Mega Depack =========== ************** *************** *** ************* ********* *************** *************** *************** ************** Release 2.10 ============ Coded by Mike Watson ==================== (c) 1993 SINISTER DEVELOPMENTS ============================== This version finished - 18/02/1993 ================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Written in 100% 68000 assembler, who needs compilers to do GEM based programs? ----------------------------- Shareware message ------------------------------ All versions MEGA DEPACK from version 2.10 upwards are now SHAREWARE. The amount of work put into it and answering letters has meant I feel a small donation from anyone who uses it worthwhile. When registering please include an SAE/IRC's and a disk if you would like the lastest updates and/or any new projects I have planned. If you are unable to pay or you have written some nice pd/shareware then I always like receiving new s/w. Any FALCON stuff however will be most appreciated!! Any PD libraries are welcome to include this program in their catalogue. I would appreciate a shareware contribution or something similar (Floppyshop are always generous with free pd disks). If you do compilations or disk based magazines then you may use this program. If you do then please send me a copy of the disk as you are getting it for nothing!! I still retain copywrite on my own source and the packer authors to theres. You may not modify,change or rip off any code without my prior permission Note - this documentation MUST be included with the program file if you do distribute it. ------------------------------- The legal bits ------------------------------- This program has been tested as completely as possible and only makes legal system calls without any 'hacking around' and as such should not cause any damage. If for any reason damage is caused then I cannot be held for responsible for it. You use the program at you're own risk. To guard against any mishaps you should save the depacked files out as a different name or in a different folder. ------------------------------ How to use it --------------------------------- Firstly decide on how you wish to use the program, Mega Depack 2 can run as an accessory or a program. TO RUN AS AN ACCESSORY ====================== Rename it as MEGA_DP2.ACC and copy it into the root directory of your boot disk. MEGA_DP2.RSC must also be present in the same directory. TO RUN AS A PROGRAM =================== Leave it as MEGA_DP2.PRG and copy it where you like. DO NOT copy it into the auto folder because it uses GEM which is not initialised until after the auto folder programs have been run. NEW OPTION ========== As from version 2.10 MEGA DEPACK will now accept simple parameters on the command line. You may either specify a single filename or a directory. In either case the unpacked files will overwrite the packed ones and any disk or memory errors will be ignored. Owners of machines with TOS v2 or greater can drag the program onto the desktop and then directories or files can simply be dragged to it. If doing this then you must set the default directory as APPLICATION and the PATH must be the FULL PATH. The command line has been tested on TOS v4.0 (on my FALCON030!). Please remember that it is a simple commandline so please don't upset it too much! I wouldn't trust it past *.* or single filenames in fact!! LOADING ======= To load in a file for unpacking click on the LOAD button. A fileselector will appear and you can select a file for unpacking. The file will then be loaded and an attempt will be made to unpack it. If a successful attempt is made then the SAVE button will be made selectable. SAVING ====== Clicking on the save button will bring up a file selector where you can select the file to save to. Clicking on cancel will abort the save process. BATCH ===== Next up is the batch option. Click on the BATCH button and the option to do a RECURSIVE or normal batch mode will be given. RECURSIVE batch will search all sub directories whilst a normal batch will only do the files in the selected directory. After this a file selector will appear, select the path that the files will be loaded from. A new file selector will now appear, this time select the destination path where the files will be saved to. If you select cancel then the load path will be used. After this the files will be loaded,depacked and saved to the destination. At the moment there seems to be a problem after performing a complex batch depack on TOS v4. Everything appears to have worked fine but when you exit the machine 2 bombs. It only seems to do it on my FALCON, my TOS 1.4 ST seems to be ok. The files ARE depacked properly and saved, this bug is PISSING me off at the moment and any suggestions would be welcome. SPECIALS ======== There are some files which cannot be easily recognised and require the user to decide themselves on how to unpack it. The clashes are - ice 2.0 and 2.2 have header Ice!. all pompey datafiles have trailer POPI. atom v3.1,3.3 and thunder 1,2 all have header ATOM. When this occurs you are given a choice of depackers to use or a chance to exit. Choose what you think is the right depacker. It will more than likely crash or produce garbage if it is the wrong choice so save it out as a different file name and check it. If something is wrong then try again with another option. HELP ==== Help on the packers supported and on how to use the functions is available here. -------------------------------- Extra bits ---------------------------------- A new feature of v2 is the ability to recognise several popular file formats. Some may be packed others may not but mega depack2 will reccommend a package to view/use/depack the file. The current files recognised are LHARC, ARC, ZOO, PK ZIP, IFF, DEGAS unpacked, NEO pics, NEO animation object files. If MEGA DEPACK 2 cannot depack a file but suspects that it may have been packed then please send it to me. If you have written a new packer then I would also like to receive it. Ways to spot packed files :- Mega depack may say that it could be packed. The file was packed by yourself. It displays a mesage when loaded e.g 'blah packer v555555 depacking'. Flashes the colours in a hypnotic fashion. -------------------------- Future enhancements ------------------------------- Future enhancements to this program are :- Use of similer techniques employed by the 'naughty' unpacker to try to unpack unknown program types - MAYBE!! Multi task properly in MULTITOS. It runs but doesn't multitask. --------------------------------- Wanted ------------------------------------- 1. Back issues of Judge Dredd the Megazine(1,3,7,10,12) 2. Any versions or Sentry packer other than 2.05. And all depack source. ----------------------------- Acknowledgements ------------------------------- Steve Delany at Floppyshop - the best pd/shareware library in the uk! Keith Frisby - supplier of packers and also the first person to write to me. Rob Gilmour - another person to supply packers. Gordon & Dave - asteroids - the business. DML - photochrome simply the best iff convertor on the st. Gus - for liking star trek and for having a strange sense of humour (totally trek tastic matey!). My cd collection - for providing musical help in the form of New Order, The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth (nice to see them getting some recognition at last - they have and always will beat nirvana any day!), Public Enemy, 808 state, The Byrds, The shamen, NIN, The Revolting Cocks , primal scream and many others no mainstream rubbish here *8} MAC SYS DATA - putting together some powerpacker source. The authors of all the - Axe (ice the best on the FALCON!!) packers. - Altair (atomic - 3.5 the business!) - DC software (dcsquish) - Eagle of Sentry (Sentry packer) - The Firehawks (Speed packer) v3 looks great! - JMP (Qpack) - JPM (pompey & thunder) - Mike Coates (bytekiller) - Ozz (automation & lsd) - Ralph Hartmann (happy - a brave early attempt, birdies med rez fix was possibly the only useful contribution he's ever made to the st!) - Russ Payne (bytekiller) - Thomas Questor/Markus Fritze (pfx packer) - Tim & Andrew Knipe (jam/jek, g'day!) - Tom Hudson (degas) - Trio inc (spectrum 512 - unispec & digispec are superb!) - Vermillion Pawn (!?) (ivory dragon - strange) - any other packer authors I forgot. ----------------------------- Packers supported ------------------------------ program/packer versions formats ============== ============ ================================================ 4pak programs atomic 3.1/3.3/3.5 programs and datafiles 3.3b programs automation 2.31/2.51 programs and datafiles automation 5.01 programs and datafiles ba pack programs bytekiller 2.0/3.0 programs Russ Paynes dcsquish 1.0/1.2/1.4 programs degas elite picture files pc1-3 gollum programs(both huffed and not) happy programs ice 1.1/2.0/2.2 programs and datafiles 2.3/2.4 ivory dragon programs and datadiles fire 1.0/2.0 programs and datafiles jam 1/2/3/4 programs and datafiles (lzh,lzw,jam,ice) jek 1.2/1.3 programs and datafiles lsd 1.2 programs and datafiles pfx 1.1/2.1 programs pompey 1.5/1.9/2.6 programs and datafiles pompey 1.7/1.9x/2.3 programs 3.0 powerpacker 2 datafiles qpack 2 programs and datafiles sentry 2.05 programs spectrum 512 picture files speed packer 2/3 programs and datafiles stos programs superior programs thunder 1 programs thunder 2 programs and datafiles unknown programs (used to pack concerto on STF 37) vic2 used by some games companies 50 packers supported 83 different file formats Also recognises a few popular unpacked file formats such as IFF and NEO object files. ----------------------------- History for v2 --------------------------------- VERSION 2 (beta) completed on 29/09/1992. VERSION 2 release completed on 11/10/1992 VERSION 2.01 release completed on 23/11/1992. Updated for speed packer 3. Nice packer, strange way of saving out files. Its exec files don't have a depacker. You have to use a supplied prog which locks into the trap 1 vector. The first line of the packed file is a trap 1 statement and its this that triggers off the depacker. VERSION 2.02 completed on 28/11/1992 VERSION 2.10 completed on 10/02/1993 This is the biggest upgrade since v2. Fully tested with TOS v4.0(FALCON tos) and I think I've uncovered another bug in the ROM when doing so!! Updated for recursive batch mode. Wow at last a use for the LINK instruction!! Updated for handling command lines. Updated to change 4PAK recognition as certain C compilers produced the same bytes in the header that I was checking for. Updated for Atom v3.3b program files. Updated for powerpacker files. ---------------------------------- Address ----------------------------------- If you want to contact me to send packers, programs or donations. Then my address is - Mike Watson, 42 Gilmore Place, Edinburgh, Scotland U.K. Or Via the following Compuserve No - Where mail will kindly be on for me 100010,2106 (Stuart Coates). Please include a disk, SAE/IRC's to guarantee the next version and a speedy reply. Please mention the version number as well if you find any bugs! Only contact me for legal reasons though. I really am fed up with people sending me or asking me for cracked s/w. I don't have and don't want any, OK! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mike Watson - 14/02/1993 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enough of the interest . . . . . . . . and on with the plugs . . . . . . . . (with apologies to DOUG!!) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SINISTER DEVELOPMENTS are a group of computer enthusiasts who aim to produce top quality software for the ATARI ST/E/FALCON and AMIGA computers. All of it so far has been shareware or PD but who knows what the future may bring!! Here is a list of what we have done:- If you want any of these productions then send a cheque for œ5 made payable to SINISTER DEVELOPMENTS and state your choice of game. 1) ASTEROIDS Our first ever production. Featured in PUBLIC DOMAIN and on the ST REVIEW coverdisk. The best conversion of ASTEROIDS on the ST (modest (huh?)). Full 50 frames a second gameplay in MONO and COLOUR flavours and possibly more fudged code than you can shake a stick at but a great game. 2) CENTIPEDE The follow up to ASTEROIDS and featured on the ST FORMAT coverdisk. A great version of the classic ATARI shoot 'em up with more than a hint of MILLIPEDE to it. Super smooth 50hz action and quite a high FUDGE amount too!! 3) GALAXIANS Our latest release. A coin op conversion that isn't based on an ATARI design!! Another classic conversion that does it at 50hz!! No comment on the game that took it's place on the ST FORMAT coverdisk. 4) ASTEROIDS - AMIGA Our first AMIGA production!! OVERSCAN and sampled sound effects to full effect!!. 5) A new utility to make MULTITOS look more like windows!! And will be of use to everyone!! 6) I suspect that centipede and galaxians may be ported to the AMIGA. 7) The same does not hold true for the FALCON, I have something MUCH more special planned in the FALCON games dept (admittedly not as good as some of the stuff I saw the other week but then I don't have any mad friends who do 3d for breakfast!!). 8) ASTEROIDS for the PC ????? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------