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I would like to open the graphic file of the retro game.

Started by July 23, 2018 02:20 PM
5 comments, last by Rutin 6 years, 4 months ago

First, I'm sorry for the poor English
I would like to open the graphic file of the retro game.
In the DOS ~ Windows 95 era,
As a result of confirming some, the game was produced by Watcom tool
I attempted to open it with dragonUnpacker etc, but it failed.
I can create graphics for games, but (2D, 3D) can not do professional coding,
I would like to open this file and use it for remake (personal
, not commercially available).
I think that this file extensions is the company's unique File extensions.
Will someone help me?

 

You're asking us to break the law? Nobody here has the right to distribute those graphics, so even if they knew how to break the protection, they could not give you the files. Most likely you are already violating a law by distributing the files (I assume that's waht is inside help.zip at least?)

Finally, you're not making sense. You say you can make graphics, but instead of making your own graphics and make a game inspired by this retro game (which you would have full ownership of, so you can distribute it for example, or even sell it), you want the copy-righted graphics that are not yours, so you will never be able to show your remake to anyone else.

I fail to understand what your aim is, to be honest.

 

I'd suggest drop the files, make your own graphics, and learn coding. That seems a much more useful direction to take. Using copyrighted data that is not yours can only lead to trouble.

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We can't help you to break into a protected filetype.  Reverse engineering is illegal in some jurisdictions, and as Alberth mentions, we don't have the rights to distribute the files either.  (I've taken the liberty of removing the attachment from your post to avoid any potential legal issues.)

You also can't legally distribute a game using those graphics without permission, regardless of whether or not you're making money from it.  If there's any chance you may want to distribute your game in any way, whether for free or for profit, you should create your own graphics or find some that are freely available (here's a list of some good options).

 

That being said...

Doing this sort of work for your own learning purposes, and never distributing the results can be an interesting learning exercise if that's what you're really interested in.  It's probably still illegal, but in the kind of pernickety way that doesn't really matter - if you're not distributing anything no one will know and therefore you won't get in trouble.

It's also not a particularly easy project to undertake, and there are probably easier ways of learning.  Having mentioned that you're not a talented programmer this may not be the project for you.

But, if you're really set on it, you would need to figure out how the graphics are stored.  See if you can find any documentation for the filetype.  Get an idea of how similar filetypes work, and see if you can recognise any structure in the file.  You know what should be in there from the game, but not how it's stored, in what order it appears, etc.  If you do some searching you can probably find some guides on how to reverse engineer a filetype.

 

I hope that's helpful! :)

- Jason Astle-Adams

Thank you for your reply. I think I misunderstood.
I thought it was okay because it was a retro game. But it was also breaking the law.
There was no malice. Thank you for your advice.

It's a common misunderstanding that older games are somehow "abandoned", but they usually still belong to someone, even if the original developer and publisher are out of business.

Sometimes the owner doesn't care about a particular property anymore, but unless they've explicitly made it freely available they could decide to take legal action against anyone who infringes.

 

The good news is, if you're just looking for some art to use while you're learning, there's a lot out there that is genuinely freely available, such as that listed in my link above.

- Jason Astle-Adams

On 7/24/2018 at 12:31 AM, Fractured_But_Whole said:

Thank you for your reply. I think I misunderstood.
I thought it was okay because it was a retro game. But it was also breaking the law.
There was no malice. Thank you for your advice.

There are also artists on here as well that are more than willing to help you improve your pixel art if you post for feedback or tutorials. :) 

If you want to learn how to make some retro art you can start with this:

https://lospec.com/pixel-art-tutorials

Well over 500+ tutorials. :) This should keep you busy!

Programmer and 3D Artist

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