Reverse engineering the server is reverse engineering the whole game. It’s going to require skilled engineers and a significant time investment. It may be possible, but not practical.
Also, the client will likely verify it is talking to a legitimate server by checking a certificate, so you may also have to hack the client too.
At some point you’re better off making your own game with hookers and blackjack.
I’ve been playing my steam backlog and recently have been working on Darksiders. This stupid boss killed me dozens of times yesterday, but I got her today!!
I have a medium end gaming PC with 64gb of ram and a decent (aging) 5700xt. My favorite PC game right now is Hades 😎
I like the graphics of new games, but every time I try to play one I have to agree to a 50 page privacy policy and/or create a new account. I usually just cancel that and go back to my classic games that you just open and start playing.
I didn’t think to experiment with the shaders much, so I’ll give that a shot. I briefly tried the cell shading shader, but that looked way too unnatural for me – but it is neat.
(As an aside, I have my original PlayStation 1 and I really want to snag a real CRT at some point for some true nostalgia.)
I played around with upscaling PS1 games in retroarch last night and I was pleasantly surprised. There are some YouTube videos that talk through the process m.youtube.com/watch?v=6yDWYeuQ2pI
It can breathe new life into some dated looking games. Highly recommend giving it a try