Alien Breed BIN Driver Format
The eight files are driver-like binaries rather than one universal .BIN format. AVMFM.BIN at the root and ADLIB/AVMFM.BIN are byte-identical, 7,087 bytes long, and contain FMDRV at offset 3. Embedded text identifies a Creative Sound Blaster FM driver, version 1.30B.
NEW_ADL.BIN, NEW_BEP.BIN, and NEW_ROL.BIN plausibly supply music support for AdLib, PC beeper, and Roland. SFX_ADL.BIN, SFX_BEP.BIN, and SFX_ROL.BIN plausibly supply the corresponding effects. These roles are inferred from names, x86-looking entry sequences, and the sound modes listed in READ.ME; their call interfaces have not been verified.
File format
There is no common MZ executable header or shared four-byte length wrapper. For example:
AVMFM.BIN: 50 00 18 46 4D 44 52 56 ... NEW_ADL.BIN: 1E 53 0E 1F 80 FC 00 75 ... NEW_BEP.BIN: 1E 53 8C CB 8E DB 80 FC ...
Do not strip four bytes as if these were HUF resources. The leading instruction-like bytes are part of the stored binary. NEW_ROL.BIN contains a programmer credit dated 1992.
Notes
For analysis, preserve the entire byte sequence and inspect it as a potential 16-bit x86 code/data module. Segment assumptions, relocation rules, calling conventions, and embedded tables still need the game's loading/calling code.
Web research located AdPlug's implementation of Creative FM playback as background for the CMF behavior; it does not specify Alien Breed's driver-module ABI. No public specification for the NEW_*/SFX_* wrappers was located. Distinguish these code modules from CMF music, MIDI music, and VOC samples.
Files
Paths are relative to game/.
| File | Stored bytes |
|---|---|
| ADLIB/AVMFM.BIN | 7,087 |
| AVMFM.BIN | 7,087 |
| NEW_ADL.BIN | 5,484 |
| NEW_BEP.BIN | 1,724 |
| NEW_ROL.BIN | 1,523 |
| SFX_ADL.BIN | 5,309 |
| SFX_BEP.BIN | 3,414 |
| SFX_ROL.BIN | 3,518 |
Source code
From re-alienbreed, the open-source browser port and asset viewer:
Credits
The Alien Breed-specific format research and parsers were prepared by VorticonCmdr. 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!)