Hi, forum newbie here looking for some assistance.
I've been trying to rip from Magical Starsign for few hours and not much seems to come from it. I've tried all the NDS ripping tools but the results seem to be the same.
Everything is locked under a .dat file!
Here's what it looks like when I try to open it with Tinke:

As you can see, everything is a .dat and I'm not sure how to open them. Pretty much everything I've used produces the same results. I'm stumped, can anyone help?
I'm pretty sure the hiraishi folder is the correct one I'm looking for, since it has a file named iconFace.dat - there's also more to this folder too. The other folders (aikyo, sound, wata, and ftc) all have .dat files or game code:

Tinke only recognizes 2% of the files so I think this game must be uber encrypted or something. Can anyone possibly help me crack it? This game has a lot of content in it and it's roughly about 20 hours to complete (not to mention a lot of content is restricted to their local multiplayer) so hard ripping may not be the best option here.
I can get pallettes out of it just fine if I press P but I don't think they're proper pallettes. Plus when I press T or M it's just a garbled static image that doesn't seem to resemble anything in the game color wise or sprite wise.
Please help! I really want to help spread the assets of this forgotten game.

Could you upload one dat file from each folder, please?
Usually, we can’t help with just a file name.

(03-12-2019, 05:54 AM)LukeWarnut Wrote: Could you upload one dat file from each folder, please?
Usually, we can’t help with just a file name.

Sure thing, I'll just upload everything I can get:
Here it is!
let me know if you can't access it, I'm not exactly used to sharing stuff in this way.

Umm, this might not be allowed in the rules to bump or double post but is there any progress?

I have not discovered much that Tinke doesn't already do for you, but here are my thoughts:
First of all, the developers named all of their file extensions "dat" in order to make it harder to look through.
The files in the wata folder are CELL files. I don't know what these are and Google isn't helping too much.
The file in the aikyo folder is a sar compressed file. Same thing before, I don't know.
The files in the hiraishi folder with the prefix, mov–, are VXDS files, aka .vx files. These would be the cutscenes of the game, although I believe a player for this extension has not been created yet. As for the remaining files in the hiraishi folder, I don't know. From the looks of it, they're compressed graphics, but I don't know what type of compression it is.

(03-19-2019, 06:32 PM)Lumialle Wrote: Umm, this might not be allowed in the rules to bump or double post but is there any progress?

I'm not familiar with NDS, but I can say the graphics don't seem to be encrypted, at least the iconFace.dat. Using Tile Molester, I was able to get some face icons:



To open the .dat files, you'll need to use a hex editor, and this is how the file (iconFace.dat) is structured:

0x0     - 0x4            - Unknown (I'm not sure what this value means)
0x4     - 0x804        - Offset Table
0x804 - 0x808        - iconFace.dat Size
0x808 - 0x38E8      - Image and Palette Data

Inside the offset table, they'll come in pair, the first is the offset for the image data and the second is the offset for the palette data. I don't know how the dimensions are calculated, but I have a suspicion that the first 4 bytes are related to this.

Now you need to find a tool that uses this pattern for graphics, or you can extract manually using Tile Molester.

Ah! Nice job!

(03-19-2019, 07:47 PM)Akaiji Wrote:

(03-19-2019, 06:32 PM)Lumialle Wrote: Umm, this might not be allowed in the rules to bump or double post but is there any progress?

I'm not familiar with NDS, but I can say the graphics don't seem to be encrypted, at least the iconFace.dat. Using Tile Molester, I was able to get some face icons:



To open the .dat files, you'll need to use a hex editor, and this is how the file (iconFace.dat) is structured:

0x0     - 0x4            - Unknown (I'm not sure what this value means)
0x4     - 0x804        - Offset Table
0x804 - 0x808        - iconFace.dat Size
0x808 - 0x38E8      - Image and Palette Data

Inside the offset table, they'll come in pair, the first is the offset for the image data and the second is the offset for the palette data. I don't know how the dimensions are calculated, but I have a suspicion that the first 4 bytes are related to this.

Now you need to find a tool that uses this pattern for graphics, or you can extract manually using Tile Molester.

Oh, that's awesome! Thank you, I'll have to try Tile Molester and see what else I can find.
How would I use the hex editor/what would you recommend? I've never done hex editing before when it comes to ripping since I'm used to games you can just pop in and it works.

(03-20-2019, 12:35 AM)Lumialle Wrote: Oh, that's awesome! Thank you, I'll have to try Tile Molester and see what else I can find.
How would I use the hex editor/what would you recommend? I've never done hex editing before when it comes to ripping since I'm used to games you can just pop in and it works.

HxD is a free hex editor, and after you install it, you can just drag and drop the file or use the "Open with" option on Windows.




You can read 4 bytes at a time, or if you want, you can go to View > Byte group size > 4 and it'll group the data into 4 bytes chunks. Also, the 4 bytes chunk is read from right to left, meaning 08 0A 00 00 will be 00 00 0A 08.

The first 4 bytes (00 02 00 00) you'll not use. The blue box is where the offset table starts, blue boxes are the image data offsets, and the black boxes are the palette data offsets.

A practical example with the first image:

On Tile Molester after opening the file, go to View > Codec > 4bpp linear, reverse-order. After that, you'll need to click on the | | | <- (Decrease Width) symbol until it becomes 4 X 16.

The first image data offset: 00 00 08 08
The first palette data offset: 00 00 0A 08

On Tile Molester, go to Navigate > Go To... or use the hotkey Ctrl + G and put the image data offset (00000808), Radix is Hex and Mode is Absolute. After that, go to Palette > Import From > This File...and put the palette data offset (00000A08), Size is 16, Format is 15bpp BGR (555), and Byte Order is Intel.

After that, you select the image and go to Edit > Copy To... and save the image.

(03-20-2019, 03:17 AM)Akaiji Wrote:

(03-20-2019, 12:35 AM)Lumialle Wrote: Oh, that's awesome! Thank you, I'll have to try Tile Molester and see what else I can find.
How would I use the hex editor/what would you recommend? I've never done hex editing before when it comes to ripping since I'm used to games you can just pop in and it works.

HxD is a free hex editor, and after you install it, you can just drag and drop the file or use the "Open with" option on Windows.




You can read 4 bytes at a time, or if you want, you can go to View > Byte group size > 4 and it'll group the data into 4 bytes chunks. Also, the 4 bytes chunk is read from right to left, meaning 08 0A 00 00 will be 00 00 0A 08.

The first 4 bytes (00 02 00 00) you'll not use. The blue box is where the offset table starts, blue boxes are the image data offsets, and the black boxes are the palette data offsets.

A practical example with the first image:

On Tile Molester after opening the file, go to View > Codec > 4bpp linear, reverse-order. After that, you'll need to click on the | | | <- (Decrease Width) symbol until it becomes 4 X 16.

The first image data offset: 00 00 08 08
The first palette data offset: 00 00 0A 08

On Tile Molester, go to Navigate > Go To... or use the hotkey Ctrl + G and put the image data offset (00000808), Radix is Hex and Mode is Absolute. After that, go to Palette > Import From > This File...and put the palette data offset (00000A08), Size is 16, Format is 15bpp BGR (555), and Byte Order is Intel.

After that, you select the image and go to Edit > Copy To... and save the image.

Aah this makes so much sense now! Thank you! I was using HxD but had no idea how to read it.
Sometimes the images come out skewed in Tile Molester, how do I get them straight? It's a bit tricky so I was wondering if you knew how ''

(03-20-2019, 12:32 PM)Lumialle Wrote: Aah this makes so much sense now! Thank you! I was using HxD but had no idea how to read it.
Sometimes the images come out skewed in Tile Molester, how do I get them straight? It's a bit tricky so I was wondering if you knew how ''

You can try Byte Back (-), Byte Forward (+), changing the width or using the arrow keys. If nothing works, could you post a screenshot?

(03-20-2019, 03:09 PM)Akaiji Wrote:

(03-20-2019, 12:32 PM)Lumialle Wrote: Aah this makes so much sense now! Thank you! I was using HxD but had no idea how to read it.
Sometimes the images come out skewed in Tile Molester, how do I get them straight? It's a bit tricky so I was wondering if you knew how ''

You can try Byte Back (-), Byte Forward (+), changing the width or using the arrow keys. If nothing works, could you post a screenshot?

I managed to get that correct, but I'm running into trouble with the byte reading method. I'm going through the obj_ncg1.dat file and trying to grab the overworld sprites, but I can't seem to get the pallette right even though I'm using the one that's shown up. I'm at line 00 00 04 B8 with pallette 00 00 84 B8 respectively, and I just can't seem to find the correct pallette for this.
Granted, this particular sprite has already been ripped (I believe it's the dodo) but it's a good test to see if I'm doing it correctly.
I have managed to grab some bits and pieces that are correctly colored, but this issue appears frequently in other files too. For example, the overworlds in amigo.dat do the same thing.

(03-20-2019, 03:26 PM)Lumialle Wrote:

(03-20-2019, 03:09 PM)Akaiji Wrote:

(03-20-2019, 12:32 PM)Lumialle Wrote: Aah this makes so much sense now! Thank you! I was using HxD but had no idea how to read it.
Sometimes the images come out skewed in Tile Molester, how do I get them straight? It's a bit tricky so I was wondering if you knew how ''

You can try Byte Back (-), Byte Forward (+), changing the width or using the arrow keys. If nothing works, could you post a screenshot?

I managed to get that correct, but I'm running into trouble with the byte reading method. I'm going through the obj_ncg1.dat file and trying to grab the overworld sprites, but I can't seem to get the pallette right even though I'm using the one that's shown up. I'm at line 00 00 04 B8 with pallette 00 00 84 B8 respectively, and I just can't seem to find the correct pallette for this.
Granted, this particular sprite has already been ripped (I believe it's the dodo) but it's a good test to see if I'm doing it correctly.
I have managed to grab some bits and pieces that are correctly colored, but this issue appears frequently in other files too. For example, the overworlds in amigo.dat do the same thing.

I found the palette for the obj_ncg1.dat and obj_ncg2.dat. These files only contain the graphics while obj_ncl1.dat and obj_ncl2.dat contain the palette data. The bad news is you'll need to do a little bit of stitching.

1. Open obj_ncg1.dat and obj_ncl1.dat in HxD, go to the end of the obj_ncg1.dat and take note of the offset, in this case, it is 2B90B8.
   
2. In the obj_ncl1.dat file, go to the first offset (Press Ctrl + G and put the first offset - 000004B8), select and copy everything bellow.
   
3. Go back to obj_ncg1.dat and paste, a confirmation window will pop up and press Ok.
   
4. Go to File > Save as... and save with any name you want.
   
5. Open the new file on Tile Molester and do the same steps as before.
   
6. In the Palette step, you'll need to put the old file size as the offset - 2B90B8. The rest is the same.
   
7. Where the colors are shown, there is a box with a 1 inside, change it to 32. This is because the size of each palette is 32 bytes.
   
8. Now for every offset from obj_ncg1.dat, you just need to hit the > to load the correct palette, and it seems that in this file, you'll need to do some rearrangement in some sprites.
   

For the other files, I'll have to look into it.

(03-20-2019, 06:15 PM)Akaiji Wrote:

(03-20-2019, 03:26 PM)Lumialle Wrote:

(03-20-2019, 03:09 PM)Akaiji Wrote: You can try Byte Back (-), Byte Forward (+), changing the width or using the arrow keys. If nothing works, could you post a screenshot?

I managed to get that correct, but I'm running into trouble with the byte reading method. I'm going through the obj_ncg1.dat file and trying to grab the overworld sprites, but I can't seem to get the pallette right even though I'm using the one that's shown up. I'm at line 00 00 04 B8 with pallette 00 00 84 B8 respectively, and I just can't seem to find the correct pallette for this.
Granted, this particular sprite has already been ripped (I believe it's the dodo) but it's a good test to see if I'm doing it correctly.
I have managed to grab some bits and pieces that are correctly colored, but this issue appears frequently in other files too. For example, the overworlds in amigo.dat do the same thing.

I found the palette for the obj_ncg1.dat and obj_ncg2.dat. These files only contain the graphics while obj_ncl1.dat and obj_ncl2.dat contain the palette data. The bad news is you'll need to do a little bit of stitching.

1. Open obj_ncg1.dat and obj_ncl1.dat in HxD, go to the end of the obj_ncg1.dat and take note of the offset, in this case, it is 2B90B8.
   
2. In the obj_ncl1.dat file, go to the first offset (Press Ctrl + G and put the first offset - 000004B8), select and copy everything bellow.
   
3. Go back to obj_ncg1.dat and paste, a confirmation window will pop up and press Ok.
   
4. Go to File > Save as... and save with any name you want.
   
5. Open the new file on Tile Molester and do the same steps as before.
   
6. In the Palette step, you'll need to put the old file size as the offset - 2B90B8. The rest is the same.
   
7. Where the colors are shown, there is a box with a 1 inside, change it to 32. This is because the size of each palette is 32 bytes.
   
8. Now for every offset from obj_ncg1.dat, you just need to hit the > to load the correct palette, and it seems that in this file, you'll need to do some rearrangement in some sprites.
   

For the other files, I'll have to look into it.

I followed the steps, by rearrangement do you mean the palette colors need to be rearranged? Because I do have the correct dodo palette but it's reversed (I'm looking off Smithy's rip to double check I got this right since this sprite is not easy to find ingame)

(03-20-2019, 10:18 PM)Lumialle Wrote:

(03-20-2019, 06:15 PM)Akaiji Wrote:

(03-20-2019, 03:26 PM)Lumialle Wrote: I managed to get that correct, but I'm running into trouble with the byte reading method. I'm going through the obj_ncg1.dat file and trying to grab the overworld sprites, but I can't seem to get the pallette right even though I'm using the one that's shown up. I'm at line 00 00 04 B8 with pallette 00 00 84 B8 respectively, and I just can't seem to find the correct pallette for this.
Granted, this particular sprite has already been ripped (I believe it's the dodo) but it's a good test to see if I'm doing it correctly.
I have managed to grab some bits and pieces that are correctly colored, but this issue appears frequently in other files too. For example, the overworlds in amigo.dat do the same thing.

I found the palette for the obj_ncg1.dat and obj_ncg2.dat. These files only contain the graphics while obj_ncl1.dat and obj_ncl2.dat contain the palette data. The bad news is you'll need to do a little bit of stitching.

1. Open obj_ncg1.dat and obj_ncl1.dat in HxD, go to the end of the obj_ncg1.dat and take note of the offset, in this case, it is 2B90B8.
   
2. In the obj_ncl1.dat file, go to the first offset (Press Ctrl + G and put the first offset - 000004B8), select and copy everything bellow.
   
3. Go back to obj_ncg1.dat and paste, a confirmation window will pop up and press Ok.
   
4. Go to File > Save as... and save with any name you want.
   
5. Open the new file on Tile Molester and do the same steps as before.
   
6. In the Palette step, you'll need to put the old file size as the offset - 2B90B8. The rest is the same.
   
7. Where the colors are shown, there is a box with a 1 inside, change it to 32. This is because the size of each palette is 32 bytes.
   
8. Now for every offset from obj_ncg1.dat, you just need to hit the > to load the correct palette, and it seems that in this file, you'll need to do some rearrangement in some sprites.
   

For the other files, I'll have to look into it.

I followed the steps, by rearrangement do you mean the palette colors need to be rearranged? Because I do have the correct dodo palette but it's reversed (I'm looking off Smithy's rip to double check I got this right since this sprite is not easy to find ingame)

Here the palette is the same as Smithy's rip.



When I say rearrange, I mean the sprites. Look at the dodo's tail, you'll need to fix this manually.