Exposing a Diablo Cheater (4k remaster) - dwangoAC and TASBot at MAGWest 2024
482This is a 4K remaster of the original 1080i source with improved audio and subtitles | Diablo analysis: https://Diablo.TAS.Bot/ | Diablo TAS: https://tasvideos.org/9396S | Abyssoft coverage: • The Biggest Cheating Scandal In Diablo Spe... | Join the TASBot Discord! https://Discord.gg/TASBot
Note: I'm recovering health-wise and doing part time security assessment work as I'm able. Please reach out if you're looking for a webapp pentest or any kind of investigation work along the lines of what's in this video.
Trolls cheating in video games by passing Tool-Assisted Speedruns off as human effort break leaderboards and stifle speedrunners. Why do they do it when they could make a cool game hack or a TAS to show off their work, and how do you trap these trolls? The answer is to use their own tools against them, often with popcorn bucket worthy results like taking down Guinness World Records. From TASVideos member Omnigamer taking on 1980's Dragster cheat Todd Rogers, a passing mention of Billy Mitchell, and the TASBot team investigating Super Mario Maker shenanigans, this updated talk presented at MAGWest 2024 includes the new impossible fireball damage issues in Groobo's Diablo run and covers several notable cheating incidents and concludes with a systematic takedown of a troll that chilled the Diablo speedrunning community for more than a decade.
Groobo's 2009 speedrun of Diablo (in the 'any% segmented' category) contains significant irregularities which compromise the integrity of the run. The analysis presented in this video demonstrates the run is provably illegitimate and should be retracted from all records sites, including Speed Demos Archive and Guinness World Records.
The speedrun includes the following disqualifying elements:
Visual evidence of both versions 1.00 and 1.09, indicating the run video was spliced from multiple playthroughs
Segments from unrelated runs that cannot naturally coexist in a single playthrough
Levels which could only exist through external modifications to the game's mechanics
Graphical and audio artifacts suggesting unusual video splicing, including gameplay omissions which affect the recorded completion time
The analysis document at https://Diablo.TAS.Bot/ has full details - the team submitted a legit optimized Diablo 1.04 TAS in 1:46 as timed by modern SDA standards at https://tasvideos.org/9396S and WIRED covered the DEF CON talk at https://www.wired.com/story/the-hacker-who-hunts-video-game-speedrunning-cheaters
Timestamps (thanks, Scribble!)
0:00 From the hip announcement
0:50 Introduction
2:33 No slides for you!
3:49 Watching Groobo's run
8:30 Title Screen Inconsistencies
10:53 Invalid Dungeon Level Sequence
16:06 Inconsistent Inventory
17:08 Impossible Quest Combinations
18:24 Inaccessible Dungeon Level
19:09 Missing Gameplay
21:14 Inconsistent Item Drop
21:32 Improbable Item Duplication
22:19 Inconsistent Music Playback
23:17 Inconsistent Shop Inventory Rolling
24:19 Inconsistent Glitch Use
25:31 Artificially Enhanced Fireball Damage
27:54 Watching the recreated Diablo fight
28:48 Enhancing fireball damage
30:19 Diablo Modification Tools from 2009
31:50 Conclusion
33:29 Audience opinion
34:01 The response
35:11 Message to Groobo
36:38 Response from SDA
37:41 Halting speedrunning efforts
38:12 Reigniting the fire
38:44 Watching the Diablo TAS (without searching for the video first)
44:41 Contacting Guinness
44:55 Why we are doing this
46:32 Relationship between TASers and Speedrunners
47:36 Credits from the Authors
48:22 Question: Ability to reverse Diablo seeds from dates?
50:01 Question: What type of speedrun did Groobo make?
51:08 Photo time! 📸
51:18 Question: Negative health graphics
51:55 Question: Really close stair seeds
52:20 Question: Emulating Windows 95
54:42 Question: Are loading times counted in submissions?
56:21 Question: Clarifications on dungeon levels 3 and 4
57:08 Question: How did this all start?
58:22 Question: Favorite thing to do with the TAS tools
1:01:03 Question: Windows environments and Windows bashing
1:03:02 Question: Favorite way of catching cheaters
1:04:37 Question: Dungeon seed clarification
1:04:47 Wrapping up and Outro
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Video credits:
Presenters - dwangoAC
Video Editor - Spooey
Thumbnail - Spooey
TASBot Opening - CraftedCart
Outro Graphics - DrD2k9, Briar
End Credits - Reisama
TASBot theme music - JohnGabrielUK, WhimsyHeath
All SDA and MAGWest 2024 event content used with permission.
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