ElectricLime
As seen on VMK
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2005
I was curious what makes VMK tick, so I did a little snooping. You might find this interesting. Or you might not.
First off: when you're in a game, do a "save as" in your web browser to save the "Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom" HTML file to your desktop. Then open the file in Notepad or TextEdit or any other text editor. You'll know you have the right file if you see it start off looking like this:
Now, the interesting part of the file is near the bottom where it tells the page to load a Shockwave app (which is the game). Note the line that gives a URL for external.variables.txt. Go ahead and load external_variables_276 in your web browser. The number at the end of that will increment every now and then (it'll probably already be higher by the time you read this), but any number you use will always load the latest version for the current moment, so the number's not all that important.
The page that loads contains lots of variable information for VMK, stuff that could change periodically. Points of interest include a listing of all the rooms in the game and the redemption prices of all the items you can sell back to the store to get money from them.
Now - look at the bottom of the external variables file; it lists other files which get loaded. Two of these are interesting:
- external_texts_170 - (Again, the number doesn't matter; it increments occasionally, but any number will get you the latest one.) This file contains all of the English-language text used in the game, including the name of every item the game knows about. This list has been posted before on this board, but now you know how to get it yourself. If you save a copy of this file, then a few days or weeks later you get a new copy of this file and compare it with the old one, you can see things that have changed. For example, now you get 5 credits back when you delete a photo. And recently the Fantasyland Castle (2/9) pin has become Fantasyland Castle Retro Pin, the Golden Horseshoe Saddle Seats have lost the Golden Horseshoe part of their name, and a bunch of Hong Kong-themed pins and clothing have appeared (six pins and some posters, pullovers, and T-shirts).
- dictionary_47 - This lists all of the base words that the game allows, along with some flags for each word saying what forms it can take. (The flags appear to be standard ispell suffix format, as documented here.) I am guessing that when you type and receive messages, the game communicates with the central server not literally but with indexes to this list, which has two consequences: it's physically impossible to use language not in the dictionary; and if (by some glitch) your copy of the dictionary is slightly older than the one the server is using, stuff will show up as gibberish (more so for words closer to Z). For example, someone recently posted a screenshot of the mail they saw when they logged on: "Got seats codes, Enter theirs now to free Vmk looto Too users onefor click on thats Chair Icon too open youve Studies menufor click on Codes tab and ty in that code' Youd receive a message and youve items wildly appear in thats Studies menu'"
That's all I've got for now. Yes, I'm a geek.
First off: when you're in a game, do a "save as" in your web browser to save the "Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom" HTML file to your desktop. Then open the file in Notepad or TextEdit or any other text editor. You'll know you have the right file if you see it start off looking like this:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom</TITLE>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
Now, the interesting part of the file is near the bottom where it tells the page to load a Shockwave app (which is the game). Note the line that gives a URL for external.variables.txt. Go ahead and load external_variables_276 in your web browser. The number at the end of that will increment every now and then (it'll probably already be higher by the time you read this), but any number you use will always load the latest version for the current moment, so the number's not all that important.
The page that loads contains lots of variable information for VMK, stuff that could change periodically. Points of interest include a listing of all the rooms in the game and the redemption prices of all the items you can sell back to the store to get money from them.
Now - look at the bottom of the external variables file; it lists other files which get loaded. Two of these are interesting:
- external_texts_170 - (Again, the number doesn't matter; it increments occasionally, but any number will get you the latest one.) This file contains all of the English-language text used in the game, including the name of every item the game knows about. This list has been posted before on this board, but now you know how to get it yourself. If you save a copy of this file, then a few days or weeks later you get a new copy of this file and compare it with the old one, you can see things that have changed. For example, now you get 5 credits back when you delete a photo. And recently the Fantasyland Castle (2/9) pin has become Fantasyland Castle Retro Pin, the Golden Horseshoe Saddle Seats have lost the Golden Horseshoe part of their name, and a bunch of Hong Kong-themed pins and clothing have appeared (six pins and some posters, pullovers, and T-shirts).
- dictionary_47 - This lists all of the base words that the game allows, along with some flags for each word saying what forms it can take. (The flags appear to be standard ispell suffix format, as documented here.) I am guessing that when you type and receive messages, the game communicates with the central server not literally but with indexes to this list, which has two consequences: it's physically impossible to use language not in the dictionary; and if (by some glitch) your copy of the dictionary is slightly older than the one the server is using, stuff will show up as gibberish (more so for words closer to Z). For example, someone recently posted a screenshot of the mail they saw when they logged on: "Got seats codes, Enter theirs now to free Vmk looto Too users onefor click on thats Chair Icon too open youve Studies menufor click on Codes tab and ty in that code' Youd receive a message and youve items wildly appear in thats Studies menu'"
That's all I've got for now. Yes, I'm a geek.