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Zoinkity - N64 Starcraft
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Gamma
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 PostPosted: Sat Jun 22, 2013 2:17 pm    Post subject: Zoinkity - N64 Starcraft Reply with quote Back to top

Zoinkity I just saw one of your posts on a Starcraft forum about N64 Starcraft. It was incredibly awesome when you said you had plans to write a program where you can drop any regular computer file into the game! You posted on a dead forum that is why noone replied. If you posted on teamliquid.net on the SC1 forum you would have like 50 replies.

It would be so awesome if you did make the program. We could play on 2013 maps instead of the 1998 maps. Also, could you please explain what else we are capable of changing?

Link to your post.
http://www.blizzhackers.cc/viewtopic.php?f=176&t=494443

Thank you much.
 
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Gamma
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 PostPosted: Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

@Zoinkity: I only know one Starcraft programmer who has ever touched SC64. I emailed him what he did with Starcraft 64 and he wrote the following:

I didn't do any cool hacks on it. At most I documented some stuff on the file format of the attached file with the header 'BOLT'. I wrote a trivial program that extracted already-uncompressed files (I might still have it), but ultimately did not decompress the compressed files (didn't really look into it, but it's probably using the same format that saves, replays, and MPQs use, which is PKLib, which can be found on BWAPI and several MPQ and replay projects around the net).

My document can be found here: https://code.google.com/p/vgce/source/browse/trunk/docs/Blizzard/Starcraft/starcraft64data.txt

It is really not much at all, but if you open up the n64 rom in a hex editor and search for 'BOLT' you will find the data archive that it outlines.

Also there are different formats for n64 roms, but there is one format that makes reading it easier (v64 or something?).

I could reverse engineer the compression algorithm if it is not PKLib, but I am quite busy at the moment.

-Deathknight aka Heinermann
 
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zoinkity
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 PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 11:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

N64 ROMs may be byteswapped, but there's no difference in types. At this point in time all ROMs should be unbyteswapped or made as such.
The different extensions you see are historical, named after the devices used to extract them. Most developers used either .rom or .n64, the Z64 gave them a .z64 extension, V64 gave them a .v64, and the GameShark just used .bin.

I extracted the game data via a general extraction tool. It takes filelists, which in this case basically itemizes what's already declared in the BOLT. Difference is, mine can assign a filename, and everything started to slow down roughly when I couldn't figure out what the remaining files were supposed to be. In particular, there's a slew of sounds that ingame are simply named along the lines of BLTN0000.wav despite corresponding to PC sounds (and not being waves).

Best part, my 'working filelist' is for the prototype German translation ;*)

Did do the compression. It's an LZ derivative. To be fair, most things aren't compressed. The compression is lousy too, so that's probably a good thing. They should have used gzip like everyone else ;*)
Code:
        l, b, cnt = 0, 0, 0
        # This catches the stream when dec_s isn't provided
        try:
            while True:
                if dec_s and len(output) >= dec_s:
                    break
                cmd = next(d)
                if cmd<0x80:
                    # (cmd&0xF) NOR (b<<4)
                    b<<=4
                    b|= (cmd&0xF)
                    b = len(output) + (~b)
                    l<<=3
                    l|= (cmd>>4)
                    l+=cnt
                    for i in range(l+2):
                        v = output[b+i]
                        output.append(v)
                    l, b, cnt = 0, 0, 0
                    continue
                elif cmd<0x90:
                    l<<=4
                    l+= (cmd&0xF)
                    for i in range(l+1):
                        output.append(next(d))
                    l, cnt = 0, 0
                    continue
                elif cmd<0xA0:
                    l = cmd&3
                    cmd>>=2
                    b = cmd&3
                elif cmd<0xC0:
                    l<<=5
                    l|= (cmd&0x1F)
                else:
                    b<<=6
                    b|= (cmd&0x3F)
                cnt+=1
        except StopIteration:
            pass
        return output


I never got around to making a program to automate editing. That said, most of the file formats aren't any different from PC. Where you see a difference is in GUI elements and certain non-animated images are N64 16bit indexed color.

Part of the issue with any serious editing work would be that you're near the filesize cap for the largest ROM cartridge. No backup devices allow more, and most emulators won't permit it either. So, you'd have to replace files and be clever about it.

[edit]
This is a link to the filelist for the German Proto (NSQD).

Any files you're particularly interested in? N64-formatted images have to be assembled, but there's a lot of PC files in there too. GRPedit opens pretty much all of those, for instance.
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Gamma
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 PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 12:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

I think if I could convince you to make a patch with replacing the 15 year old maps with today's maps there would be about 50 posts om teamliquid thanking Zoinkity. If you are interested I can link you a list of today's standard maps used on pro servers in order of importance.

This is of course only if you have time. You would be friendliest person on Earth!
 
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 PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 12:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Well, I could take a crack at it. Just swapping them probably isn't too much of an issue, presuming you don't go and use tilesets that aren't included or something. Aegh, that would be a mess.

Guess I'll have to write a compressor then too ;*) Shouldn't be too hard.
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Gamma
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 PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 1:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

You users of this site are most helpful and most friendly gamers in the world. I respect your dedication to gaming.

I will provide the links late tonight so you can see them tomorrow morning. There were 35 maps in SC64 for multiplayer.

Thank you!!!
 
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mistamontiel
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 PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 2:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Gamma, pro servers ? Where at..?

I frequently roam Bnet 1's US East. Not much competition anymore, just D
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Gamma
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 PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 3:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

You can search on teamliquid how to get Iccup server and Fish server. Iccup is international. Fish is 99% Korean. You would have to register an account on the websites for both, download the correct antihack launcher for both, and finally add the server manually with battlenet gateway editor.
 
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mistamontiel
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 PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 4:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

I didn't know the official servers were wrong.. pray tell

News to me

EDIT: OHHH because hackers always thrive on in official ?
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Gamma
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 PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 4:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

USEast is mostly the hackers banned from Iccup.
 
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zoinkity
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 PostPosted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 5:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

In case anyone's wondering which 35 were included, here's the list. You may recognize more than a few from your PC game.
Code:
"maps\(2)Challenger\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(2)River Styx\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(2)Solar Station\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(2)Discovery\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(2)Space Madness\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(2)The Small Divide\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(2)Volcanis\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(3)Three Kingdoms\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(3)Triumvirate\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(3)Monkey Business\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(3)Meltdown\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(4)Blood Bath\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(4)Spaced Out\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(4)Out of Time\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(4)Brushfire\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(4)Dire Straits\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(4)Opposing Cities\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(4)Power Lines\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(4)Lost Temple\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(4)Tarsonis Orbital\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(5)Island Hop\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(5)Predators\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(6)Ground Zero\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(6)Divided Factions\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(8)The Hunters\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(8)Orbital Death\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\(8)Eruption\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\scenario\(2)Pro Bowl\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\scenario\(2)Round-Up\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\scenario\(2)King of the Hill\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\scenario\(2)Old Faithful\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\scenario\(2)Guardians\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\scenario\(2)Zerg Troopers\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\scenario\(2)Resurrection IV\staredit\scenario.chk"
"maps\scenario\(2)Rage\staredit\scenario.chk"


Also of note, there were two bonus campaign maps, one of which can't be unlocked by any natural means. Wrote a GS code for it, but never did a video of a playthrough (mostly because I suck and keep dying).
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Gamma
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 PostPosted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 9:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Zoinkity the map files we use for PC Starcrat end in .scx (Broodwar which SC64 is) and .scm (Original SC). Will these work for putting into SC64?
 
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 PostPosted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 10:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

I always wanted to see why the N64 downport would have exclusive stuff..

really would like to see the GS codes to see all and make the units+structures invincible

I was never decent either.. just fantastic game + expansion I've owned since launch day.. the best RTS
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zoinkity
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 PostPosted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 3:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Yes they will.
If you open one of those up in an MPQ editor (I've been using Ladik's MPQ Editor) you'll see a listfile and the staredit/scenario.chk file. That file is formatted just like the N64 ones.

The only complications would be with using custom tilesets. Not 100% sure if custom scripts work; I haven't exactly torn the engine apart or anything.

Did I ever post up the MassHysteria.scx? That was just the scenario.chk shoved into an MPQ and renamed to .scx.

[edit]
I'm an idiot. The N64 game can be expanded to double its size. My backup device can only handle its current size though ;*)
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Gamma
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 PostPosted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 7:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

What backup device our you using?

Here is the link to the best modern maps of 2013. Just find official mappack on page and there are roughly 40 maps.
http://www.iccup.com/starcraft/

It would be cool if you put one non-melee Use Map Settings Map in it to see if it worked.
 
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