WEB: "HOWTO-LoomTG16" is out of date (new Linux extraction script included)

[eriktorbjorn]

The Wiki instructions for how to extract the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 version of Loom has unfortunately suffered some bit rot over the years. Not surprising I guess, since it's a fairly obscure version:

​https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=HOWTO-LoomTG16

• Win32, Tool option 1 - dumpcd: The "Alternative Link" is dead.
• Win32, Tool option 2 - TurboRip: The link is dead.
• Linux, Tool option 1 - dumpcd: The source code link is dead.
• I don't think extract_loom_tg16 exists as a standalone tool any more? I had to use scummvm-tools-cli instead.

I do not have any suggestion for how to fix these links, though I do still have a copy of dumpcd-0.1.zip. I've attached a copy of it here.

I've also spent some time trying to find a way to extract the data without having to resort to exotic tools. I've attached my work-in-progress script. It's as good as I can make it, but perhaps someone will better scripting skills can improve it?

[eriktorbjorn]

The bin/cue files generated by this script can be run in the Mednafen emulator, which may be good for comparison, but I'm getting noise instead of sound. I'll experiment with options to cdrdao to see if that can be fixed.

[eriktorbjorn]

I've added an updated version of my script. As I suspected, the problem was related to the byte order of the data. After some experimenting, what I came up with for cdrdao was so close to the command in the DOSBox documentation that I decided to just copy theirs. That means byte swapping is no longer done by bchunk.

So the first version of the script works fine for ScummVM purposes, but for use in emulators such as Mednafen the second script works better.

This allowed me to see that a text glitch I've been hunting for (where note names are sometimes drawn with the wrong font, I think?) happens in the original as well.

[eriktorbjorn]

Third, and hopefully final, version of my script:

The output directory can now be specified, and the script will check that it's empty before doing anything.

FLAC compression is no longer done by default. Use the --compress option for that. The reasoning here is that this makes it easier for the user to do whatever compression he wants afterwards.

The --keep option tells the script to not delete any remaining temporary files afterwards.

[eriktorbjorn]

People who have tested the extraction script so far, that I know of:

User	OS	Comment
eriktorbjorn	Debian (bookworm)	I've successfully extracted the English version. Datafiles are identical to my old extracted version, that I no longer remember how I did. In the case where audio differed, my old files had static that the new ones did not.
dwa	Debian	"Hi, it works perfectly for me on Debian 11 with my original Japanese PC-Engine CD (JCCD2009). LFL content is identical to my previous dumpcd dump, and audio appears to be OK too"

[eriktorbjorn]

See also https://bugs.scummvm.org/ticket/13313

[eriktorbjorn]

I've committed the extraction script to scummvm-tools as extract_loom_tg16.sh (for consistency with the extract_loom_tg16 tool).

I've updated the instructions in the Wiki as best as I could, but the links are still dead.

[eriktorbjorn]

Everything should be updated now, I hope.