ModdingWiki - User contributions [en-gb]

CKPatch

2019-07-07T21:20:27Z

MoffD: fixing typo

CKPatch, or Commander Keen Patch, is a series of programs that take advantage of an obscure DOS protocol that allows an executable file to be patched into memory. Initially developed for [[Commander Keen 1-3]], the series was expanded to cover [[Commander Keen 4-6]] and eventually several other related games.

It is illegal to modify even shareware game executables, which means that traditionally modders had to make do with altering what graphics, levels and such were not hard-coded. For many games this was no problem since as long as the files were in the correct format, the game would use them. Most games however, were not meant to be edited and these often placed severe restraints on what could be done.

For Commander Keen 1-3, while all graphics, sounds and levels could be modified with no problems, however in-game texts were more difficult to alter. To do this CKPatch was created, its full potential not realized until much later.

== Patching ==

Patching involves altering the code of a game executable by copying said executable into memory and making changes there. Since the original file is not modified, this is perfectly legal, and all sorts of changes can be made. Initially CKPatch was used for little more than altering mod stories, but it rapidly gained widespread use in altering ever more complex things, sprite behaviors, player behavior, cutscenes and more.

The basic idea is to use a script file to give CKPatch a series of commands (Prefaced by %patch) each of which alters a segment of code. If it is known what a code segment does, then it can be altered as the user wishes.

== Supported games ==

As well as Keen 1-3 and 4-6, several other games have been added. The first was [[Commander Keen Dreams]] with KDPatch. Other Keen engine games were also added recently:

* [[Bio Menace]]
* [[Commander Keen 1-3]]
* [[Commander Keen 4-6]]
* [[Commander Keen Dreams]]
* [[Dangerous Dave 2]]
* [[Dangerous Dave 3]]
* [[Shadow Knights]]

Talk:POD Format

2016-06-06T03:40:30Z

MoffD: (Previous edit note)

== Red Links ==

Sorry for the red links. I can probably make a page for Hellbender, but I figured we'd want the info. Let me know if they need removing. [[User:MoffD|MoffD]] ([[User talk:MoffD|talk]]) 03:40, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

POD Format

2016-06-06T03:33:50Z

MoffD: Adding some extra known games using the POD format

{{Archive Infobox
| MaxFiles = 4,294,967,295
| FAT = Beginning
| Names = Yes, 32 chars
| Metadata = Description
| Subdirectories = N
| Compressed = N
| Encrypted = N
| Hidden = Y
| Games =
{{Game|Terminal Velocity}}
{{Game|Fury 3}}
{{Game|Monster Truck Madness}}
{{Game|Hellbender}}
}}
The '''POD format''' is used by [[Terminal Velocity]] to store much of the game data.

== File format ==

=== Signature ===

There is no known signature, however POD files do have an identification string which could be used to pick out the file type. It is currently unknown whether the game will work with different strings. The strings are located at offset 4 (just after the UINT32LE containing the file count.) They are null padded and 80 bytes long.

{|class="wikitable"
!Filename!!Identification string!!Clarification
|-
|STARTUP.POD||Startup 1.1 Gold||Stock disk version/shareware startup
|-
|STARTUP.POD||Startup 1.1 Gold Hires||Cd-rom version startup
|-
|SHARE.POD||TV 1.2 Shareware||Shareware data
|-
|DISK.POD||Disk Version 1.1 Gold||Standard diskette data
|-
|CDROM.POD||TV 1.2 CD-ROM||Cd-rom data
|}

And here are signatures for fury 3

{|class="wikitable"
!Filename!!Identification string!!Clarification
|-
|STARTUPX.POD||Startup Fury3 Trial Version||fury3 trial startup
|-
|FURY3X.POD||Fury3 Trial Version Egypt2||fury3 trial data
|-
|STARTUP.POD||Startup Rel 28||Fury3 startup pod
|-
|FURY3.POD||Fury3 Rel 26||Fury3 data
|-
|FURYSE.POD||Furyse with AVI||F!Zone data
|}

=== Header ===

The file begins with the following data:

{|class="wikitable"
!Data type!!Description
|-
|UINT32LE numFiles||Number of files in the POD
|-
|char id[80]||Null-padded file description (see [[#Signature]] above)
|}

Immediately following the header are <tt>numFiles</tt> file entries.

=== File entry ===

{|class="wikitable"
!Data type!!Description
|-
|char filepath[32]||File name and path (e.g. "ART\ANT0000.RAW")
|-
|UINT32LE size||File size
|-
|UINT32LE offset||File offset
|}

The file data follows the file entries at the offsets indicated.

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=group}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Camoto]]
| Platform = Linux/Windows
| canExtract = Yes
| canDecompress = N/A
| canCreate = Yes
| canModify = Yes
| canCompress = N/A
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}

== Credits ==

This file format was reverse engineered by [[User:Malvineous|Malvineous]]. If you find this information helpful in a project you're working on, please give credit where credit is due. (A link back to this wiki would be nice too!)

IMF Format

2015-04-07T13:47:14Z

MoffD: missing "in" @ "even in games"

{{Music Infobox
| Type = OPL
| Instruments = OPL
| NumChannels = 9 or 11
| NumTracks = 1
| Tags = Unofficial: Title, Composer, Remarks, Program name
| Game1 = Bio Menace
| Game2 = Blake Stone
| Game3 = Catacomb 3-D
| Game4 = Commander Keen 4-6
| Game5 = Corridor 7 Alien Invasion
| Game6 = Cosmo's Cosmic Adventures
| Game7 = Duke Nukem II
| Game8 = Hocus Pocus
| Game9 = Major Stryker
| Game10 = Monster Bash
| Game11 = Operation Body Count
| Game12 = Realms of Chaos
| Game13 = Wolfenstein 3-D
}}

The id Software Music Format (IMF) is a raw music format that stores the actual bytes sent to the Adlib's [[OPL2]] chip. For this reason it is a very simple format to process.

== File format ==

There are two versions of the IMF format: Type-0 format and Type-1 format. In a Type-0 file, the whole file is Adlib data that is played until the end of the file is reached. Type-1 files are actually ripped chunks from an [[AudioT Format]] file. No game ever actually used Type-1 IMFs that were not stored inside an AudioT file. The two initial bytes contain the size of the Adlib data (not including the two bytes themselves), so only this much data is played. This means it's possible to store arbitrary data in a Type-1 IMF file after the song data (see [[#Tag Data]] below.)

As a matter of luck, the first two data bytes in a Type-0 files are almost always 0x00 0x00, so this can be used to detect the file format version. If the first two bytes match the length of the file it is likely Type-1, but be aware that trailing data will mean this is not always true. Otherwise the only other way is to parse all the register/value pairs in the file and ensure the register is [[OPL chip#Register Map|within range]] (e.g. registers 0xA0 to 0xA9 are valid, but 0xAA to 0xAF should never be used.) Note that 0x00 is actually an invalid register, but must be treated as valid since the files usually begin by writing 0x00 to register 0x00.

Another way to detect the type of an IMF file is to examine the first few instructions in the IMF file. The idea is that the first few IMF commands set up the AdLib registers and therefore should have no delay. Even if there is a delay, it would normally be relatively low compared to the combined 16-bit value of the (register, value) pair.

<source lang="c">
UINT16 ReadInt16LE(FILE* in)
{
UINT8 buf[2];
fread(buf, 1, 2, in);
return (buf[0] | (buf[1] << 8));
}

int IMF_IsChunk(FILE* in)
{
UINT16 chunksize, buff, i=42;
UINT32 sum1=0, sum2=0;

if(!in)
return 0;

if (!feof(in))
{
chunksize = ReadInt16LE(in);
if ((chunksize == 0) || (chunksize & 3))
return 0;

while(!feof(in) && i)
{
buff = ReadInt16LE(in);
sum1 += buff;
buff = ReadInt16LE(in);
sum2 += buff;
i--;
}
fseek(in, 0, SEEK_SET);
return (sum1 > sum2);
}
return 0;
}
</source>

In the code given above, if the file is a chunk (Type-1), then <tt>sum1</tt> contains the sum of all (register, value) pairs and <tt>sum2</tt> contains the sum of all delays. If it's a plain IMF file (Type-0), the sums are swapped.

The only case in which this detection would fail is IMF data that writes a bunch of zeroes to register zero (which would be pointless since that register is undefined) and/or has very large delays (which would be pointless because it would lead to delays of up to a minute before the next IMF command would be processed, resulting in multiple minutes of silence before the song actually starts playing notes).

{|class="wikitable"
!Data type!!Name!!Description
|-
|[[UINT16LE]]||iLength||Song data length in bytes (Type-1 format only)
|-
|[[BYTE]][iLength]||cAdlibData||Song data (see below) - <code>iLength</code> bytes long if Type-1, or until EOF if Type-0
|-
|[[BYTE]][]||cExtraData||Arbitrary data/tags (Type-1 format only, see [[#Tag Data]] below)
|}

Note that for Type-1 files, the initial two bytes (the "song data length") are likely to be the filesize minus two, as the two initial bytes aren't counted. The obvious exception to this is if there is trailing data at the end of the OPL data, such as an info tag.

The song data is composed of four-byte "units":

{|class="wikitable"
!Data type!!Description
|-
|[[BYTE]]||Adlib register
|-
|[[BYTE]]||Adlib data
|-
|[[UINT16LE]]||Delay
|}

The data byte is sent to the specified register on the Adlib card, followed by a delay for the specified number of cycles. For a 560Hz IMF file, there are 560 cycles in one second (see [[#Timing]] below), so a delay of 560 would result in one second of silence (and likewise in a 700Hz IMF the delay value would need to be 700 to produce one second of silence.) A delay of 1 would wait for a single cycle, and a delay of zero means the next register/data pair should be sent immediately (so in a single 'cycle', data would be sent continuously until the next non-zero delay value is reached.)

=== Timing ===

IMF files exist at three known speeds. Unfortunately this is determined by the game, not the IMF file, so tempo cannot be determined from the music files alone. Extracted IMFs can be compared to discern their speeds. The known speeds are:

{|class="wikitable"
!Speed!!Game
|-
|280Hz||[[Duke Nukem II]]
|-
|560Hz||[[Bio Menace]], [[Commander Keen]], [[Cosmo's Cosmic Adventures]], [[Monster Bash]]
|-
|700Hz||[[Blake Stone]], [[Major Stryker]], [[Operation Body Count]], [[Wolfenstein 3-D]]
|}

The easiest method to tell the files apart is to treat all files with a .WLF extension as 700Hz and all .IMF files as 560Hz. Since Duke II is the odd one out, it is usually ignored since doubling the value of all the delay bytes conveniently turns it into a 560Hz .IMF.

=== Restrictions ===

As IMF files contain Adlib music for games that may also have Adlib sound effects, care must be taken to ensure that IMF music and any sound effects can share the OPL chip without conflict. This is done by reserving the OPL's first channel for sound effects, leaving eight remaining channels available for use in IMF files. This has been confirmed by automated inspection of the IMF files from the following games, all of which have no data on OPL channel #0 beyond 2-3 initialisation commands: [[Bio Menace]], [[Blake Stone]], [[Commander Keen 4-6]], [[Cosmo's Cosmic Adventures]], [[Duke Nukem II]], [[Major Stryker]], [[Monster Bash]], [[Operation Body Count]], [[Wolfenstein 3-D]].

In situations where channel #0 is not reserved and is used by the IMF file, when it is placed back into the game it interferes with the sound effects causing distortion, transposition, and otherwise resulting in broken sound effects. This can happen when an IMF file is created using a utility that does not take into account the fact that channel #0 must be left unused. See the end of this page for a list of utilities that can create IMF files and whether they treat channel #0 correctly.

It is worth noting that channel #0 is unused even in games such as Cosmo and Monster Bash, which do not use Adlib sound effects (Cosmo has PC speaker effects only and Monster Bash has PC speaker and digitised PCM audio.) It is also worth mentioning that some IMF songs from [[Monster Bash]] make use of the OPL's rhythm-mode, which trades three note-producing channels for five percussion channels.

=== Tag Data ===

In a Type-1 IMF file it's possible to store data after the end of a song (as per the length given in the first two bytes of the file.) There are a few uses for this - some games store additional (unused) data there generated when the files were added to the game's group file, and others have repurposed this area to store information about the song itself (title, artist, etc.)

The tag data was originally written to the AudioT files by Id Software's tool [[Muse]] and was probably only processed by that tool. The [[Wolfenstein 3-D]] source code reads the entire chunk from the [[AudioT Format|AudioT]] file (including any tag data), but it only ever uses the song length and the song data.

==== Official data ====
For those files which were distributed with additional data in this area, it is not entirely clear what the purpose of this data is. It was apparently added when the source IMF files were compiled into a group audio file by [[Muse]]. (They appear not to be part of the source IMF files as there are occurrences where a file consists solely of tag data.) The format appears to be the same in all games that use it (such as Bio Menace or Wolfenstein 3-D) but it is not supported by any IMF players.

{|class="wikitable"
!Data type!!Name!!Description
|-
|[[UINT16LE]]||Unknown||
|-
|[[char]][16]||strTitle||Song title
|-
|[[char]][64]||strRemarks||Song comment/message, usually source file name.
|-
|[[char]][6]||cProg||Data from the compiler?
|}

==== Unofficial uses ====
It is also possible to store tags there, and this simple format is supported by most IMF players:

{|class="wikitable"
!Data type!!Name!!Description
|-
|[[BYTE]]||cSignature||0x1A
|-
|[[char]][256]||strTitle||Song title
|-
|[[char]][256]||strComposer||Song composer
|-
|[[char]][256]||strRemarks||Song comment/message
|-
|[[char]][9]||cProg||Name of the first program that added these tags (eight bytes + terminating NULL, pad out with NULLs if necessary.)
|}

Note that the char[256] strings are variable-length NULL-terminated strings. Their maximum length is 256 bytes *including* the terminating NULL, meaning the string will only ever contain 255 characters or less, plus the terminating-NULL. Of course the string will normally be much shorter, and an empty string will consist of a single 0x00 byte.

This tag format is supported by AdPlug when playing IMFs. The tag format can also be used with .raw files, but no players officially support it yet.

Note that the tags should begin directly after the IMF data, so in other words reading in the first two bytes of the file (the "song length") and then seeking forward that many bytes, should put the file pointer at the start of the tag block (so the next byte that will be read in should be 0x1A, if the tags are present.)

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=audio}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://adplug.sourceforge.net AdPlug]
| Platform = All
| canPlay = Yes
| canCreate = No
| canModify = No
| canExport = Yes; [[RAW Format (Adlib)|.raw]]
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Camoto]]
| Platform = Linux/Win
| canPlay = Yes
| canCreate = No
| canModify = No
| canExport = Yes; many
| canImport = Yes; many
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://www.shikadi.net/utils/cmf2imf CMF2IMF]
| Platform = Linux/Win
| canPlay = No
| canCreate = No
| canModify = No
| canExport = No
| canImport = Yes; [[CMF Format|.cmf]]
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
| notes = Doesn't leave channel 0 clear for SFX
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://www.shikadi.net/utils/dro2imf DRO2IMF]
| Platform = Linux/Win
| canPlay = No
| canCreate = No
| canModify = No
| canExport = No
| canImport = Yes; [[DRO Format|.dro]]
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
| notes = Doesn't leave channel 0 clear for SFX
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[DRO2MIDI]]
| Platform = Linux/Win
| canPlay = No
| canCreate = No
| canModify = No
| canExport = Yes; [[MID Format|.mid]]
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://winwolf3d.dugtrio17.com/download/IMFCreator IMFCreator]
| Platform = Windows
| canPlay = No
| canCreate = No
| canModify = No
| canExport = No
| canImport = Yes; [[MID Format|.mid]]
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = MUS2IMF
| Platform = DOS?
| canPlay = No
| canCreate = No
| canModify = No
| canExport = No
| canImport = Yes; [[MUS Format|.mus]]
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}

Fatal Racing

2015-01-04T20:53:42Z

MoffD: updated HMP info

{{Stub}}
{{Game Infobox
| Levels = Unknown
| Sound = Some
| Music = Unknown
| Text = Some
| Story = No
| Interface = Some
}}

Fatal Racing, known as Whiplash in the USA, is a 3D stunt car racing game developed by Gremlin Interactive and published in 1995 for DOS.

Several versions of the game exist, with slightly different file layouts.
{{BeginGameFileList}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.RAW *.RFR *.RFE
| Format = RAW Audio @11025 Hz
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Anouncer audio in English, French, and German respectively
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = *.HMP
| Format = [[Human Machine Interfaces MIDI Format]]
| KnownFormat = No
| Desc = Music files in "Human Machine Interfaces MIDI P" format. (See note)
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = DRUM.BNK MELODIC.BNK
| Format = [[BNK Format (Ad Lib)]]
| KnownFormat = Part
| Desc = Instrument files for HMP music
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = *.BM 
| KnownFormat = No
| Desc = Compressed resource files
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = (car).BM 
| KnownFormat = Part
| Desc = Car texture files, 2 for each standard car x(car).bm for the default, and y(car).bm for the alternate set.
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = *.PAL 
| Format = [[VGA Palette]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = VGA Palette files
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = CONFIG.(ENG/FRE/GER) INGAME.(ENG/FRE/GER) SELECT.(ENG/FRE/GER) 
| Format = ASCII Text file
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Game menu texts in English, French, and German
}}

{{EndGameFileList}}
Most of these files are contained in the "fatdata" folder. In addition, there is a single [[TGA Format]] image of a cheat car.

== Notes ==
*The HMP music files contain the version 2 HMP header (HMIMIDIP013195) However, they appear to have a different formatting than standard HMP files.

*This game is one of the few 3DFX-enabled title if not the only one, to have Glide libraries statically linked. In consequence, none of the emulators/tools such as DOSBox or NGlide can run the 3DFX version.

[[Category:Racing]]
[[Category:Gremlin Interactive]]

Fatal Racing

2014-12-22T01:56:27Z

MoffD: Adding menu text info

{{Stub}}
{{Game Infobox
| Levels = Unknown
| Sound = Some
| Music = Unknown
| Text = Some
| Story = No
| Interface = Some
}}

Fatal Racing, known as Whiplash in the USA, is a 3D stunt car racing game developed by Gremlin Interactive and published in 1995 for DOS.

Several versions of the game exist, with slightly different file layouts.
{{BeginGameFileList}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.RAW *.RFR *.RFE
| Format = RAW Audio @11025 Hz
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Anouncer audio in English, French, and German respectively
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = *.HMP
| Format = [[Human Machine Interfaces MIDI Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Music files in "Human Machine Interfaces MIDI P" format
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = DRUM.BNK MELODIC.BNK
| Format = [[BNK Format (Ad Lib)]]
| KnownFormat = Part
| Desc = Instrument files for HMP music
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = *.BM 
| KnownFormat = No
| Desc = Compressed resource files
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = (car).BM 
| KnownFormat = Part
| Desc = Car texture files, 2 for each standard car x(car).bm for the default, and y(car).bm for the alternate set.
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = *.PAL 
| Format = [[VGA Palette]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = VGA Palette files
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = CONFIG.(ENG/FRE/GER) INGAME.(ENG/FRE/GER) SELECT.(ENG/FRE/GER) 
| Format = ASCII Text file
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Game menu texts in English, French, and German
}}

{{EndGameFileList}}
Most of these files are contained in the "fatdata" folder. In addition, there is a single [[TGA Format]] image of a cheat car.

== Notes ==

This game is one of the few 3DFX-enabled title if not the only one, to have Glide libraries statically linked. In consequence, none of the emulators/tools such as DOSBox or NGlide can run the 3DFX version.

[[Category:Racing]]
[[Category:Gremlin Interactive]]

VGA Palette

2014-12-17T19:26:28Z

MoffD: Adding Fatal to the list

{{Palette Infobox
| Hardware = VGA
| Depth = 18-bit, 24-bit
| Count = 256

| Game1 = Stargunner
| Game2 = Zone 66
| Game3 = F-117A Nighthawk
| Game4 = Game Maker
| Game5 = Fatal Racing
}}
[[Image:Hocus Pocus palette.png|thumb|128px|right|[[Hocus Pocus]] palette]]
As far as games are concerned, VGA normally means 256 colours. Whereas the EGA standard allowed 16 colours to be displayed at the same time out of a possible 64 (2-bits per channel), VGA allows 256 colours to be displayed at the same time out of a possible 262,144 (6-bits per channel.)

Unlike EGA games which rarely changed the palette, almost all VGA games alter the palette to their preferred group of 256 colours. When games store the palette on disk, there are two common layouts used.

== The "Classic" format ==

The classic palette format maps exactly to the VGA registers. Each colour takes up three bytes (one each for red, green and blue) and only the lower six bits of each byte are used (as the VGA only uses six bits per colour.) In practice this means each byte will only contain values between zero and 63 inclusive. (However be aware that some games use values between zero and 64! In these cases 64 should be treated the same as 63, as this is what the VGA does.)

This format is often referred to as '''6-bit RGB'''.

== The "Modern" format ==

Since the widespread use of video cards capable of displaying 24-bit images, 256 colour palettes have been increased to use the full eight bits in each byte for storing colour levels. All this means is that each of the red, green and blue bytes will have the full range of values (0-255) instead of the limited VGA values (0-63).

This format is often referred to as '''8-bit RGB'''.

Some variants of this format pad the values out to 32-bits, and this format is often referred to as '''8-bit RGBA'''. In most cases the fourth byte (A) isn't used and can be ignored.

== Conversion ==

To easily convert between one format to another, some simple formulae can be used for each of the red, green and blue values:

// 6-bit VGA to 8-bit RGB:
eight_bit_value = (six_bit_value * 255) / 63

// 8-bit RGB to 6-bit VGA
six_bit_value = (eight_bit_value * 63) / 255

Performing the multiplication before the division removes the need to use floating point numbers and minimises any rounding errors.

More efficient conversions can also be used when speed is more important than code readability:

// 6-bit VGA to 8-bit RGB
eight_bit_value = (six_bit_value << 2) | (six_bit_value >> 4)

// 8-bit RGB to 6-bit VGA
six_bit_value = eight_bit_value >> 2

Note however that the input VGA values may need to be capped to 0x3F (63) as some games output the value 0x40 for 100% instead of 0x3F (TODO: Confirm/link to example). The VGA treats 0x40 the same as 0x3F however (TODO: Confirm).

== Detection ==

It is relatively simple to "detect" a VGA palette file, particularly if they are 6-bit RGB as the files will be exactly 768 bytes long - almost no other files are exactly this size. Looking at the palette in a hex editor will often reveal the file starts with three 0x00 bytes, on account of nearly all games using palette index #0 as black. Seeing groups of the same value (e.g. 10 10 10 20 20 20 30 30 30) is also a good indication of a palette with a greyscale section in it, which is another common feature. This can be seen in the very last row of the Hocus Pocus palette above, where the colour varies from black, through grey and up to white.

== Source Code ==

=== Viewer ===
This program will open a 6 or 8 bit headerless palette file and display swatches for each color, and save a bitmap if you like.

<source lang="freebasic">
' Generic palette viewer.
' ------------------------------------------
' This viewer assumes that the file has no
' header, that there are 256 colors,
' each color is represented by three bytes.
' This program can display both 6 and 8
' bit color palettes, but you must specify
' which depth you want.

' Declare work variables.
Dim ColorIndex As UShort
Dim BitDepth As UByte
Dim Red As UByte, Green As UByte, Blue As UByte
Dim Col As UShort, Row As UShort
Dim SwatchSize As UByte, SwatchBorder As UByte, BorderColor As UShort
Dim File As String, Bitmap As String

' Custom variables
' ------------------------------------------
' You can adjust the following variables
' to customize the display of the palette
' and save a bitmap if you choose.

' The file path to the palette file you want to open.
File = "E:\Games\F-117A Nighthawk\flight.pal"

' Save a bitmap with the same name as the palette file? Leave blank for no.
Bitmap = "E:\Games\F-117A Nighthawk\flight.bmp"

' Is this palette a 6-bit or an 8-bit palette?
' You can tell a 6-bit because none of the color
' attributes go above 63 (6 or 8).
BitDepth = 6

' How big should the swatches be? (1-12)
SwatchSize = 12

' Draw a border around the swatch? (0 - No, 1 - Yes)
SwatchBorder = 1

' If there is a border, use this color index. (0-255)
BorderColor = 0

' Open the palette file.
Open File For Binary As #1

' Set screen to 320x200, 256 colors.
Screen 13

' Loop through all 256 colors.
Row = 0
Col = 0
For ColorIndex = 0 to 255
' Read the color attributes from the file.
Get #1, , Red
Get #1, , Green
Get #1, , Blue

' Allow for both 6 and 8 bit color depth.
If BitDepth = 6 Then
Red = Red * 4
Green = Green * 4
Blue = Blue * 4
End If

' Change the palette.
Palette ColorIndex, Red, Green, Blue

' Draw a swatch.
Line (Col, Row)-(Col + SwatchSize, Row + SwatchSize), ColorIndex, BF
If SwatchBorder = 1 Then
Line (Col, Row)-(Col + SwatchSize, Row + SwatchSize), BorderColor, B
End If

' Increase the swatch position.
Col = Col + SwatchSize
If Col = SwatchSize * 16 Then
Col = 0
Row = Row + SwatchSize
End If
Next ColorIndex

' Close the palette file.
Close #1

' Save a bitmap of the palette if desired.
If Bitmap <> "" Then
' Quick check to make sure they didn't accidentally use the same file name for both.
If Bitmap <> File Then
BSave Bitmap, 0
End If
End If

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</source>
[[Category:Articles]]

Fatal Racing

2014-12-17T19:25:30Z

MoffD: PAL files are readable

{{Stub}}
{{Game Infobox
| Levels = Unknown
| Sound = Some
| Music = Unknown
| Text = Some
| Story = No
| Interface = Some
}}

Fatal Racing, known as Whiplash in the USA, is a 3D stunt car racing game developed by Gremlin Interactive and published in 1995 for DOS.

Several versions of the game exist, with slightly different file layouts.
{{BeginGameFileList}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.RAW *.RFR *.RFE
| Format = RAW Audio @11025 Hz
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Anouncer audio in English, French, and German respectively
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = *.HMP
| Format = [[Human Machine Interfaces MIDI Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Music files in "Human Machine Interfaces MIDI P" format
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = DRUM.BNK MELODIC.BNK
| Format = [[BNK Format (Ad Lib)]]
| KnownFormat = Part
| Desc = Instrument files for HMP music
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = *.BM 
| KnownFormat = No
| Desc = Compressed resource files
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = (car).BM 
| KnownFormat = Part
| Desc = Car texture files, 2 for each standard car x(car).bm for the default, and y(car).bm for the alternate set.
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = *.PAL 
| Format = [[VGA Palette]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = VGA Palette files
}}

{{EndGameFileList}}
Most of these files are contained in the "fatdata" folder. In addition, there is a single [[TGA Format]] image of a cheat car.
[[Category:Racing]]
[[Category:Gremlin Interactive]]

Fatal Racing

2014-12-17T18:52:47Z

MoffD: Adding texture info

{{Stub}}
{{Game Infobox
| Levels = Unknown
| Sound = Some
| Music = Unknown
| Text = Some
| Story = No
| Interface = Some
}}

Fatal Racing, known as Whiplash in the USA, is a 3D stunt car racing game developed by Gremlin Interactive and published in 1995 for DOS.

Several versions of the game exist, with slightly different file layouts.
{{BeginGameFileList}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.RAW *.RFR *.RFE
| Format = RAW Audio @11025 Hz
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Anouncer audio in English, French, and German respectively
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = *.HMP
| Format = [[Human Machine Interfaces MIDI Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Music files in "Human Machine Interfaces MIDI P" format
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = DRUM.BNK MELODIC.BNK
| Format = [[BNK Format (Ad Lib)]]
| KnownFormat = Part
| Desc = Instrument files for HMP music
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = *.BM 
| KnownFormat = No
| Desc = Compressed resource files
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = (car).BM 
| KnownFormat = Part
| Desc = Car texture files, 2 for each standard car x(car).bm for the default, and y(car).bm for the alternate set.
}}

{{GameFile
| Name = *.PAL 
| KnownFormat = Part
| Desc = Possibly palette files for the textures
}}

{{EndGameFileList}}
Most of these files are contained in the "fatdata" folder. In addition, there is a single [[TGA Format]] image of a cheat car.
[[Category:Racing]]
[[Category:Gremlin Interactive]]

User talk:MoffD

2014-12-16T13:18:39Z

MoffD: reply

Can someone please check the fatal racing formats (other than me) to be sure I'm not making stuff up. Also: the BM files appear to be used for multiple things. I'm thinking they are some form of archive, but I have no idea how to tell - [[User:MoffD|MoffD]] ([[User talk:MoffD|talk]]) 17:41, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

: There aren't any pages on the wiki documenting the [[Fatal Racing]] formats? If you're unsure about something just put a note with the TODO template, <nowiki>e.g. {{TODO|Confirm this}} or {{TODO|Not sure what this does}}, which will clearly mark it as a work-in-progress</nowiki> -- [[User:Malvineous|Malvineous]] ([[User talk:Malvineous|talk]]) 09:34, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

::Thanks Malvineus! The main problem is I'm new to this in general and I can't spot specific formats from their data. I'll post as much as I can though, I was just hoping someone else could look at it in time. Cheers! - [[User:MoffD|MoffD]] ([[User talk:MoffD|talk]]) 13:03, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

::: I've had a quick look at the game's formats and many of them look like they are custom, so you'll probably have to start down the reverse-engineering path. Here are some quick tips: try swapping filenames if you're unsure what files do (e.g. swap names of track1.* and track2.* and presumably two game levels will be swapped.) Once you know what files are for what (and you can document those on the wiki) try randomly changing bytes in the files and see what happens when you load the game. By experimenting a lot you might be able to work out which bytes change what and figure out the file format that way. This is how I reverse-engineered the [[CDFM Format]], for example. -- [[User:Malvineous|Malvineous]] ([[User talk:Malvineous|talk]]) 09:49, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
::::Thanks for the tips, I'll see what I can turn up. Did you notice anything about the *.bm files? I think it's a blanket file extension that's for several things, or possibly a container of some sort? - [[User:MoffD|MoffD]] ([[User talk:MoffD|talk]]) 13:18, 16 December 2014 (UTC)

User talk:MoffD

2014-12-09T13:03:33Z

MoffD: Talk:MoffD

User talk:MoffD

2014-12-08T17:41:33Z

MoffD: Help please...

Fatal Racing

2014-12-04T15:25:13Z

MoffD: Sorry for spamming edits D: adding BNK info

Fatal Racing

2014-12-04T15:19:46Z

MoffD: Approximate rate of audio

Fatal Racing

2014-12-04T15:14:53Z

MoffD: Adding more files/reformatting

File:Fatal Racing.png

2014-12-04T14:36:30Z

MoffD: MoffD uploaded a new version of "File:Fatal Racing.png"

Menu Screencap.

File:Fatal Racing.png

2014-12-04T14:32:14Z

MoffD: Menu Screencap.

Menu Screencap.

Whiplash

2014-12-04T14:14:53Z

MoffD: Adding redirect, I hope this is how...

#redirect [[Fatal Racing]]

Talk:Fatal Racing

2014-12-04T14:09:56Z

MoffD: talk

If soneone can help me with this, I'll add more as I find things. - [[User:MoffD|MoffD]] ([[User talk:MoffD|talk]]) 14:09, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

Fatal Racing

2014-12-04T14:08:38Z

MoffD: Adding Fatal Racing/Whiplash