Looking for technical info on PC Paint 3.1/Pictor Paint
Hello, everyone. I'm in desperate need of help regarding a project I have, concerning either PC Paint or GRASP files.
Over the past few months, I've embarked on a peculiar project - attempting to translate an old DOS game into English. As it turns out, investigating the game revealed that nearly all text is actually comprised of image files. Which made it sound easy... at first.
While most formats are just obfuscated images, the file structure for one of them was similar to a .pcx image, but on closer inspection, it's actually a .pic file for PC Paint 3.1 - which I have installed. I noticed this after comparing both .pcx and .pic file sample headers, and it's a perfect match with the .pic files generated by PC Paint.
But the problem is that the file itself seems to include image data beyond the scope of what Paint can read. A brief analysis of the files reveals that the authors have, for some reason, removed the first 11 bytes from the header. Regardless, the remaining header info is the same. When it comes to image data, however, it's by and large the same except it seems to contain more than it should. These game files are actually the animated intro of the game, and I suspect they might have used either Clip (.clp) data, or perhaps PC Paint's successor, Pictor Paint - which I cannot find in any way, shape, or form online. But then, nothing there seems to be using .clp data either unless I've missed it.
So, I humbly address anyone on this forum who might have worked with the aforementioned programs and who can provide assistance regarding their use
Specifically, it would be great to know if/how PC Paint or Pictor Paint can make these animated files. Without a manual, I'm having a hard time understanding if this is the case and if so, how these are built.
I really appreciate any help anyone can provide
PS: For those interested, here are the files (only 2 files present this problem, and they're pretty small).
https://www.mediafire.com/file/z1xkuqkfn6o8sw6/TITL.zip/file
Over the past few months, I've embarked on a peculiar project - attempting to translate an old DOS game into English. As it turns out, investigating the game revealed that nearly all text is actually comprised of image files. Which made it sound easy... at first.
While most formats are just obfuscated images, the file structure for one of them was similar to a .pcx image, but on closer inspection, it's actually a .pic file for PC Paint 3.1 - which I have installed. I noticed this after comparing both .pcx and .pic file sample headers, and it's a perfect match with the .pic files generated by PC Paint.
But the problem is that the file itself seems to include image data beyond the scope of what Paint can read. A brief analysis of the files reveals that the authors have, for some reason, removed the first 11 bytes from the header. Regardless, the remaining header info is the same. When it comes to image data, however, it's by and large the same except it seems to contain more than it should. These game files are actually the animated intro of the game, and I suspect they might have used either Clip (.clp) data, or perhaps PC Paint's successor, Pictor Paint - which I cannot find in any way, shape, or form online. But then, nothing there seems to be using .clp data either unless I've missed it.
So, I humbly address anyone on this forum who might have worked with the aforementioned programs and who can provide assistance regarding their use
Specifically, it would be great to know if/how PC Paint or Pictor Paint can make these animated files. Without a manual, I'm having a hard time understanding if this is the case and if so, how these are built.I really appreciate any help anyone can provide
PS: For those interested, here are the files (only 2 files present this problem, and they're pretty small).
https://www.mediafire.com/file/z1xkuqkfn6o8sw6/TITL.zip/file
Comments
http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/GRASP_GL
Based on your suggestion, I've tried using Grasp. The thing is, Grasp seems to join or concatenate a series of files into a single one, but it also seems to require a listing for these.
As an example, there are external compilers/decompilers for .GL files (one of the links on the page you submitted lists 2), but they all require the listing; a .txt file, perhaps? Without knowing the file names inside the would be .PIC file, there doesn't seem to be a way to open it - at least not through software that handles .GL files...
Is it possible to ask a moderator or administrator to lock this topic?