Ouch my eye!

Time to get the DeLorian up to 88mph so we can go back in time to where it all began.

May 14, 2024 – (Okay, so maybe we don’t need a DeLorean… yet.) A friend of mine posted a link to this blog detailing someones efforts to reverse engineer a vintage computer game from 1989, namely “F-15 Strike Eagle II” from MicroProse Studios, more specifically the 1991 “Desert Storm” updated version. Though the core of the game is the same as the 1989 version, mostly additional scenario data was added, and some additional hardware support. Taking things apart and seeing how they work has always been up my alley of mine, so I was immediately intrigued. Couple that with an obsession for computer graphics I had back in the early 1990’s, I was hooked.

Our adventure begins with our intrepid blogger examining the contents of the game directory. And while the most interesting stuff is certainly within the executable files, it is the .PIC and .SPR files that caught my attention. The 3D files are also interesting, but my attention is on the image assets for now. As he notes in his blog about the .PIC files. (And I agree with his hypothesis about .SPR files likely being sprites)

PIC files for (mostly) stationary graphics, including the pilot roster, mission briefing, etc. but also the cockpit graphics. These seem to be encoded with some form of RLE, perhaps LZW encoding, but I’ve not cracked the encoding yet –neuviemeporte

The .PIC file extension seems familiar, possibly a standard format that was around at the time. Maybe I could help… after-all how many people keep a copy of this on their bookshelf?

The irony is not lost on me that the very image displaying this book is a PNG file, a format that does not exist in this first edition copy from 1994 .

Looking through my “Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats”, I indeed find a .PIC file format. It was used by a program called “Pictor PC Paint”. The program was of the era, and its format was closely tied to the graphics card capabilities of the time. The format also utilizes RLE _{(Run Length Encoding)} compression. Seems like a good fit, this could be it. I may have solved the problem before I even started. Could it be that easy? So I contacted the author of the blog conveying what I had found….

May 15, 2024 – He wrote back! Alas, this was not the .PIC format we were looking for. Too bad, but then again, this blog post (and followups) wouldn’t exist if it was. In his email he mentioned that the .PIC format used with “Darklands” (another MicroProse title) was documented, but this format seemed to be different. But perhaps an earlier version. That was my thinking as well, that the two would share the same core genetics, with one being a more evolved version of the other. It would make sense that a game developer would try to make use of what they had, and extending that as necessary. So what next, where do we go from here?

The game is afoot

Note: The first few posts in this series are mostly a recap of things that have already been done. So some details may be missed or breezed over as I try to recall the sequence of events and discoveries, things moved pretty quick at first in a lot of different directions. My goal is to try and get things up to real-time with where things are at as quick as possible, while also maintaining digestible chunks/logical chapters in the journey. As such some things may be placed out-of order for the sake of clarity. Something the process of reverse engineering usually is not.