Request for inclusion of TAW in the list of games

[Strobe]

hi there.

That fat 62mb data file is packed with PCX images and some ILBM pictures.
in case you havent seen it =o

thanks to this big file ive found a flaw in my Jaeder Naub that
would infact render all images ripped from this archive useless due to
faulty length calculation. so...now i have to ask...

What is a good way to calculate the length of an PCX image?
all readers out there are piccy as hell, if they so differ 1 byte from
the original file they become "Unreadable".

Edit: PCX issue fixed. (atleast for these files)

Now ive found a new type of RIFF ive never seen before, MIDSfmt?
anyone know what these are?

I didnt get so much smarter by googling on it....

[Xela]

Now ive found a new type of RIFF ive never seen before, MIDSfmt? anyone know what these are?

RIFFS are wavs and MIDs are being worked on , but probable ether music or video clips. But tell me , tell me please how to dig out those PCX s and LBMs? Are the PCX with ASCI Stamp "RA"?

[Strobe]

Here is how my analyzation went on the PCX data.
The tricky part is that there is no Length Header at all, and if
you make the slightest mistake in ripping them, no reader will
parse them. (yes i know, it sucks)


if you just want to rip them out quickly, you can use Jaeder Naub.
http://jaedernaub.ath.cx

the archive contains RIFF MIDS, RIFF WAVE, PCX, ILBM and SF2 Banks.
so be sure to have these options clicked if ripping.

My guess is that RIFF MIDS are Midi files of some sort, that uses the SF2 Banks for the sounds. (as SF2 banks are midi sounds). Have fun!

[Strobe]

LBM bitmaps are much easier to rip than PCX.

LBM starts with
byte 1-4 = FORM
byte 5-8 = Length header <-- Motorola byte order!!!
byte 9-12 = ILBM

use the Length header and add 8 to the value, and you have the whole image.
( ....i think it was add 8....not 4? ...nah...8..try? ..maybe gahh)


the sad thing is that Photoshop does NOT read ilbm bitmaps, you will need
an external program or plugin for them.

[Xela]

Good job, I study and I rip them too.
LBM is read by Irphanview.
I just hope that those files which start with RA can be figured out too. I think they are compressed or something else. I did not make full inventory of those 12588 files found in did.dat , but I am afraid that PCXs and LBMs are small part of it. There are also some probable graphic files 37 KB in size. I do not have their stamp now but those files are:
noname 4336 , 1343, 7681, 7731, 7647, 1514, 4991 and perhaps still more. If you can please take a look at them , from what I am thinking it could be tiles for the terrain . They open in RAW format header 12 and width 80 (8 bit), but they are still ???

here are those RA enigmas - just 4 randomly chosen , but there are many of them in total

[Strobe]

A little notice.
alot of the PCX files i ripped where 37kbs big, so that could be them.
Ill try see what i can make out of the RA files now! =o *stay tuned, now for commercial*

[Xela]

Strobe,
I have opened and extracted all files with your program.
ILBMs I cannot open in Irphanview.
PCXs are not the pictures or maps I was talking about above. These extracted now were simple menu, cut screens and title pictures. There must be much more textures in the game besides that.
Found also 3 files of *.sf2 format. I think they are sound or music files.

[Strobe]

This is frustrating :X

So now the ILBMs are crunched aswell, same as with the RA (???).
we know that there are ILBM bitmaps, because
they have the same markers, so it is definitely an ILBM
file. except for that it looks packed.

And yes. i think with the music is like this:
RIFF MIDs file = Music Sheet
SF2 Banks = Instruments used for the MIDs files.

[Xela]

Great work Strobe,
looking at string dump from did.dat I remember seeing even some listing of lbm files. I cannot look for that now but later in the evening I'll try.

Did you crunch RA files? What are they?

Also if you come accross *.ssd files . I suspect they are sort of shape files like Longbow2 with textures embeded in those files.

TAW generally was well known from the stuborness of giving away its secrets. For the entire period of game lifetime no one so far came close really to unlock the files. Talks and gossips were about special tool used to encrypt files withing the files, but I do not really buy that? Some clues perhaps could be found in earlier EF2000, F22_adf and later Typhoon , all by the same company. I have EF2000 but I did not yet look there.

So we are climbing pretty steep mountain .

[Xela]

This could be of some relevance and help. Independence WAR 2 It is also by ATARI after DID team was no longer. Could be by some of the same people.

http://www.i-war2.com/modder_5.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILBM

[Strobe]

atleast one more value is distinguished =o

and im about 99% sure of this, as it follows the same rule on every file.
this value is always Higher than the file length itself, so it must
be a "Depacked Length" value.

[Xela]

Outstanding ! And great work Holmes, err .... I mean Strobe.

[Strobe]

Now just someone have to make an depacker for it
(now this is the tricky part!!) :X


but hopefully in about 32 years when somebody made the unpack
algoritm we can possibly apply it on the ILBM files aswell =D

[Xela]

With LBM it could be perhaps even simplier. Here is what I have to report:

I have installed EF2000 earlier DID's game;
*it has also DID.dat which CAN be open with MultiEX TAW.bms (over 8000 files) ;
*that EF2000's did .dat carries all similarity to TAW's did.dat it has RA files, LBM files, RIFF, and text files, and others perhaps those graphics ;

*but the surprise was when LBM files (those with FORM) stamp after simply RENAMING to *.lbm OPENED clear and perfect in Irphanview.

*same with RIFF when renamed to *.wav play the sound (but that we knew already)

I am going now back to TAW to fish out those FORMs and see if after renaming them I can also view them in Irphanview.


EDIT: half an hour later I am still trying to find those "FORMs" , but I confirm that those 39KB graphics whixh I was suspecting to be a terrain tiles are simply .... PCX pictures, exactly those found with your ripper. Here in MultiEx one needs to extract them and rename to *.pcx.

[Xela]

Wouldn't that be wonderfull if "RA" files were RARs ad renaming them was the whole "trick"?
Naaah .... I tried that already and that would be ....flat and boring.