This repository is filled with various notes on various different formats that I've reversed overtime. A lot of these are provided in Rehex's Binary Template format, which is easily translatable into C/C++ and most other languages.
If you find anything here useful, please consider sponsoring me; otherwise a reference or callout wouldn't hurt! ❤️
Contributions are also welcome!
- Acclaim Entertainment, Inc.
- Vista 3D (Acclaim Studios Teesside)
- Years: 1999–2002
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64, SEGA Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation, Sony PlayStation 2
- Unknown Engine (Acclaim Studios Cheltenham)
- Turok Evolution Engine*
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2
- Vista 3D (Acclaim Studios Teesside)
- BottleRocket Entertainment, Inc.
- The Mark of Kri Engine*
- Years: 2002–2006
- Platforms: ...
- The Mark of Kri Engine*
- Core Design
- Project Eden Engine*
- Years: 2001
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Sony PlayStation 2
- Herdy Gerdy Engine*
- Years: 2002
- Platforms: Sony PlayStation 2
- Project Eden Engine*
- Lucasfilm Games
- Oddworld Inhabitants Inc.
- Oddworld Stranger's Wrath Engine*
- Years: 2005
- Platforms: Microsoft Xbox
- Oddworld Stranger's Wrath Engine*
- SCE Studio Cambridge
- Primal Engine*
- Years: 2003–2006
- Platforms: Sony PlayStation 2
- Primal Engine*
- SingleTrac Entertainment Technologies, Inc.
- Outwars
- Years: 1998
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows
- Outwars
* = Speculated/unofficial name
Developers behind Outcast.
| Name | Description | Status | Games | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSH | Mesh format | 80% | Outcast | Link |
UK-based developer that shut down in 2013. Developed a number of different games, some of which do seem to share common technology.
This is the term we'll use to refer to Blitz's technology used in earlier games from the PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Saturn era, starting with Glover.
- Glover (1998)
- Action Man: Operation Extreme (1999)
- Action Man: Destruction X (2000)
- Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge (2000)
- Titan A.E. (Demo, 2000) (Cancelled)
- Chicken Run (2000)
- Cubix: Robots For Everyone - Race 'N Robots (?) (2001)
- Disney's Lilo & Stitch: Trouble in Paradise (2002)
| Name | Description | Status | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| DAT | Package format | Done (hashing) | Link |
| PSI | Model format | Partial | Link |
| SPT | Texture format | 85% | Link |
- The Mark of Kri (2002) (Sony PlayStation 2)
- Rise of the Kasai (2005) (Sony PlayStation 2)
- Xiaolin Showdown (2006) (Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PSP, Microsoft Xbox)
- Package format uses the extension '.WAD'.
- It uses a fairly simple scripting language, which seemed to fall out of use after the first game.
| Name | Description | Status | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| WAD | Package format | 80% | Link |
Unfortunately only used for one game, which, you guessed it, was Martian Gothic: Unification.
- Excluding the
QMDX.dll, which isn't theirs, the oldest file in the PC version is from August 1998. - According to MobyGames, this was the last title Creative Reality would produce.
- They appear to have made a mistake with the application icon; the largest size has the smaller icon overlaid on top.
- PlayStation port was handled by Coyote Developments Ltd., which went into administration in 2006.
- Some of the textures are appended with 'tiff' which may suggest they used it as an intermediate format before conversion.
| Name | Description | Status | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| GFX/TEX | Texture package | 100% | Link |
| ATH | Container table format | 50% | Link |
| ATF | Container format | Pending | |
| ANM | Mesh (and animation?) data | Pending | |
| CAM | Background / camera data | Pending | Link |
| ROOM | Room data | Pending | |
| GRP | Some sort of ANM related table thingy? | Pending |
Unaware of any proper name for this particular engine.
The engine was developed from scratch with a next-gen mindset that went away from the grid-based logic of Tomb Raider games. On the graphics side, the PC version included features like normal mapping, environment mapping, variable-rate animations and real-time morphing, which all used Direct3D 8.0a's fixed-function pipeline. On the sound side, the most important feature was real-time environment-aware sound effects using DirectSound 8 and EAX 1.0.
- The game uses the GameSpy SDK for multi-player.
- The game was statically linked with
engine_pc.libon PC andengine_ps2.libon PS2. - PlayStation 2 version of the game was botched. It doesn't even use the integrated hardware vector units.
- Some of the internal texture metadata uses the 'tga' extension which may suggest they used it as an intermediate format before conversion.
- An official level editor was planned, but never released due to poor sales.
| Name | Description | Status | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACW | Actor WAD format | 100% | Link |
| EDN/PDN | Eden Level format | 100% | Link |
| EDI/PDI | Eden Image format | Pending | N/A |
| EDS/PDS | Eden Sound format | Pending | N/A |
Unaware of any proper name for this particular engine. There is some cross-over between this and the engine developed for the cancelled Tomb Raider Anniversary.
| Name | Description | Status | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| CLU | Package format | 100% | Link |
| HGT | Texture format ('Herdy Gerdy Texture'?) | 50% (container for BMP) | Link |
| HGM | Model format ('Herdy Gerdy Model'?) | Pending | N/A |
| GLV | Level format ('Gerdy Level'?) | Pending | N/A |
Developed two games, Evolva and The Thing. Both games appear to be derived from the same in-house technology.
| Name | Description | Status | Games | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3DF | Bitmap font descriptor | 70% | The Thing | Link |
| AN | Animation data | Pending | The Thing | N/A |
| BIN | Entity data | Partial | The Thing | Link |
| BT | Strings | 80% | The Thing | Link |
| ENT | Text-based entity descriptor | Pending | Evolva | N/A |
| GEO | Collision mesh data | Pending | The Thing | N/A |
| FX | Text-based effect descriptor | Pending | The Thing | N/A |
| LVL | INI level descriptor format | Pending | Evolva, The Thing | N/A |
| MSH | Mesh data | Partial | Evolva, The Thing | Link |
| PAK | ZIP package | 100% (it's a zip 🤷) | The Thing | N/A |
| SGH | 'SceneGraph' | Pending | Evolva, The Thing | N/A |
| Name | Description | Status | Games | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H95 | Partial | Zombie Wars | Link | |
| SB0 | Package format | 100% | Zombie Wars | Link |
| SPR | Sprite format | Partial | Zombie Wars | Link |
Also known as Millennium Interactive Ltd. and SCE Studio Cambridge.
| Name | Description | Status | Games | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MWD | Package format, 'Millennium WAD'? | ... | C-12: Final Resistance | Link |
Also known as Gremlin Interactive Limited. Developed games such as Hogs of War, Actua Soccer, Realms of the Haunting and many more.
Didn't really have an engine, but some of their games share some technology.
| Name | Description | Status | Games | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIN | Model data | Partial | Hogs of War (PSX) | Link |
Also known as Inevitable Entertainment, Inc..
Games using this technology range from the following.
- Tribes: Aerial Assault (2002) (need to confirm)
- Defender (need to confirm)
- The Hobbit (2003)
- Area 51 (2005)
| Name | Description | Status | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| DFS | TOC for packed data | Partial (70% for v1, 60% for v3) | Link |
| .000 | Packed data | 100% (see DFS) | Link |
| XBMP | Bitmap data | ... | Link |
| MATX | Plaintext model data (unused? intermediate?) | Pending | ... |
| NPCGEOM | NPC geometry data | Pending | ... |
| RGEOM | 'Regular'(?) geometry data | Pending | ... |
| FXO | Effect data | Pending | ... |
Also known as Nihilistic Software.
Used for the following games.
- Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption (source)
- StarCraft: Ghost (Cancelled)
| Name | Description | Status | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| NAD | Animation format | Pending | ... |
| NCE | ... | Pending | ... |
| NCS | ... | Pending | ... |
| NOC | ... | Pending | ... |
| NOD | Model format, 'Object Description' | Partial | Link |
| NNB | ... | Pending | ... |
| NMB | ... | Pending | ... |
| NMS | ... | Pending | ... |
| NRT | ... | Pending | ... |
| NUT | ... | Pending | ... |
Polish company primarily known for producing Kao the Kangaroo. Seems that the engine they developed ended up getting used for a number of different games and ported to a number of different platforms.
Listing this separately for now as it seems quite different to the tech used in their later titles.
Name was picked based on the code path indicated by strings in Penguin Kelvin, specifically, C:\coders\denis\denis\.
Only confirmed titles are here. Confirmation is performed by finding matching/similar formats, and matching/similar class names and strings in the executable.
- Penguin Kelvin
- Microsoft Windows, 2003
| Name | Description | Status | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| PAK | Package format | ... | Link |
As usual, I've decided to use this name to identify the technology but otherwise can't find any official name or term used for the engine. There is a config file in a few titles named 'elephant', which happens to align with their logo and who knows, might have served as an internal name for the engine.
Only confirmed titles are here. Confirmation is performed by finding matching/similar formats, and matching/similar class names and strings in the executable.
- Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2
- Microsoft Windows, 2003
- Sony PlayStation 2, 2005
- My Horse & Me 2
- Sony PlayStation 2, 2008
- I Love Horses: Rider's Paradise
- Nintendo Wii, 2011
- I Love Horses: Rider's Paradise, which is attributed as a Destineer title, appears to use this engine. It may have originally been intended as a sequel to My Horse & Me 2.
| Name | Description | Status | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| PAK | Package format | ... | Link |
Team Ico (1993 - 2021)
| Name | Description | Status | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| DF | Container/package format | 90% (still uncertain) | Link |
Demoscene group, and essentially the predecessor to Starbreeze. Responsible for the cancelled Into the Shadows game.
| Name | Description | Status | Games | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HDV | Mesh data | 75% | Into the Shadows | Link |