Internet Checkers from the MSN Gaming Zone which is Zone.com or something look i'm not good at history and it's not my thing
the checkers exe chkrzm.exe is a thin wrapper which exists only to grab a COM object ZoneM.Client and some random interface from zClientm.exe through which it calls a method and passes the strings Launch and
data=[ID=[mchkr_zm_***]data=[game=<Checkers>dll=<ZCorem.dll,cmnClim.dll>datafile=<ChkrRes.dll,CmnResm.dll>]server=[%1:0]name=[Checkers]family=[Checkers]icw=["%2"%3]setup=[CHKRZM]]
(after some formatting). so then obviously zClientm.exe which was already sitting there in the background being a COM or OLE server or something running a windows event loop parses that string and just, loads all those dlls. and then Something happens. cmnClim.dll pops open that ui and lets you press "Play" which of course causes it to load ZNetM.dll and through as many COM objects and c++ virtual classes and other unmentionable dlls as possible it finally bothers reaching out to checkers.freegames.zone.com:28805 or whatever else the little wrapper stuffed into the server key to that Launch garbage [yay for hosts file].
SO THEN
spent a bit longer on it today with a different approach and yet again hit a mess that made it very hard to craft a packet that worked and then realised there was another mess hiding behind it and gave up
horrors below the fold
=> got extra message
LinkHeader { signature: 4c694e6b, length: 130 }
ExtraHeader { unknown0: 140000, sequence_number: 1, checksum: 94849df0 }
0000: 79 62 62 6c ab cd ef 98 1e 00 00 00 08 01 00 00 ybbl............
0010: 65 64 75 64 01 00 00 00 53 4c 43 49 44 3d 3c 31 edud....SLCID=<1
0020: 30 33 33 3e 55 4c 43 49 44 3d 3c 31 30 33 33 3e 033>ULCID=<1033>
0030: 49 4c 43 49 44 3d 3c 31 30 33 33 3e 55 54 43 4f ILCID=<1033>UTCO
0040: 46 46 53 45 54 3d 3c 2d 36 30 30 3e 53 6b 69 6c FFSET=<-600>Skil
0050: 6c 3d 3c 42 65 67 69 6e 6e 65 72 3e 43 68 61 74 l=<Beginner>Chat
0060: 3d 3c 4f 6e 3e 45 78 69 74 3d 3c 30 3e 00 1a 00 =<On>Exit=<0>...
0070: cc cb 1a 00 90 f9 12 00 67 19 58 73 b8 54 1a 00 ........g.Xs.T..
0080: cc cb 1a 00 90 19 58 73 c8 54 1a 00 a8 55 1a 00 ......Xs.T...U..
0090: 76 64 08 00 06 00 00 00 b8 f9 12 00 74 7b ab 73 vd..........t{.s
00a0: 06 7b ab 73 c1 7a ab 73 ff ff ff ff 06 00 00 00 .{.s.z.s........
00b0: 00 00 00 00 20 fa 12 00 00 00 00 00 06 7b ab 73 .... ........{.s
00c0: e4 f9 12 00 34 87 41 7e da 00 1d 00 13 01 00 00 ....4.A~........
00d0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 06 7b ab 73 cd ab ba dc .........{.s....
00e0: 00 00 00 00 20 fa 12 00 06 7b ab 73 62 af 42 7e .... ....{.sb.B~
00f0: 14 31 03 6f f4 00 21 00 05 00 00 00 d0 77 19 00 .1.o..!......w..
0100: 60 7c 19 00 e4 ae 17 00 06 01 2a 00 ce 00 1f 00 `|........*.....
0110: 34 fa 12 00 92 84 01 6f 01 00 00 00 4......o....
ok then
