[Wirestealth]

Heya mate, thanks for the reply.

If by the VM you mean the ASProtect code that decrypts/decodes the protection then I know with time I will understand this. I have already read some tutorials that have touched on this but I will require a better understanding of the engine to follow them precisely. I have professionally programmed for 18 years and so will not have a problem with the assembly but just need to augment my current knowledge with that of RE.

In all honesty I see I have got a lot to learn even regarding your post.

However, even though I have a target in mind, I want to use this as a way to learn and become proficient at actually unpacking. I realize that this is going to take a long time but I'm in no rush (this is a guy that would farm the Scarlet Spellbinders in WoW for (on average) 10 hours to get one Crusader Enchantment drop) and got title LDoA in GuildWars by death-levelling - nothing that couldn't be done by anyone else but shows that 1) I have the patience/dedication to achieve what I focus on and 2) I have no life. I believe that if I have a deep and thorough understanding of unpacking then it will lend itself nicely to other skills such as keygens, etc.

Summarizing my rather verbose initial post then:
- If I am not sure of the version of ASProtect (btw I have now tried AsprInf V1.6 Beta and it returned [1.4 build 11.20<±2pòö2½fz¸4t¶¶ª7û?zûv«¬) could I assume that it may be one of the 'custom solutions' offered by ASPack/ASProtect? This thread http://forum.exetools.com/showpost.php?p=52879&postcount=6 talks about manual detection via the TASP object and I was considering taking this approach if there were not other quick & dirty suggestions on determining the version
- Since I have yet to find a tutorial on 1.4 build 11.20 of ASProtect what would be the version of a tutorial most similar to this?

I am not looking to be spoon fed any information that is readily available with some simple googling/forum reading but just wish to ensure I focus my learning.

I am looking forward to both absorbing and ultimately contributing to the knowledge of RE - kinda sounds more like a cover letter than a post lol, but it's how I feel.

Cheers mates.