Opening .xwv files

[Zero Kirby]

This is gonna be a weird topic, but basically

I remembered this old typing game from childhood called Type for Fun! (Great title, I know.) Unfortunately, it doesn't work on Windows 7 64-Bit which is the suck.

BUUUUUUUUT I don't really care too much about that because all I wanted from the game was the theme song that plays when you're in the menu for the Galaxy Taxi game. Seriously, it's baller as hell. A little bit of digging and research and I believe the music themes are all encoded in this weird .xwv file.

Welp I don't exactly have the resources to open such a file, but I'm wonderin', what with VG Resource bein' all about openin' all sorts of obscure and strange files, if there's a quick-and-easy way to figure out how to open them, or even convert them into an audio file I can actually play in something?

Cheers in advance!

[puggsoy]

Can you upload a few of these for us to look at? A mod may also want to move this to the Ripping Help section from TSoR, even though it's for music rather than sounds.

[Zero Kirby]

Right, that'd be a good idea. I put a few in this zip folder.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/noee9wx23ijtwu...r.zip?dl=0

[Raccoon Sam]

[puggsoy]

Oh whoops, completely forgot to check these. But yeah Sam's right, just rename them and you're good.

[PatientZero]

I was curious so I took a look at the encoding, they're 8-bit mono waveforms at 22050 Hz. Only mentioning it as a novelty, because that's half of a 16-bit Stereo recording at 44100 Hz, which is basically standard CD audio.

I'd be willing to bet they recorded them in standard 16-bit stereo and literally just re-encoded them with all the settings cut in half, which is really not how audio works. I'd actually love to know if there was a technical reason for it, because some of that just makes no sense to me.

[puggsoy]

The only reason I can think of would be for saving space, since halving all those settings reduces the filesize drastically. If my memory serves me correctly it would reduce them to 1/8th of the original size, which could have been significant at the time.

[PatientZero]

Oh I get that much, it's just that in terms of filesize/quality that's a weird way of doing it.
Unless I'm totally off the mark, which is possible. I don't have much practical experience with sample rates below 44100Hz, none of my equipment will even let me go lower than that, but halving it like that seems like it would just wreck the quality without a particularly big pay-off in terms of filesize, especially if it's already just a short 8-bit mono recording.

[puggsoy]

It could also be the case that the game's engine just didn't support high sample rates. It is a Windows 95/98 game so that's totally possible.

[Zero Kirby]

they're wavs dude
rename them to .wav and they'll work

how di-

how did you know?????

i opened the file in a hex editor. the first bytes are 52 49 46 46 7E 00 0A 00 57 41 56 45, which is "RIFF~��WAVE" in ASCII. That's the header of standard WAV files.

How are you able to see into the future but seriously, thanks a bunch, I would've never guessed that 'cause I don't know anything about audio files pretty much.

[Raccoon Sam]

I would've never guessed that 'cause I don't know anything about audio files pretty much.

Well, even if I knew nothing about audio files either, the first thing I would've done was to Google the bytes and immediately be greeted with a WAV file format specification page.
Even if you know nothing, it's always a good idea to first open the file in a hex editor and look at the first bytes. If they give no insight, Google the bytes. If that doesn't help, then ask the fine folks here.