> > > So does this mean someone may have made some progress on understanding the
> > CPS2
> > > encryption?
> >
> > Nope.
>
> I think the "hackers" just found what bytes to change in the XOR, so that in the
> decrypted rom image they will make the software think it's from another
> region... old region switch hack found in old emulators, that made games do
> weird stuff and freeze now and then.
>
> With some effort, you could probably craft xors that make street fighter alpha
> work like pacman, without knowing a thing about CPS2 encryption.
>
>

This line makes me think other wise.

"these new XOR's contain incorrect information in relation to what the real encryption would return for many addresses when compared to real hardware."

If they were just changing code to alter the region it wouldn't affect the game. Other than the normal problems of using region codes with some games. I think what he's getting at is some clone games may use the same encryption key. And since the code would be similar too the XOR works. But different revs. or regions will still have code changes that would be incorrect when you apply an XOR not made for it.

If this is true it leads me to speculate that the key could be quite small if there's a lot of games that work like this. The remaining games could be brute forced easily if the algorithm was known.

Consider this why would someone bother hacking XOR's to do a region switch when most CPS2 emu's support region switching. And why would Raz comment on something that pathetic? Really no one would care.