Old School Dos DAT file

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Old School Dos DAT file

Postby toothpickvic » Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:41 pm

So I get this great Idea.. lets do a scene for scene (ish) remake of one of my fav game intro's as an AMV. Problem is that I can't get the DAT file to decode into a raw, or anything for that manner. I have tried Numerous programs, but nothing that works. If you have any Idea I appreciate any feedback. If you want an example of the DAT File I have the company's splash DAT file uploading now. Let me know and I'll link ya.

Thanks
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Postby Zarxrax » Tue Sep 26, 2006 10:15 pm

Well what game is it?

You could always try just recording it with FRAPS or something if all else fails.
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Postby toothpickvic » Tue Sep 26, 2006 11:01 pm

hehe trying to keep the game a secret for now... but 'll try to get fraps working :) thanks
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Postby Qyot27 » Wed Sep 27, 2006 3:28 pm

Did the file come directly off the game disc, or was it from say, Video CD? If it came from a Video CD, it's just an MPEG-1 stream and VDub can open them just fine. Otherwise, if it doesn't play through DirectShow, you could try to get it to do that first and pipe it through graphedit and then DirectShowSource, or just DirectShowSource.

If it weren't for the fact I remember PlayStation games hold their files with .STR extensions or something like that, I know that PSX games (or at least most of them) use a modified version of MJPEG and that there are DirectShow-capable decoders for those files now or so I've heard, but I've not actively tried looking for them. I believe Sega CD uses one of the Indeo formats, Saturn discs use Cinepak if I remember correctly, and Dreamcast - if you can even get to the video files, that is - use a specially-packed MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 stream.

PC games are completely up in the air. They could potentially use anything, although I'd surmise that it would generally be MPEG-1 or 2, Sorenson 1 or 3, MPEG-4 Simple or maybe even Advanced Simple at a stretch (To Heart 2 XRated, for example, had to have its source code released because Leaf used XviD libraries inside the game). The chances of using older formats like Indeo or Cinepak are possible if the games are old enough that those were still in common usage, or it could be more exotic but common formats like Bink or Smacker (like Starcraft or whatnot uses), which typically have official products from the format creators to deal with it.
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Postby toothpickvic » Wed Sep 27, 2006 3:43 pm

Last Night I uploaded one of the DAT files to my site.

http://toothpickvic.com/AMVS/critter.dat

if anyone can get that to work... I'll make it up somehow..maybe send ya a dvd or something :)

Thanks
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Postby DJ_Izumi » Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:20 pm

Ah, Fallout.
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Postby toothpickvic » Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:21 pm

:D


how can ya tell :)
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Postby DJ_Izumi » Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:23 pm

I googled for the file name and it came up with info on the file and the game it was from.

This is a dat file, it's basicly an archive of game data, so you can pull the game assets out of it with the right tools but god knows what video format is inside this thing. You're probably going to need a piece of software for this specific game, similar to what you need to do to extract Command & Conquer videos.
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Postby Qyot27 » Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:41 pm

Scrounging around on Wikipedia and a corresponding wiki for the game series brought this site up. It's full of extraction and decoding utilities for Fallout 1 and 2:

http://teamx.ru/eng/files/utils/index.shtml

Maybe something on there could be useful.
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Postby toothpickvic » Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:58 pm

I'll check it more when I get home, but if this works I think you just got yourself a dvd :)
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Postby Moonie » Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:29 pm

toothpickvic wrote:I'll check it more when I get home, but if this works I think you just got yourself a dvd :)


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I wish i found that site! >_<
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Postby toothpickvic » Wed Sep 27, 2006 9:29 pm

Qyot27,

Your research has proved valuable :D. The video quality is teh suck. but it gives me the audio and some ref video, and that is what I need. PM me and we'll talk about that dvd.

Thanks to everyone that helped.
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