Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Infernal .zap unpacker UPDATED

Seems I was in hurry and uploaded not stable version of Infernal .zap unpacker, thanks to people who reported me about problems here is new version of zap tool.

Download:
Infernal .zap unpacker
Requirments: .NET Framework 2.0

Lost Planet Extreme Condition

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Official site: http://www.lostplanet-thegame.com
Info: Earlier this year Capcom scored a hit with the release of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition on the Xbox 360. Looking to expand on that success, Capcom is now bringing the game to the PC. The PC version of Lost Planet is a direct port of the Xbox 360 version with new multiplayer maps and optimized graphics and special effects. We played the game to see how it holds up on the PC.

In terms of content, you won't find anything new in the Lost Planet single-player game. The multiplayer game is mostly unchanged as well and still supports up to 16 players online with four different game modes. The PC version of the game does come with some new maps and an updated server lobby, but that's the extent of the new content. Lost Planet is branded as a Games for Windows product, but it isn't a part of the Games for Windows - Live program. That means there won't be any achievements or cross-platform multiplayer built into the game.

Instead of having new missions, enemies, or weapons, the PC version of Lost Planet has been enhanced and adapted for high-end gaming machines. The game supports both DirectX9 and DirectX10, so it's compatible with both Windows XP and Vista. Most notably, Lost Planet supports resolutions up to 2560x1600, so if you have a capable video card and monitor you can expect to see crisp, detailed effects on the PC that aren't possible on the Xbox 360. Lighting, shadows, and particle effects all show fairly significant improvement over the Xbox 360 version of the game, which already looked great to begin with. The team at Capcom has been working with graphics gurus at Nvidia to optimize Lost Planet for the PC. As a result, Lost Planet is part of Nvidia's "The Way It's Meant To Be Played" lineup of games.
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Textures and some other resources are packed as .ARC archive you can extract it with no problems by my tool. I used Lost Planet DX9 DEMO to create this tool so no any promises it will work with any other version, or wait release date June 2007 ;)

Download:
Lost Planet .ARC Extractor v1.0
Requirements: .NET Framework 2.0

Monday, May 21, 2007

Medieval 2 Total War .PACK Extractor v1.0

Finally, I did it .pack file format compressed by some custom compression algorithm but i figure out how to decompress it and wrote this nice tool: Medieval 2 Total War .PACK Extractor v1.0
It was really a bit hard 8) Lost Planet .arc extractor will be next ;)

Friday, May 18, 2007

Medieval 2 Total War Packer

Searching in Google for Medieval 2 Total War unpacker I've found a tool MineHe.M2TW.ModSDK.Packer which can extract files from .pack files, but seems author don't know how to decompress files because after extraction files still are packed, unfortunately I have a lot of work this weekend and cant investigate .pack format properly :( But Ill asap. :)

Ascension to the Throne .PAK Extractor v1.0

Here I coded a new tool for Ascension to the Throne .PAK extractor file format in this game is super simple so it takes me 5 minutes to understand it just in hex editor.
FAT chain looks like:

private struct PAK
{
public string filename;
public int offset;
public int length;
}

Requirements:
.NET Framework 2.0
Download: Ascension to the Throne .PAK Extractor v1.0

Ascension to the Throne

Developer: DVS
Publishers: 1C, Frogster Interactive
Home page:Ascension to the Throne
Review: IGN
Ascension to the Throne is a turn-based strategy game with RPG elements. In a world of fantasy the hero will have to pass many tests on his way to victory. Enemies seek to stop players from regaining power and having taking revenge, gain new friends to aid you in reclaiming the throne. Become the King you were born to be - wise, brave and courageous.

Players will act as the last offspring of the ancient family, which has ruled Airath for ages. But times have changed and traitorous enemies attacked the castle. They slaughtered his family and destroyed the settlement, but they didn't crush his will. A very powerful spell cast by a magician threw the hero far beyond the borders of the country. He was on his own - without relatives, friends, without an army and without money. He lost everything he was proud of but still he was alive and chose the path of vengeance.

Players will explore a new fascinating world, full of foes and friends. They will have to crush hordes of enemies and find new followers to regain the title and ascend to the throne.

Features


Minimum System Requirements:


Thursday, May 17, 2007

Medieval II Total War

Developer: Creative Assembly
Publisher: Sega
Official site: Medieval II Total War
Reviews: GamePro EuroGamer Gamespot
Screen shots:
Medieval 2 is the latest and greatest game to be released in the best selling and award-winning Total War series. Set in the years 1080-1530 the most turbulent period in European history, the game combines a vast, deep-thinking turn-based strategy campaign with the most cinematic, epic and brutal real-time battles ever seen in the genre.

A vastly enhanced version of the Total War engine vividly portrays the pure bloodlust of Medieval warfare with massive battles of more than 10,000 troops splayed across new graphically rich environments. For the first time in the Total War series each troop is an individual, garbed with the rich heraldic colours and glinting arms and armour of the period.

On the battlefield they’ll survey their surroundings for threats and incoming opponents and react accordingly. When engaged they’ll string together a series of devastating moves as Medieval 2’s new combat animation brings the conflict to life like never before. Total War has never been so ferocious or realistic.

The Medieval 2 grand campaign will hand you the reins of one of an emerging faction as you set about sweeping throughout Europe, conquering all before you. Expand your borders and develop your lands for wealth and prosperity by building cities or swell your army by constructing vast castles to protect your land and keep your rivals quaking with fear.
Use Princesses for diplomatic gain, Priests to spread the influence of your religious beliefs and Merchants to fill your coffers for your war effort. All the time the Pope and the Papal States watch over the Christian world, assessing the strength of your faith and making demands to prove your loyalty. Do you cater to his whims and avoid excommunication or plot his downfall and rig the papal elections to place your own Pope in power?

Key Features Include:
Real-Time Battles On a Massive Scale

Epic Battles with Enhanced Unit Detail
Thunderous battles on a huge scale with thousands of units on screen. Armies are now made up of meticulously detailed troops built with unique heads, body, weapons and armour with unique animations and poses that gives each individual unit character and depth. Troops and cavalry are decorated with all the heraldic finery and colour of medieval warfare that’s gradually muddied and bloodstained through the course of battle.

New Unit Abilities
A legion of more than 250 new and unique units split over 21 factions, each with their own new special abilities that open up a wealth of intuitive battlefield tactics.

Advanced Combat System
Zoom to the frontline and witness the fast, visceral melee combat enhanced by new spectacular battlefield animations. Troops block and parry attack moves and string together deadly combo attacks and finishing moves before scanning the battlefield for their next kill.

New Explosive Sieges
Embark on spectacular siege battles as huge armies and fearsome siege machines rumble into action. Devastating cannon, pummel imposing defences of fully destructible cities and castles before setting them aflame under the night sky.

Advanced Lighting and Richer Environments
A newly enhanced graphics engine brings the battlefield environment to life like never before. The stunningly realistic landscapes feature detailed vegetation with sprawling settlements. Newly detailed dynamic weather effects beat down on new terrain types illuminated by enhanced lighting that captures every glint and spark as arms and armour clash under a gleaming sun.

Enhanced Multiplayer Battles
New multiplayer battle modes will ease the player’s passage to the battlefield and keep the online conflict raging.

A New All-Conquering Campaign

History in the Making
A huge campaign spanning from the years 1080-1530, that will take the player beyond the first Crusade up until the dawn of the renaissance. An extended campaign map will allow passage to South and Central America bringing the player into battle with the Aztecs.

New Settlement Types
Build through six levels of settlement ranging from humble villages to vast cities and wooden forts to mighty stone fortress. Develop your faction as a feudal aristocracy using you castles to keep the peasants in check whilst conquering your enemies with your powerful armies. Or build cities to develop a wealthy urban society, and battle your foes with diplomacy, bribery, assassination and armies of mercenaries.

A Supporting Cast
Put an array of ancillary characters to work and smooth your path to global domination. Boost your coffers with Merchants. Grease the cogs of diplomacy with Princesses and manage your faction’s path to religious enlightenment with Priests. Charge assassins to wipe out enemy generals and witness their cold-hearted killing first-hand with assassination movie sequences.

Embrace Religion
Will you obey the demands of the Papal States, catering to the whims of the Pope? Or shun his requests and risk facing his fearsome Inquisitors or even excommunication? Make a stand against him and you can infiltrate papal affairs by rigging elections.

Global Crusades
Win favour with the Pope and round up your armies for global crusades at his request. Players can even prompt the Pope to commission crusades as Catholicism wages a spiritual battle against the Muslim, Orthodox and Pagan religions.
_____________________________________

Seems developers from Creative Assembly also created some own file format to keep game resources, I checked it when I got a game, as for me its doable to make extractor for their *.pack files so maybe at this weekend I will post a new tool. :)

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

UFO Extraterrestrial xBIG Tool at Source Forge

Source forge approved xbig tool and added it to their projects. Thanks to Eblis
who started it at source forge.
Go to: xBIG Tool at source forge.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Ancient Wars - Sparta .PAK Extractor v1.1

As I said before this guys from World Forge made tricky file format and I find out what was the problem why some files wont work after extraction, thanks to Suuk who tried my extractor and reported this bug. Developers used 3 values to mark file state in .PAK container.

public int IsPacked; // 0 - Encrypted first 0x100 bytes; 1 - encrypted and compressed; 2 - plain.

I've updated saving routine, so you can find new version here: Ancient Wars - Sparta .PAK Extractor v1.1

Death to Spies ( SMERSH )

Developer: Haggard Games
European Publisher: Nobilis
Russian publisher: 1C
1C Game page: Death to Spies
Russian demo: download
Screen shots:


















Smersh is the Russian for "Death to Spies" and was the name of a set of counterintelligence departments in the Soviet Army formed during World War II. Their mission was to secure the rear of the active Red Army by arresting traitors, deserters, spies and criminal elements. During the war these agents became the main force combating the German intelligence service.

The game's main character is a captain in the 4th department of the Soviet counterintelligence service. He is a professional spy trained to execute dangerous operations on his own. During missions he will have to complete various tasks in the heart of enemy territory including stealing important documents, eliminating different enemy officers or high-ranking officials, kidnapping and sabotage.

Game missions are based on real historical events and operations which were executed by the military intelligence and counterintelligence during the war.
_____________________________________

Another game, another quite simple extractor for it. Now developers prepared for us their .vfs format, vfs its abbr. from Virtual File System :) so I decided to investigate it.
Offset to file list I found less in a minute, I always checking end and begin of file, so at the EOF was two numbers very similar to offsets.



Byte order is little-endian (Intel) so 0x28BE and 0x73A5 numbers, and I decided to check some thing, what if EOF offset 0x6D3C3 - 0x28BE - 8 = 0x6AAFD( 8 is size of our 2 unknown numbers yet ) lets see what we got here:

Wow, that's zlib header 0x789C then 0x73A5 might be uncompressed size, after decompression I have found its our file list with offsets / unpacked size /packed size and so on... so you can try now my tool to extract all game resources:

Download: Death to Spies .vfs Extractor v1.0

Monday, May 14, 2007

Ancient Wars - Sparta

Developer: World Forge
Publisher: www.playlogicinternational.com
Official site: Ancient Wars - Sparta
Review:
Eurogamer
Screen shots:


A great new RTS from Eidos and Playlogic, where u can control three empires Sparta, Persia or Egypt. Also Ancient Wars: Sparta isn't a game based on 300 a movie. Game gfx is looks like very nice at least in demo :) So you need a tech new computer.

Minimum System Requirements

System: Intel Pentium®4 2.4 GHz or Athlon XP or equivalent
RAM: 512 MB
Video Memory: 128 MB
Hard Drive Space: 4000 MB

I've coded a tool for this game, game using a pretty tricky encryption, it takes me two days to made stable tool and properly implement decryption algorithm.
Decryption routine looks like:

// ( outbuffsize == decrypt FAT) ? position in stream : size of decompressed stream.

public static byte[] Decrypt(byte[] buff, int outbuffsize)
{
// If buffer length > 0x100 then decrypt only first 0x100 bytes.
int num = ( buff.Length > 0x100 ) ? 0x100 : buff.Length;

for (int i = 0; i < num; i++)
{
int index = ( outbuffsize + i ) % 15;
buff[i] = (byte) (buff[i] ^ m_array[index]);
}
return buff;
}

File structure is simple and looks like:
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct PAK
{
public int LengthFileName;
public string FileName;
public int Offset;
public int IsPacked; // 1 - true 2 - false
public int PackedSize;
public int UnpackedSize;
public int Crc; // it looks like crc but I'm not sure.
}
I hope you like it: Ancient Wars - Sparta .PAK Extractor v1.0

New domain.

Now you can find me at http://www.inthegame.eu/
Thanks a lot to my friend K..

UFO Extraterrestrials

Publisher: Tri Synergy
Developer: Chaos Concept
Official site: here
Review: 1
Forum: forum
Screen shots:




Another UFO game, now from Czechs developers, very looks like first UFO Defense, game atmosphere is pretty nice, who played first UFO should to try this one.
Developers used own file format to keep their textures, music and other resources. I've done my tool at this weekend so you can extract modify and repack their XBIG files. Also you can find a lot of MODs for this game at official forum.
Tool requirements: .NET Framework 2.0
You can download tool here: UFO Extraterrestrials xBIG Tool v1.1

Friday, May 11, 2007

Infernal

Publisher: Playlogic
Developer: Metropolis Software
Official site: here
Reviews: 1 2
Game forum:
here



Tool: Another quite simple Infernal .ZAP Unpacker for game archives with extension .zap Just open zap file and tool immediately start unpacking process it will create folder with unpacked files in the same directory.
How to convert zap to zip:
Using my tool you can convert zap to zip, just need to unpack all .zap files then pack unpacked files into .zip with same name and edit config file in
game folder "standard_game.feel" change
Zip_compatible_packfiles 0 to 1. Now you can easily edit game resources with out any problems.

Halo 2 Delayed to May 22

Halo 2 for Windows Vista has been delayed to May 22nd, in order to make some improvements and address some technical issues, Microsoft announced. Halo 2 for PC includes the original Xbox game, plus the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack, as well as a level editor to create your own multiplayer maps. Latest trailer you can be found here.






Dawn of Magic










Developers
: Skyfallen Entertainment
Publisher: Deep Silver
Official site: here
Review: IGN

In Russia game known as "Blood Magic" and was published by 1C


I wrote small tool for .bm file format. You can create your own .bm file BM container support 3 different packaging ways of files into container ( Encryption/Compression/Plain ).
Some files could be compressed and encrypted at the same time, sound and video files should be in plain view.
Download: Dawn of Magic .BM Tool v1.0
Requirements: .NET Framework 2.0




Blog started

This blog will be about PC games, game resources and games related things.
I hope u will find a lot of useful stuff here :)