Amiga sprites restoration project - Page 2

tomcat666 · 27 August 2002, 09:01

OK, you will have to get used to the utility, since it has A LOT of keys to use and a lot of different ways that you can rip the graphics... i.e. because of the complex amiga hardware there were several different ways to store the graphics and palletes... so it might not work for some games - I just tried SuperFrog again and the sprites are in a format that the utility can't handle (yet) - so you will have to do with the tiles for this game...

Anyway, anyone who wants the utility please email me at tomcat@sgn.net and I will mail it back to you !

§ane · 27 August 2002, 09:24

Sounds like a cool proggie, Tomcat, if you pass me the source code and I might integrate this into WinUAE's GUI.

Paul · 27 August 2002, 10:19

Great looking program tomcat.

So will this mean we will see extra levels of classic games?

tomcat666 · 27 August 2002, 10:22

Well, I doubt that we will see some on amiga, but with the number of remakes appearing on the pc these days, we might see some of the classics with new levels on the pc

27 August 2002, 10:55

Quote:

Originally posted by tomcat666
Since SuperFrog was prolly the one that started this thread... Here is a little piccy for you :-) Yes, you can rip the whole thing (tiles, sprites, etc.) from SuperFrog without having to use screenshots at all... and the palette is found very quickly

Sob......sob.......sob......

And I spent about 4 hours cutting & pasting, and joining all the level 1 screens together to rip the tiles.

ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH !

(Thanks for the info Tomcat666 - might save me a few hours for level 2!)

Konrad · 27 August 2002, 11:42

Quote:

Originally posted by tomcat666

Here is an example of ripped graphics from

Hey Tomcat, which game is that in your first screenshot ?

tomcat666 · 27 August 2002, 11:49

It is from Escape From Colditz... all the background tiles used in the game

I also have full set of sprites from this one... it wasn't as easy to rip as the tiles, since they are different sized ones - so everything together accounts for some 40 odd files with different number of sprites in them. But it is complete.

27 August 2002, 12:07

Thanks for your util TC.

I could do with some help however, please. This would also be good for other people trying to learn how to use this util.

Right, I saved a game state from Superfrog whilst in level 1, and I've loaded up your prog.

I've set the bitplanes to 5 as I believe Superfrog uses 32 colours (2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 = 32).

I've set X to 16, and Y to 16 (as from analysing the graphics I believe this to be the size of the tiles).

What now ?

I try changing offset but imagine I have to check every offset? Can you tell me if I've done the above right, and what else I have to do.

This reminds me very much of my Action Replay days - could never get far ripping graphics (other than what's on the screen) with that either !

Once I've done this I'm sure I'll get the hang of it for other games.

TIA

tomcat666 · 27 August 2002, 15:00

Okie, tought this might be necessary... a quick tour of how to use this thing ;-)

The main thing is that you don't set the Bitplanes in the beginning - first you find the pictures in 2 colour mode and after that you fiddle with the bitplanes.

The other thing is that you must have a sense of what is a bitmap. If you think that tiles are 16 pixels wide that almost never means that they are stored like that in the memory, infact they are mostly stored in some totally bogus width.
For this reason it is vital that you can "SPOT" the bitmap in any X-size... this can only be done with doing this thing a lot. But normally you can spot it when diagonal lines in the bitmap start appering. But if you don't know what i am talking about then it is best to put your X-Size (with Q/A) keys to some normal value for amiga graphics - like 320 for example. Set the Y-Size to 200 or so, so that you can go quickly through the memory - with SHIFT left/right arrows.

Now when you spot something you *think* might be tiles or bitmap or something then use thr Q/A keys to alter the X-Size and then it will show up (probably - again you need practice for this to work ).

Now you got your X-size down you have to adjust the Y-Size and position (size with W/S and position with UP/DOWN (and with SHIFT)) ... when you have done that you have it mostly done....

Now you can see the picture on the screen and bitmaps are aligned one next to each other. Sometimes there is some rubbish between them and here you can use the R/F keys to adjust skip bytes between bitmaps.

Now you can select number of bitplanes with E/D keys... when the picture comes up in desired number of bitplanes (you will see when the rubbish starts to appear - then it is too many ;-) ) - after that you can start searching for the pallete - first use simple mode (normally it works) and after that the advanced if the simple mode didn't work. Sometimes you cannot find the pallete.

OK, in about half games the tiles/sprites are stored separately and in the other half the tiles/sprites are on the same bitmap (which is much bigger) - if they are stored separately then you can select how many tiles you want to save at once in your file (and how many in x/y direction).

I think this should explain the most of the inner workings of the tool... as I said, since it is fully manual you must have some practice to "spot" the bitmap when it doesn't have the right X-size.

And then there are other things, like interleaved bitmaps (i.e. ST type of bitmaps) where each other bitmap is in each other line... but this is advanced already ;-)

OK, hope this helped even a bit....

tomcat666 · 27 August 2002, 15:34

OK, for example, in Super Frog there are three types of graphics : Normal tiles that make up background, Sprite graphics of the main character and other tiles.
The sprite graphics are 32xsomething big and have TWO pictures in each bitmap... unfortunetly the gfx ripper cannot handle this format properly so you cannot rip them in full colour glory, but you rip them as 4 colour ones and then attach them together in some other program and make a 16 colour sprite from them... there are A LOT of frames like this.

The other tiles I shown you before - that is the picture I posted earlier... the normal tiles however are in 16x16 format and you can find them easily by using 16x16 size ... in my case they start at 825428 byte in the memory, X:16 , Y:16 Bits:5 (32 colours !) ... when saving save them as 30x28 tiles on one picture and you will get this: full set of background tiles for Level 1 of super frog :

Palette can be found with simple search in a few seconds !

As I said earlier... you need a bit of practice to "spot" the graphics even if they are in the wrong modulo (X-size)...

27 August 2002, 15:56

Thanks Tomcat,

I'll try again soon...

tomcat666 · 28 August 2002, 07:56

Ok, the version 1.01 with Sprite ripping capabilities (rips special amiga sprites (using 2 bitmaps with 2 bitplanes interleaved in each bitmap -> normally how you store the amiga hardware sprites) from Super Frog and Beast and some other games that didn't work before) is now in da zone ! Download and enjoy !

28 August 2002, 08:33

Thanks for the updated proggie Tomcat.

It really does show that for anything Amiga EAB really is the place to be (as another thread just said).

14 September 2002, 22:25

Hello Tomcat, could you port your ripping tool for the amiga please?
As you know WHDLoad can dump memory too. And i always wanted to rip those
tiles and sprites from my favourite games like the Turrican series, Jim Power
and others. I don't have a PC and can't use WinUAE :P So why not using the
memory dumps of WHDLoad? Aren't they the same? And if you think you can't
port it to amiga, could you please send me all tiles and gfx from the
Turrican 2 game? Of all levels if possible?
Thx

14 September 2002, 22:34

I imagine there's probably a similar tool to do this on Aminet. I think I saw one once, but can't remember the name. Try looking there.

Of course, if that fails there's always the Action Replay

RetroMan · 15 September 2002, 04:19

Well, there´s a gfx ripper on Aminet, but I never tried it

Maybe you should give it a go

----> ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/gfx/misc/gfxripper.lha

tomcat666 · 15 September 2002, 06:53

Sorry Captain Hit... I currently don't have the time to rip the Turrican graphics nor to port the tool to Amiga (it is a C++ Allegro source... if some1 wants to port ... I can give him the source).

But some1 else here might be able to help you out with it...

15 September 2002, 11:04

Welcome to eab Captain.

Antiriad · 15 September 2002, 12:22

So this does ZX Spectrum, C64 and Atari ST games as well?
This would all be with Snapshots/States right?
Does it also do Amstrad games? If so...can someone please put it back in the zone??? This sounds great!!!

15 September 2002, 12:52

Quote:

Originally posted by RetroMan
Well, there´s a gfx ripper on Aminet, but I never tried it Maybe you should give it a go

----> ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/gfx/misc/gfxripper.lha

I've tried that ages ago, doesn't work on my setup. I've tried similiar
tools too (found on aminet) but never did any useful things for me

27 August 2002, 12:07	#28
Jim Posts: n/a	Jim set's mode = Lamer mode! Thanks for your util TC. I could do with some help however, please. This would also be good for other people trying to learn how to use this util. Right, I saved a game state from Superfrog whilst in level 1, and I've loaded up your prog. I've set the bitplanes to 5 as I believe Superfrog uses 32 colours (2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 = 32). I've set X to 16, and Y to 16 (as from analysing the graphics I believe this to be the size of the tiles). What now ? I try changing offset but imagine I have to check every offset? Can you tell me if I've done the above right, and what else I have to do. This reminds me very much of my Action Replay days - could never get far ripping graphics (other than what's on the screen) with that either ! Once I've done this I'm sure I'll get the hang of it for other games. TIA

27 August 2002, 15:34	#30
tomcat666 Retro Freak Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Slovenia Age: 51 Posts: 1,646	Example OK, for example, in Super Frog there are three types of graphics : Normal tiles that make up background, Sprite graphics of the main character and other tiles. The sprite graphics are 32xsomething big and have TWO pictures in each bitmap... unfortunetly the gfx ripper cannot handle this format properly so you cannot rip them in full colour glory, but you rip them as 4 colour ones and then attach them together in some other program and make a 16 colour sprite from them... there are A LOT of frames like this. The other tiles I shown you before - that is the picture I posted earlier... the normal tiles however are in 16x16 format and you can find them easily by using 16x16 size ... in my case they start at 825428 byte in the memory, X:16 , Y:16 Bits:5 (32 colours !) ... when saving save them as 30x28 tiles on one picture and you will get this: full set of background tiles for Level 1 of super frog : Palette can be found with simple search in a few seconds ! As I said earlier... you need a bit of practice to "spot" the graphics even if they are in the wrong modulo (X-size)... Attached Thumbnails

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Another A500+ restoration project	kipper2k	Hardware pics	12	21 January 2014 06:31
My Amiga 1200 restoration project	radiokida	Member Introductions	1	29 April 2013 15:17
A1200 Restoration & Hot Rod Project- Completed	TheCorfiot	Hardware pics	17	17 September 2008 13:19
Mousepointer restoration and varying audio pitch at savestate restoration	NoX1911	support.WinUAE	0	22 January 2007 20:19
I need 4 sprites for a new project I am working on.	foody	project.Amiga Game Factory	4	11 January 2006 18:09

27 August 2002, 09:01	#21
tomcat666 Retro Freak Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Slovenia Age: 51 Posts: 1,646	OK, you will have to get used to the utility, since it has A LOT of keys to use and a lot of different ways that you can rip the graphics... i.e. because of the complex amiga hardware there were several different ways to store the graphics and palletes... so it might not work for some games - I just tried SuperFrog again and the sprites are in a format that the utility can't handle (yet) - so you will have to do with the tiles for this game... Anyway, anyone who wants the utility please email me at tomcat@sgn.net and I will mail it back to you !

27 August 2002, 09:24	#22
§ane Registered User Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: . Age: 44 Posts: 246	Sounds like a cool proggie, Tomcat, if you pass me the source code and I might integrate this into WinUAE's GUI.

27 August 2002, 10:19	#23
Paul RIP Friends Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: UK Posts: 2,157	Great looking program tomcat. So will this mean we will see extra levels of classic games?

27 August 2002, 10:22	#24
tomcat666 Retro Freak Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Slovenia Age: 51 Posts: 1,646	Well, I doubt that we will see some on amiga, but with the number of remakes appearing on the pc these days, we might see some of the classics with new levels on the pc

27 August 2002, 11:49	#27
tomcat666 Retro Freak Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Slovenia Age: 51 Posts: 1,646	It is from Escape From Colditz... all the background tiles used in the game I also have full set of sprites from this one... it wasn't as easy to rip as the tiles, since they are different sized ones - so everything together accounts for some 40 odd files with different number of sprites in them. But it is complete.

27 August 2002, 15:00	#29
tomcat666 Retro Freak Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Slovenia Age: 51 Posts: 1,646	Okie, tought this might be necessary... a quick tour of how to use this thing ;-) The main thing is that you don't set the Bitplanes in the beginning - first you find the pictures in 2 colour mode and after that you fiddle with the bitplanes. The other thing is that you must have a sense of what is a bitmap. If you think that tiles are 16 pixels wide that almost never means that they are stored like that in the memory, infact they are mostly stored in some totally bogus width. For this reason it is vital that you can "SPOT" the bitmap in any X-size... this can only be done with doing this thing a lot. But normally you can spot it when diagonal lines in the bitmap start appering. But if you don't know what i am talking about then it is best to put your X-Size (with Q/A) keys to some normal value for amiga graphics - like 320 for example. Set the Y-Size to 200 or so, so that you can go quickly through the memory - with SHIFT left/right arrows. Now when you spot something you think might be tiles or bitmap or something then use thr Q/A keys to alter the X-Size and then it will show up (probably - again you need practice for this to work ). Now you got your X-size down you have to adjust the Y-Size and position (size with W/S and position with UP/DOWN (and with SHIFT)) ... when you have done that you have it mostly done.... Now you can see the picture on the screen and bitmaps are aligned one next to each other. Sometimes there is some rubbish between them and here you can use the R/F keys to adjust skip bytes between bitmaps. Now you can select number of bitplanes with E/D keys... when the picture comes up in desired number of bitplanes (you will see when the rubbish starts to appear - then it is too many ;-) ) - after that you can start searching for the pallete - first use simple mode (normally it works) and after that the advanced if the simple mode didn't work. Sometimes you cannot find the pallete. OK, in about half games the tiles/sprites are stored separately and in the other half the tiles/sprites are on the same bitmap (which is much bigger) - if they are stored separately then you can select how many tiles you want to save at once in your file (and how many in x/y direction). I think this should explain the most of the inner workings of the tool... as I said, since it is fully manual you must have some practice to "spot" the bitmap when it doesn't have the right X-size. And then there are other things, like interleaved bitmaps (i.e. ST type of bitmaps) where each other bitmap is in each other line... but this is advanced already ;-) OK, hope this helped even a bit....

27 August 2002, 15:56	#31
Jim Posts: n/a	Thanks Tomcat, I'll try again soon...

28 August 2002, 07:56	#32
tomcat666 Retro Freak Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Slovenia Age: 51 Posts: 1,646	Ok, the version 1.01 with Sprite ripping capabilities (rips special amiga sprites (using 2 bitmaps with 2 bitplanes interleaved in each bitmap -> normally how you store the amiga hardware sprites) from Super Frog and Beast and some other games that didn't work before) is now in da zone ! Download and enjoy !

28 August 2002, 08:33	#33
Jim Posts: n/a	Thanks for the updated proggie Tomcat. It really does show that for anything Amiga EAB really is the place to be (as another thread just said).

14 September 2002, 22:25	#34
Captain HIT Posts: n/a	Hello Tomcat, could you port your ripping tool for the amiga please? As you know WHDLoad can dump memory too. And i always wanted to rip those tiles and sprites from my favourite games like the Turrican series, Jim Power and others. I don't have a PC and can't use WinUAE :P So why not using the memory dumps of WHDLoad? Aren't they the same? And if you think you can't port it to amiga, could you please send me all tiles and gfx from the Turrican 2 game? Of all levels if possible? Thx

14 September 2002, 22:34	#35
Jim Posts: n/a	I imagine there's probably a similar tool to do this on Aminet. I think I saw one once, but can't remember the name. Try looking there. Of course, if that fails there's always the Action Replay

15 September 2002, 04:19	#36
RetroMan Registered User Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Germany Age: 51 Posts: 3,704	Well, there´s a gfx ripper on Aminet, but I never tried it Maybe you should give it a go ----> ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/gfx/misc/gfxripper.lha

15 September 2002, 06:53	#37
tomcat666 Retro Freak Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Slovenia Age: 51 Posts: 1,646	Sorry Captain Hit... I currently don't have the time to rip the Turrican graphics nor to port the tool to Amiga (it is a C++ Allegro source... if some1 wants to port ... I can give him the source). But some1 else here might be able to help you out with it...

15 September 2002, 11:04	#38
oldpx Posts: n/a	Welcome to eab Captain.

15 September 2002, 12:22	#39
Antiriad The Sacred Armour Of Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Sussex, UK Age: 44 Posts: 1,141	So this does ZX Spectrum, C64 and Atari ST games as well? This would all be with Snapshots/States right? Does it also do Amstrad games? If so...can someone please put it back in the zone??? This sounds great!!!

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)