Recently, I have been getting reports left and right from people who have successfully reverse engineered old game-oriented multimedia formats. Sometimes the reports overlap, i.e., 2 people have independently RE’d the same format. I thought I would update my list of upcoming game-related formats (here’s the last entry I wrote on the matter):
- TGV, used in various Origin games, most notably in Privateer 2: The Darkening. I have 2 contacts who have independently RE’d this format.
- EA WVE/UV2 files, which are principly Motion JPEG files
- Multimedia from American Laser Games titles, notably Mad Dog McCree. Again, I have 2 contacts who have independently RE’d this format. This might be the IBM PhotoMotion video codec as the manual for Mad Dog McCree credits that format.
- BRP, used in a few Argonaut games such as Alien Odyssey. After VAG figured out Argonaut’s AVS format it was postulated that their later BRP format is also a vector quantizer. It certainly looks that way based on cursory investigations.
Further, it is worth investigating how this format relates to the TGQ format found on Warcraft II: The Dark Saga for the Sega Saturn.
Just a little addition to the BRP format.
It supports different coding algorithms based on the fourcc of the data chunk. One type is the mentioned vector quantizer, the other mode is a simple RLE scheme and the third one a mixture of RLE and motion vectors. All three have two modes each, one for inter- and one for intraframes.
I look forward to viewing and documenting the full details when you have completed the RE process.
Hi, I’m curious about those TGV files since they’re used also by Space Hulk 2. I’m
desperately looking for a player for those old babies.
Hey, cough up the IBM PhotoMotion codec!! I’ve been wondering about this one since 1992!
Chris: If I could supply a write-up, do you have the skill to create the open source implementations? I’ve been doing much more documentation than coding recently.
Sorry, no such skills here.