Game File Explorer, Version 1.32

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 Game File Explorer, Version 1.32
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GFE is a game resource file viewer and ripper. Supported formats are
(this is not a complete list):

• Age of Empires DRS and SLP
• Aliens vs Predator Fastfile (FFL)
• American McGee's Alice PK3 and FTX
• Black Thorn RSB
• Blood II REZ and DTX textures
• Conflict: Freespace 1 & 2 VP files
• Command & Conquer MIX, CPS and AUD
• Cultures LIB files (demo)
• Daikatana PAK and WAL
• Dark Forces LFD and GOB
• Delta Force Land Warrior Demo PFF
• Descent I , II & III HOG
• Die by the Sword ATD
• Doom, Doom II, Heretic, Hexen, Strife WAD
• Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior, Redneck Rampage, Witchhaven GRP and ART
• Dune II PAK
• Eye of the Beholder I PAK
• Freespace I & II VP
• General formats ZIP, TGA, PCX, BMP, JPG, WAV, PAL, ACT and PAL
• Ghost Recon RSB
• Half-Life and Gunman texture WAD3, MDL, SPR
• Heavy Metal: FAKK2 FTX textures and PK3s
• Heretic II and Soldier of Fortune M8 and M32 texture files
• Hexen 2 BSP, Lump, MDL, Pack, SPR and WAD2
• Jedi Knight GOB, MAT, BM, CMP
• Kingpin: Life of Crime PAK
• Kyrandia I & II & III PAK, CPS, COL
• Lands of Lore PAK
• Motocross Madness 1 & 2 DAT
• Mysteries of the Sith GOO, MAT, BM, CMP
• Nascar Heat TRK, RES and TEX textures
• Nocturne and Blair Witch 1 & 2 POD2 and RAW images
• Outlaws LAB
• Quake BSP, Lump, MDL, Pack, SPR and WAD2
• Quake II PAK, Wall, PCX and TGA
• Quake III Arena PK3
• Rage of Mages I & II RES
• Rainbow Six, Black Thorn, Ghost Recon RSB files
• Red Faction VPP
• Rise of the Triad WAD
• Serious Sam test demo 1 & 2 GRO and TEX
• Sin Pack and SWL textures
• Soldier of Fortune PAK and M32
• Star Trek: Elite Force PK3
• SWAT3 RES
• Tachyon - The Fringe PFF
• Terminal Velocity POD and RAW images
• Terminator: Future Shock/ Skynet BSA and textures
• The Longest Journey
• Thief, Thief 2 and System Shock 2 CRF
• Warlords: Battlecry XCR
• Vampire: The Masquerade NOB

Main features: 

     - a listing of all entries in game container/resource/asset 
       files or in a directory
     - viewing and converting selected images to bitmaps (.bmp)
     - extracting other entry types to separate files
     - ripping wave (.wav) and bitmap (.bmp) files inside any file 
     - playing sound files (waves and Doom sounds) 

System requirements
-------------------
Windows 95, more than 256 colors.

The Menu not very well explained
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     FILE 
          OPEN - Opens a file. (Ctrl-O) 
          BITMAP/WAVE RIPPER - Searches for wave files (Ctrl-R)
          BROWSE DIRECTORY - Directory browsing (Ctrl-B)
          INFORMATION - Shows the information box. (Ctrl-I)
          CLOSE - Closes a file. (Ctrl-W) 
          EXIT - Closes the program. 
     IMAGE 
          COPY - Copies selected image to clipboard. (Ctrl-C) 
          SAVE - Saves selected image to a BMP. (Ctrl-M) 
          SAVE AS - Saves selected image to a BMP, but asks the 
                    filename first. (Ctrl-A) 
          SAVE ALL - Saves all images (only Duke3D ART, Quake BSP and 
                     Quake WAD2 files). Make sure you have enough disk 
                     space before selecting this. 
          SAVE TO FOLDER - saves all selected images to the same folder.
     SOUND
          PLAY - Plays selected wave file. (Ctrl-P or double-click) 
          STOP - Stops playing the wave file. (Ctrl-S) 
          SAVE - Extracts selected Doom sound to a .wav file. (Ctrl-G)
          SAVE AS - Extracts selected Doom sound to a .wav file, but 
                    asks the filename first. (Ctrl-H)
     ENTRY 
          FIND - find an entry... (CTRL-F)
          SEARCH AGAIN - search again... (F3)
          SAVE - Extracts selected entry to a file. (Ctrl-E) 
          SAVE AS - Extracts selected entry to a file, but asks the 
                    filename first. (Ctrl-T) 
          SAVE ALL - Extracts all entries. Make sure you have enough 
                     disk space before selecting this. 
          SAVE TO FOLDER - saves all selected entries to the same folder.
     PALETTE 
          VIEW - Shows the palette.
          SAVE AS - Saves the palette.
          OTHER - Changes the current palette. 
     HELP 
          CREDITS - Credit box.
          ABOUT - Shows the About Box.

Known problems
--------------
Sometimes unstable and may crash, I haven't been able to fix this yet.

If the images look funny (colors are wrong), you need to load the
appropriate palette.

Please report other problems to aahlstro@ravencommunity.net 

Legal stuff
-----------
The author is in no way responsible for any damage that occurs to 
your software or hardware as a result of using the software.
Use at your own risk. 

GFE is freeware. You can distribute GFE freely as long as you don't 
charge anybody any money for it and include this file unmodified. 

Credits and thanks
------------------
Thanks go to everyone who have reported bugs, suggested new formats 
or sent comments about GFE!

Thanks to Vladan Bato for releasing the Command & Conquer specs!

Special thanks to Don Hannema for hacking the Sin and Outcast
Package formats and giving me lots of help with C&C mix files!

Thanks to Compuart for coding the Kyrandia CPS and COL plug-ins!

I would also like give thanks to LaMeR for his help with testing 
GFE, giving valuable improvement ideas and sending me information 
about useful game file format sources! 
See Dirtylittlemonkeys.org.

For reading JPEG files GFE uses Independent JPEG Group's JPEG
library. See Ijg.org.

For uncompressing ZIP files GFE uses the zlib compression library, 
Copyright (C) 1995-1998 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler. 
See Info-zip.org for more info.

The Ultimate Packer for eXecutables (UPX) was used to make gfe.exe 
a bit smaller (OK, a lot smaller!), Copyright (c) 1996-2001 Markus 
Oberhumer & Laszlo Molnar. See Upx.tsx.org.

Thanks to Matt Saettler and Mathieu Olivier for explaining the Blood 
RFF format and showing how the RFF file directory structure should be 
decrypted. 
See Planetblood.com and
Planetblood.com.

History
-------
version 0.9 
     - first release 

version 0.91 
     - fixed some PCX and TGA bugs (a problem with padding) 
     - sorted out one very annoying memory problem 
     - fixed many other minor problems 
     - added "Save" option 

version 0.92 
     - added full Jedi Knight MAT support 
     - added text viewing 
     - added wave playing 
     - added support for 256-color JASC palettes 
       (version "0100", Paint Shop Pro 3.0)
     - added bitmap scrolling 

version 0.93 
     - added multiple selection of entries 
     - removed repetitive overwrite prompts and added "Yes to All" 
       and "No to All" options 
     - lots of minor improvements 

version 0.94
     - added Doom sound playing and conversion to .wav
     - added toolbar and changed the look of the program
     - GFE can be now run on pre-OSR2 win9x platforms... 

version 0.95
     - added Descent 3 demo HOG support
     - added "info" -dialog
     - added 32-bit .tga image viewing (Kingpin Pack files)
     - added palette viewing
     - fixed a problem with JASC palettes (hopefully)
     - a few minor improvements

version 0.96
     - added Heretic II .M8 and .m32 texture support
     - added Daikatana Wall texture support
     - added internal palettes and palette saving
     - fixed the tooltips bug

version 0.97
     - added the "Wave Ripper" -option. It searches through any file 
       you select, but doesn't work right if the files are compressed.
     - Soldier of Fortune .m32 textures can now be viewed inside pack
       files

version 0.98
     - added support for Half-Life WAD3 texture files
     - added support for Sin Pack files (with a little a bit of help
       from Don Hannema. Thanks, Don!)

version 0.99
     - added support for Rainbow Six RSB files
     - added support for 16-bit Jedi Knight BM files
     - Daikatana demo 2 packs can now be opened, but you can't view
       the images because most of them seem to be compressed.
     - Same thing with Outcast packs, you can see what's inside, but
       nothing can be done...
       The format of Outcast packs was hacked by Don Hannema. 
     - fixed a small problem with displaying bitmaps
     - wave ripper is now much faster

version 0.995
     - added directory browsing. Works with BMPs, TGAs, PCXs, M8s,
       M32s, WALs, SWLs, RSBs, BMs, MATs, ...
     - Motocross Madness 1 & 2 .dat files can be viewed, .tex files
       can be opened too, but the images can't be viewed... Anyone 
       know how to read them?
     - added support for Jedi Knight CMP palettes
     - added decompression of compressed Daikatana entries
     - added compressed TGA viewing
     - added bitmap ripper, searches for .bmp files (more formats
       will be added later...) It works fine with Force commander
       .rpks (Ronin PakFiles)

version 0.996
     - added support for Half-life sprites (SPR) and models (MDL)
     - added support for Heavy Metal: FAKK2 .ftx textures (demo)
       (but they need to be extracted from the zip file first)
     - added support for Delta Force Land Warrior Demo PFF
     - directory listings are sorted alphabetically 
     - models and sprites inside Quake and Half-Life packs are previewed 
       by showing the first frame picture (you still need the extract the 
       model or sprite to see all the frames)
     - a few minor improvements

version 0.997
     - added full support for ROTT (finally)
     - added entry searching
     - fixed a few bugs (M8s in packs, double-saved Doom pics)

version 0.9971
     - added support for Cultures LIB files
     - fixed a M8 saving bug

version 1.0
     - added window resizing and maximizing (some of the long entry names 
       didn't fit in the listbox with some packages)
     - added support for Heavy Metal: FAKK2 and American McGee's Alice PK3 
       files. GFE opens other ZIP files too, but currently only FTXs and TGAs 
       can be previewed before extraction. These are the games I tested:
           - Vampire: The Masquerade NOBS (and TGAs inside them), previewing 
             and saving bitmaps works 
           - Quake III Arena & Star Trek: Elite Forces PK3s, many of the 
             textures are in jpeg format, so they can't be previewed, no 
             problems with TGAs
           - Team Arena PK3s, TGA previewing works
           - SWAT 3 Close Quarters Battle & SWAT3 Elite Edition RES files, BMP 
             previewing doesn't work yet, sorry
           - System Shock 2 and Thief CRF files, PCXs can't be previewed yet
     - fixed a bug with FTX textures (RGB -> BGR)
     - opening PAKs is faster

version 1.1
     - added support for SWAT3 RES files (zip->bmp viewing) 
     - fixed a weird image corruption problem that occured when many PCX files 
       were saved at the same time
     - added support for Star Trek: Elite Force and Quake III Arena PK3s
       (zip->jpeg viewing)
     - added support for Serious Sam test demo 1 & 2 GRO files and textures 
       (zip->tex viewing)

version 1.2
     - added support for grayscale jpeg images
     - added full Daikatana Pack and Wall support (compressed entries can be 
       viewed before extracting)
     - added support for Nocturne and Blair Witch 1 & 2 POD2 and RAW images.
       (To view the RAW images correctly you need to select xxx.act before 
       selecting xxx.raw. For the same reason saving more than one image at
       a time won't work.)
     - added support for Terminator: Skynet and Future Shock textures (texture.*)
       (most of the images are displayed OK, but there are some special cases
       that I don't know how to handle yet...) 
     - fixed a few bugs...

version 1.22
     - added zip->pcx viewing (useful with Thief and System shock 2 CRF files)
     - added support for Warlords Battlecry XCR files
     - added support for C&C MIX files, but the support is still a bit
       unfinished. No problems with CPS files, but proper WSA and SHP file 
       support is missing. Many thanks to Don Hannema for helping me out with 
       the C&C file formats!
     - fixed a terminator texture problem: animated textures are displayed
       now correctly (but still some problems with some of the sprites...).
       Those BSA files can now be opened too.
     - added support for the old Westwood PAK format. It means support for
       these old games: Dune 2, Eye of the Beholder, Kyrandia 1 & 2 & 3 and 
       Lands of Lore
     - added "save everything to this folder" -option for images and entries

Version 1.3
     - added Blood RFF support (both shareware and retail)
     - added Blood II REZ resource file and DTX texture support
       (should work with other LithTech engine games too)
     - added Terminator: Future Shock/Skynet IMG support
     - added C&C AUD support (using the new plug-in system)
     - added some optional registry stuff (see File->Preferences...)

version 1.31
     - added support for Rage of Mages RES
     - fixed a Terminator Rampage image offset bug and added the palette
       to the menu (it's needed to view the images correctly)
     - fixed some Blood RFF problems (and probably added some new ones)

version 1.32
     - added Red Faction VPP support
     - added Ghost Recon and Black Thorn RSB image support
     - added support for Kyrandia I & II & III CPS images and COL palettes 
       thanks to amazing plug-ins coded by Compuart
     - added support for Nascar Heat TRK, RES and TEX textures

To do
------
So many things to do... It's a shame I haven't been able to update GFE so 
often anymore. 

     - adding new formats (next: VOC, 24-bit PCX and ripper improvements)
     - multiple image support
     - tree view of entries
     - hex view of unknown entry types
     - lots of code cleaning
     - a plug-in system (for compressed stuff)

If you have suggestions, comments or bug reports, please send them 
to aahlstro@ravencommunity.net

Updates and news about GFE can be found at: 
Geocities.com
Ravengames.com