The MLP Arena

Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: ChloeAnn on May 05, 2012, 07:29:31 AM

Title: Does anybody know...
Post by: ChloeAnn on May 05, 2012, 07:29:31 AM: ...how to extract the .DAT files from the PC game My Little Pony: Friendship Gardens? The sound is bugged on my game, so I'm trying to extract the VOICE.DAT file. I've tried a bunch of different programs, and nothing's working :(
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: hathorcat on May 05, 2012, 04:30:25 PM: I think you ll need to hope for someone very technically capable for some advice...

Do you just no longer wish to listen to the sounds on the game?
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: ChloeAnn on May 06, 2012, 03:03:28 AM: No, I'm trying to figure out what the butterfly is saying, because I can only catch the very last part of her sentence in some places :(
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: Opalescence on May 06, 2012, 03:09:14 AM: The thing with .dat files is that you usually need a specific tool depending on its content.
Since it's named Voice.dat, I assume it contains some sort of audio.
Therefore you need an audio exctractor like those you use to rip the tracks off your CDs. Make sure it can handle .dat
You'l see that when you select the source file for extraction nad there's options like
AVI, DivX, Xvid, WMV, ASF, MPEG or in your case, DAT.
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: moonflower on May 06, 2012, 03:09:46 AM: Oh, that butterfly is so annoying! :P
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: Shaiyeh on May 06, 2012, 03:15:53 AM: I have played friendship gardens, but this discussion, and Moonflower writing that it's annoying, just makes me think of Navi...
"HEY! HEY LISTEN!!" 8D

lol.

I hope you can get the sound files to work!
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: Stuntmang on May 06, 2012, 03:16:22 AM: The problem is that .dat tends to not be a standardized file format. It's likely encrypted in some way and only the programmers know the key to unencrypt it. Your best bet is to Google around and see if anyone's gotten files from that particular game ripped. If this is an earlier game (90s, early 00s), you'll have much better luck.
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: moonflower on May 06, 2012, 03:36:40 AM: If you have no luck you could try YouTube.
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: hathorcat on May 06, 2012, 04:45:22 AM: Quote from: ChloeAnn on May 06, 2012, 03:03:28 AM
No, I'm trying to figure out what the butterfly is saying, because I can only catch the very last part of her sentence in some places :(

Oh thats a nuisance! Its been a very very long time since I played this game so I am not sure if its a common fault...I do know as a game it turns up for about £3ish in a lot of places in case you need to replace your version.
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: gabumon on May 06, 2012, 08:52:48 AM: you could try opening Notepad.exe and the from
that program browse for the dat file. it might have gobbly gook, but the first dozen letters / numbers might give a clue to what format it is. (IOW notepad might show a header)
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: Emfen on May 06, 2012, 09:06:17 AM: I do know someone extracted audio from a game in a similar way. This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqsVCj0tNZg) shows how to by using GCFScape to extract sound.
I'm not entirely great at such things, but I often use programs that can read games .dat files. May it be for solve a bug or to just to fiddle around with settings. :P
Hope it helped a bit! :)
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: ChloeAnn on May 06, 2012, 10:05:01 AM: What sort of programs? :P
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: gabumon on May 06, 2012, 12:23:42 PM: If you're game you can post the first few characters as seen in notepad I'll google it for you. :3
Title: Re: Does anybody know...
Post by: Emfen on May 06, 2012, 12:44:21 PM: Quote from: ChloeAnn on May 06, 2012, 10:05:01 AM
What sort of programs? :P
.dat reading programs.

Quote from: ehow.com
.DAT files are used by programmers to store any kind of data.
.dat is like an archive, which the .exe file need to have in order to function properly. So it would be like using an archive extractor for .zip or .rar, but this program("GCFScape") reads the .dat and translated the encrypted data into readable files.
Looked around the web and some sites stated that you should be able to open it with media programs(i.e. media player), but if you just want the audio I suggest you look at the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqsVCj0tNZg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqsVCj0tNZg)) as it actually links you to the software used to extract the sound files.
The directory would be C: > Hasbro Interactive > My Little Pony > Data (got the game myself)

I don't know how the content on the cd looks at the moment sadly. It should also work if you stick the cd in a freestyle and play it, first track might be silent but skip that one then and the sound should play. I did that once.