want to learn stuff useful for making emulators
 

Hi I have programmed for 5 years reasnably intense, Im still a newbie but Im am 3/4 of the way through a crappy pong clone using sdl and visual studio 6. I have also done an hnd in software development and have used c,c++,visual basic,mysql,php and java as well as some other languages.

Once again I stress that I am still learning and new , I have also done some linux assembly language using tasm.

Getting to my question now but I was reading a thread on this site and I noticed one of the admins get a little annoyed because of someones attitude and they started briefly saying some of the stuff they now deal with :-)........well you folks know your stuff I will say that!

Anyway I want to get into the reverse engineering side of things with stuff I own e.g assembly and knowing how to manipulate packets and such.

Now I know that this is NOT in the least bit easy and that it takes alot of time, effort and studying but I was wandering how did people start out who are caable at assembly and packet manipulation? Could they reccomend any good sites for learning stuff that I can actually apply to what Im trying to achieve. I have went to various supposed hacking help groups which I thought would have people there who were into there coding and helping others but all I found were dead links to sites, people who seemed like little kids , and people more interested in critisising the format of a post than actually divulging any information conjucive to learning.

Any help/guidance from any of you gurus out there is much appreciated

Thanks guys
David

Info
 

Reverse engineering is not always circumventing copy protections, it all depends on where you live the DMCA does not affect everyone.
if your going to "try an" reverse engineer project I suggest you join a group like this one.
http://www.reverse-engineering.net

I believe strongly in reverse engineering in particular,it plays an especially critical role in the development of software: in my experience, when developing a layer in the stack of software abstraction, you always need to understand at least one layer below you and you often need to understand at least one layer above you -- and reverse engineering is often the primary means to achieve this understanding.
We are not hackers looking to crack codes and encryptions...well... maybe we are heh... it's all 1's and zeros right when you get down to it.
it does play a vital role in the legitimate process of software development.
if you use it the way it was intended.
heres a big clue.
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Software developers all depend on at least some pieces of externally prepared software: libraries, compilers, and operating systems. Almost all software is dependent on other software and ensuring the security and reliability of your own software often involves assurance as to the security and reliability of all your software's dependencies.

Here is some of the more Untold reasons to reverse engineer.
Common uses include:

recovery of business data from proprietary file formats
creation of hardware documentation from binary drivers, often for producing Linux drivers from Windows or Macintosh drivers
enhancing consumer electronics devices
malware analysis
malware creation, often involving a search for security holes
discovery of undocumented APIs that may be useful
criminal investigation
copyright and patent litigation
breaking software copy protection (legally and not), often for games and expensive engineering software

Sdabbs65,

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply and compose a constructive post, I also believe my programming would come on leaps and bounds going down this route and I would also need to keep improvong my maths. Since college I have tried to always be doing something to add to my education and if I could go down ths route and stick t it I feel it will benefits many aspects of my computing and understanding. Thanks also for the link to that site , that is one I didnt know about :-)