Esoteria: a game no one has ever heard of

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 2:01 am

I plan to resurrect this game, but I need access to the archive.
Could someone help me out?

Here is the file archive:
http://home.1asphost.com/bitterbanana/segs.22k

Thanks in advance.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 2:03 am

Ok, just registered.

Thanks in advance again.

bitterbanana · Post by **bitterbanana** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 4:32 am

I'm willing to pay money for someone to figure this out...

Post by **Mr.Mouse** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 7:55 am

We'll have a look a it. At no cost. The next release of MultiEx Commander will offer more functionality if you donate once (whatever amount), but for now, taking a look is free of charge.

[EDIT]

Code: Select all

IDString 0 cgds ;
Get FNum Long 0 ;
Math FNum -= 1 ;
For T = 1 to FNum ;
SavePos FOO 0 ;
Get FO Long 0 ;
SavePos ST 0 ;
Get FS Long 0 ;
Math FS -= FO ;
Log "" FO FS FOO 0 ;
GoTo ST 0 ;
Next T ;

That's the MexScriptor script for the format. You can use MexBinder to create the 22k.bms file (start the scriptor) that you must import (using MexBinder) into your MC.MRF file in the data/config directory of MultiEx Commander. Just open the MC.MRF and select Add Single Format, point to the 22k.bms file and give the name of the game. Then save the new mc.mrf.

bitterbanana · Post by **bitterbanana** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 2:26 pm

oh thanks alot, I'll be sure to donate soon. I promise

bitterbanana · Post by **bitterbanana** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 12:36 am

I can't get it working. It gives me a runtime error 9 (subscript out of range). I copy and pasted your code into the scriptor and tried to save it but that error popped up. Could you help me please?

friendsofwatto · Post by **friendsofwatto** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 3:54 am

Hi mate,

I managed to get it compiled eventually, and have attached it here (22k.zip).

1. Unzip the file, then load up the MexBinder program.
2. Click the "Open MRF" button and choose the file called mc.mrf
3. Click the "Add Single Format" button and choose the file you unzipped
4. Type the game name
5. Click the "Create MRF" button and choose the mc.mrf file

Hopefully that should be ready to go - so load up MultiEx Commander and test it out.

Also, just in case you need or want it, I have attached a Game Extractor plugin that will open the archives (Plugin_22K_CGDS.zip) - you can get Game Extractor from http://www.watto.org/extract . Just unzip the plugin into the plugins/ directory, run Game Extractor, and open the archive.

Good Luck!

WATTO
[email protected]
http://www.watto.org

friendsofwatto · Post by **friendsofwatto** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 3:57 am

Hmm, it appears as though you can only attach one file to a post, so here is the Game Extractor plugin.

WATTO
[email protected]
http://www.watto.org

Post by **Mr.Mouse** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 9:20 am

Well, I perhaps should have told you that when you copy paste Windows adds some extra spaces at the end of each line. Each line should end with a semi-colon ';' and not have trailing spaces. Then it will compile right.

Anyway, here's the ready-made mc.mrf:

bitterbanana · Post by **bitterbanana** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 2:15 am

thank you friendsofwatto and Mr.Mouse

It worked and now I can view the archive file. But I have one problem. All the files are unnamed without any description of a filetype. Is this normal?

The files in the archive should have .e3 extensions for some of the game sprites, I think. Raven.e3 is one of them.

Also, my java doesn't work anymore. It gives me blank windows all the time. I've reinstalled it countless times, new and old versions. So I can't use Game Extractor. (I'm on XP)

You guys have helped me more than I expected you would. Thank you very much for taking the time.

Post by **Mr.Mouse** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 7:24 am

Well, we did not find any information in the archive about filenames of the files that were stored. Basically it's just a list of files without names. It may be possible however that the authors stored another file with the names in. Look for a file that has the same name as the archive, but with a different extension, or perhaps even another bigger file that has all filenames in all archives stored.

friendsofwatto · Post by **friendsofwatto** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 12:08 pm

Hey,

Um yeah, there are no filenames with this format - unless there is a separate file of filenames like Mr Mouse said. Otherwise, you'll just have to open each file until you find the right one.

As for the Java problem, I'm not sure why it is giving you those problems. Take a look at the help and installation pages at http://www.watto.org/extract to see if you can fix the problem. Alternately, install Game Extractor, run it, and close it. Go to the logs/ directory and if there are any files in there, email the last few to me and I will try to fix the issue.

Thanks mate, and good luck.

WATTO
[email protected]
http://www.watto.org

bitterbanana · Post by **bitterbanana** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 11:54 pm

I think these are the lists of the names separated into different files.
The segs.22k that I gave you a couple days ago is actually a smaller file from an old demo. The newer 22k file is about 23mb. But the new one is the same format, so I'm hoping that doesn't matter.

Here is one of the files. I tried to zip all of them and attach it but I got an upload error. This is the file that contains the sprites names I think.

(Is this stuff hard to learn. Should I be doing this myself?)

If you guys want the demo with all the files in it, here it is. In this version of the demo, it has a segs.22k and a data.z file.
http://downloads.pcworld.com/pub/new/fu ... stdemo.zip

Many thanks

friendsofwatto · Post by **friendsofwatto** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 12:24 pm

Well here is the structure of the e3 format you attached - I am not sure whether they actually relate to the filenames in the other archives though. Do you know how many files are in the sprites archive? If there are 7, then we have the right filenames, otherwise these files do something else.

Anyway, here are the specs for the e3 files...

Code: Select all

+---------------+
| Esoteria *.e3 |
+---------------+

// NOTE:
// if filenameLength or typeNameLength = 99, then the name field is
// 4 bytes long and is all nulls

7 - Header (ESv1.0 )
4 - Number Of Files

// for each file
  64 - Filename (null)
  4 - Offset
  4 - Length

// for each file
  7 - Header (ESv1.0 )
  1 - Unknown
  4 - null
  4 - Type Name Length (including 1 null)
  X - Type Name
  1 - null
  4 - Filename Length (including 1 null)
  X - Filename
  1 - null
  18 - null
  4 - Unknown
  12 - null
  4 - Unknown
  4 - Unknown
  12 - null
  4 - Unknown
  2 - Unknown

Yeah, I didn't worry about the unknowns too much, basically just wanted to outline the file structure.

I may try to get the demo if it isn't too big - it may help to link the files together better.

Thanks mate.

WATTO
[email protected]
http://www.watto.org

bitterbanana · Post by **bitterbanana** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 8:53 pm

Thanks for taking a look at it Watto.

I'm a bit lost, but I know it's an outline of how the data is allocated in the file. I'm not completely helpless, so is there something I can read to understand the code you just gave me? I really want to start helping myself, rather than bug you guys. I just joined the "game-hacking" community so I have no experience in this type of thing. I can hex-edit and concurrently debug a game, but nothing with files yet.

The demo is 12 mb. If you want to play the game to test out anything, you'll have to go to start, run, dxdiag. Under display, disable the accelerations.

Thank you very much.

EDIT:
I just remembered the definitive guide you released, so I'll check that out.

XeNTaX

XeNTaX

Esoteria: a game no one has ever heard of

Esoteria: a game no one has ever heard of