I saw. Edmark games have some cute spritework, so I'm glad you also took interest in ripping from them.
I have one question to ask, regarding palette issues in Bailey and Trudy. Whereas Sammy and Millie have minimal palette inaccuracies when using
these settings, the other two don't look right, and mixing and matching the color order and endianness didn't fix it, unless I missed the correct combination. What are your settings for ripping from Bailey and Trudy? Attached is an example from BAILEY2.
(04-08-2021, 12:47 PM)boilingpot Wrote: [ -> ]I saw. Edmark games have some cute spritework, so I'm glad you also took interest in ripping from them.
I have one question to ask, regarding palette issues in Bailey and Trudy. Whereas Sammy and Millie have minimal palette inaccuracies when using these settings, the other two don't look right, and mixing and matching the color order and endianness didn't fix it, unless I missed the correct combination. What are your settings for ripping from Bailey and Trudy? Attached is an example from BAILEY2.
That's great, but I don't understand.
What do you mean, you don't understand? Are you not using TiledGGD and aluigi's script like I am? If so, I want to know your settings in TiledGGD because I am not able to rip sprites with an accurate palette. If not, then what is your ripping method?
(04-15-2021, 12:26 AM)boilingpot Wrote: [ -> ]What do you mean, you don't understand? Are you not using TiledGGD and aluigi's script like I am? If so, I want to know your settings in TiledGGD because I am not able to rip sprites with an accurate palette. If not, then what is your ripping method?
I use Ctrl Alt Print Screen, and make my sprite sheet.
So you just screenrip everything. Oh well, I guess that works for a lot of sprites.
(04-15-2021, 02:33 PM)boilingpot Wrote: [ -> ]So you just screenrip everything. Oh well, I guess that works for a lot of sprites.
Oh yeah, thanks!
Bringing this thread back because I can't find anything that will open or extract the contents of the .RES files for Thinkin' Things: Toony The Loon's Lagoon (1999 Re-Release of Thinkin' Things Collection 1 from 1993) and Thinkin Things: Galactic Brain Benders (1999 Re-Release of Thinkin' Things Collection 3 from 1995)
I have located the recourse files for both games and they use the .RES file extension which refuse to open or extract in an editable form, even with file openers that say they support .RES files which is very annoying.
This thread is the only thing I could find that has any mention of the .RES files used in Edmark Games.
Any help would be awesome since right now, my only remaining option is screen recording myself playing the games, exporting hundreds of frames and then using an image editor to cut each sprite one by one.
Not only will this take a very long time, the process won't get the .RES files in an editable form that I can export back into the game so I can mod it with custom sprites, audio tracks and the removal/modification of code strings that restrict or limit what the player can do, like being able to place more than 20 items in the Flying Shapes & Flying Spheres games or making hatless birds in the Feathered Friends game.
As I was typing this, I opened the TT1 Demo and noticed that when I closed it's window, it briefly showed a screen with the Smacker logo and the Made With Macromedia Logo which is making me think that the .RES files could potentially be Macrovision Director files with modified extensions which means that if this is true, all I need to do is change the file extension to either .CST or .CXT, depending on what they were before getting renamed.
If they turn out to be .CXT files with a .RES extension, the protection won't be an issue since I have a program that removes it and outputs an unprotected .CST file that can be edited and easily converted back to a .CXT file by changing the file extension from .CST to .CXT and then to .RES so it's readable by the game.
I'll provide updates as I test the method above to see if it will open the files. Fairly sure that the .RES files are really just modded .CXT or .CST files since they're the only period correct files that can support multiple types of media.
Got an update on my progress involving the Thinkin' Things games.
Sadly, the .RES files were not renamed Adobe/Macromedia Director files so changing to the .CST and .CXT extensions didn't work.
I did however temporarily change one of the .RES files to a .TXT so I could open it in Notepad and see if there were any readable text strings hidden in the garbled mess of symbols. It was here that I found what the files actually were. They turned out to be Z-Library Project Files that were compressed and exported with the .RES file extension instead of the actual Z-Library extension, .ZLIB which is probably what they were prior to compression.
None of the Z-Lib decompression sites worked and most of them looked somewhat sketchy and I didn't want to take the risk of getting my computer infected with malware.
These non standard .RES files are the most likely place where the sprites, animations and config files are stored and I need to find a way to decompress the files and figure out what program they were originally created in by looking at the data.
(09-13-2023, 06:40 PM)108CAM Wrote: [ -> ]Got an update on my progress involving the Thinkin' Things games.
Sadly, the .RES files were not renamed Adobe/Macromedia Director files so changing to the .CST and .CXT extensions didn't work.
I did however temporarily change one of the .RES files to a .TXT so I could open it in Notepad and see if there were any readable text strings hidden in the garbled mess of symbols. It was here that I found what the files actually were. They turned out to be Z-Library Project Files that were compressed and exported with the .RES file extension instead of the actual Z-Library extension, .ZLIB which is probably what they were prior to compression.
None of the Z-Lib decompression sites worked and most of them looked somewhat sketchy and I didn't want to take the risk of getting my computer infected with malware.
These non standard .RES files are the most likely place where the sprites, animations and config files are stored and I need to find a way to decompress the files and figure out what program they were originally created in by looking at the data.
Oh hey, I was actually digging into this myself for the sound effects.
The .RES files are definitely packs of assets, though in what formats are beyond me.
Also, by 'Z-library Project Files' do you mean files compressed by
zlib? From how the rest of your post goes I'd assume so but all of the .RES files I looked at for Thinkin' Things 2 don't have any zlib magic headers. All of the .RES files
do start with 0x1A92 though, if that means anything. I searched for a file signature of the same type and couldn't find anything.
I threw the .RES files into Audacity and I can faintly make out sound effects, though with how many instances of 'DIGPAK' or 'MIDPAK' ASCII texts there are, I'm sure they have some kind of padding. Could also be through the drivers themselves. No idea.
Hope you get somewhere with this!
(09-26-2023, 03:01 AM)Nathan_R Wrote: [ -> ] (09-13-2023, 06:40 PM)108CAM Wrote: [ -> ]Got an update on my progress involving the Thinkin' Things games.
Sadly, the .RES files were not renamed Adobe/Macromedia Director files so changing to the .CST and .CXT extensions didn't work.
I did however temporarily change one of the .RES files to a .TXT so I could open it in Notepad and see if there were any readable text strings hidden in the garbled mess of symbols. It was here that I found what the files actually were. They turned out to be Z-Library Project Files that were compressed and exported with the .RES file extension instead of the actual Z-Library extension, .ZLIB which is probably what they were prior to compression.
None of the Z-Lib decompression sites worked and most of them looked somewhat sketchy and I didn't want to take the risk of getting my computer infected with malware.
These non standard .RES files are the most likely place where the sprites, animations and config files are stored and I need to find a way to decompress the files and figure out what program they were originally created in by looking at the data.
Oh hey, I was actually digging into this myself for the sound effects.
The .RES files are definitely packs of assets, though in what formats are beyond me.
Also, by 'Z-library Project Files' do you mean files compressed by zlib? From how the rest of your post goes I'd assume so but all of the .RES files I looked at for Thinkin' Things 2 don't have any zlib magic headers. All of the .RES files do start with 0x1A92 though, if that means anything. I searched for a file signature of the same type and couldn't find anything.
I threw the .RES files into Audacity and I can faintly make out sound effects, though with how many instances of 'DIGPAK' or 'MIDPAK' ASCII texts there are, I'm sure they have some kind of padding. Could also be through the drivers themselves. No idea.
Hope you get somewhere with this!
If you haven't already, I highly recommend that you join the VG Resource Discord Server. There's a thread about this which you are welcome to join
Here's an invite
https://discord.gg/dykg
(09-26-2023, 03:01 AM)Nathan_R Wrote: [ -> ] (09-13-2023, 06:40 PM)108CAM Wrote: [ -> ]Got an update on my progress involving the Thinkin' Things games.
Sadly, the .RES files were not renamed Adobe/Macromedia Director files so changing to the .CST and .CXT extensions didn't work.
I did however temporarily change one of the .RES files to a .TXT so I could open it in Notepad and see if there were any readable text strings hidden in the garbled mess of symbols. It was here that I found what the files actually were. They turned out to be Z-Library Project Files that were compressed and exported with the .RES file extension instead of the actual Z-Library extension, .ZLIB which is probably what they were prior to compression.
None of the Z-Lib decompression sites worked and most of them looked somewhat sketchy and I didn't want to take the risk of getting my computer infected with malware.
These non standard .RES files are the most likely place where the sprites, animations and config files are stored and I need to find a way to decompress the files and figure out what program they were originally created in by looking at the data.
Oh hey, I was actually digging into this myself for the sound effects.
The .RES files are definitely packs of assets, though in what formats are beyond me.
Also, by 'Z-library Project Files' do you mean files compressed by zlib? From how the rest of your post goes I'd assume so but all of the .RES files I looked at for Thinkin' Things 2 don't have any zlib magic headers. All of the .RES files do start with 0x1A92 though, if that means anything. I searched for a file signature of the same type and couldn't find anything.
I threw the .RES files into Audacity and I can faintly make out sound effects, though with how many instances of 'DIGPAK' or 'MIDPAK' ASCII texts there are, I'm sure they have some kind of padding. Could also be through the drivers themselves. No idea.
Hope you get somewhere with this!
TT2 won't have any ZLIB headers within it's .RES files. This is because it was never remastered in 1999 like TT1 and TT3.
I do know that there are some Adobe/Macromedia Director files hidden within the .RES files. The Director files themselves have been compressed and I haven't gotten much except for a few bitmaps which were left in their uncompressed form within the ZLIB headers.
(09-28-2023, 06:42 PM)108CAM Wrote: [ -> ] (09-26-2023, 03:01 AM)Nathan_R Wrote: [ -> ] (09-13-2023, 06:40 PM)108CAM Wrote: [ -> ]Got an update on my progress involving the Thinkin' Things games.
Sadly, the .RES files were not renamed Adobe/Macromedia Director files so changing to the .CST and .CXT extensions didn't work.
I did however temporarily change one of the .RES files to a .TXT so I could open it in Notepad and see if there were any readable text strings hidden in the garbled mess of symbols. It was here that I found what the files actually were. They turned out to be Z-Library Project Files that were compressed and exported with the .RES file extension instead of the actual Z-Library extension, .ZLIB which is probably what they were prior to compression.
None of the Z-Lib decompression sites worked and most of them looked somewhat sketchy and I didn't want to take the risk of getting my computer infected with malware.
These non standard .RES files are the most likely place where the sprites, animations and config files are stored and I need to find a way to decompress the files and figure out what program they were originally created in by looking at the data.
Oh hey, I was actually digging into this myself for the sound effects.
The .RES files are definitely packs of assets, though in what formats are beyond me.
Also, by 'Z-library Project Files' do you mean files compressed by zlib? From how the rest of your post goes I'd assume so but all of the .RES files I looked at for Thinkin' Things 2 don't have any zlib magic headers. All of the .RES files do start with 0x1A92 though, if that means anything. I searched for a file signature of the same type and couldn't find anything.
I threw the .RES files into Audacity and I can faintly make out sound effects, though with how many instances of 'DIGPAK' or 'MIDPAK' ASCII texts there are, I'm sure they have some kind of padding. Could also be through the drivers themselves. No idea.
Hope you get somewhere with this!
TT2 won't have any ZLIB headers within it's .RES files. This is because it was never remastered in 1999 like TT1 and TT3.
I do know that there are some Adobe/Macromedia Director files hidden within the .RES files. The Director files themselves have been compressed and I haven't gotten much except for a few bitmaps which were left in their uncompressed form within the ZLIB headers.
Been trying on and off for almost a year but have only gotten a few bitmaps plus the already uncompressed game credits and the Edmark logo that appears when the game starts.
Might try editing the raw bytes with a hex editor since it's my only option.