ICE! extractor from .ST disk images

[mlynn1974]

I have written a program in C++ to extract ICE! packed sections from .ST disk images:
https://lynn3686.com/download/iceextract_v1.zip
This was because MugUK managed to extract tunes from The Wild Boys Waveforms demo. I tried using SainT memory snapshots but had no luck.
ICE! indicates it was packed with Pack-Ice 2.4. Ice! was earlier versions but I haven't added that feature yet.

The code is written using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (C++) but should be able to be upgraded to more recent versions.
It is compiled using Multibyte Character Set (MBCS) not Unicode in Release and Debug modes.

In the test directory there is:
iceextract.exe
test.bat
clean.bat
waveforms.st

test.bat calls iceextract.exe and writes out_0.bin, out_1.bin for every ICE! section reached.
If the length after the ICE! identifier is larger than the disk image it will skip that chunk.

It only looks at the first longword after ICE! to determine the length of the file. I vaguely remember the 2nd and 3rd longs doing something. Maybe the length of the DATA and BSS sections for executables? I can't remember seeing any documentation for that.
Any suggestions or improvements would be appreciated.

[prog99]

Does your extractor assume the files are stored in contiguous sectors on the disk image?

[Mug UK]

I'd try it out with a few demos that use ICE! headers and add them to a "tested with" list.

Ice! was a bugger to add to my Multi Depacker as the same header was used for 2 x different versions of Ice Packer, each having different depacker routines.

Like with New Depack's author above, we had to add an option of "which depacker do you want to try" and then cross-fingers it didn't bork the ST.

[mlynn1974]

Does your extractor assume the files are stored in contiguous sectors on the disk image?

Yes contiguous sectors only. These custom loaders must have been very difficult to write and work out where each screen would go on the disk.

I'd try it out with a few demos that use ICE! headers and add them to a "tested with" list.

Like with New Depack's author above, we had to add an option of "which depacker do you want to try" and then cross-fingers it didn't bork the ST.

I'll try that when I get time. Thanks for the advice on the old Ice! format.

[Mug UK]

The 2nd long was, from memory, what the unpacked file size *should* be.