HWBT — Hot Wheels: Beat That! Reverse Engineering

A reverse engineering project for Hot Wheels: Beat That! (PC), documenting file formats, game structures, and recreated assets.

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📁 Repository Structure

HWBT/
├── GameFiles/          # Original game files (not tracked in git)
├── Ghidra/             # Ghidra project for executable analysis
│   └── HotwheelsBeatThatPC.rep/
│       └── versioned/  # Tracked: function names, comments, annotations
├── Recreated/          # Recreated/decompiled source files
│   ├── c/              # Reconstructed C code
│   └── readable files/ # Human-readable format documentation
├── Text/               # Text dumps and function lists
│   └── funcs.txt       # Named/identified functions
├── VSCode-Extensions/  # Syntax highlighting extensions for custom formats
│   ├── hwbt-syntax-1.0.0.vsix
│   └── hwbt-syntax-1.1.0.vsix
└── hwbt.html           # WIP Webpage based editor

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🔧 Tools Used

• Ghidra — NSA reverse engineering suite, used for disassembly and decompilation of the game executable
• VSCode — with custom syntax extensions (included) for game-specific file formats

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📦 Known File Formats

Extension	Description
.LAS	Zone/level audio or script data
.LS	Script files (e.g. battle stock, zone objectives)
.AMM	AI driver/behaviour data
.EPD	Eliminator game mode data
.GCF	Game configuration
.UCP	Garage/vehicle unlock/config data
.MOV
.PTL	Particle effects
.CUT
.TES	Zone terrain or event script
.VEH	Vehicle definition
.CMS	Commentary strings
.dat	Generic binary data

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🚀 Getting Started

Viewing Ghidra Analysis

1. Install Ghidra
2. Open Ghidra and select File → Open Project
3. Navigate to Ghidra/ and open HotwheelsBeatThatPC.gpr
4. The project contains annotated functions, renamed variables, and comments

Installing the VSCode Syntax Extension

1. Open VSCode
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+P → Extensions: Install from VSIX...
3. Select VSCode-Extensions/hwbt-syntax-1.1.0.vsix
4. Press Ctrl+Shift+P Hot Wheels Beat That: Open HWBT Data File

Currently supported filetypes

• .AMM
• .CMS
• .VEH
• .EPD
• .GCF

Please note this is read only for now.

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Credits

• Beastincolt

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⚠️ Legal Notice

This project is for educational and research purposes only. No copyrighted game assets are included in this repository. You must own a legitimate copy of Hot Wheels: Beat That! to make use of any tooling or documentation here.

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🤝 Contributing

Findings, format documentation, and annotated function names are welcome. Please open an issue or PR with any corrections or additions.