Devils Replay

[Asle]

All,

I've recently spent some time on an unknown (to me) protracker clone format. I don't know the name nor the author. The material is found only in Devils prods, so .. I've made up this very original name "Devils replay"

I started looking at this when handling this No Reality demo by Devils. Rather quickly, I found that it's the very same format as found in Colors demo, also by Devils.
Cybfree, once again, quickly reminded me that this format was already beaten - more precisely, the musics from Colors were already converted. Great !, so, I can write a quite converter myself for the others.

That's exactly what I did. It took me 3 days because I'm still not great at coding, but it's done. So, first, all the cases found are here:
http://janeway.exotica.org.uk/release.php?id=752

The format itself is somewhat unique in that it does things I've not seen elsewhere. Promizer could be a distant cousin of some sort

Code Select Expand

standard protracker header until 'M.K.' at 1080
1084          short         size of pattern data [A]
1086 + [A]    short         size of reference table [B] - must be at an even position
1086 + [A]    short         sample data
+ 2 + [B]     

pattern data:
192 bytes per pattern
3 bytes per row:
0 byte : filter
1 short : address to read in reference table

Reference table:
contains rows of output unpacked notes - so up to 16 bytes.
depending of the filter, above, the blocks of word/short are stored
filter : abcd-efgh
output: in 16 bytes
B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B8 B10 B11 B12 B13 B14 B15 B16
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |   |   |   |   |   |   |
\/    \/    \/    \/    \/     \ /     \ /     \ /
  a     b     c     d     e      f       g       h
if the filter bit is set, the corresponding output is stored in the reference table.


I guess that's it. No sure I was too clear on this one. Please, report back if you want more details.

Again, huge thanks to Cybfree for the help.
Sylvain

[Crown]

Thanks Asle. So if I got it right it does not mess with the title and sample information?

Do you have any info about the coder? I guess it could be TKB.

Btw I recently reached out to Sirrao, I will ask him too.

[Asle]

You have it right. The header is 100% identical to Protracker, so ... yeah, that's nice
There was no indication. or even mention, of this packer or its author within the prods. I tried to widen the search to prods that were released in the same span of time (~1991). To no avail. Although, you're right, TKB is a likely candidate indeed.
So yeah, please, reach out to any Devils member and report back

[Crown]

Ok buddy, I'll keep you informed.