Magic Pockets Extra Data Format
The extra_2.pin asset in Magic Pockets has a verified RNC method 1 wrapper, but its inner format remains unknown. This page records the established byte-level facts rather than assigning a speculative format.
File format
After RNC decompression, the checked payload is 38400 bytes. Its first 16 bytes are:
F0 0F C0 03 80 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 80 03 C0
These are a byte dump, not a decoded header definition.
The payload is unclassified in the RE notes and has no verified consumer or decoder. Its size alone is not enough to identify it as a sprite bank: several different planar tile layouts have the same total length, and the extension does not determine the format.
Preserve the bytes as opaque data. A reconstruction of its internal layout requires identifying the original load site and consumer, then verifying the interpretation against the file or a live game trace.
Notes
The wrapper's decoded-size and checksum fields validate extraction of the payload. They do not validate an interpretation of the bytes inside it. This file shares the .pin extension with MIDI banks, level scripts, demo input and 8086 driver modules, which have different layouts.
Source code
From re-magicpockets, the open-source browser port and reverse-engineering project:
- docs/formats/pin.md – unresolved payload inventory and historical hypotheses
- web/core/rnc.js – verified outer decompression
- docs/formats/pin-sound.md – newer findings that supersede the broad raw-OPL hypothesis
Credits
Research on this file format was carried out by VorticonCmdr. Please credit this work in projects that use it; a link back to this wiki is appreciated.