Ripping MO3's

[Axxy]

Anyone know of a tool that can scan files and rip MO3 format?

I'm getting a few dat files that contain mo3 packed modules and no ripper I know of can detect mo3....

[Asle]

I thought about doing one, but the (very small) researches I made came up empty when trying to understand the format.
I think that's where something could be done.
So no, I don't know of any ripper . But maybe there is. Didn't search for one.

Sylvain

[Axxy]

Be nice just to save the mo3 and unmo3 afterwards, just really need the mo3 files intact.

Got loads of scene stuff with goodies inside them, apart from huge .dat files and suspicious .exe that are supposed to run them, which my AV promptly deletes. Can't run them, so require a way to get at the resources in the .dat file.

Also need a program that can unpack Diet files, used to have one back in the day, doubt they work nowadays, especially with Vista.  At least I got a util that can unpack powerpacker files that works in Vista, had a few of those too.

Also came across 2x "UNI MikMak/Unicorn Design Module - MikMod". First time i've come across this format in 15 years. Is there a converter or player for this format?

[Saga]

There is an unofficial MO3 format description. Since every MO3 file begins with the chars "MO3", you could try to scan for that string. That has worked for me several times when extracting soundtracks from demo data files.

[deus-ex]

Also need a program that can unpack Diet files, used to have one back in the day, doubt they work nowadays, especially with Vista.  At least I got a util that can unpack powerpacker files that works in Vista, had a few of those too.

If the Diet unpacker is a MSDOS application you can run it in a DOSBox session. Anyway I can assist you with this one. Just post links to the files in question or upload the ones you have either to a file host or to MODLAND's upload folder. I should be able to unpack them.

Also came across 2x "UNI MikMak/Unicorn Design Module - MikMod". First time i've come across this format in 15 years. Is there a converter or player for this format?

The correct file extension is .uni. Yes there is a converter available which even runs on Windows 7, it's the great Milkytracker.

Regarding MO3 ripper, I usually rip those files manually with an HexEditor when no other option is left. Had to do this with some games from distributor PopCap Games.

[Axxy]

If the Diet unpacker is a MSDOS application you can run it in a DOSBox session. Anyway I can assist you with this one. Just post links to the files in question or upload the ones you have either to a file host or to MODLAND's upload folder. I should be able to unpack them.

I've uploaded a rar file with have a dozen diet packed modules to Modland, no idea where to get the old dos program for diet anymore. probably got the modules anyway, but just in case...

Regarding MO3 ripper, I usually rip those files manually with an HexEditor when no other option is left. Had to do this with some games from distributor PopCap Games.

How do you work out where the MO3 file starts, and how long the file is?  What HexEditor are you using?
Probably beyond me anyway...

[Asle]

I've uploaded a rar file with have a dozen diet packed modules to Modland, no idea where to get the old dos program for diet anymore. probably got the modules anyway, but just in case...

diet -r *.dlz works well Are those music "free" to be uploaded ? And where did you get those ? I know, curious

How do you work out where the MO3 file starts, and how long the file is?  What HexEditor are you using?
Probably beyond me anyway...

Hum .. a MO3 file has its first 3 bytes set as "MO3", followed by a byte that is between 00h and 04h. The rest is .. well .. complex. The size calculation obviously means some depacking. As for the HexEditor, I use HexEd on FreeBSD. Not sure it helps you much, here .

Sylvain

[Axxy]

diet -r *.dlz works well Are those music "free" to be uploaded ? And where did you get those ? I know, curious

Back in the day, I had loads of unpackers and .exe /analysers/decrypters/unpackers under Win98. XP kinda of killed off most ms-dos stuff and Vista, well forget running anything like that nowadays.  I no longer have the Diet exe so I can't do it myself. I did have a util that unpacked pklite files, but it won't run now under Vista.  Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I didn't even know a Powerpacker util existed for the PC until 2 days ago (deleted 100s of mods cos I couldn't unpack them in the past).  I miss good old ms-dos!  

Having leeched most of everything off http://www.dreamlandbbs.com/ (in the SND folders)..... I have started looking through hundreds of diskmags, both PC and Amiga. I'm about half way through them and have folder with about 700 new mods so far. Haven't had time to really check these, but the odd file is turning up some interesting stuff. Some strange formats as well, packed modules in some unknown format. Making good use of Prowiz I may add!!  

Hum .. a MO3 file has its first 3 bytes set as "MO3", followed by a byte that is between 00h and 04h. The rest is .. well .. complex. The size calculation obviously means some depacking. As for the HexEditor, I use HexEd on FreeBSD. Not sure it helps you much, here

I'll probably delete the .dat files then. Like I said, my AV program scans the .exe files no problem, but throws a major fit when I run the .exe, and promptly deletes the file. The data files are like 7-9mb in size, so there could be a few MO3's in them.

[Asle]

Well, if it's no problem for you, upload those dat somewhere (AMP ftp for example). Also, if you could remember the origin of those, it might help if there's no author.
I'll look at those.

Also, your decrunched files are attached. Tell me if I can upload them on AMP.

Sylvain

[Axxy]

All the diskmags are at Scene.org

http://www.scene.org/dir.php?dir=%2Fmags%2Fbudyn/

These have the data files but my AV won't run the .exe's.

Also, your decrunched files are attached. Tell me if I can upload them on AMP.

Thanks m8, much appreciated. They still have the credit text in them, bonus. 

I haven't checked whether I have them already, just blasting through the folders of diskmags as quick as I can. I was also emulating some of the amiga ones but its taking to long, so if the mods aren't in the main folder, or I can't rip the mods in the exe/dat file, it gets deleted and I move to the next one.

[deus-ex]

I just extracted those DIET packed files as well and got the same result as Asle so I don't need to upload those again. Regarding ripping of MO3 files Asle already answered the question, I have nothing to add.

Well, since Asle beat me previously with the upload of the unpacked DIET files I thought it's time for a revenge. Find attached unpacked modules of all 5 Budyn diskmags. *habba habba*

[Asle]

Damn, I was beaten !
OK, one thing, DIET acts like any archive (zip, rar, etc.). So, it's normal the sample text is still there.
I'll uploaded the 6 musics now (6th first of today's upload).

I'll check the Budyn ones now. Thanks to both of you !

Sylvain

[Axxy]

Thanks Deus-ex.  Much appreciated also. How was ripping them?

And did your AV have any issues running the .exe or did you not bother and just rip the data files?

[deus-ex]

Ripping was easy due to having the right tools at hand. So all thanks must go to the authors of used applications.
Thankfully the MO3 unpacker by Ian Luck (MO3 author) is fairly forgiving when processing a MO3 with incorrect file size, it just unpacks it without any issues so I had no extra work to figure out the original file size of the MO3 modules.

Regarding AV I had no issues. When in doubt you can either use another AV to get a second opinion or use a online AV site where you can upload a file in question to have it scanned by several AV solutions. When you are certain that a executable in question causes no harm you can also temporarily turn off your AV application to not interfere with its execution.

[Axxy]

Been continuing looking through these diskmags...  Wanna take a look at the Savage diskmags at scene.org?

Some really good tunes in this Polish diskmag series, which I couldn't rip, and I don't think they included a Save option (can't understand Polish). There looks to be a lot of mods in them. I might also add that even I don't have a lot of these.