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AnonBaiter, posted Thu Apr 13, 2017 2:35 pm (22186)

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So, I came across a game called Formula One 2001 and many other Formula One games made by Studio Liverpool(it was once called Psygnosis until 2000). And in one of these games, there were single archives with the .wad extension, while the .idx/.wad archives were just pairs.

And while I figured out the archives themselves, the compression algorithm on the other hand I can`t figure it out. It seemed to be zlib or deflate, but I still have no idea about which compression algorithm they used for this game.

Here is the whole archive(f1-2001.wad), along with the attached script for reference.

[WIP]formula_one_2001.bms

aluigi, posted Tue Apr 18, 2017 3:18 pm (22349)

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There are interesting results with the algorithms 150 (TDCB_lzss), 497 (HEATSHRINK), 526 (LHA_lzs) and 542 (MDIP_LZW) but none of them is exact.
So I suspect that the real algorithm is a modification of one of those above, maybe just one small setting or something more.

For example the last file in the archive you uploaded should start with "rem // Digital Buttons"

AnonBaiter, posted Tue Apr 18, 2017 3:34 pm (22357)

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Unfortunately I'm no experienced in writing a C/C code on decompressing this kind of "modified compression algorithm of the one above". Perhaps you could have better luck than me if compression/encryption algorithms are involved.

This is the final step of my research with these .wad archives used in Studio Liverpool's Formula One series(2001-2006). By then, I could've released the whole script in its current station as I did with that one script that handles the FOOTBAL.CLS archive file that started to appear in This is Football PS1 games.

aluigi, posted Tue Apr 18, 2017 3:48 pm (22362)

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That's not a simple job that can be done in few minutes.

AnonBaiter, posted Tue Apr 18, 2017 3:51 pm (22363)

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Ahh... Sorry for all the rush I gave you, then.

aluigi, posted Tue Apr 18, 2017 6:35 pm (22383)

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Oh no, what I mean is that it's necessary someone interested in doing the job and enough patience to reverse engineer the algorithm.