Request for inclusion of TAW in the list of games

[Xela]

On behalf of all enthusiasts of TAW (Total Air War by DID) I would like to have two f22 and f22ur.dat files worked on and possibly opened.

There is a 3rd file did.dat, which opened very smoothly using Rollercoaster Tycoon Css. I tried all dat options in latest MultiEx, but with no satisfactory result. Good news is that f22 and f22ur have only little over 3MB and did.dat more than 50.

Thank you in advance for your kind consideration.

[Mr.Mouse]

Ok, well, is it possible to attach zipped versions of them here? Or you can email them (see http://multiex.xentax.com )
Also, read the Request information in my signature

Thanks!

[Xela]

Thank you for fast reply , sending files now.

[HawkeyePierce]

were these files ever opened, i can't seem to find them, please excuse me if i'm being blind

[Xela]

I would like, if I may refresh, this request. Please let me know if you need dat files to be resent. And the question: apparently big dat file containing wavs can be opened with Rollorcoaster Tycoon MEX , but the smaller files are more stuborn. Error comes that MEX exceeds the size of the archive file. What does this mean? Thank you for all your efforts Mr. Mouse.

[Mr.Mouse]

Yes, please send the examples of these files. I will certainly take a look at them.

[friendsofwatto]

Assuming that you are referring to the game F-22 Total Air War (which is also commonly known as simply Total Air War), I have put the specs on the wiki...

http://wiki.xentax.com/index.php?title=Total_Air_War_Z
http://wiki.xentax.com/index.php?title= ... ir_War_DAT

This covers the 2 main archives - the *.z files have an unknown compression though, and the *.dat files contain names but I cannot find any way to link a name to a specific file. ( Mr Mouse...? )

Plugins for these 2 archive types will be included in the next Game Extractor update.

WATTO
watto@watto.org
http://www.watto.org

[Xela]

Thank you for such a prompt reaction and reply. I believe that there were several incarnation or we may say versions of this simulation , the last of which was TAW. The one in WIKI I think refers to the previous version which was called F22 Dominance Fighter. TAW to my knowledge does not contain *.z format files. Anyway I am now travelling , but as soon as I get home I send the DAT files. And thank you again.

[KorNet]

Xela attach please small archive .. thx

[Mr.Mouse]

Xela, the DAT files you send were executables.

Rename to .exe and you could start them, probably TAW executables.

[Xela]

Than you mr. Mouse for this information. I have done as suggested and renamed it to exe. They do not run, however with hex editor I can see inside those two files are some graphics.

[Xela]

Apparently this subject I must continue, as I have learned recently that main content of files is not in the files I submitted , but in other dat file size about over 62 MB. I thought that those 62 MB were just wav files which I have extracted easilly, but failed to check if the total of extracted files sums up to 62MB which of course it does not. So there is a some significant lot left here to discover.

My 1st question: is there any ripper which after extraction of those wavs would remove them from the file, leaving me to deal with only the other remaining content which now so interests me?

And 2nd question if I fail to open that how cna I send 62MB to you guys for some snooping.

[Xela]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 READ D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\did.dat SUCCESS Offset: 10881171 Length: 1024
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 READ D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\did.dat SUCCESS Offset: 10882195 Length: 1024
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 READ D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\did.dat SUCCESS Offset: 10883219 Length: 1024
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 READ D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\did.dat SUCCESS Offset: 10884243 Length: 1024
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 READ D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\did.dat SUCCESS Offset: 10885267 Length: 1024
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 READ D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\did.dat SUCCESS Offset: 10886291 Length: 1024
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 READ D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\did.dat SUCCESS Offset: 10887315 Length: 1024
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 READ D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\did.dat SUCCESS Offset: 10888339 Length: 1024
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 READ D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\did.dat SUCCESS Offset: 10889363 Length: 1024
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 READ D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\did.dat SUCCESS Offset: 10890387 Length: 1024
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 QUERY INFORMATION D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\winfonts\f22_1.ext SUCCESS Attributes: A
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 OPEN D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\winfonts\f22_1.ext SUCCESS Options: Open Access: All
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 QUERY INFORMATION D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\winfonts\f22_1.ext SUCCESS Length: 49132
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 QUERY INFORMATION D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\winfonts\f22_1.ext SUCCESS Length: 49132
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 CLOSE D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\winfonts\f22_1.ext SUCCESS
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 QUERY INFORMATION D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\winfonts\f22_2.ext SUCCESS Attributes: A
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 OPEN D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\winfonts\f22_2.ext SUCCESS Options: Open Access: All
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 QUERY INFORMATION D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\winfonts\f22_2.ext SUCCESS Length: 38616
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 QUERY INFORMATION D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\winfonts\f22_2.ext SUCCESS Length: 38616
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 CLOSE D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\winfonts\f22_2.ext SUCCESS
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 CLOSE D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\did.dat SUCCESS
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 READ D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\F22.DAT SUCCESS Offset: 1860608 Length: 8192
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 READ D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\F22.DAT SUCCESS Offset: 1872896 Length: 24576
9:29:03 AM explorer.exe:1404 QUERY INFORMATION D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM\_f22.exe SUCCESS Attributes: A
9:29:03 AM f22.dat:1968 CLOSE D:\Program Files\DID\TAW\PROGRAM SUCCESS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[/quote]

Here is my attempt to discover what is hidden in TAW.dat file. What you see above is the end of File Monitor log file recording every bit of data the program reads from dat file before it starts. As the log indicates there is about 15000 entries in varius chunks, but mostly small amounting 1024 bytes. The above is the targets part, the terrain, sound, speech, and other graphics was much earlier. I do not know yest what this chunk carries - hopefully I'll find out this one the end.

Any comments?

[Xela]

This what you can get by just browsing huge 64MB dat file with hex editor in graphic form patiently adjusting hex per row value until something shows. I do not know what that is - probable music, but I can see some other "recognizable" formations of bytes, or as shown in this example bytes represented by pixels.

PSYCHODELIC

[Xela]

I have made Excel spreadsheet from the file monitor log to see what can be extracted.
I have noticed somewhere in the middle that the program closed and opened did.dat file. I have marked this place in red and green (like a street lights:))

Let us see what can we extract here. Notice that the file is read as follows: chunk of 24576 (5x 4096)bytes contineously and then intermitently 8 x 4096 bytes from 2 different places.

This is the reason some of the stuff cannot be readily recognised on the graphis interpretation of file in Hex Editor. The files are possibly "stitched" from different places - stripe after stripe.