Why LemEdit won't work under XP

[Borg Number One]

Hi.

@Mindless

Thank you very much for the unpacked adlib.dat,
but I have some questions:

1.)
How did you unpack the compressed adlib.dat?

2.)
http://bnobtc.pix-art.com/lemmings-memory-dumps.rar
-->
Why is the data inside the memory dump
(starting from offset 0x19870 HEX inside the memory dump)
different to your uncompressed adlib.dat.0 file?


For Comparision/general info:

The size of my (compressed) original adlib.dat in the "Oh no more Lemming" directory is 6894 Bytes and has this checksum:

CRC-16: 329E

[guest]

Why is the data inside the memory dump
(starting from offset 0x19870 HEX inside the memory dump)
different to your uncompressed adlib.dat.0 file?

I haven't looked into any of this, but keep in mind there's no guarantee that whatever's in memory will be an exact copy of what's in the file.  There can be post-processing done after the file is loaded and decompressed in memory.

Incidentally, where did you obtain your copy of ONML?

[Borg Number One]

Hi.

Reffering to "1.)"

How did you unpack the compressed adlib.dat to:
adlib.dat.0(http://it.travisbsd.org/lemmings/_misc/adlib.dat.zip)?


Reffering to "2.)"


Why there are differences between:

a)
http://bnobtc.pix-art.com/lemmings-memory-dumps.rar
-->memdump-ohnomorelemmings.bin
-->starting from offset 0x19870 HEX

b)
http://it.travisbsd.org/lemmings/_misc/adlib.dat.zip
-->adlib.dat.0

[Borg Number One]

Hi.


Many years ago, I build 1:1 dumps* from/of all my floppy disks.
The most of these disks were original disks.

ONML was one of the original disks.


Well, how did you build adlib.dat.0?
Did you also used the "memdump method"?

[Borg Number One]

Reffering to the previous post:

*=building disk images is better than just copy/backup the files,
because the most copy protections will be copied and "hidden" information like "DISK ID" or disk serial number will also be copied and backed-up.

[guest]

Hi.

Reffering to "1.)"<snip>

Rather than double-posting your questions, may I suggest you have a quick read of this post.  

This provides a possible answer to question #1.  It is also why I mentioned that your memory dump doesn't necessarily match the decompressed contents of adlib.dat.  You have no idea (or do you) what exactly transpired between the time adlib.dat was loaded from disk and what happens at the time you did your memory dump.

[Borg Number One]

Hi.

Thank you very much for the lemmings decompressor / lemmings unpacker / lemmings dat file unpacker / lemmings dat file uncompressor.
http://it.travisbsd.org/lemmings/files/lemleveldecompressor.zip

It also works great with the adlib.dat in different Lemmings games.


Now, the research about the "hidden jukebox" and the different "Sound Images"-Adlib tune formats can begin.

It would be really great if "Sound Images" (Tony Williams) will be supported by ADPlug, someday.

[Borg Number One]

Hi.


PS:
Who is ccexplore?

Google results are just about a file manager, if I look for: "ccexplorer".

If I look for: +"ccexplore" +"lemmings", then I just get results about/by the Author of Clones.
http://www.tomkorp.com/clones/index.asp

[Borg Number One]

I meant:

[...]if I look for: "ccexplore"[...]

[guest]

It would be really great if "Sound Images" (Tony Williams) will be supported by ADPlug, someday.

Hm, Tony Williams is one of the game programmers of Lemmings, I think listed in the credits specifically for the PC music.

It's hard to tell from the copyright text alone, but it seems like "Sound Images" might be a custom format they made just for Lemmings.  (Well, it could also be used for other games I suppose, I don't know.)   I know nothing about ADPlug so I don't know how easy or hard it would be to get someone to support a file format that only one or a few game uses.

Incidentally, you can capture the raw OPL commands (the commands sent to the sound card to synthesize the music) from DOSBox, I think it's Ctrl+F7?  (lookup the DOSBox readme).  Unfortunately, while I know the format of the capture files, I don't know any standard formats out there for adlib music, so as of now I won't be able to convert anything.

[Borg Number One]

Oh, that's neat, for the first time we find out the official names of those ONML tunes.  B)

With the help of "guest" and its post (12:50am)
and with the help of Mindless' tool: lemleveldecompressor,

I could get the music / tune strings from
Lemmings
(Copyright 1991 Psygnosis Ltd (C)MCMXCI Psygnosis Ltd.)
in a faster way then building a memory dump.



Here are the results:

Lemmings - tune list:

Code: [Select]

Ad-Lib Music/FX Driver - (c) 1991 Sound Images   Tel. 061 773 4541


                       ~ Lemmings ~


Press - A - Awesome             L - Tim1
       B - BeastI              M - Tim2
       C - BeastII             N - Tim3
       D - CanCan              O - Tim4
       E - Doggie              P - Tim5
       F - Lemming1            Q - Tim6
       G - Lemming2            R - Tim7
       H - Lemming3            S - Tim8
       I - Menace              T - Tim9
       J - Mountain            U - Tim10
       K - Ten Lemmings

       Shifted A-Q for Sound Effects

                        Space - Fast Forward
                        Enter - Stop Tune
                       Escape - Quit

[Borg Number One]

Hi.

Talking about Tony Williams and its developed "Sound Images / Sound Images 2 / Sound Images II" formats:

It seems to be that there are many different "Sound Images"-formats & -versions.

The Sound Images Format(s) in Amiga Games are already well known and can be played with Delitracker/DeliPlayer/EaglePlayer.
http://amiga.emucamp.com/wt/players.html
http://amiga.emucamp.com/wt/examples.html
http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/unexotica/formats/Sound_Images.html


But they are really different to Tony's "Sound Images"-formats,
which he developed for the PC.

Games like DIZZY, Volfied, Lemmings, ..., Lemmings 3D use
different versions/modifications of the Sound Images format,
if you view their in-game/music files in a HEX editor.


Talking about Adlib grabbing:

I know the possibility of DOSBOX' feature to grab the RAW OPL commands,
because it was my idea to add such a feature to DOSBOX.

The whole grabbing theme and RAW format was  originally from:
Roman Dolejsi, who introduced the RAW-Adlib- format and
who built "RAC" - a small Adlib grabber for DOS.

Harekiet - the author of DOSBOX was enjoyed about my idea,
modified the RAW-format a litle,
named it "DRO" (DOSBox Raw OPL Format)
and added the RAW-Adlib Grabbing feature.


However, there are some problems:
a)
The feature does not work perfectly.
In many cases the first RAW Adlib commands will not be grabbed.
So, the .DRO file sounds crazy and stupid.

b)
Cutting the .DRO file to a decent tune is really difficult.

[guest]

However, there are some problems:
a)
The feature does not work perfectly.
In many cases the first RAW Adlib commands will not be grabbed.
So, the .DRO file sounds crazy and stupid.

b)
Cutting the .DRO file to a decent tune is really difficult.

Well, at least for the ones captured from ONML, they were complete enough for me to convert them to MIDIs (well, the notes that is, I obviously cannot convert instruments).

In fact, I think I posted here somewhere a quick program I wrote that can playback the DROs.  The playback is indiscernible from the original as far as I can tell.  One nice thing about Lemmings is that it doesn't play music continuously throughout the game, it only plays every time you start/restart a level, and then it even gives you time to prepare since the music only starts after the entrance opens.

It's probably not going to work for every DRO out there, but as I said it seems to work just fine for the Lemmings tunes.  And properly clipping the tune will still have to be done "by hand/ear" in some manner.

[guest]

In fact, I think I posted here somewhere a quick program I wrote that can playback the DROs.

I found the post, here we go:

http://eng-forum.lemmingswelt.de/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=level_id;action=display;num=1115137024;start=41#41

[Borg_Number_One]

Hi.

Here are the Lemmings tunes related news:
http://eng-forum.lemmingswelt.de/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=news;action=display;num=1121193817;start=0#0