48 replies to this topic

[charlie]

Let's see if we can find any good files on the PS2 disc of NiGHTS into Dreams!

I got this idea when I was looking at the Gallery in the game and thought it would be cool if we could get some of the images and artwork off the disc.

So I put the disc in my computer to see if I could easily access some of these files, but of course nothing's that easy! So I searched the internet for programs that could scan PS2 discs for files.

There is a large file on the disc called PAT01.AFS and it's about 775MB, so it's gonna have all the good stuff. I was able to find a program that could open up this archive and save all of the individual files to my PC. Links are below if you want to see the file list.

I was able to find out that the ADX files are the audio files on the disc, and they are easily playable with Winamp, so I've already been listening to all of the music tracks on the disc. I love the orchestral version that is played when you are in the Gallery (it's simply called nights.adx on the disc).

I'm assuming that a bunch of the BIN files must include images, but I have no idea how to figure out which ones are which and how to open the files. So I'll have to do some more digging around.

Is anyone good at this kind of stuff and would be interested in doing some hacking of their own??

Here is the list of files that I found
File list sorted by name (txt file)
File list sorted by size (txt file)

[NeoScriptor]

Wow, nicely done. If I get some free time today I'll see what I can add to the effort.

[Dreamer#96]

i found lots of files i could identify,but halloween? i thought there was no halloween feature on the original christmas NiGHTS cd,did they add a halloween feature for the ps2 NiGHTS? or is it a completely different set of files?

[charlie]

i found lots of files i could identify,but halloween? i thought there was no halloween feature on the original christmas NiGHTS cd,did they add a halloween feature for the ps2 NiGHTS? or is it a completely different set of files?

That file jumped out at me too. I'll have to change the clock on my PS2 and see if anything happens to Xmas NiGHTS during Halloween.

I converted the halloween.adx file to an mp3 so everyone can listen to it. Download halloween.mp3 (1.82MB - 1 min 59 secs)

I also converted the orchestral nights.adx file to an mp3 that I mentioned in my first post. Download nights.mp3 (3.98MB - 4 mins 21 secs)

EDIT: I also thought it was interesting that they included the english voice overs for Xmas NiGHTS (files kaigai_X_OP_MOVIE.adx and kaigai_X_END_MOVIE.adx), but they never used them in the game, they only used the japanese voices. There's so much english stuff in this game that you'd think they originally planned on releasing it worldwide.

[DiGi Valentine]

I'm having some problems downloading the Halloween track, man. It won't download.

Other than that, great research Charlie. If all the English voiceovers were in it then why on Earth did they not release this thing world wide? Damn Iizuka. >.<

--edit--
No wait, it's downloading now! XD;;

*listens*

...woah! WOAH WOAH!! This is new!! This was not on the original NiGHTS game. Did they add this in for the PS2 version or something? I checked the game date settings on the Saturn and we never got this, i'm sure of it.

Great work, Charlie man.

[charlie]

If there is a Halloween NiGHTS I haven't found it in the gameplay yet. I set the clock to Oct31 but I haven't seen any differences. Hard to say if there is something in the game or if it was just an idea and they never put it in the final version.

[charlie]

I finished going through the 218 sound files, and I found some pian songs that I don't remember hearing before, except for maybe the first one called dreams but I'm not sure. All but the first one are christmas carols, and they're kinda funny at first, but if you listen to them all you'll probably get sick of them quick...lol...at least I did.

Also included on the disc is the same music you hear when NiGHTS and Reala battle it out in JoD, which is the same music from the 2-player vs mode in the Saturn version. It's the one with the crazy guitar solos. Thing is, they never included a 2-player vs mode on the PS2 version so this is another file that you never hear in the game. I wonder if they planned on a 2-player mode??

Here are the pian songs. They mixed some together, like 13, which is just 1 & 3 at the same time.
pian_dreams.mp3 (1.29MB - 1 min 25 secs)
pian_sing1.mp3 (849KB - 54 secs)
pian_sing2.mp3 (849KB - 54 secs)
pian_sing3.mp3 (849KB - 54 secs)
pian_sing4.mp3 (849KB - 54 secs)
pian_sing13.mp3 (849KB - 54 secs)
pian_sing24.mp3 (849KB - 54 secs)
pian_sing123.mp3 (849KB - 54 secs)
pian_sing_mix.mp3 (849KB - 54 secs)

[DiGi Valentine]

Cheers for putting these up for download, Charlie.

It seems like the developers just threw everything in the original Christmas/NiGHTS into Dreams over for the port to the PS2 and then started chopping and cutting things out from it. So much for Iizuka claiming in that interview that it would be difficult to transfer the data from NiD over to another console. What a bag of bullshit. I can't understand why they cut things from the PS2 versison though. It's so stupid to remove content rather than add to it.

Still, great work Charlie. If you come across anything else then be sure to let us know.

[Dreamer#96]

The Pian songs are so cute,and they're not random notes like the JoD pian songs,these acctually are songs,i've heard a pian version of DreamsDreams,and some christmas pian songs,i havent heardall of them yet,they probaly sound much clearer without level music playing in the background.

[phosphorus]

There are a bunch of files with Halloween in the name:

DATCLARISHALLOWEEN.BIN 656,896

DATELIOTHALLOWEEN.BIN 616,960

DATNIGHTOPIANHALLOWEEN.BIN 627,712

DATNIGHTSHALLOWEEN.BIN 873,984

halloween.adx 6,436,498

shp_nightshalloween_ps2.bin 77,264

stage_halloween_boss_SDF.bin 6,888

stage_halloween_e_SDF.bin 77,616

stage_halloween_SDF.bin 77,612



Also, this caught my eye:

test.sfd 337,920

I seem to recall .sfd's being level files, but don't quote me on that. If they are, this could be some kind of debug level.

Must modify a PS2 and try some file name swapping. Nothing like seeing stuff you aren't supposed to by tricking the game into loading it for you.

E: waitaminute!!

sonic.sfd 337,920

WTF!!!!!!!

[Saifer Dracondrali]

Geez, I wish I knew how to do all this. lol
your quite talented keep up the good work, comrade!
pity there's no way I can help, so all I can really say now is
good luck!

[DiGi Valentine]

I'm presuming the Sonic.sfd is supposed to be the 'Sonic the Hedgehog into Dreams' mini-game that was unlockable in the original Christmas NiGHTS game on the Saturn....unless i'm overlooking something here but isn't Sonic into Dreams on the PS2 port as well? Or did they remove it? o.o

[phosphorus]

From Score Attack,

No Link attack, Time Attack or Sonic into Dreams...

So, unless it's present only in Saturn mode, it isn't in there officially. I need to see if any of the files I listed are on either of the original games, After all, Sonic Cult found stuff removed from Sonic Adventure 1 in Sonic Adventure DX. I doubt that any of the Halloween stuff will be in the old games, but if test.sfd is in there, I'll try and see what it is. I also wonder if the Saturn Mode files could be put in place of the originals and be loaded by the Saturn...

Maybe I can find out what some of this stuff is quicker than I though.

Also, "Cannot find 'self'". Damn.

[DiGi Valentine]

Hmm. I didn't know they removed Sonic into Dreams. What a rip. Oh well, i suppose it wasn't that much of a loss. Thanks for the info.

Be sure to update this thread if there are any developments.

[iLLViLLAiN]

This is some pretty interesting finds. There are so many secrets in many video games that your average person wouldn't even care to find out about. Thanks to people like you charlie we can witness the true hidden content. As for a lot of things being in English I don't even wanna go there. I've done my share of b***hing on the internet about them not releasing the game worldwide.

Also Halloween WTF?!

[NeoScriptor]

Okay, I've finally found time to look into this.

For starters, I decided to take a look at all of the videos in the MOVIE folder. I extracted the .mpg files that were contained in the SFDs (Which are Softdec MPEG conatainers).

Here's a list of the videos and what each one is (I'm stealing names from the FMVs page):
PS2_M01.SFD - NiGHTS into Dreams intro
PS2_M02.SFD - Elliot Edwards the intro
PS2_M03.SFD - Claris Sinclair the intro
PS2_M04.SFD - Elliot's Pre-Ending
PS2_M05.SFD - Elliot Ending
PS2_M06.SFD - Claris' Pre-Ending
PS2_M07.SFD - Claris Ending
PS2_M08.SFD - Joint perfect A ending
PS2_M09C.SFD - Claris Outro (C for Claris) - See what they did there? Clever.
PS2_M09E.SFD - Elliot Outro (E for Elliot)
PS2_MS.SFD - A bunch of zooming-in shots on Twin Seeds, like in Elliot's intro
PS2_STF1.SFD - Claris' credits
PS2_STF2.SFD - Elliot's credits
PS2_STF3.SFD - Joint ending credits (Red ideya at 'Presented By Sega' Screen)
PS2_STF4.SFD - Joint Perfect A ending credits (All ideyas at 'Presented By Sega' Screen)
SONIC.SFD - Sonic Team Logo (Sorry guys, not the cool stuff you hoped for)
SS_STF1.SFD - Claris' credits (Sega Saturn version - see that? "SS" vs. "PS2")
SS_STF2.SFD - Elliot's credits (Sega Saturn version)
SS_STF3.SFD - Joint ending credits (Sega Saturn version)
SS_STF4.SFD - Joint Perfect A ending credits (Sega Saturn version)
XMAS_END.SFD - Christmas NiGHTS Epilogue
XMAS_OPN.SFD - Christmas NiGHTS Prologue
XMAS_STF.SFD - Christmas NiGHTS Credits

There you have it. Nothing extraordinary as far as videos go. I'll see what else I can figure out later.

Peace!

[charlie]

Cool, thanks NeoScriptor. I had tried viewing the videos too but I'm guessing I didn't have the right codec cause I couldn't get them to display properly. I like the fact that they actually used some logic when naming their files.

I've been trying to view the images/textures that they use in the game, but I've been having a hard time as you can see below! LOL...clearly I don't know the file format they are using to store the images. I've tried a number of programs that claim to open any type of image, but nothing has been able to recognize the files, so I am assuming they are using a custom/proprietary format. So I'm writing my own program to open the files, but I still haven't figured out their logic. When I look at the raw data it just doesn't make any sense to me.

GAMEUI_LOGO.BIN is the Sega Logo that's displayed when you turn the game on. You can see below how my program renders it and below it is what it's supposed to look like!

[phosphorus]

I want to try swapping some file names, but I don't have a modified PS2 or NiD PS2. Specifically, I want to try swapping these two files:

DATNIGHTSHALLOWEEN.BIN 873,984
DATNIGHTSXMAS.BIN 938,240

If I'm right, that should cause the game to load NiGHTS's Halloween texture, if that's what it is. Does anyone have a PS2 that can play backups?

Also, I tried looking at the Chrismas NiGHTS disc, those are some cryptic file names.

[Kichigai]

Hacking? A Halloween NiGHTS? Possibilities?

....This thread makes me very very happy. 8D

[TRiPPY]

Yesssss, it makes me wonder if NiGHTS gets a costume change like the one you designed Kich, but the fact he DOESN'T GET SWIMWEAR is wholy UNFORGIVEN >:|

[Saifer Dracondrali]

Well you seem to be finding out some pretty interesting stuff so far and...
hey, HEY!, HEY!!!

There you have it. Nothing extraordinary as far as videos go. I'll see what else I can figure out later.

Peace!

"Peace!"? That's MY line, lol

[DiGi Valentine]

At least the Sonic file has been explained. Cheers for clearing that up for us Neo

And Charlie, as far as i know the old NiGHTS game on the Saturn also had a really weird file layout. People from Sonic CulT tried hacking it a very long time ago but the way SonicTeam coded this game was too weird even for them. It seems NiD is one game that is extremely difficult to hack.
Suri started hacking the old NiD game a while ago and he even began remaking the game with Kichi up there. Speaking of which, Kichi. When was the last time you heard from Suri? I contacted him a while ago but got no reply. I'm guessing the remake he was doing has come to a halt as we've not heard anything about it for a very long time? I wonder if he'll be interested in helping us with this.

[NeoScriptor]

"Peace!"? That's MY line, lol

I don't know if it's just me, but saying you own "Peace!" is kind of against the whole idea, isn't it?

Anyway, I stayed up till 3am trying to build a bootable iso of NiGHTS into PS2 with the DAT files swapped, hoping for some Halloween NiGHTS. I got to the save screen, but afterward it froze. So right now I'm two DVD-Rs down and no Halloween NiGHTS. Luckily, I think I might know how to fix it though, and you can be sure I'll get pics up ASAP if it works!

Peace!

[Kichigai]

Suri started hacking the old NiD game a while ago and he even began remaking the game with Kichi up there. Speaking of which, Kichi. When was the last time you heard from Suri? I contacted him a while ago but got no reply. I'm guessing the remake he was doing has come to a halt as we've not heard anything about it for a very long time? I wonder if he'll be interested in helping us with this.

I haven't heard him in like... forever. o_o I haven't seem him on AIM either. It would be nice if he got into this hacking as well. Maybe someone should try sending him a boot in the booty via e-mail?

[DiGi Valentine]

Hmm. Odd. He has not been in the forums since January. I better chase up after him. I'll send him another email and see what he's been up to. I'll let you know if i hear back from him.

In the meantime, you funky people keep on with the research. This stuff is certainly interesting.

[Saifer Dracondrali]

I don't know if it's just me, but saying you own "Peace!" is kind of against the whole idea, isn't it? tongue.gif

whoops busted! lol

War! ( )

[Birdy]

These findings are super awesome! I know it's been said before but nice job!
On another note the halloween music is kinda scary with that random voice in the middle, I wanna figure out what they're saying, though lol.

[Dreamer#96]

wow,intresting finds,i wonder if there some sort of ps2 emulator that you could use to expirement with the ps2 nights rom,like swapping the test level file with another level and see if it acctually is a test level,or,the rom crashes,but,i don't think there's any ps2 emulators out,and if there were,they would be unstable,considering if they're anything like the gamecube emulators,hm,but i wouild like to see what the halloween file swaps would do.

[charlie]

Anyway, I stayed up till 3am trying to build a bootable iso of NiGHTS into PS2 with the DAT files swapped, hoping for some Halloween NiGHTS. I got to the save screen, but afterward it froze. So right now I'm two DVD-Rs down and no Halloween NiGHTS. Luckily, I think I might know how to fix it though, and you can be sure I'll get pics up ASAP if it works!

Oooh...this is exciting! I've never done anything like this before so I'm a bit of a noob, but I'm gonna try to do it too! I'm using a hard drive in my fat ps2 so I don't have to worry about dvds. To make sure I know what the heck I am doing I tried replacing the Sega Logo with another image of the same size and I was able to do it! So now I'm gonna try messing with the Halloween files.

EDIT

I want to try swapping some file names, but I don't have a modified PS2 or NiD PS2. Specifically, I want to try swapping these two files:

DATNIGHTSHALLOWEEN.BIN 873,984
DATNIGHTSXMAS.BIN 938,240

If I'm right, that should cause the game to load NiGHTS's Halloween texture, if that's what it is. Does anyone have a PS2 that can play backups?

Also, I tried looking at the Chrismas NiGHTS disc, those are some cryptic file names.

I tried replacing the XMAS file with the HALLOWEEN file and I really thought it was going to work but the game froze on me! I tried both Claris and Elliot's missions but as soon as the words Spring Valley came up and the new music started to load the game froze. So it appears to be freezing right when it would be loading the modified file. I'll play around with it some more to see if there is a solution.

[NeoScriptor]

I tried replacing the XMAS file with the HALLOWEEN file and I really thought it was going to work but the game froze on me! I tried both Claris and Elliot's missions but as soon as the words Spring Valley came up and the new music started to load the game froze. So it appears to be freezing right when it would be loading the modified file. I'll play around with it some more to see if there is a solution.

Yeah, I got the second DVD to boot to the mission screens, but no matter what I selected, whenever it tried to load a level, it froze. Again, I'll keep trying this weekend and we'll see who can blow the lid off this thing first.

PEACE! *cough*

[Saifer Dracondrali]

Geez, I really wish I could get my hands on that ps2 NiGHTS... and the thingi that lets opne play Japanese games...
I hope ya find something out soon... oh an remember to post screenshots k?

PEACE! *cough*

Bless you!

War!

[Minimanasama]

oooh i want the ps2 version so bad along with trying to buy another saturn (god i miss that thing)=p the halloween track was very nice i enjoyed it alot lol its going to be stuck in my head for days now.

[NeoScriptor]

Wow, that's really cool. Way to go Youtube.

On my front, I'm down another couple dvd-rs, but I have great news. I have a friend who is an absolute master of assembly and all things low-level. He knows just about everything about everything, and is a total role-model for me. I sent him a copy of the halloween BINs, and I'm sure he'll return with something nothing less than outstanding.

Stay tuned!

[charlie]

Wow, that's really cool. Way to go Youtube.

On my front, I'm down another couple dvd-rs, but I have great news. I have a friend who is an absolute master of assembly and all things low-level. He knows just about everything about everything, and is a total role-model for me. I sent him a copy of the halloween BINs, and I'm sure he'll return with something nothing less than outstanding.

Stay tuned!

Cool, looking forward to some more help, cause I'm pretty much at a standstill right now. I'm still working on a program to view images but I couldn't get any farther on the Halloween Hex editing.

[NeoScriptor]

Nice Halloween screens on the other thread, charlie! Not sure how much more I want to 'hack' this thing now that halloween is out of the water, but if someone has a specific interest in something, I'd still help out.

[charlie]

Yeah, I feel the same way Neo. Not sure if there is really anything left to hack.

[phosphorus]

I'd like to see a video of it in action, because I don't have the PS2 version, if you don't mind.