person I expected to be referenced here. If you actually erred on RMS' stance, you wouldn't be pro-hacking or cracking.

...Basically 'I bought this, I'll do what I want with it' isn't RMS' 'philosophy.'

"The right of an individual to study the functioning of any technological product that she owns or rents, and to publish what she learns about it, shall not be limited by any law, or by any contract agreed without individual negotiation." — Richard Stallman, "Suggestions for National Constitutions"