The VG Resource
Heart of Darkness (PS1) ripping help request - Printable Version

+- The VG Resource (https://www.vg-resource.com)
+-- Forum: The Resources (https://www.vg-resource.com/forum-109.html)
+--- Forum: The Spriters Resource (https://www.vg-resource.com/forum-110.html)
+---- Forum: Ripping Help (https://www.vg-resource.com/forum-114.html)
+---- Thread: Heart of Darkness (PS1) ripping help request (/thread-27319.html)

Heart of Darkness (PS1) ripping help request - finsterhund - 06-21-2015

Hello. I'm new to the forum so sorry if I do anything out of place.
I'm looking to rip sprites (as well as sound fx and background ambiance from the PlayStation version of Heart of Darkness (I chose this version as the in-game graphics are superior than the PC version)

I know that the game is built very similarly to the PlayStation Oddworld games, and that the sprites and other content used for each level are likely in the .LVL files. I found several fan-made programs used for ripping and/or modifying Oddworld LVL files, but they will not work on Heart of Darkness ones.

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how to rip sprites or give me a program with which to use. I am willing to rip the sprites entirely myself and am not asking anyone to simply do it for me or anything complicated like that.

I'm willing to give you like an ISO file of both discs if that would help.

Thanks, ~Finsterhund.

RE: Heart of Darkness (PS1) ripping help request - puggsoy - 06-21-2015

First off, uploading ISOs (even linking to a site you can download them from) isn't allowed, so don't do that. It's effectively uploading and promoting pirated games.

However, if you could upload a couple of these .LVL files, which is allowed, I can take a look and see what I can do with them. If there are any other files you can see that you think might contain what you want you can include those too.

RE: Heart of Darkness (PS1) ripping help request - finsterhund - 06-21-2015

(06-21-2015, 03:07 AM)puggsoy Wrote: First off, uploading ISOs (even linking to a site you can download them from) isn't allowed, so don't do that. It's effectively uploading and promoting pirated games.

However, if you could upload a couple of these .LVL files, which is allowed, I can take a look and see what I can do with them. If there are any other files you can see that you think might contain what you want you can include those too.
alright. that makes sense. I shoulda figured. The game is technically classified as abandonware but I don't really want to take the risk.

all I can really think of are the LVL files right now, but there could be more. I guess we'll see. Also how are you going to look at them? do you have like a special program?

also the file was apparently too big so I uploaded it off site but here it is http://heartofdarkness.ca/temporaryfilesharefolder/LVL%20files.zip

RE: Heart of Darkness (PS1) ripping help request - puggsoy - 06-21-2015

I'll be taking a look using a hex editor, which is essentially looking at the raw bytes. Technically any file can be "opened" using a hex editor (since a file is just a collection of bytes) but making sense of it takes knowledge about how these things work, and lots of practice.

In any case I'm downloading it now so I'll try to see if there's any useful data and maybe find a way to extract/convert the files.

RE: Heart of Darkness (PS1) ripping help request - finsterhund - 06-22-2015

(06-21-2015, 11:59 PM)puggsoy Wrote: I'll be taking a look using a hex editor, which is essentially looking at the raw bytes. Technically any file can be "opened" using a hex editor (since a file is just a collection of bytes) but making sense of it takes knowledge about how these things work, and lots of practice.

In any case I'm downloading it now so I'll try to see if there's any useful data and maybe find a way to extract/convert the files.

That does make a lot of sense. Like different file types have different numeral patterns in the bytes or something.

Hopefully there will be an easy way to extract files.

RE: Heart of Darkness (PS1) ripping help request - puggsoy - 06-22-2015

Hmm. I found this specification of the format, and it did help shed a little bit of light on the format. However the offsets don't seem to be pointing at the start of files, there might be some sort of calculation I need to make or a base offset, but I don't know. Some files are also compressed, and I have no idea what the compression could be.

Sorry Sad You could try asking over at ZenHAX (in the Game Archive section), the guys over there are pretty good at stuff like this.