I'm a horrible person, hence this is not related to any LucasArts or ScummVM supported game. What this is related to is Bram Stoker's Dracula, a DOS FPS from 1993.
I want to extract the music from the game. Sadly, no available programs that extract music from old games seem to be able to do this. I posted a request on the Xentax forums but got no replies.
So I did the unspeakable and actually looked at a file I know contains music using a hex editor, and lo and behold, I discovered this:
╬╘ ♥├фшь РК◘Н◙◙FЙ╟╜Г2╒п╞♂►ИК╣eBНРч┘ўя╠Ми¤мm▬ йА╤ь◘ш\ ╦шX ╧яSound Images Generation 2 sound drivers(c) 1992/93 Tony Williams/Sound Images13.09.93Ь▲SQRWV♫▼№:&О
Surely, I thought, just googling that name will give me thousands of different programs to extract music in that format from game resource files. But no. I did, however, find a thread on this forum, about BASS music, which seems to use the same format.
What I was hoping for was that somebody who worked on implementing BASS, or someone who can look at the source and see how it works, would hook me up with some way of extracting the music from Dracula's resource files, or at least playing the music independently from the game.
Here's a link to the barest minimum required to get music playing in DOSBox, run dracula1.bat and choose Sound Blaster:
http://rapidshare.com/files/217345970/DRACULA1.rar
In the PACS folder is the file containing the music. I'd be happy to provide more samples. The entire game is pretty easy to find online, but of course only filthy pirates would do such a thing.
Anyway, thanks in advance, I guess. If anyone wants an incentive in the form of a sob-story, I'm doing this at the request of my father, whose eyesight is so poor he's basically reduced to audiobooks and music for entertainment. He bought me the game way back when (twenty bucks for two large floppies!) and has always remembered the music fondly.
Sound Images Generation 2; a selfish request
Moderator: ScummVM Team
Before we get into extracting data out of obscure old binaries, have you considered just recording what comes out of your audio card?
You know, looping back the output of the analogue audio-out (green) into the line-in (blue) socket of the card with a $2 cable you can pick up at audio/electronics stores and then using a tool like Audacity to record the line-in feed onto .wav files.
Sure you will degrade the sound a little bit, but this is a quick and guaranteed method.
Oh and btw, I am quite sure then posting download links to non-freeware copyrighted content is not cool with the mods here.
The ScummVM project needs to be protected from rabis infected IP lawyers, you know....
You know, looping back the output of the analogue audio-out (green) into the line-in (blue) socket of the card with a $2 cable you can pick up at audio/electronics stores and then using a tool like Audacity to record the line-in feed onto .wav files.
Sure you will degrade the sound a little bit, but this is a quick and guaranteed method.
Oh and btw, I am quite sure then posting download links to non-freeware copyrighted content is not cool with the mods here.
The ScummVM project needs to be protected from rabis infected IP lawyers, you know....
Last edited by bobdevis on Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Hey, thanks for replying. I checked the thread back in the day but either didn't notice the replies or... I don't know what.
Anyway, Mok, if you could whip up that crude player, that would be great. For two main reasons: I can't even pass a single level of that game now, since it's so counterintuitive, especially by todays standards, and the game itself doesn't handle music in the best way. I recorded everything from the moment I started it without touching the keyboard at all, and some of the intro tunes were still interrupted before they were finished. I'm not sure of the specifics anymore, but I do have that audio file and could post it, though it would be pretty redundant.
Anyway, yeah, if you could make that player that would be great.
By the way, Rock & Rule made me cry when I was a kid, just thought I'd mention that.
Anyway, Mok, if you could whip up that crude player, that would be great. For two main reasons: I can't even pass a single level of that game now, since it's so counterintuitive, especially by todays standards, and the game itself doesn't handle music in the best way. I recorded everything from the moment I started it without touching the keyboard at all, and some of the intro tunes were still interrupted before they were finished. I'm not sure of the specifics anymore, but I do have that audio file and could post it, though it would be pretty redundant.
Anyway, yeah, if you could make that player that would be great.
By the way, Rock & Rule made me cry when I was a kid, just thought I'd mention that.
Sorry, I don't have time at the moment to write player for dosbox so I hope you are running Windows. Here is a cut-down version of Hoot with only a driver for this game. Unpack it and run hoot.exe. I haven't included gus patches or any emu so only Adlib output will work (and SC-55 with any GM midi card if you have one/or microsoft crap softsynth). Adlib output is the same as soundblaster in game (both use the same music) so it should be enough and can be recorded to wav file with a menu option. Let me know when you get it so I can delete the file. http://strony.aster.pl/mokmtg/hoot_dracula.rar