The Chaos Engine 2

[wheeljack]

Hi there all,

I'm here to find some help on how can I rip the complete sprites/tiles-set from Chaos Engine 2. I tried to follow some Tapmapper tutorials, but it's quite a mess, I mean I don't even know what I'm looking at when I move numbers and things in the application.
I was able to spot some alphabet chars, numbers and level props here and there, but I can't get how to fix colors and tilesets.

Surfing around, I also found a filed (?) version of CE2, I mean with all data files, could it be useful?

[jotd]

Filed version of CE2 is probably MS-DOS and has PC-compatible graphics in some.

Amiga version was track-based (which doesn't mean that there aren't any "files" behind).

I always found those tools (gfxrip, maptapper) and the people who use them "optimistic" You must have a good experience of the tools before doing successful rips (I don't have any experience of the tools, but tiles & graphics can be organized in a lot of ways depending on the programmers).

The best way is reverse engineering of the code to see which data is doing what. But that's some work!

[gimbal]

And the absolute worst way is making video recordings and screenshots, but that's the only way I manage to get anywhere.

[wheeljack]

Originally Posted by jotd

Filed version of CE2 is probably MS-DOS and has PC-compatible graphics in some.Amiga version was track-based (which doesn't mean that there aren't any "files" behind).I always found those tools (gfxrip, maptapper) and the people who use them "optimistic" You must have a good experience of the tools before doing successful rips (I don't have any experience of the tools, but tiles & graphics can be organized in a lot of ways depending on the programmers).The best way is reverse engineering of the code to see which data is doing what. But that's some work!

I'm talking about The Chaos Engine 2 AGA version for Amiga:
https://www.mobygames.com/game/11964...haos-engine-2/

and as far as I know there was only the floppy version. Is that right?

[wheeljack]

Originally Posted by gimbal

And the absolute worst way is making video recordings and screenshots, but that's the only way I manage to get anywhere.

I'm aware of such crazy way of ripping it brings me good old times

[jotd]

The best way: figure out the tile indexes and pics, then figure out where are the maps where the data is just a series of numbers referencing tile numbers. I ripped Magic Pockets like that, and even re-created custom levels.

But someone already ripped the gfx, I just found the tilemaps and "just" figured out the format of the files.

For Cadaver, I reverse-engineered the level data and ripped tiles, sprites, and rooms. Kroah used my preliminary work for his superb Cadaver editor.

It seems that CE2 is the only Bitmap Bros games that doesn't have proper rips. I suppose that the format of the files/graphics are similar as Chaos Engine 1, only the game is radically different (for the worst). There are even tiles that are the same at some point. They reused some CE1 tiles in some higher level.

[wheeljack]

After some tries with Maptapper I was able to find the sprites, but they're still a little mess



Do you have any suggestions on how to fix the palette? I tried to use Copperlist button as explained in some tutorials, but it didn't work.

Thanks in advance!

[jotd]

rip the palette in-game using WinUAE debugger. Shift+F12 then "e" and you have the dump of custom registers.