File format of background images in Pop-Up?

[lilalurl]

Could someone, with better technical knowledge than me, tell me what is the file format used for background images in Pop-up?
And if they are editable?

I have attached one such file.


Explanation: I like Bumpy and its sequel Bumpy arcade fantasy. Unfortunately, the Amiga never got a port of the original Bumpy.
Instead, we had Pop-up which is a remake of Bumpy with "improved" graphics (and a few minor changes to the game mechanics).

As you can see on the DBS in the HoL entry, the background image is very bright. To the point that I find it barely playable.

Therefore I recently thought of checking if it would be possible to get rid of those background images.


I got a version of the game (Pop-Up (1990)(Infogrames)[cr Defjam]).

The disk can be opened under Workbench. I checked the content and since "fond" means "background" in French, it seemed quite obvious to me these were the files I needed to take care of.

Therefore, I took them out of the disk and took a look at them (on the PC side). Irfanview and Xnview don't seem to recognize the format.
A look in an hex editor does not seem to reveal any header (not really familiar with those used on Amiga though).

So I followed the n00b approach :
1) Tried by running the game without the files. Bad result.
2) Tried replacing the files with empty icon files (made with iconedit) renamed so that they match the original name and have the .info extension removed. Did not work either.


Perhpaps they are compressed in some format or another. I don't know.

While I did a bit of hex editing and such things when I had a CPC and later on PC, I was quite a gamer only during the Amiga period (well, most people around me only had games to swap so I don't think I ever had an hex editor on the Amiga).

As a consequence I have absolutely no idea what to do at this point. So big thanks to anyone who could help me on that matter

[Codetapper]

From a very brief look, they appear to be tile graphics stored in Atari ST format. A word of data for bitplane 0, then 1, then 2, then 3, followed by the next block.

Have you tried clearing the entire file so it's all 0's and see if that gives a clear background? There's probably a map file somewhere in the game that contains the list of blocks to display.

[lilalurl]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

From a very brief look, they appear to be tile graphics stored in Atari ST format. A word of data for bitplane 0, then 1, then 2, then 3, followed by the next block.

I guess my next plan will be to check if there are some ST programs to edit these files then.

Or perhaps I could try and get the background files for the original Bumpy, which was released on Atari ST, and see if they can fit on Pop-up. I suppose that part of Pop-up is just recycled from Bumpy and not a complete remake.

Originally Posted by Codetapper

Have you tried clearing the entire file so it's all 0's and see if that gives a clear background? There's probably a map file somewhere in the game that contains the list of blocks to display.

That was a good idea, but unfortunately, it did not work.
Well, the result is different from what I tried as said in the first post. In these cases, once in the main menu and pressing fire, the game started to load, but quickly came back to the main menu.

With the zerobyte files, the game loads almost as normally (judging from the disk activity reported by Winuae). However, once the loading is done, the screen is entirely filled with one colour. Almost every second, the colour changes. You get some black, dark blue, brown...


Regarding a map file, there is one file that is called INFOTABL.DEF (attached). I suppose it could be an "information table". Judging from the filenames, it seems to be the more adequate.


Anyway, thanks for the suggestion. If you have any other ideas for me to try, feel free to mention them.

[Codetapper]

It's unclear to me exactly what you've done. Your first post you said you erased the files (hence missing) and then tried empty files (0 bytes long), and the iconedit thing (just weird! Why use iconedit?!?)

Have you actually made a file exactly the same length as the existing files that are filled with 0x0's? ie. 45536 zero bytes in a row (or whatever length it was). That would be most likely to create a solid background imho.

[lilalurl]

First post:
Yes, first attempt was deleting the files.
Second attempt was using iconedit because I wanted to try on a file that would be an "image" file. As far as I know, iconedit is the only program bundled with Workbench (3.0) that can edit images.

I guess I can try and get a version of DP or any other drawing software if you think it is worth a try.

What I tried after your first reply is exactly as you describe.

I took the file FOND4 that I had taken from the game disk.
Loaded it into the HxD hex editor.
Ctrl + A to select everything. Edit -> Fill selection, used the default values (One pass + Fill pattern of pass: 00) and saved the resulting file.

Then made 4 copies of the file and renamed them accordingly.
I extracted a new adf from the zip archive of the game to be sure to have a new copy to work upon.
Deleted the 5 Fond* files. Placed the files full of 00 on the disk.
Then I got the result described in post #3.


I have uploaded FOND4.zip in the Zone. It contains the original FOND4 file (FOND4.bak), the same file filled with 00s (FOND4) and the modified adf.
If you want you can therefore double check my homework. I guess I will be ashamed if I had missed something though .


Meanwhile, I took a quick look at the Atari ST side of things.
Apparently, the version of Bumpy availabe in .MSA format, is only available as a full .PRG file, so I guess looking for background files from it is not really an option anymore.

I also tried to check a FOND* file from Amiga Pop-up! in a program called Degas Elite.
When I try to open the file, it tells me "I can't find that file".
Perhaps I have misconfigured something HD related in Steem (never used a HD in ST emulation before), but things seemed pretty straightforward to configure, so I don't it is that. Most probably the program did not recognize the format.
I will try with other ST paint programs tonight.