Prehistorik
Prehistorik is a platform game.
Tools
The following tools are able to work with this game.
Name | Platform | Group/archives | Levels | Graphics | Music | Sounds | Text | Saves | .exe patch | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Camoto | Linux/Windows | Edit | No | No | Edit | No | No | No | No | |
Camoto/gamearchive.js | Any | Edit | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | |
Wombat | Windows | View | No | View | No | No | No | No | View |
Cheats
There is a trainer with assembler source codes that provides some cheat ability, as the game does not appear to have any cheat codes at all.
File formats
The following file formats are used by this game.
Filename | Format | Details |
---|---|---|
*.cur *.vga |
CUR Format | Archives storing game data - many of the other files in this list are inside these ones |
*.dur | ? | ? |
*.mat | MAT Format | Graphics |
*.mdi | MDI Format | Background music (*buz.mdi are for the "buzzer" - PC speaker) |
*.pc1 | LBM Format | 320×200 full-screen images |
*.voc | VOC Format | Sound effects |
FILECODE.SQZ | SQZ Fromat | Compressed/Obfuscated main executable on the DOS floppy version. |
PREH.SQZ | SQZ Fromat | Compressed/Obfuscated main executable on the CD-ROM version (GoG/Steam). |
GRAWAGA.CFG | Text | Used to store the graphics/sound mode, the game will start in setup mode if it is absent. |
Additionally, all the levels layout data hardcoded into historik.exe executable file.
Refer to the Prehistorik Level Format page for more details.
Versions
There are 2 DOS versions of this game. The most commonly available is the hacked floppy version but there is a CD-ROM version of this game that was originally released in 1995 as part of "Titus Software - 10 Awesome Games" CD. The CD version is also included in the GoG/Steam release of the game.
Both the non-hacked floppy and the CD version have copy protection that was based on obfuscated compression on the main executable. The GoG/Steam release uses DOSBox to emulate a CD to get the original version to run. On the CD the copy protection is based on CDRUN.COM that checks if it is being started from a CD drive but in fact the main executable is compressed in file PREH.SQZ that is decompressed by CDRUN.EXE on the go.
This can be bypassed and the original executable can be uncompressed/unobfuscated with information available in Titus_Interactive_SQZ_Compression. Use altlzw flag on the Perl implementation.
After uncompressing/unobfuscating the executable there is no longer any dependancy on the CD check.
The floppy and CD executable have a few differences, the most visible ones are the setup screens for language selection where the floppy version has a typo on "Germain" language selection and a change of the FAX number of the makers of the DOS version.
The compressed gamedata FILESA.(CUR/VGA) and FILESB.(CUR/VGA) are the same on the floppy and CD version.
The file dates on the CD-ROM give a hint about the timeline of the different releases: FILESA.CUR 1991-04-24 FILESA.VGA 1991-04-17 FILESB.CUR 1991-04-26 FILESB.VGA 1991-04-17 PREH.SQZ 1995-08-28