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Here's the deal. Back in 1997 a game came out called Chain of Command dealing with squad combat around Normandy. It is a multiplayer type game that was designed by a development group from Israel. The company went belly up in 2 years and allowed anyone that wanted to, to keep hosting the game. There are guys in the group of those who play that have been able to change the maps around ... mostly hit and miss for them. However, none of us has been able to change the files that contain the soldiers as they are contained in .mbm (Multi BitMap) files.
I have found out from some of the guys at the All About Symbian forums that these are NOT Symbian .mbm files so I need help finding out WHAT they are and WHAT PROGRAM I can use to open them. Finding this out would also make things easier on the map guys, so it's not just for me.
Now, it makes sense that these are .mbm (Multi Bitmap) files as there are NO files in the folders or on the server that are any other type of well known graphic. From what I've been able to gather, these files are compressed files. When I installed a couple of the programs recommended by the guys at All About Symbian the "icons" for the .mbm files changed to "unknown" to "winrar" looking. However WinRar doesn't open them. Winzip doesn't open them either.
Could you post a file, if it is not too big? I think they are not multi bitmap files, only the extension is the same, hence the Symbian tools could not do anything with them. (like dat can mean a lot of things...) However looking into them with a hex editor might give us some clue (maybe jpeg headers are present, or something else), but in the worst case the game has to be reverse engineered, if it uses some in house developed format...
If you can't attach the file, then simply upload it somewhere, and post only the link where it can be downloaded.
Could you post a file, if it is not too big? I think they are not multi bitmap files, only the extension is the same, hence the Symbian tools could not do anything with them. (like dat can mean a lot of things...) However looking into them with a hex editor might give us some clue (maybe jpeg headers are present, or something else), but in the worst case the game has to be reverse engineered, if it uses some in house developed format...
If you can't attach the file, then simply upload it somewhere, and post only the link where it can be downloaded.
The size of the file is 2,000+ so it won't fit here (I guess)
I'm only getting a 404 error when I click on the link (MBM_file) on the page:(
The error should be taken care of .... apparently your browser was thinking that a .mbm file is some kind of page rather than a regular file. I had the same error as well. I have changed it to a .zip file and now my browser recognizes the fact that it is not a webpage. Try it again
So having a quick look at it, I think this file has something like 250 BMP files in it. It starts with the name of the files, and each name is followod by 0 and then the size of the file (image data). In the second part of the file, we see probably the bitmaps, and from the size of the file I think they are not compressed. The problem is that they are not in the Windows bmp format (they don't start with the correct header). So if you have screenshots of them from the game, it might be possible to guess the format they use, because some of them seems to be just some simple pattern, and if they are not just there to fill up space,then they would be a good start. Also, with some thinking it might be possible to guess the format (from the size the dimension and color depth), and try to extract the pictures, but I don't really have time for that now. Good luck anyway!
So having a quick look at it, I think this file has something like 250 BMP files in it. It starts with the name of the files, and each name is followod by 0 and then the size of the file (image data). In the second part of the file, we see probably the bitmaps, and from the size of the file I think they are not compressed. The problem is that they are not in the Windows bmp format (they don't start with the correct header). So if you have screenshots of them from the game, it might be possible to guess the format they use, because some of them seems to be just some simple pattern, and if they are not just there to fill up space,then they would be a good start. Also, with some thinking it might be possible to guess the format (from the size the dimension and color depth), and try to extract the pictures, but I don't really have time for that now. Good luck anyway!
Wow, thanks for taking a look .... that's more than I had before. I can get screenshots if you get the time to help again. I wish I had more of an idea from your side of things.
I would recommend posting the pictures onto the same page, maybe someone else will have a look, too. About the pictures, open the file with notepad, and have a look at the beginning section: you'll see the filenames in the format 1*.BMP (* stands for any letters or numbers, actually the important part), and simply ignore the garbage surrounding these names. You might guess which object can use these in the game, because the name is probably some abbreviation. If you could specifically post pictures, that you think are relevant to the files which are in this MBM (and note which name you guess it is), that would be a great help, and solving the storing format would become much more easier. If it is not possible, then it is not a big problem, but some more work would be required.
I would recommend posting the pictures onto the same page, maybe someone else will have a look, too. About the pictures, open the file with notepad, and have a look at the beginning section: you'll see the filenames in the format 1*.BMP (* stands for any letters or numbers, actually the important part), and simply ignore the garbage surrounding these names. You might guess which object can use these in the game, because the name is probably some abbreviation. If you could specifically post pictures, that you think are relevant to the files which are in this MBM (and note which name you guess it is), that would be a great help, and solving the storing format would become much more easier. If it is not possible, then it is not a big problem, but some more work would be required.
I have done as you suggested and posted 7 screenshots on the page where I put the file. I have changed the link though.
I see no one has stepped up to help answer this question in a while .... does this one have people stumped or should I be asking this in a different forum altogether?
Trying at more places can not hurt. I've just had a look at the mbm again, and looks-like what I'd thought could be the size (after the name) is not so easy to figure out how to decode - and it is possible that I was wrong. Anyway, it is possible that someone comes up with a solution, but it is not impossible either that no one will. Also, I would not give up on finding the developers, because chances are not slim, that they are still working in a similar field, so their name might pop up here or there.
15 Jul, 2007 - 01:50 PM
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