Help with Chaos Engine Sound Format

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Help with Chaos Engine Sound Format

Postby Pantheon » 21 Nov 2011, 04:36

Greetings.
I have been trying to get a full collection of the sounds from the Chaos Engine
but as of yet I have had no luck. I have poked around inside the archives for this
game but I cant find any sound sample data. I have even taken memory dumps of
it while its running and listened threw the dump using audacity and still I can find
any samples. In the archives there are SFX1.SFX, SFX2.SFX....
The data in them appears to be compressed, and I have no way of knowing how
to decompress them.

I did in fact download some of the RJP format music for the game, and they contained
the samples for the music, but also some of the game sound effects.
I did actually manage to get the player hit sounds, all announcer sounds, an explosion
and a few other bits and pieces, but there is a lot missing.

Since lots of the people here (or perhaps just kroah) seem to have dug deeply into
the game, I was wondering if they can tell me anything about how to get at the
sound from the Chaos Engine.

Perhaps it might help if I explain why I'm trying to get the sounds.

For the past month I have been working on a remake of the Chaos Engine.
My intention is to create a near clone of the game, but in portable c++ with
a level editor and a new set of levels.

I currently have the level editor written (in C#) and for the most part it can be considered
finished. I have written the game engine from scratch using SDL and today it became practically
feature complete. I just finished coding up a small audio system for it, and now I am adding
sound effects to all of the game entities and scripts I have written, but I don't have all the sounds.

Since this would be my first remake project, I don't know what any of the legal implications of
this would be, if I am to release it open source. Can anyone advise me on what I can and cant
do with my remake?

Also I should like to thank you Kroah since your reversing of the chaos engine was a big
inspiration for my remake and the graphics extractor was really essential.
Pantheon
 
Posts: 2
Joined: 21 Nov 2011, 03:58

Re: Help with Chaos Engine Sound Format

Postby Conundrum » 11 Dec 2011, 14:55

Goodness gracious, your project might be the answer to my prayers!

While I am unable to help you with your problem, I feel I should express my support and admiration for you to undertake such effort. Chaos Engine is an incredible which long deserved a proper remake made by dedicated fans. I wish you the best of luck with your project and in the meantime, I will try to look for a way to rip the sound effects myself. I would like to ask you something though: do you plan to implement online multiplayer and split-screen mode in the long run? Also, will the engine be open source?
Conundrum
 
Posts: 5
Joined: 11 Dec 2011, 14:37

Re: Help with Chaos Engine Sound Format

Postby Pantheon » 12 Dec 2011, 16:44

When I was designing the engine I had not even considered multi-player.
Thinking about it now, it should be possible to implement (perhaps not as efficiently as it could be)
but its not something that is a priority for me currently. But perhaps one day...

Split screen mode is also something I had not thought of, again I see no reason why I couldn't technically
be implemented but again my priority is to see the game to a state where its playable first an foremost
and then perhaps I will put in some additions like these.

Yes I will put the source up on goggle code so that hopefully it can be ported to hand held devices and whatnot.
There would probably be a few issues with big endian devices, since I use bit shifting in a few places... but that
can all be cleaned up first.

As for the sounds, I figured out that all of the other sounds are synthesized from a smaller set of sounds, one
that I already have (extracted from the RJP music). I was able to mimic some of these in soundforge, so
most of the sounds are now in the game.
Pantheon
 
Posts: 2
Joined: 21 Nov 2011, 03:58

Re: Help with Chaos Engine Sound Format

Postby Conundrum » 13 Dec 2011, 00:08

Do you have a website? I would love to follow your project closely. I do understand you're still on an early stage, but even so I would like to know about progress and so on. Also have you tried announcing your project on the English Amiga Boards? There are plenty of people there (like Kroah himself) who dedicate themselves to reverse engineer classic amiga games. JOTD is a good example, he fully reverse engineered Gods all by himself and is currently working on a Cadaver remake. It would be a good idea to contact him to get some feedback, as he is not only a huge Bitmap Bros fan, he's also an amazing programmer and a very nice person, who will certainly be able to give you a few valluable tips.

As for the online multiplayer, I would reccommend you to at least consider it. Chaos Engine was insanely fun in coop mode. In fact if you check youtube for let's plays you'll find out most Chaos Engine LPs are two-player collabs via emulator. The fact that you are also planning to create a map editor is a complimentary to this, as it would lead players to actively create and share maps to play online.

*EDIT*

Also, have you checked this thread? Perhaps you should try contacting this guy in hopes of joining forces.
Conundrum
 
Posts: 5
Joined: 11 Dec 2011, 14:37


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