So, farewell then, the LZW patentPosted: 2003-07-23I've updated the article I wrote for K5 mourning the death of the LZW patent. You can now find it here. ixadumpPosted: 2003-07-23I've been digging through my archives. ixadump is a small dearchiver for iXalance (IXA) demos, of which there are three known to exist. I didn't see any need to make it an XAD client as there are so few uses of it. First libmspack releasePosted: 2003-07-18I am proud to announce the first release of my latest decompression project, libmspack. It attempts to unpack a large number of Microsoft compression formats, currently it supports CAB and CHM decompression. It's still alpha software, but it should really impress anyone who wanted a usable API to cabextract. The upcoming release of cabextract will use the CAB decompressor from this library, and hopefully the users of chmlib will be convinced to use the faster, more memory efficient and more robust CHM decompressor in libmspack. You want colour? Buy a box of crayonsPosted: 2003-07-08A somewhat delayed spring-clean; I've reorganised the web site to make it more accessible. It should also look more professional. Open Convert .LIT version 1.4 availablePosted: 2003-07-06Fans of the amusingly named Microsoft eBook conversion tool will be pleased to hear a new version is out. Sadly, there's not much difference for us UNIX users, the main purpose of the release is to make the DRM5 decoder interoperate with the latest release of eBook Reader. Still, I've updated the Converting .LIT page to reflect the latest edition of the software. Announcing libmspackPosted: 2003-06-07I finally bit the bullet, and started work on making cabextract's routines available as a reusable library. But that alone is not very ambitious, so I decided to start libmspack. It will support compression and decompression of a variety of Microsoft file formats, including CAB, CHM, HLP, LIT and SZDD. The library is designed to be entirely operating system independent, and to provide only the essential features necessary to access these formats, so cabextract still has a purpose in life. Delving into Simon the SorcererPosted: 2003-05-17The ScummVM project features an interpreter for the Simon the Sorcerer adventures. Unfortunately, it's not quite playable using the Amiga data files. So, I lent a hand, and now the ScummVM team have a data file decruncher and icon graphics interpreter, which is a good start! AMOS Music Bank formatPosted: 2003-03-25I reverse-engineered the AMOS Music Bank (ABK) format as part of my work on a master AMOS converter client for XAD. Windows CE install cab formatPosted: 2003-03-12I worked out most of the details of the Microsoft Windows CE installation CAB file format. These are just normal cabinet files, but the files contained in the cabinet have odd filenames, and the first file is a proprietary binary format for describing how to install the rest of the files. Java sine-wave scrollerPosted: 2003-03-07How about a nice Java demo effect? Yes, I know, I'm about 6 years too late. I don't care :) xine gets a Playstation boostPosted: 2003-02-14The xine project now features an enhanced Playstation STR demuxer and CD-ROM/XA ADPCM audio decoder, courtesy of yours truly. Work is in progress to add Sony's minor i-frames only adaption of MPEG 1 to the main codec library. Converting .LIT files for fun and profitPosted: 2003-01-01Happy New Year! I am proud to offer the Convert .LIT tool to you. New XFD slave: CPicPosted: 2002-12-20Introducing a new XFD slave, CPic, which converts files from the 1990 CPic picture compressor into uncompressed IFF ILBM images. Like the AMOS Pac.Pic. format, CPic is a compressor which reorders bitmap data and then compresses it with an RLE method. However, unlike Pac.Pic., the reordering method and RLE method are not completely bizarre. Download CPic version 1.0 Help me out with PackDir!Posted: 2002-12-19I think the datestamp decoding in PackDir may not be right. Can someone please send me some files with a range of different datestamps, in both PackDir format and some other known format (e.g. Zip, tar, ...), so I can work out what the datestamps should correctly decode to. While on the subject of Acorn archivers, I would also like to get some files (preferably ASCII text) packed with !Squash, as well as the unpacked form, so I can work out the exact form of !Squash's LZW compression. New XAD client: PackDirPosted: 2002-12-18I have had no messages back from people since I released the PackDir XAD client to the XAD mailing list at the end of last month, so I am now releasing it to the general public. Download version 1.0. Adequacy is dyingPosted: 2002-12-17A small update to the Adequacy essay, to correct links now that Adequacy is only available in archive form. Anders Hamre AM/FM ripsPosted: 2002-12-16I updated the rips page to include rips of the two encrypted Anders Hamre tunes on the AM/FM music disks. New XAD client: id gamesPosted: 2002-11-27Introducing a new XAD client, the id games client. It unpacks the ubiquitous IWAD, PWAD, WAD2 and PAK formats used in so many 3D games. Download version 1.0. ppcrack 0.2 releasedPosted: 2002-11-25A new version of ppcrack was released. This version can crack any encrypted PowerPacker file within 30 minutes on my 900MHz Celeron PC, running Linux 2.4.18. Can you imagine how much quicker it would be on a faster machine, like a 2.4GHz Pentium 4? Download version 0.2 cabextract 0.6 releasedPosted: 2002-08-11The latest and greatest cabextract was released, now featuring Quantum decompression by Matthew Russotto. Download version 0.6. |