Magic Pockets Sound Blaster Data Format
The sblaster.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 59699 bytes. Its first 16 bytes are:
01 00 7A 00 08 00 FF 78 07 00 00 00 02 5F 01 01
These are a byte dump, not a decoded header definition.
The payload is not currently decoded. Its leading bytes do not match the ordinary MIDI-bank header used by adlib.pin and roland.pin. The file's name suggests a relationship to Sound Blaster support, but neither a PCM sample layout nor a driver-code layout has been established for this file.
The older notes' suggestion that it might contain a raw OPL stream was a hypothesis, not a decoded format. GAMEU's verified Sound Blaster-compatible loading path uses player.pin and adlib.pin; that does not explain this separate file. Do not claim this payload is playable MIDI, PCM or OPL data based on its name.
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.