A quick summary of what has transpired last week.

2D/3D Formats

• More instructions on how to figure out a 3d format.
• Development continues on Battlefield 4 meshes.
• Folklore Noesis import script released. Thanks chrrox!
• And he also released one for Enchanted arms! thanks again!
• Development has started for Ratchet and Clank: into Nexus.
• Help requested for Saints Row IV models.
• Development continues for Dead or Alive 5.
• Rocky development continues for Dragon Ball Online mesh viewer.
• Reward offered for FF7 mesh inspection!
• Compiled Heart Framework released.
• Development continues after a slowdown for Sleeping Dogs model files.
• Hyperdimension Neptunia MKII experiences a slowdown in research.

Audio Formats

• New interest for the Star Trek audio.
• Progress request for audio kept in .DAT sound files.
• Hitman audio tool released, covering all Hitman games! Congrats ninearts!
• Help requested for God of War’s mp3 files in .bin archives.

Game Archive Research

• chrrox has made an awesome QuickBMS script for FFXIII’s Lightning returns!
• dezmand07 has made the first xbox-one request, for the action game COD Ghost.
• And here an update on the pc version.
• .Dat into .mnf archive research here.
• Update on Wild Arms 3 .bin format.
• The vArc format of Young Justice Legacy has been cracked.
• Dragon’s Prophet IDX has been updated with a small sample.
• A .loc extractor for the Blur game has been released.
• Great update for Soul Calibur 5 fans. Thanks Sectus!
• Small update for ForgeX.
• Abyssinian has some interest in the LEGO Marvel textures.
• Connortg12 aims to crack the Need for Speed Most Wanted 2013 .bndl format.
• Update for the Unity Asset Explorer.
• GMMan has released another extractor for the Scribblenauts Unlimited .p files.
• Extraction continues on Star Wars – The Old Republic.
• Translation efforts for Monopoly BIG files continue.
• GTA V continues to attract interest.
• Devilot makes another suggestion for the Metroid Prime Trilogy game.

Compressed files and methods

• Work continues on the TGAM format.
• Good findings on WWE 2k14.
• A QuickBMS script detailing the .ysf format of the YS online game was released.
• lol2k12 asks for help in cracking the KH2FM+ animation format.
• After a long time, more info on Zone66′s compression format was released.

Game Localization

• Work continues on the chinese translation of Assassin’s Creed I.

A quick summary of what has transpired last week.

2D/3D Formats

• Carnaxus has released his list of supported 3d extraction programs.
• Bastien wonders what it takes to understand a file format properly.
• b0ny has released tools for viewing Dead or Alive models.
• MrAdults has shed some light concerning FF13 models.
• TheMask85 requests help for Dragon’s Dogma models.
• Oamia has released a QuickBMS script for KOF Maximum Impact.
• zdsmdbhs wants help for NeverDead models.
• Chrrox has released a QuickBMS script for Tears of Tiara II.

Audio Formats

• gravissimus asks for help concerning .xma.

Graphic Formats

• Bitonius asks for help concerning the conversion of formats to .obj.
• Michalss wants help concerning the .gtx format of GTA V.

Game Archive Research

• Work continues on the GTA V research thread.
• Devilot continues to ask for help in ripping the assets (models/textures) of the Metroid Prime Trilogy Wii game.
• Ken902 asks for help extracing resources from Fist of the North Star series.
• chrrox provides a script for Akiba’s Trip 2.
• TBK has fulfilled a May 2012 request. Kudos to him.
• Jamie0 is trying to get 3D Frog Frenzy Resources.
• Bitonius‘ thread about phyre files is getting a lot of attention.

Check out my video of The stranger’s plans with bickering Dutch politicians. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhW8rnDO4VI. DutchPolitician mod and Briefcase nuke mod for Fall Out: New Vegas combined.

There’s now the full video recording of Paul Koller’s presentation at the Game Developer’s Conference that we mentioned earlier.  In his first slide he talks about this figure taken from my Mobygames: Quantify Me paper. Watch his talk here!

Let’s take a look at Week 34 at our lovely forum.What have they been up to? Click on “more” for the full article.

2D/3D models

• luke9511 wonders if there any updates regarding a Noesis plugin for Star Wars The Old Republic.
• MrMoonKr presents his 010 Editor binary template for Age of Wulin models, but still can’t get the animation right.
• TaylorMouse thanks chrrox for pointing out RAF Manager for League of Legends, he is not completely happy with it, but Wobble is.
• kasake had a problem for loading HELENA_FACE.TMC from Ninja Gaiden 3 (NG3) / Dead or Alive 5 (DOA5) in Noesis, and Darko offered a solution.
• Abyssinian really looks for our help to get the models from Dragon ball: Ultimate Tenkaichi out, who can drop in?
• feareffectinferno needed help in extraction from [PS1] Fear Effect .WAD files, solved it, but is now stuck with .RMD files.
• DarkSSJShinji in all naughtiness wonders if anyone has the Rumble Roses XX Nude Mod?
• cra0 asks for help reversing Secret Agent Clank [PS2/PSP] [.cooked files].
• AceAngel needs to know which Granny2 library Divinity – Dragon Commander is using, Demonsangel offers a hand.
• fil1969 needs the blender script for Call of Juarez 2 model files, though dragbody says DX Ripper works fine.
• elenadg doesn’t seem to get howfie‘s instructions on models from [PS3] Atelier Escha & Logy – Alchemists of the Dusk Sky.
• 1jn14r joined the forum to ask if anyone succeeded in extracting the TM2 files from an img archive for Dark Cloud models.
• If you are looking to get into a real discussion on Dead or Alive series formats and tools, click to read up on b0ny and Darko‘s in-depth aid to help kasake and Protocol X27 along the way as they stumble into page 37 of that thread!
• Regarding The Witcher 2 Models, “n00b” logansan25 dropped in to ask for assistance in exporting models to 3dmax.

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Paul Koller talked about “Porting Contemporary Games to a Vintage Platform” during the Game Developer Conference in Cologne, Germany last Tuesday. Paul is the one responsible for porting games of this day and age back to the platform of the past: the Commodore 64. We remember the port of VVVVVV back in 2010? This time around he showed his conversion of Canabalt, C64anabalt, and SuperBreadBox (you know, Super Crate Box, by Vlambeer) as well during his talk. His opening slide to introduce his talk? This one taken from Mr. Mouse’s MobyGames: Quantify Me analysis. What a smart guy!  We hope to see the full presentation soon up at GDC Vault. Hopefully, for free. ..

Today, let’s take a look at some of the things going on at the Game Research Forum this week. A selection of new topics this period, and some brief information. Check it out!

Shakotay2 helped out !!!!! and created a fix for a QuickBMS script for Rayman Legends *.IPK files that work on PC/XBOX360 files at least, other platforms not yet tested. !!!!! still needs help with the PC audio container of Rayman Legends though. Researchman is interested in an Dragon’s Crown *.AWB, *.ACB unpacker. Meanwhile, Vosvoy came in to ask for help converting PayDay 2 sounds to IMA ADPCM, only to help himself along the way as he was editing his original request, coming up with a solution using VLC! FantasyHeroBoy was aided by MiLØ in converting Inuyasha Feudal Combat *.XAG files to WAV. Speaking of audio, JohnGrimm would like some help with Xuandou Zhiwang *.FSB files. If anyone can help Nobby with a strange *.JPG format from Test Drive Unlimited 2 he would be most appreciative. Alon needs his *.DDS files from Gundam Breaker fixed (PS3) and Gh0stblade is offering a hand. Ekey uploaded a tool to unpack Ducktales Remastered *.PAK files, and another to encrypt/decrypt the assets/art.dat from Papers, Please. If anyone has info on how to import *.NIF model files from Squad in NifSkope, onelove1210 would like to hear it. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier *.SDAT files from PS3 can be unpacked using a tool pointed to 3ps3 by Thief1987. Finally, MrAdults’ Noesis thread is nearly reaching 100 pages length! Research on, folks!

We’ve been busy adding some more lately, thanks also to ikskoks for his work, and there are now 135 tools! Some titles are: BF Extractor (Jade Engine games), JADE Game Engine .bin file pack-tool v1.0, Fable 2 Tools, MPQ Editor, Decrypt Perry, Arcania Audiostream Unpacker, BloodRayne Tools v3.7 and many others. Go to the Tools now!

Taking data from MobyGames I have analyzed their information on games released since 1977 on many platforms in an attempt to make some historical sense of it all in a descriptive way. It is entitled MobyGames: Quantify Me. A brief quantitative analysis of the gaming era according to MobyGames. Below is the Abstract plus some key figures, but you are encouraged to read the full article here: MobyGames: Quantify Me 2012. Enjoy the read!

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We offered brienj a place of his own for his XBox Hacking portal! There you will find many tools to mod your favourite games, such as SvR2010 v2.0 for Smackdown vs Raw 2010. Move over there now and keep checking for updates!