Cannon Fodder remake - WE NEED HELP!

[Hythlodaeus]

Hello folks.

Many of the retrogamers around here may be familiar with Sensible Software's wonderful wargame Cannon Fodder. We've recently secured the source code of an unofficial SDL fan-port made for the nintendo wii by Foxysofts, and while the gameplay code seems to be all neat and tight, this port unfortunately uses sprite and music rips and includes them directly within the package, which is borderline illegal, considering the game is still being actively sold on Good Old Games.

I've been collaborating with some of the folks of the GCW Zero crew, who have shown interest in using this code to create a universal open source port that would work with the original and legally acquired gamedata the same way OpenXcom does, in order to have it run both on their handheld and practically every other device imaginable. The problem is, we're having trouble reverse engineering the original PC data which all appears to be stored in some sort of compressed .dat file.

Given the general enthusiasm for retrogaming in this board, we were wondering if anyone would like to give us a hand with this task. We need to know how we can incorporate the original Cannon Fodder data with this engine so we're able to deliver a universal port. Would anyone around here be interested in helping us?

[SupSuper]

I would check Amiga communities, as it's likely the format hasn't changed much from its original source, and they're familiar with sprite ripping.

I had a cursory look at the DOS files and they just look like standard uncompressed images, so I imagine anyone more experienced with this stuff could easily crack them open:

[luke83]

WOW i really wish i could code... I wish you all the best for this project , please keep me informed on your progress and let me know when your at a point i can make some custom artwork and/or cstom levels , hopefully by then i will have free time again to play around.   I was looking for a open source program of this a few months back which lead me to making some artwork for myself
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,743.msg7095.html#msg7095

[Hythlodaeus]

I would check Amiga communities, as it's likely the format hasn't changed much from its original source, and they're familiar with sprite ripping.

I had a cursory look at the DOS files and they just look like standard uncompressed images, so I imagine anyone more experienced with this stuff could easily crack them open:

I already checked the amiga version and the files are uncompressed into plain easily editable spritesheets and sounds, which would be perfect, except that there's no legal way to acquire the amiga rom other than the Software Preservation Society, which requires you to have a floppy disk copy of the game, hence why we're going for PC data first. We really need to reverse engineer the pc data archive before anything else, but for the moment, the source is ours, and we managed to convince the author to license it under GPLv3, which is even better.

I already asked the amiga community for help, but so far, no dice.

[luke83]

I already checked the amiga version and the files are uncompressed into plain easily editable spritesheets and sounds, which would be perfect, except that there's no legal way to acquire the amiga rom other than the Software Preservation Society, which requires you to have a floppy disk copy of the game, hence why we're going for PC data first. We really need to reverse engineer the pc data archive before anything else, but for the moment, the source is ours, and we managed to convince the author to license it under GPLv3, which is even better.

I already asked the amiga community for help, but so far, no dice.

how do they check IF you do own the original disk? That same rule applies to all ROMS as far as i know and the risk of downloading it illegal is on the person downloading it.

[pmprog]

I would love to have a play around, but I won't guarentee anything. I don't even know what's happened in OpenXCOM world for the past 3+ months

[Hythlodaeus]

how do they check IF you do own the original disk? That same rule applies to all ROMS as far as i know and the risk of downloading it illegal is on the person downloading it.

In case of the SPS, you have to send 'em a picture of the box or the disk themselves.

I would love to have a play around, but I won't guarentee anything. I don't even know what's happened in OpenXCOM world for the past 3+ months

If you'd like to help, get a a PC/DOS copy of Cannon Fodder and get crackin' on the cf_eng.dat. That's really all we need at this point.

[pmprog]

If you'd like to help, get a a PC/DOS copy of Cannon Fodder and get crackin' on the cf_eng.dat. That's really all we need at this point.

My copy of the game doesn't have a file called cf_eng.dat !?!

[Hythlodaeus]

Are you using the GoG version? That's the one being officially sold. I've linked the store link before, but you can also acquire it in some other ways...

[pmprog]

No, I've got a really old edition, I guess they must have released another version at some point.

[Hythlodaeus]

I'd advise you to get the GoG edition, since it's the only one that can be acquired legally nowadays.

[SupSuper]

There seem to be many versions around.

The floppy version has all the files out "in the open", all the sound effects are standard VOC files loadable in any audio program, the music is in some weird BIN files and the graphics are all in uncompressed 320x200 DATs using some Amiga-ish format. There's a bunch of other files I can't guess their purpose.

The CD version has mostly the same files but compressed into a "cf_cd.dat" archive. I assume the GoG version is similar to this.

[Hythlodaeus]

The GoG version has it all in a cf_eng.dat. It's best we go with that version instead of any shady pirated copies lying around the web.

[luke83]

really you need to support several formats , people should not need to re-buy a game just to play a opensource version.

[Hythlodaeus]

really you need to support several formats , people should not need to re-buy a game just to play a opensource version.

First thing's first. We gotta abide by the most widespread version before even considering supporting all the other ones. Besides it's probable that they all use the same file formats, only the newer versions have them stored in a .dat.