HOW TO HACK

By Jon North

INTRODUCTION

At the end of 1990, Jon North - well-known for his hacking work in all three major Spectrum magazines - started to write a series of articles describing How To Hack in detail.

These articles were to be published in Your Sinclair starting at this issue (54).

Issue 55 discusses the basics of hacking and tells how to find infinite lives pokes. What you'll need How to hack Working forwards Working backwards Not working at all

Issue 56 goes a bit further, giving a set of tools that are needed to hack special loaders. It also shows how headerless blocks are done. Revenge of the mutant cock-ups from hell Loading the first bit The *LOAD routine Disguising basic and getting past it The *LIST program Headerless files What a headerless loader looks like

Issue 57 tells you what a decrypter is. Decrypters? What the... Why bother? How to recognise one? The R register Trailing decrypters A useful routine

Issue 58 shows you how to hack BleepLoad. The first stage The basic bit The loader (the juicy bit)

Issue 59 continues on BleepLoad. The BleepLoad crack The stack The Red LED hack

Issue 60 is a Q&A session.

Issue 61 is the beginning of the huge Christmas special showing how to hack Speedlock. Speedlock 1 The small basic bit The big basic bit PO and PE What a load of crap! Changes, changes Setting the table The Army Moves hack Speedlock 2 The basic bit Six of one... Where'd the loader go? Moving around The Athena hack Speedlock 3 ...And half a dozen of the other Moving Speedlock 3

Issue 62 is the continuation of the Christmas special Speedlock 4 Never-ending story The CPIR command The Arky II hack

Issue 63 handles Speedlock 5 through 7 Getting started The decrypters Final decrypter on Speedlock 7 The hack: Speedlock 5-7

Issue 64 shows you how to hack SoftLock The basic bit The Chimera hack

Issue 65 is another Q&A session Is your * key stuck? Where's the game? Will Steve Adams please stand up? Why not do a machine code course? How are load and save routines related? How are encrypters and decrypters related? How do you do Speedlock 4?

Issue 66 rips MovieLoad apart The first basic bit Loading the second bit Making a start

Issue 67 handles the Search Loader trick Getting started Decrypting the game The Rana Rama hack

Issue 68 is unfortunately the last part... A few questions Is your * key stuck? Where's the game? How do you find time pokes? Notes on Alkatrazz Notes on the Search Loader Is that it then?

You'll probably want to check the Z80 Instruction Information for the exact timing of instructions if you're interested in the loaders themselves.