DG Ripping Help

[DarkGrievous7145]

Another thread for handling any kind of thing that pops-up, this time for ripping help.

So, first issue, this is actually two issues.
The first one is, would anyone consider the MineCraft Hour of Code sprites eligible for submission here?
It loosely fits the general definition of a game, but IDK. If not the case, Might I still throw a .zip of everything up elsewhere and link it from here?

The second issue is that MC Hour of Code (and I'd assume all hour of code labs) has used texture packer or something similar to create the spritesheets. Assuming that the resources are still online, could someone parse the .JSON files and try to create more uniformly arranged or usable sprite sheets?

Here's one of the sheets as they currently are laid-out:
   

[DarkGrievous7145]

There's a game I need some help with due to assets on a server which I cannot access due to re-directs.

I need someone with a facebook, and who plays the games there, or is willing to.
A decent computer is strongly recommended, the game is built with HTML5.

I will not openly discuss the details of this project here.
There is a chance the developers of this particular game (or rather, the company they work for) would not appreciate trying to rip from it. In the past, they've responded excessively and harshly to attempts to reverse-engineer, crack, or otherwise mess with any of their products.
If interested/able to help, please PM me, or post a reply here, and I'll PM you.
I ask no details are released until I move on to the final phase of this project, which is submitting the sprites here.

I would do this myself, except that I do not have, nor do I want at this time, a facebook, and I can barely run this game in the first place.

Again, sorry for the secrecy, but doing this to avoid C&D or some other stupid shit until I already have submitted everything.

[einstein95]

Sure, I'd be interesting in helping.

[DarkGrievous7145]

Ok, so I think I got everything I needed, for now...
The missing files all appear to be for facebook feeds, so they're not "necessary"
I decided to skim the game's script to be double sure, and other than some possible .png's I haven't the patience to track down, I have everything.

However, this brings me to the next part:
animation crap.
I have been up for a few hours manually tracing function calls and database references and slowly building an understanding of how this particular game uses its database, particularly when it comes to sprites. If all goes well, I will have some specs by which someone must build an application to. At this present moment, I'm on the frame data, I think. Now I just need to figure-out what all these obfuscated properties are. (for the umpteenth time today...)

Now, back to making my head hurt!

[DarkGrievous7145]

Progress is being made
Actually, I think I have everything that's required to re-sheet the graphics.

I've added a new project, though.
There was another game, as it turns-out, that most likely was the prototype to the one I'm ripping from.
I plan to rip it, also, but... I'm going a step further...
I downloaded the whole thing, and now I'm going to attempt to hack it! XD
current phase: tracing/debugging initialization routine

That is everything, for now

[DarkGrievous7145]

So, again, I need to bind people to non-disclosure.

All I have left to do is re-sheet the sprites
But, I need a program or a script to do it.

requirements: able to parse JSON , able to load multiple images, and swap between them at whim. (the same sprite can be spread across multiple sheets, because of how everything is packed) , must be able to export semi-transparent .png's
nice additional features: being able to choose the names of the JSON attributes to read from. Being that the code and its asset database is obfuscated, names WILL change from game to game.

either PM me or reply if interested.

Again, sorry for the secrecy. Once this project is completed, and the rips submitted, I'll not only reveal it, but probably what experience and knowledge I've pulled from it.

[DarkGrievous7145]

So, I have an approximately 170 MB file that must contain the assets from a CD ROM game.

It's in some binary format, and I suspect that it is a proprietary binary format.

I cannot make heads or tails of the damn thing, there are a lot of file name strings in there, perhaps this is meta-data of the asset files, themselves, but IDK what specifically I'm looking for. It seems that the graphics were imported as .bmp , but I'm fairly certain they were converted at some point.

I also have an about 24 MB folder full of .smk files, but I have already found a program to deal with these, which hold the cutscenes, needless to say, I don't care for them as much.

[puggsoy]

If you upload the binary files you mentioned, I can take a look.

[DarkGrievous7145]

I'll have to find a way of doing that

[DarkGrievous7145]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4228.../MMATH.IEF

Seeing as its the largest file from the disk (and takes up the majority of the space on it), and one of the sections of the .exe references it, I'm pretty sure this is the asset library for Awesome Animated Monster Maker Math. But, I can't seem to find anything other than file references, which probably are import/export meta-data of the actual sprites and sounds.

If this game is anything like its predecessors, there should be palettes in here, which I'll also need extracted. It does have a tendency for sprites to sometimes inherit colors from others. Not quite sure how that would work, either. You may or may not be looking for some transparency data, also. As-is, I was unable to find much about this game, or its predecessors, which I only know existed because of my google searches about this one.

I honestly never would've thought I'd be doing something like this, much less, doing it to one of my favorite childhood games! XD

[puggsoy]

I've found some 8bpp images, but obviously they don't turn out right since I don't know where the palettes are. I also feel like there are many more than just these, so far they're only backgrounds.

Not sure if I'll be able to find out any more than this, might give it another shot though.

[DarkGrievous7145]

Oh, I don't doubt that there are SEVERAL more.
And this would be an understatement

Going off of memory here, but there are four main mini-games, three of which are staged in various locations, and all of them can have various settings.

There's also the monster maker, and the huge assortment of parts. (and a lot of other stuff I won't even try to list, cuz I'll likely miss something)
And just about everything has SOME form of animation.

Can you list some offsets of those images you found? Did they have a filename anywhere nearby?
And is it possible for an 8bpp image to be given a color palette with a higher color depth? I found something that feels like it could be a palette. But, assuming I know remotely what I'm doing, it's definitely higher than 8bpp.