I.M.Meen (1995) and Chill Manor (1996) come from the times of Hexen, Heretic, Doom, and so forth... and the influence shows.All data in I.M.Meen and Chill Manor are stored in Labyrinth files (*.LAB) which are uncompressed containers. Within the map LABs (RES###.LAB) for Meen there is multiple WAV files, XMI files, as well as STARTSCR.PCX (map title) and GAME_SCR.PCX (HUD, this will be important) as well as DEF files which sets up actors and maps, and finally the IMG files.
Starting with the DEFs, is OBJECTS.DEF, this is all the statistics and animations (in standard text akin to DECORATE of zDoom fame) for each in-game actor including weapons and data. Then there is SOUNDDAT.DEF that defines the ingame sounds including music. FLOOR1.DEF which as I take it sets up the textures of the floor, MAZE1.DEF which is possible the main map setup, SKY1.DEF which is setting up the ceiling textures, CUBES1.DEF which I'm not too sure on, and STARTPOS.DEF which is self explanatory (3 coordinate numbers are present but are not XYZ, will test). Note that all of these are data, not graphical (though
Graphics such as sprites and textures are stored in three IMG files: Floor textures in FLOOR.IMG, ceiling textures in SKY.IMG, and sprites and wall textures in IMAGES.IMG. Unlike most games that have a shared external PAL, GAME_SCR is the source of the in-game palette, and is easy to extract/read (8-bit RGB). The difficult part was the fact that all transparent segments of masked walls and sprites were omitted for the sake of compression, IMG2BMP. Luckily this routine is now known and a tool exists that automates the conversion process courtesy of WRS from XeNTaX forums.
You can get it here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/q76fv9
or from the original thread: http://forum.xentax.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 9&start=15
Also contains source code (In Delphi) which may be useful for Camoto... if anyone can decipher Delphi code into XML (I think Camoto uses XML now for format/game specs?).
Thread here: http://forum.xentax.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3469 contains the quickBMS script for extracting from LAByrinth data files and some information on modding on page 2. Could be useful for reconstruction of LAByrinth files.
Now, for Chill Manor, this process is much much different. Sure the LAByrinth files are the same but the IMGs and DEFs are different. No longer are they just text for OBJECTS.DEF (either encrypted or binary), SOUNDDAT now assigns number IDs rather than by text, and the introduction of variable dimension graphics and mipmaps breaks IMG2BMP. Same format otherwise, needs additional work. Palette is still read from GAME_SCR.PCX, it is stored in RESINT.LAB. The extra data in the IMG files even throws off SKY and FLOOR even though they are standard 64x64 as was uniform in I.M.Meen. Hopefully contributions can be made as the foundation is already here. Also ANIM##.EXP is an addition that seems to introduce animated tiles (series of numbers present that represent possibly delays in tics, -1 representing an indefinite pause, much like DECORATE).
The final file type of any interest is the CMP, which I assume means color-mapped. These are images that use the game palette and compression method on transparency like the other images but come in variable sizes and (my theory) use a color map instead of being raw images to pick out the colors. So far viewing/converting has been met with no success.
Oh, and for I.M.Meen, data hacking is relatively simple, as it does have commenting for what each number does in OBJECTS.DEF. How nice of Animation Magic.
WAV files are 8-bit PCM Unsigned, 1-channel, 22050hz. XMI is pretty straight-forward as many tools exist to convert to this format.I'll update this information if/when I can, between college and current interest in Family Production games (findings of which I may provide here as they are more uniform as far as file formats go). Possible hex guides if I have the time. Games are pretty easy to find online, and I doubt you'll run into legal problems given that Animation Magic is long defunct and games are no longer sold outside of auctions (and a series of online scandals selling them at jacked up prices while the only other party who can sell them, Simon & Schuster, do not hold stock on them anymore.).
And welcome!