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Chaos Engine remake

PostPosted: 03 Oct 2009, 21:39
by the_coder
Hello all! Hello Kroah!
I would like to reimplement the game engine of the "Chaos Engine" on modern OS (Windows/Unixes). The idea is to use original game data.
I started to reverse engineer DOS version of Chaos Engine, but this is quite hard and time consuming. May be you know the formats of the files that are used by the original game?

Thanks in advance and every help will be appreciated.

Re: Chaos Engine remake

PostPosted: 04 Oct 2009, 18:06
by Kroah
Hello the_coder!

There's an interesting thread on EAB, did you read it?
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=41715

Raw data are split into the binary and some files. I've only decoded a small part of the data (mainly the level structure).

I don't know your coding and reverse engineering skill, but it's the hardest game i worked on.

The best i can do right now is to give you the source code of my tool. It's coded in C# with no comments. Depending on your knowledge, this may help you. I have some sparse notes but almost everything is already in the source.

Which tool do you use to reverse engineer the DOS version ?

Re: Chaos Engine remake

PostPosted: 04 Oct 2009, 20:11
by the_coder
Hello Kroah!
Thanks for reply. I succeeded to figure out the structure of the CHAOS.DAT. This is simple archive http://rewiki.regengedanken.de/wiki/Chaos_engine. I think that files stored in the archive are compressed. Now I'm trying to figure out how to decrunch them. I'm using IDA and DOSBox debugger for my needs.
I think that it will be very helpful for me to see your source code. As far as I understood, you used Amiga version of the chaos engine. Do you know if there are significant differences between Amiga and DOS versions? (I never used Amiga before)

Best regards

Re: Chaos Engine remake

PostPosted: 04 Oct 2009, 21:53
by Kroah
the_coder wrote:I think that it will be very helpful for me to see your source code.

Here is the link: Chaos Engine Viewer - v1.03 - Source.zip

If you have any questions about the source, ask here, i'll try to help you.

the_coder wrote:As far as I understood, you used Amiga version of the chaos engine. Do you know if there are significant differences between Amiga and DOS versions? (I never used Amiga before)

The viewer is compatible with the Amiga CD32, Amiga OCS and Atari ST version because almost all files are identical (besides gfx files).

I think even if the DOS files are packed, we will have the same data files after unpacking.

Please let me know if you unpack all the files, i'll try to add the PC version to the viewer then.

Re: Chaos Engine remake

PostPosted: 05 Oct 2009, 09:32
by the_coder
Thank you very much. I'll give a look

Re: Chaos Engine remake

PostPosted: 02 Feb 2013, 23:46
by pimox
Hi all, I'm working on a iOs portage of the chaos engine and I'm looking for the sounds

Can anyone help me ?

Thank you

Olivier

Re: Chaos Engine remake

PostPosted: 03 Feb 2013, 15:32
by Kroah
pimox wrote:Hi all, I'm working on a iOs portage of the chaos engine and I'm looking for the sounds

Sorry, but i haven't worked on the music/sound part at all.

You should try the EAB forum if you haven't done it already.
Looking forward your iOs port :).

Re: Chaos Engine remake

PostPosted: 03 Feb 2013, 19:58
by pimox
Here is a facebook page I just created to show the creation of the game

https://www.facebook.com/TheChaosEngineiOs

I used your level viewer to export levels and sprites in png and made a small php script to recreate tiled maps.

Thank you very much for your work !

I just don't know about the rights. I sent emails to bitmap bothers, tower studios and mike montgomery, and Mike told me he has the rights on the games, how can I be sure about this ? Do you have an idea ?

Thank you in advance.

Olivier