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Old 16-03-2011, 04:52 AM   #1
Sobek
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Default Extracting .DAT files?

I've been playing through Highway Hunter recently and due to my nostalgia I was hooked on it's OST like a hippy is to drugs.

I went through it's game folder and noticed a file named "123.DAT" which I assumed was the file that stored all of it's data mainly becuase it was a .dat extension file and it was the largest file there. However, I'm having trouble just trying to view it's contents as I can't find a .DAT file extractor capable of opening HH's form of data files.

I heard that one could extract files from Dos games with Dosbox, although when I read through the tutorials I only saw Dos file configuration. I'm not sure if thats the same thing or not tbh :/.
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Old 16-03-2011, 06:50 AM   #2
The Fifth Horseman
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It's more complex than that. In DOSBox, all you can do is record the music using the sound recording option.
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Old 16-03-2011, 07:17 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sobek View Post
I've been playing through Highway Hunter recently and due to my nostalgia I was hooked on it's OST like a hippy is to drugs.

I went through it's game folder and noticed a file named "123.DAT" which I assumed was the file that stored all of it's data mainly becuase it was a .dat extension file and it was the largest file there. However, I'm having trouble just trying to view it's contents as I can't find a .DAT file extractor capable of opening HH's form of data files.

I heard that one could extract files from Dos games with Dosbox, although when I read through the tutorials I only saw Dos file configuration. I'm not sure if thats the same thing or not tbh :/.
1. You can search for some universal extractors. There is several available, but I didn't rip with it quite some time already, and I haven't access to them here, so I cannot remember anything in particular. Oh, maybe Game Audio Player aka GAP come in mind. Try to search for it, and with some luck, other extractors will be near.

2. You can record music/sound right from DOSBox - but it is like recording audio with recorder: you need to actually heard everything, from beginning to end. But, it seems, someone already did that.
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Old 16-03-2011, 09:45 AM   #4
The Fifth Horseman
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It appears that 123.dat is a group of concatenated files preceded with an index. Shouldn't be hard to write an extractor for.

EDIT: It's nearly identical to the RBX format. And that, I already have an extractor for.
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Old 16-03-2011, 02:38 PM   #5
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http://www.mediafire.com/?dm3sfaktxbmr08a
Ripped contents of the file.
The music is in the CMF files - theoretically openable with Winamp if you have AdPlug, but they don't play right on my system.
CMFPlay can play them back perfectly, but is a DOS-only utility (you could use it to play them and then record the sound output from DOSBox, if that helps) http://www.dcee.net/Files/Music/Player/
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Old 16-03-2011, 09:04 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by Smiling Spectre View Post
1. You can search for some universal extractors. There is several available, but I didn't rip with it quite some time already, and I haven't access to them here, so I cannot remember anything in particular. Oh, maybe Game Audio Player aka GAP come in mind. Try to search for it, and with some luck, other extractors will be near.

2. You can record music/sound right from DOSBox - but it is like recording audio with recorder: you need to actually heard everything, from beginning to end. But, it seems, someone already did that.
Damn, I already attempted a google search but it came up empty handed :/. From there I just loaded up HH, turned off the SFX and played through each level with Audacity recording. I managed to get all of the tracks and at an astounding quality as well.

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Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman View Post
http://www.mediafire.com/?dm3sfaktxbmr08a
Ripped contents of the file.
The music is in the CMF files - theoretically openable with Winamp if you have AdPlug, but they don't play right on my system.
CMFPlay can play them back perfectly, but is a DOS-only utility (you could use it to play them and then record the sound output from DOSBox, if that helps) http://www.dcee.net/Files/Music/Player/
Thank you :3. I'll be sure to play around with it and tell the results. I'm used to dissecting game files for things like sounds and music, but Highway Hunter is just such an old game I didn't know where to start.
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