Diablo 2 Cracked No CD: A Reverse Engineering Odyssey

As a beginner-turned-intermediate reverse engineer, I've spent over 10 hours digging into the Diablo II.exe file for version 1.09b to crack it without using a CD. My journey began with searching for strings related to 'Diablo II was unable to detect a Disc in your CD-ROM drive' and MessageBoxes with the title 'CD-ROM drive error' using Olly and W32Dasm. This led me to identify an address block around 0040122D.

Using OllyDbg, I opened Diablo II.exe and found the base address at 00400000 and Entry address at 004014E3. Before diving into the code, I scanned the exe with PEiD to check if it was packed. The result was a simple 'Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0' indication, which suggested that the executable wasn't packed; instead, it was built using MSVC6.

As I delved deeper into the Diablo II.exe file, I discovered that Onyx and other mods had discussed making their own no-cd modifications for previous versions of the game since Blizzard introduced the 'no-cd patch' in 1.12+. Inspired by these discussions, I set out to modify Diablo II.exe for version 1.09b to eliminate the need for a CD.

Throughout my journey, I've learned more about reverse engineering and gained valuable insights into the world of cracking games without CDs. In this article, I'll share my findings and experiences with fellow enthusiasts, hoping that it won't be locked or deleted by the moderators.

Diablo 2 cracked no cd