Help sniffing Metal Assault files (Metal Slug clone)

[tombmonkey]

I was hoping one of the wizards here would have more luck finding art inside Metal Assault archive file.

Metal Assault was a nice online Metal Slug clone game that was published by aeria for english speakers, it was cancelled a few years ago, so I wanted to see if some of the nice art in the game could be salvaged.

This is the only container file that the game client has:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9or36o7e8bav7rg/mas.cvf?dl=0
the other files are in the client are just .dlls and small .exes.

I tried scanning the file using watto game extractor, ravioli game tools and dragon unpacker, neither picked anything.

Aluigi's offzip manages to extract a huge amount of .dds and .tga files, which correspond to character textures and equipment icons, I was hoping someone wise in this stuff would manage to pull out the backgrounds and sounds too.

This post of Xentax:
http://forum.xentax.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6628

has some analysis of the file's structure, and given the comment I guess that the guy was able to unpack the whole thing using offzip; but the truth is that what the guy is talking about regarding file structure completely eludes me, no idea how to use the info for extracting the files.

Any help appreciated.

[puggsoy]

I'm working on a QuickBMS script for this using that information you linked to. I understand most of it but I'm just a bit confused about how those directories work and how to manage them. What an ugly file

I'll try get it sorted soon though.

EDIT: Looks like this might be a better job for a whole custom program. I mean, I probably could make a QuickBMS scripts if I really wanted to but it would take way more time and just be generally not as good.

[tombmonkey]

Thanks for looking at it anyway.

I will start sorting what I got using offzip, at least the guns are quite nice.

PD. You may want to upload some yourself, I already passed you on the top50 uploaders

[puggsoy]

I just realised like it sounds like I can't do any more; I can, I'm currently working on a program for it. I should be able to extract it with directory structure so then you won't have to organise it manually.

And thanks for the offer but it's OK, I've got other things I should finish and submit.

[tombmonkey]

That sounds awesome.

I will just wait then.

This is why I'm not entirely a fan of online games, when the servers die, all the game was goes into oblivion, all that nice art (and code) people poured their life into is now locked behind archives for no one to see anymore.

[puggsoy]

Ta-da! Pretty simple usage:

Code:

MetalAssaultExtractor inFile
    inFile: The mas.cvf file

You can also just drag the file onto the executable. Either way it'll extract into a folder called "metal_assault_extracted".

I looked around myself, looks like it goes directly into data/char/ani, and in there you've got 92 folders. All of them contain nothing but .ani files (some sort of animation data no doubt), except for the last one, 0862. This one contains some other file types, as well as some subfolders that contain DDS and TGA files. I'm a bit curious why they're all in that last folder, I feel like I might have a bug in my code but I'm not sure what it could be.
Doesn't really matter anyway, the textures are there. They're not terribly well organised, but probably a bit better than when just using offzip.

However, what you really want are the backgrounds and sounds, as you said. The backgrounds might be somewhere by those textures, but I really don't know where the sound files are. Can't find any WAV, MP3, or OGG files. They might be in some other format though, if you find anything that looks like audio be sure to point it out.

[tombmonkey]

Damn this is awesome, the data is actually somewhat organized, pieces are next to each other.

I already uploaded some portraits, since those where the fastest, will start sorting and uploading this stuff.

Thanks a lot for your help.

PD. Pesty question, when you extracted Bastion's files, where the backgrounds anywhere to be seen? I would love to look at those.

[puggsoy]

I don't remember seeing any backgrounds, but it has been a while and I was mostly focusing on the sprites. I'll look through it again soonish and see if I can find any.

[deedee]

Would anybody happen to still have these tools, or a quick explanation on how to use offzip to successfully extract it? Have had zero luck, and this game is coming back soon.

[Struggleton!]

Would anybody happen to still have these tools, or a quick explanation on how to use offzip to successfully extract it? Have had zero luck, and this game is coming back soon.

Code:

comtype zlib
idstring "SFILESYSTEM"
for FILECOUNT = 0
    get type long
    if type == 0
        getdstring DIR 264
        get FROM long
        get TO long
    elif type == 1
        getdstring NAME 256
        get ZSIZE long
        get SIZE long
        get NONE long
        get ENDOFFS long
        savepos OFFSET
        clog NAME OFFSET ZSIZE SIZE
        math OFFSET + ZSIZE
        goto OFFSET
    endif
next FILECOUNT

I don't have any samples to analyze so I had to go off of the notes posted before :/ Hope this works; use it with QuickBMS.

[puggsoy]

Sorry I didn't reply to your PM, I've been away for a while. I'll be home tonight and give you the updated link to my tool (although if Struggle's script works then that might be better to use anyway).

EDIT: Here you go, sorry for the inconvenience!

[johnis99]

Sorry I didn't reply to your PM, I've been away for a while. I'll be home tonight and give you the updated link to my tool (although if Struggle's script works then that might be better to use anyway).

EDIT: Here you go, sorry for the inconvenience!

I open the exe and when i press anything it just closes. Can you please explain how to use?

[puggsoy]

Please see post #6. It's a command-line program, but you can also just drag the file onto the .exe.

[johnis99]

Please see post #6. It's a command-line program, but you can also just drag the file onto the .exe.

As i said before even when i drag it the exe closes (actually i didnt say it xD)

[puggsoy]

That shouldn't happen. Try opening it from the command prompt directly. To do this, go to the folder where the .exe is and right-click somewhere (not on a file) while holding down Shift, then click "Open command window here". In the prompt that comes up, type "MetalAssaultExtractor" (without quotes) and press Enter. Tell me what it comes up with, there might be an error of some sort (although it works perfectly for me and seemed to for tombmonkey).