new year, new questions

[CosmicLoop]

Happy new year! So as of recent, I've had some questions I've wanted to ask (don't mind the lame thread name). Apparently my googling is terrible and doesn't give me very helpful answers most of the time, so I thought I'd just make a thread


Is it possible to open/extract from/etc .ARC files? I see them sometimes when looking in roms (in this case NDS and a GameCube ISO). I realize now that they are archives/compiled stuff; but I'm totally clueless on what to do with them, and in the cases they do show up, it seems to be lot of the files. In the case of Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life, it almost seems as if the models and other things are in .ARC files...

A similar question, can you open/etc .BIN files? Like with the .ARC deal, I didn't find much (though, more than before). In this case, it's DS, ISO (and GBA if I get there). I saw someone mention a hex editor and....that seemed to open the .BIN, but literally. And I am terrible with code or even understanding hex. I'm just......kinda lost. If using hex editors for these things is really the only way, can someone please help? (I know it goes 0 - F but that's all I know. )

Is there a way to rip sprites/map areas/etc directly FROM the rom itself? I don't mean the "take a few pictures in Desmume" thing, I mean like.....from within the game. I got DSLazy but that's what gives me alot of the .BIN files. in fact.....it gives me ONLY .BIN files.

Here. In the case of Harvest Moon DS; if I use DSLazy to unpack the NDS file. It does it, and thankfully 90% of it is organized in standard folders already. But everything in and out of the folders is a .BIN file.

Except for 3 sound-related files. Which gets odd. I've figured out how to deal with the.SDAT file and make it a folder, but the thing here is it made everything a .SSEQ file (or a .SBNK or some other file but there's a reason I'm not paying much mind to this). So yeah I can turn the .SSEQ files into MIDIs..........but here's the thing. I could already get the Music and sounds out just fine, with VGMToolbox. And as .mini2sf files too (which my Winamp can now easily turn into Wav files), not some obscure MIDI.

(The other 2 files grouped with the .SDAT file (17,352 KB ) are a .SADL file (9 KB ) and a .SARC file (1 KB ) fyi)

Maybe my question is a stretch, but is there a program like VGMToolbox that could instead access sprites/images/map areas? (Or at least view .BIN files please god) I have Crystal Tile 2 but am completely clueless on how to use it (sometimes a few sprites are recognizable, but all chopped up and the wrong palette), and as I mentioned i know next to nothing about hex or what to do with it.

But I know something can be done, because there's a thread that dates back to even 2006, about some guy saying he ripped the Harvest Moon DS mugshot/face sprites "extracted directly from the game"..... idk man. I just want to access my precious game.



Now here's a trick question. I've actually been wondering this for years. Is there a way to view EA's .PACKAGE files or .WORLD files? In this case it's the MySims console series. When I still played the PC version I saw there were quite a few .PACKAGE files (probably some .BIN files too). Recently I found a few ISOs of some MySims Wii games, thinking it'd be a different file layout; but viewing the original first game with Dolphin only proved me wrong -- it was basically exactly the same as the PC version. (On the bright side I think I saw more files here than with the PC version though). Though considering it's an exclusive file, I'm guessing chances of viewing them are super slim. I wonder if another file in the game would give us a clue...?

The one possibility I had come up with for .WORLD files is there's a Sims 3 World tool, but you need a registered Sims 3 for that and I don't feel like buying Sims 3 all over again or finding the disc and whatever code we have.....but whatever. Worst case I gotta get it cracked -- I mean we already bought it years ago, sigh. idk, I somehow feel like even with this tool it won't help much. If anyone knows anything, please tell me. Even if it's "nobody has a darn clue".



Also if there's any wacky tools out there like how Super Mario 64 had Toad's Tool and Text Wrangler, lemme know. Yes I realize how stupid this sounds. (I just get generally curious but I'm willing to learn anything.)

[SuperFlomm]

Now here's a trick question. I've actually been wondering this for years. Is there a way to view EA's .PACKAGE files or .WORLD files? In this case it's the MySims console series. When I still played the PC version I saw there were quite a few .PACKAGE files (probably some .BIN files too). Recently I found a few ISOs of some MySims Wii games, thinking it'd be a different file layout; but viewing the original first game with Dolphin only proved me wrong -- it was basically exactly the same as the PC version. (On the bright side I think I saw more files here than with the PC version though). Though considering it's an exclusive file, I'm guessing chances of viewing them are super slim. I wonder if another file in the game would give us a clue...?

There are tools called Package Editors for the Sims games:
SimPE (Sims 2 and Sims Stories)
S3PE (Sims 3 and Medieval)
S4PE (Sims 4)

Maybe one of them works for MySims, I don't know.

[Sindle]

Now here's a trick question. I've actually been wondering this for years. Is there a way to view EA's .PACKAGE files or .WORLD files? In this case it's the MySims console series. When I still played the PC version I saw there were quite a few .PACKAGE files (probably some .BIN files too). Recently I found a few ISOs of some MySims Wii games, thinking it'd be a different file layout; but viewing the original first game with Dolphin only proved me wrong -- it was basically exactly the same as the PC version. (On the bright side I think I saw more files here than with the PC version though). Though considering it's an exclusive file, I'm guessing chances of viewing them are super slim. I wonder if another file in the game would give us a clue...?

There are tools called Package Editors for the Sims games:
SimPE (Sims 2 and Sims Stories)
S3PE (Sims 3 and Medieval)
S4PE (Sims 4)

Maybe one of them works for MySims, I don't know.

A few small problems. The only one of those package editors that actually works with MySims is S3PE, and even then it can only view textures, and only on the PC Port of the original game, the Wii versions have some matter of encryption that make viewing the files impossible to do. So basically, it's impossible.

You can try for yourself, but I haven't had any luck.

[CosmicLoop]

Now here's a trick question. I've actually been wondering this for years. Is there a way to view EA's .PACKAGE files or .WORLD files? In this case it's the MySims console series. When I still played the PC version I saw there were quite a few .PACKAGE files (probably some .BIN files too). Recently I found a few ISOs of some MySims Wii games, thinking it'd be a different file layout; but viewing the original first game with Dolphin only proved me wrong -- it was basically exactly the same as the PC version. (On the bright side I think I saw more files here than with the PC version though). Though considering it's an exclusive file, I'm guessing chances of viewing them are super slim. I wonder if another file in the game would give us a clue...?

There are tools called Package Editors for the Sims games:
SimPE (Sims 2 and Sims Stories)
S3PE (Sims 3 and Medieval)
S4PE (Sims 4)

Maybe one of them works for MySims, I don't know.

A few small problems. The only one of those package editors that actually works with MySims is S3PE, and even then it can only view textures, and only on the PC Port of the original game, the Wii versions have some matter of encryption that make viewing the files impossible to do. So basically, it's impossible.

You can try for yourself, but I haven't had any luck.

Oh wow, thanks guys for the info on packages! I honestly wasn't expecting much. Currently looking up that s3pe, will post my results later.