Editing Save Games for War In Middle Earth

[Aaron Willis]

I have figured out how to edit portions of the archive.dat savegame file. Currently, I can change the number of troops in armies, create multiple main characters (10 Gandalfs), change the character's sprite and color, change the characters symbol on the map.

I am still trying to find out how to create additional armies, currently I can only add soldiers to existing armies. For instance, I want to find out how to create an army of Elves and station them in Hobbiton.

If you have tried and have some additional info let me know. Also, I will share what I have found so far.

[cigydd]

Hello Aaron,

I've attempted a very similar task to yours. I wanted to port the game to Windows from Atari ST. But how hard such a quest is, I realized in years of writing an emulator of Atari ST.

I shouldn't mention I made a disassembly of WIME Atari ST version but the purpose was not to harm Melbourne House but to try to port the game and modify it slightly for my own use – in order to enjoy the gameplay ;-)
The first attempts were written in Visual Basic.
I've ended up with several lines translated from the Atari ST Assembly Language to Pseudo-Atari-ST-Assembly-Language. I just simulated an initial piece of the program in Delphi and Lazarus, having all the virtual ST memory and processor exactly in the same state as I saw it in the self-recompiled WinSTon. If I continued, it would lead to a working cross-platform game. But it's a mission impossible because it would need a billion years of free time which I don't have.

It's actually possible to play the original Atari ST version of the game in the WinSTon emulator and maybe in others too.

So the effort to port the game to a multiplatform one (with cheats enabled ;-) ) must be grounded on another base. At least due to law problems, secondly due to lack of free time. Any task is solvable given enough power but there are the legal issues of such attempts…

It would then be great to contact Melbourne House and ask them to publish the source code! ;D Dou you think something such is possible

Sooo… (!) What if I help you to enhance your savegame editor? I'd like it to support the Atari ST version too ;-)

I can code in Visual Basic quite well.
Write me back if you are interested!

[Aaron Willis]

Yes, I appreciate any help you can provide. As far as ST savegame, all I have to do is get the game in an emulator and just adjust reading the savegame file.

What I really need help with is someone who could pull the image data from the data files and have them display the animations. I have been working with one of the graphic artists from the game who is sending me the original Amiga graphics he made along with what he thinks is the World Editor. The only catch is, I need an Amiga to read the info. I plan to convert the disks and post on the site for all.

If you know how to rip the sprites from the data file (AANIM) as well as the map icons (AMAP.RES) and display them, that would help me out a lot. I've been told the graphics were IFF and ANM from Deluxe Paint but looking at the data files it seems they were converted as I cannot decipher them through my hex editor and basic knowledge of hex editing and VB.

As far as the ST, I just have to download an emulator and load up the game ROM so I can see what the savegame and resource files look like. Having done the Amiga and IIGS from the PC versions, there is only minor modifications needed. The Amiga however saves in big endian so I'm just trying to redo the code to read in whatever endian each system reads.

There are also a few entires in the savegame file I'm not sure what the data was used for, so I can use help there also.

Let me know if still interested. Once I get the code up, I can send you the editor so you can get to work.

[cigydd]

Hi Aaron,

this starts to be very interesting.

For an Atari ST emulator, you can choose one of these: www.zophar.net/atarist.html. If you want I can prepare a zip file with just everything you need to run WIME for Atari ST on a PC. Let's call it a package or a bundle…

I've never taken the challenge to decipher the resource files. But I have some knowledge that could be crucial for our analysis.

• It's interesting that the ST version seems to be ported from Amiga. Both computers share the same processor series (Motorola 68000 and higher) and big endian encoding. In the ST program binary, there is some text mentioning some "Amiga stuff" (sic). This could mean the ST version was somehow based on some Amiga-specific stuff.
  
• I don't know anything about the structure of the data stored in the data files yet but I've managed to decipher an ST emulator saved state (processor & memory), actually from PaCifiST, that contained some bitmaps loaded into the ST memory. Originally, I was searching for an area of the memory that contains the current monitor screen. I am able to view the screen in my program. But if I point the memory viewer to another portions of the memory, other pictures from the game appear, in the form of sprites with black background. I don't know if the bitmaps are the same in the memory and in the resource files – but we can locate them in the memory, see their bytes and try to find them in the resource files…
  
• The ST version also has another resource file structure. The the music resources are separated. Each tune is saved in one file.
  
• The animations, graphics and maybe also texts are encoded in the WIMERES1\AFILES.RES, WIMERES2\BFILES.RES, WIMERES3\CFILES.RES files and another \CFILES.RES file. The WIMERES1&2 directories are stored on the first floppy disk and the WIMERES3 directory along with the \CFILES.RES are stored on the second floppy disk:
  
  • Disk 1
    
    • COMMAND.PRG (the program binary)
      
    • WIMERES1\AFILES.RES
      
    • WIMERES1\*.MUS
      
    • WIMERES2\BFILES.RES
      
    
    
  • Disk 2
    
    • WIMERES3\CFILES.RES
      
    • CFILES.RES
      

This is the start of the information interchange Maybe if we continue other people join us

[cigydd]

I forgot to mention that for my impatience I have started my own savegame editor in Lazarus and managed to get to the point where I can read character properties and modify the unit count. Never mind, this only shows that I am able to do such things I had and still enjoy a lot of fun with my primitive editor. If we collaborate things can grow in joy…

[william willet]

Hey cigydd, Aaron willis, et al!

I LOVE this game more than any, past/present/future. I would love even to be able to see the army/character stats if you can help me do that.

Aaron may remember me from way back when; glad to see you did not let the game die Aaron!

Working within the confines of the game as coded way back when, I have done some INCREDIBLE things without hacking the code including having 2 live Gandalfs as the same time, forcing the Ents & Huorns to Mordor, etc etc.

I have a load of things I'd like to try if i can get control of the characters better. Some of these characters have hidden strengths one would be surprised to find. I think Eomer is pretty powerful, and Celeborn would surprise you!

Anyway i would LOVE to see what strengths the original creators gave them, and sauron. I have amassed as many powerful individual characters for one on one combat with sauron and don't think I've ever put a dent on him on the lowest/character level in combat. But I think that could be changed if it were:

Gandalf, Gandalf', Elrond, Glorfindel, Celeborn, Aragorn, etc etc.

Anyway please let me know how things are progressing. I love this game more than any!

William
[e-mail]

[Aaron Willis]

The editor allows you to change pretty much any stat right now. You can change a character's sprite, their location, even their quantity. For instance, you can modify Eomer to have a Cavalary of 30,000 and annihilate every army. Thank you for your donation, I've sent you access to the editor so you can play around with it. Let me know what you think.

[maxplunder]

Aaron,
I was wondering if you still had that save game editor. I would like to give it a try on my current play through of WIME for Dos.

Doug

[cigydd]

Hello Doug,

Aaron has published the editor on GitHub: github.com/arwillis77/WIME-Editor. You can contact him from there and request a binary build. I think he’d be pleased.

Pavel

[william willet]

Hi guys! I wonder Aaron if that editor is still up, on github?

hope this game never dies!