Poking through the Suikoden IV disc

[NichtWahr]

I have a habit of poking through the on-disc data in games that I've finished; the Suikoden series is no exception. A few moderators probably still have the off-the-cuff programs I used to read the data from the Suikoden I and II discs.
Not too long ago, I did the same for IV, albeit briefly. Here are my findings from that brief search:
- Unlike Suikoden III, the text isn't in plain ASCII; there's a possibility that it might be compressed as well. "Lino En Kuldes" as a character name makes me lean this way.
- Amongst the text that IS in plain ASCII are the names for hero, army, and cast-- er, boat. There aren't any for the previous installments. Draw your own conclusions.
- The last time any data was updated on the disc was October 2004. That's not a typo -- it means Konami had been sitting on the disc for months. (This makes it the opposite of Suikoden II...)
- The data file on the disc is monolithic -- it's 2 gigs in size. It's not exactly something you can readily dump to one's HD. :)
I'll have to go back to poke at things in more detail, some time. I'm curious as to what secrets remain hidden on the disc.

[Beecham]

For those of us who -can- dump the disc to HD, is there anything we can do to help?

[NichtWahr]

Probably not, just yet. I'll have to work out the encoding before I start poking through all that data.

[Beecham]

Let me know if you need help. I bought a huge HD last year, and just a few weeks ago my computer died, so I had to buy a new one. I now have two relatively large drives, so I've got plenty of workspace.

[Child of The Sea God]

I'm confused is doing this suppose to reveal more about a game, please explain?
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[Goldy]

What benefits do you get by doing this??
Can you make the game better???

[NichtWahr]

Basically, you'd be able to read all the text on the disc; this might reveal difficult-to-find scenes, or stuff like the hidden character descriptions in Suikoden III.
You'd also be able to prove or disprove theories much more easily. (See! No references to Pesmerga! So there!)

[Goldy]

Ah i see. So it is usefull then.
But it must be a bit of a nightmare sifting through all that data all the same??

[MMan9000]

I wouldn't be able to do that, no way, no how. I tend to get frustrated easily, and this will probably make me go crazy. I hope that something could be discovered that we didn't know already.
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[KoRnholio]

That's correct :) I still have those programs, including Loopy's modified version of one of them too, I think. Still have all the S1 data you gathered and all the S2 data I gathered before I gave up.

So are you trying to incorporate decompression into your program too? That's got to be the tough part, right?

[kuwaizair]

wow amazing, I don't know how to properly do that, all I know is if you put Suikoden 1 into a computer, you see music files, only 6 work, but I found it odd. I dind't discover it. a 2 gig dump scares me. it does. its not that I have lowsy disk space, no I love this preowned dood. 88.3 gig of free space. but I'm a sick-puppy and could suck it dry. moreso if I gain intrest in making huge photoshop/painter drawings. or install crazy programes.



slightly off topic but i was trying to make an ecco-the dolphin site, for DotF and put the two disks into the computer (DC and PS2) each version has differnt sizes.

anway I'm shocked, talking about HD-dumps? dude and I can't say "I want a suikoden midi remix of (song)"?

anway what can you do with the dumps? this is like emulation or is it not? If so I'd like some pictures.
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few runes short of a set of 27

[The Emissary Peregrine]

Am I the only one miffed here that this was delayed for months?!

Forget the scenes, we get the shaft all the time for stuff like this. It's really annoying, don't you think?

Also...
What is all this about Suikoden III hidden descriptions? Where can I find a transcript of said descriptions, if anywhere? Or are they just common knowledge tidbits that I would've absorbed without them?

Lastly, I, too, would like to know the practical applications for these dumps. I mean, If you don't mind me asking...
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Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.

-Will Rogers

Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.

-Ibid.

[kuwaizair]

i heard a dump is taking text out of somthing. is it? a rip and a dump is differnt right? Its just sounds so vile.
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few runes short of a set of 27

[Beecham]

Ripping is when you take the data from a disc and copy it. If I prefer to listen to the CDs I buy on my computer [which I do], I rip the CD, encode it into mp3s, and listen to all my music on one giant playlist. I own way too many to be bothered with switching discs every hour or so.

Dumping, on the other hand, is more specific, in that you take specific data - like text - out of a compilation - such as the game's encoded data.

Neither of these is illegal in and of itself, but both are often used as prelude to something illegal - like sharing mp3s with those who don't own the CD, or reproducing overly large amounts of copyrighted text. So, as long as NichtWar doesn't, you know, put the entire script up for download, we're pretty much fine, here.

[The Emissary Peregrine]

Cue the open-source wars...
_________________
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.

-Will Rogers

Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.

-Ibid.