Hi everybody, It's been... Quite a while! Probably a solid year or two since I last posted here. I've been busy with various personal projects. And recently I've had an idea for something I wanted to try, but I can't seem to be able to get the files I need. The game is a Facebook Strategy game called Army Attack.

I procured the SWF File for the game (called GameMain), but it contains... Everything EXCEPT the stuff I want. A lot of AS files,  but what I'm really looking for are "sprites" for the game. The Images of Units, and Structures.

I don't even know if its possible to retrieve these. The files I seek may be stored in some database at the companies Headquarters or some such thing.

But if anyone on here plays the game and would mind taking a look at a way to extract pictures of Units and Structures from the game, I would very grateful!

(08-23-2015, 07:52 PM)Vince5754 Wrote: Hi everybody, It's been... Quite a while! Probably a solid year or two since I last posted here. I've been busy with various personal projects. And recently I've had an idea for something I wanted to try, but I can't seem to be able to get the files I need. The game is a Facebook Strategy game called Army Attack.

I procured the SWF File for the game (called GameMain), but it contains... Everything EXCEPT the stuff I want. A lot of AS files,  but what I'm really looking for are "sprites" for the game. The Images of Units, and Structures.

I don't even know if its possible to retrieve these. The files I seek may be stored in some database at the companies Headquarters or some such thing.

But if anyone on here plays the game and would mind taking a look at a way to extract pictures of Units and Structures from the game, I would very grateful!

they could be stored somewhere on the server...

umm, You could try playing the game and logging it for external files, there's a free program called fiddler.
This video is where I learned how to do this, and it also contains information about downloading Fiddler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzFhi5zrRbU

This won't help you extract assets if they're in some weird file (and that has happened to me before, just a warning), but it will at least enable you to locate and download them. Another notable thing is this slightly bypasses http 403: access denied, assuming the file you want has already been loaded. You can download files that normally would be complete inaccessible (still can't directly view it on their servers, though)

Anyways, try playing the game and see if it loads any extra php, xml, swf, png, jpg, etc... files
and well, you can always try downloading them.

One last warning, though, besides unidentifiable external files, another problem you may run into is the assets being hard-coded into the game's main file, in a way that can't be extracted (or, I've never found a way to, anyways... someone here might know, though)

Hope this is of some use, Fiddler has helped me more than once when a game is using multiple files

(08-23-2015, 08:40 PM)DarkGrievous7145 Wrote: One last warning, though, besides unidentifiable external files, another problem you may run into is the assets being hard-coded into the game's main file, in a way that can't be extracted (or, I've never found a way to, anyways... someone here might know, though)

Hope this is of some use, Fiddler has helped me more than once when a game is using multiple files

Thanks for the info, Dark Grievous. I am worried that what you suggested (The images being hard-coded into the game) may be accurate.  I was using a program called Tamper to see the information in a similar manner to how Fiddler retrieve's data, and it showed that the image files were coming from what appeared to be the GameMain file. And yet whenever I open it, all the information that would seem to point to what I'm looking for is little more than text data. "PlayerUnits.AS" "BattlefieldTile.AS" "SoundObjects.AS"

There may not be a way to extract the games files, but any other insight a member here may have would be appreciated.

EDIT: So I was able to figure out one thing for sure. All the Images and sounds are stored on something else, in an .SC Format, whatever that is.

(08-24-2015, 07:33 AM)Vince5754 Wrote:

(08-23-2015, 08:40 PM)DarkGrievous7145 Wrote: One last warning, though, besides unidentifiable external files, another problem you may run into is the assets being hard-coded into the game's main file, in a way that can't be extracted (or, I've never found a way to, anyways... someone here might know, though)

Hope this is of some use, Fiddler has helped me more than once when a game is using multiple files

Thanks for the info, Dark Grievous. I am worried that what you suggested (The images being hard-coded into the game) may be accurate.  I was using a program called Tamper to see the information in a similar manner to how Fiddler retrieve's data, and it showed that the image files were coming from what appeared to be the GameMain file. And yet whenever I open it, all the information that would seem to point to what I'm looking for is little more than text data. "PlayerUnits.AS" "BattlefieldTile.AS" "SoundObjects.AS"

There may not be a way to extract the games files, but any other insight a member here may have would be appreciated.

EDIT: So I was able to figure out one thing for sure. All the Images and sounds are stored on something else, in an .SC Format, whatever that is.

glad it was of some use

well, I probably can't help you there, do the .SC files have any kind of header, at least?

(08-24-2015, 12:52 PM)DarkGrievous7145 Wrote: glad it was of some use

well, I probably can't help you there, do the .SC files have any kind of header, at least?

"Header"?... Header...

I'm going to sound like an absolute Scrub I'm sure, but I'm not familiar with the term. I'm new blood when it comes to coding.
In amongst the files I did see this in the EnemyUnits.as file:

package game.characters
{
    import flash.display.*;
    import flash.events.*;
    import flash.geom.*;
    import flash.text.*;
    import game.actions.*;
    import game.battlefield.*;
    import game.gameElements.*;
    import game.gui.*;
    import game.isometric.*;
    import game.isometric.boundingElements.*;
    import game.isometric.camera.*;
    import game.isometric.characters.*;
    import game.items.*;
    import game.missions.*;
    import game.sound.*;
    import game.states.*;
    import game.utils.*;

This seems to show that the game is "Importing" these things, sounds, game elements, and the GUI among other things from somewhere... But I can't figure out where it is being "Imported" from.

What is most irritating about not being able to get my hands on this data, is that some kid from Bangkok who used to update the Army Attack Wiki had some sort of way to get the sprites of a few of the units, as well as some unreleased content onto the Wiki.

Do you think it would be of any help if I uploaded the files I extracted? It's about 8 Megabits and someone with more coding knowledge might be able to figure it out better than I can.

(08-24-2015, 01:25 PM)Vince5754 Wrote:

(08-24-2015, 12:52 PM)DarkGrievous7145 Wrote: glad it was of some use

well, I probably can't help you there, do the .SC files have any kind of header, at least?

"Header"?... Header...

I'm going to sound like an absolute Scrub I'm sure, but I'm not familiar with the term. I'm new blood when it comes to coding.
In amongst the files I did see this in the EnemyUnits.as file:

package game.characters
{
    import flash.display.*;
    import flash.events.*;
    import flash.geom.*;
    import flash.text.*;
    import game.actions.*;
    import game.battlefield.*;
    import game.gameElements.*;
    import game.gui.*;
    import game.isometric.*;
    import game.isometric.boundingElements.*;
    import game.isometric.camera.*;
    import game.isometric.characters.*;
    import game.items.*;
    import game.missions.*;
    import game.sound.*;
    import game.states.*;
    import game.utils.*;

This seems to show that the game is "Importing" these things, sounds, game elements, and the GUI among other things from somewhere... But I can't figure out where it is being "Imported" from.

What is most irritating about not being able to get my hands on this data, is that some kid from Bangkok who used to update the Army Attack Wiki had some sort of way to get the sprites of a few of the units, as well as some unreleased content onto the Wiki.

Do you think it would be of any help if I uploaded the files I extracted? It's about 8 Megabits and someone with more coding knowledge might be able to figure it out better than I can.

file headers are a series of bytes/characters at the beginning of the file to identify its contents, pretty much... for example, a png image is %png



import refers to code packages and stuff, generally of no use, unless the graphics are hard-coded into the files

yep, that would help if you uploaded some of the files...
especially one of those .cs files you mentioned

(08-24-2015, 02:01 PM)DarkGrievous7145 Wrote: file headers are a series of bytes/characters at the beginning of the file to identify its contents, pretty much...  for example, a png image is %png



import refers to code packages and stuff, generally of no use, unless the graphics are hard-coded into the files

yep, that would help if you uploaded some of the files...
especially one of those .cs files you mentioned

We may have no need, I've found something!

I have been trying various means of viewing internet traffic, and in Google Chrome I opened the JavaScript Console and went to the resources stored on the page while Army Attack was open, and I found within one of the files what appears to be all the sound and Image files.

Haven't cracked open the SWF's containing the images YET, but I have snagged a significant number of the games MP3 files, which I'll be sure to upload to the Sounds Resource once I get all of them.

Thanks for your input on this, Dark Grievous. I'll update this post with what happens next.

(08-24-2015, 04:43 PM)Vince5754 Wrote:

(08-24-2015, 02:01 PM)DarkGrievous7145 Wrote: file headers are a series of bytes/characters at the beginning of the file to identify its contents, pretty much...  for example, a png image is %png



import refers to code packages and stuff, generally of no use, unless the graphics are hard-coded into the files

yep, that would help if you uploaded some of the files...
especially one of those .cs files you mentioned

We may have no need, I've found something!

I have been trying various means of viewing internet traffic, and in Google Chrome I opened the JavaScript Console and went to the resources stored on the page while Army Attack was open, and I found within one of the files what appears to be all the sound and Image files.

Haven't cracked open the SWF's containing the images YET, but I have snagged a significant number of the games MP3 files, which I'll be sure to upload to the Sounds Resource once I get all of them.

Thanks for your input on this, Dark Grievous. I'll update this post with what happens next.

cool

k

Wow... There are a TON of files for this game. I don't even know where to begin when it comes to shifting through them.

I have access to pretty much everything in the game. The only issue is that I only have access to files that the game is using at the time that I'm playing the game. So this means that certain sounds, explosions, supply drops, as well as certain enemies and environments aren't available to me at this time.

But if I'm to upload some of these things to the database, what format should I upload them in? There are SVG files, HTML sprites, and images but from what I've found the PNGs don't contain all the information that the others do.

(08-25-2015, 11:06 AM)Vince5754 Wrote: Wow... There are a TON of files for this game. I don't even know where to begin when it comes to shifting through them.

I have access to pretty much everything in the game. The only issue is that I only have access to files that the game is using at the time that I'm playing the game. So this means that certain sounds, explosions, supply drops, as well as certain enemies and environments aren't available to me at this time.

But if I'm to upload some of these things to the database, what format should I upload them in? There are SVG files, HTML sprites, and images but from what I've found the PNGs don't contain all the information that the others do.

yes, on-demand assets loading, typical of MMOs and similar web games. conserves memory, iirc
i actually find it amazing how well flash mmos perform on even "crappy computers"
the on-demand asset loading may have to do with that.

.svgs are vector graphics, they can scale pretty much infinitely.
You can try/buy/pirate adobe illustrator, or download inkscape to export as png, but then you generally will have to assemble them, as vector-based sprites can consist of many thousands of pieces, and even, nested animations (one of the biggest advantages the "totally obsolete" flash player has over html5! )

pretty sure tsr accepts .png almost exclusviely, sounds should probably be in .wav or .mp3 format, but don't quote me on that one... Any chance you could send me some of these files? and I'll take a look. You might have your work cut-out for you, though...

Sprites need to be in either PNG or static GIF (although the former is highly preferred since there is little reason to use GIF). Sounds need to be in WAV, MP3 or OGG formats, and only sound effects are accepted (not music).

oh, wow, what're the odds that this game shows up.
It's by Digital Chocolate, right?


I have a friend that works for Digital Chocolate!! I'll bug him the next time I see him if it's possible to get the assets used ingame. [Another team in the company worked on it though; not his necessarily so that might be a little trickier]

EDIT: whoops, lookin at the topic sounds like you've done all the hard stuff already. it's just a matter of organizing the data lmao

(08-27-2015, 06:43 AM)Kosheh Wrote: oh, wow, what're the odds that this game shows up.
It's by Digital Chocolate, right?


I have a friend that works for Digital Chocolate!! I'll bug him the next time I see him if it's possible to get the assets used ingame. [Another team in the company worked on it though; not his necessarily so that might be a little trickier]

EDIT: whoops, lookin at the topic sounds like you've done all the hard stuff already. it's just a matter of organizing the data lmao

interesting...

Yes, and I actually studied one of the assets files. Still waiting for a reply from Vince, but I've pretty much explained most of the process involved with getting the sprites. Just a few special cases I need to explain after he gets all the easy ones...

(08-25-2015, 11:06 AM)Vince5754 Wrote: Wow... There are a TON of files for this game. I don't even know where to begin when it comes to shifting through them.

I have access to pretty much everything in the game. The only issue is that I only have access to files that the game is using at the time that I'm playing the game. So this means that certain sounds, explosions, supply drops, as well as certain enemies and environments aren't available to me at this time.

But if I'm to upload some of these things to the database, what format should I upload them in? There are SVG files, HTML sprites, and images but from what I've found the PNGs don't contain all the information that the others do.

I know this is from 7 years ago but are you still working on it or do you still have the files? i would love to get in touch with you to rebuilt the game.