[REQUEST] Animo 1.7
I've been looking for some time for a piece of software in use around the mid-to-late '90s called Animo by Cambridge Animation Systems. I'm looking for version 1.7 — later versions have a different file format so would not be suitable. Slightly earlier versions may or may not be suitable.
I have some friends who are the volunteer developers for updates for an old game from the late '90s, the source code to which they were given many years ago. They have access to the original files used for the in-game animations, which are in this file format. They would like a copy of Animo so they can reverse engineer the format and so convert these to a modern vector format. They would document the format in the process so it can benefit others.
The software is apparently available for NeXT and possibly Windows or DOS. There was also a (closed?) beta available for Mac OS X at one point. Maybe it has been available other OSes too. It apparently has a hardware copy protection dongle (or at least, some versions do), which complicates things as well.
They have apparently spoken to the current owners of Cambridge Animation Systems; from what I've heard they will only offer conversion to a raster format and for a cost. I have found little other information about the software — I've found the occasional forum post from "back in the day" and where possible tried to follow it up by emailing the person, but the trail has always dried quite quickly.
Any information would be appreciated — a physical copy of the software with the dongle would obviously be the ideal outcome, but a software copy without the dongle or even just a lead to someone who might know would all be appreciated.
varu on IRC has very kindly been digging out information about the people who owned the company at the time who I might want to try to find. I'll follow this up when I get more time, but I thought I'd post here in case anyone else had some leads
I have some friends who are the volunteer developers for updates for an old game from the late '90s, the source code to which they were given many years ago. They have access to the original files used for the in-game animations, which are in this file format. They would like a copy of Animo so they can reverse engineer the format and so convert these to a modern vector format. They would document the format in the process so it can benefit others.
The software is apparently available for NeXT and possibly Windows or DOS. There was also a (closed?) beta available for Mac OS X at one point. Maybe it has been available other OSes too. It apparently has a hardware copy protection dongle (or at least, some versions do), which complicates things as well.
They have apparently spoken to the current owners of Cambridge Animation Systems; from what I've heard they will only offer conversion to a raster format and for a cost. I have found little other information about the software — I've found the occasional forum post from "back in the day" and where possible tried to follow it up by emailing the person, but the trail has always dried quite quickly.
Any information would be appreciated — a physical copy of the software with the dongle would obviously be the ideal outcome, but a software copy without the dongle or even just a lead to someone who might know would all be appreciated.
varu on IRC has very kindly been digging out information about the people who owned the company at the time who I might want to try to find. I'll follow this up when I get more time, but I thought I'd post here in case anyone else had some leads