Eschalon: Book II music themes

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Calathon
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Eschalon: Book II music themes

Post by Calathon »

Greetings, Fellows!

I think we all agree that the music of the Eschalon Book(s) is very important for the atmospheric influence of the game. As discussed in an other thread, Book I and II differ concerning the way the music is stored on the harddisk, which leads to the fact that you cannot (or at least I cannot) listen to the various music themes of Book II without visiting the corresponding places.

What I would like to ask is, even though I know that there are more urging things to take care of from the developer´s side, if it would be possible to let the player gain access to the themes, like it has been in Eschalon: Book I ? In other words: would it be possible to extract the music from the Book II files into a readable format like .mp3, .wav, .ogg or the like?
Don´t get me wrong, I am not asking for a "crack" program or something like that, I just would like to know if there is a legal way to listen to the music of Book II outside the game, in accordance with the developer(s).

Thanks and cheers, Calathon
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SpottedShroom
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Re: Eschalon: Book II music themes

Post by SpottedShroom »

The files are part of the datapak file, which is regular encrypted .zip file. You should be able to list the contents, even without using a password.

Code: Select all

23316556  2010-03-02 11:44   music/battle_loop.wav
  1141125  2009-09-18 17:55   music/begin_game_animation.ogg
   266442  2007-09-26 07:46   music/death.ogg
  3087172  2010-03-10 23:11   music/eb2_aftermath.ogg
  3150281  2009-08-28 08:53   music/eb2_a_foreign_city.ogg
 12923180  2010-03-14 11:19   music/eb2_chared.wav
  1856214  2007-04-11 09:29   music/eb2_dank_underworld.ogg
  2899205  2007-07-16 10:58   music/eb2_desert.ogg
  2947622  2010-01-08 07:46   music/eb2_durnore.ogg
  3309584  2010-01-08 07:56   music/eb2_end_of_the_era.ogg
   563852  2010-01-08 07:55   music/eb2_epic_unease (short).ogg
  3047784  2010-01-07 20:57   music/eb2_expeditionary.ogg
  5545947  2008-10-30 10:14   music/eb2_forgotten_depths.ogg
  7394051  2010-03-10 23:10   music/eb2_long_note_two.ogg
  3437134  2008-10-30 11:10   music/eb2_main_theme.ogg
  1189651  2009-11-05 14:44   music/eb2_odyssey.ogg
  3526772  2008-07-12 16:18   music/eb2_overland1.ogg
  2362640  2007-04-11 14:29   music/eb2_overland2.ogg
  4460815  2009-08-28 08:47   music/eb2_overland3.ogg
  1702921  2010-01-03 02:54   music/eb2_serpentine_trek.ogg
  1777910  2010-01-07 21:00   music/eb2_the_chamber.ogg
  3836343  2010-01-08 07:51   music/eb2_the_world_of_eschalon.ogg
  2508090  2010-01-08 07:53   music/eb2_unnatural_situation.ogg
  3078249  2009-07-25 14:14   music/eb2_willow_and_the_light.ogg
  1214291  2010-04-19 09:38   music/end_music.ogg
  1215981  2010-04-19 17:26   music/end_music_2.ogg
Using encryption like this isn't very secure, though - the game itself has to know the password to get into the files, and it's not much challenge for a technical user to extract it. xolotl did that for his editor so that it would be able to display the same graphics that appear in the game, although he got explicit permission from BW ahead of time.

The Book II EULA prohibits reverse engineering, so BW probably doesn't want people extracting the files. The DMCA's allowance for reverse engineering for the purposes of compatibility (e.g. listening to music in a different program) does mean that it's probably legal, though.
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Calathon
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Re: Eschalon: Book II music themes

Post by Calathon »

Ah, thanks for the hint, I never would have tried to extract the "datapak" file with WinRAR or something like that. So if one has the password you could listen to the music, that is nice to know. :)
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BasiliskWrangler
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Re: Eschalon: Book II music themes

Post by BasiliskWrangler »

The datapak is encrypted to prevent general distribution of the music files, of which we have varying degrees of rights to. If you hack the file, then that activity is on you- I've done my part to protect it.

When Book 3 is finished, we've been talking about releasing an "Eschalon Soundtrack" collection featuring all the music we own or have full rights to, from all three games. This album would be in mp3 format and as high of quality as we can produce from the originals, and we'd probably charge a very small fee for the collection to help with bandwidth and as a contribution towards our next game.
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Re: Eschalon: Book II music themes

Post by Morgan Terror »

Well, for what its worth, it seems only the book 2 intro theme is available on the internet. The rest hasn't been cracked. I'll certainly be buying the soundtrack once it comes out. Shame not everything's on there though.
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Calathon
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Re: Eschalon: Book II music themes

Post by Calathon »

An "Eschalon Soundtrack" definitely is something I really would like to have. And I am very excited about the music in Book III. :D
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MyGameCompany
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Re: Eschalon: Book II music themes

Post by MyGameCompany »

BasiliskWrangler wrote:When Book 3 is finished, we've been talking about releasing an "Eschalon Soundtrack" collection featuring all the music we own or have full rights to, from all three games. This album would be in mp3 format and as high of quality as we can produce from the originals, and we'd probably charge a very small fee for the collection to help with bandwidth and as a contribution towards our next game.
I would most definitely buy this! I love the music. I've got Book 1's music on my iPod, and listen to it all the time. I would love to add all the rest of the music I can from the other games.
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Calathon
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Re: Eschalon: Book II music themes

Post by Calathon »

You are absolutely right, a complete soundtrack of all three parts of the Eschalon Books would be great!
I am nearly done with my "play all Eschalon Books as a mage for once" challenge (not a real challenge, though :) ) and the music played at Grimmhold made me think again of this topic.

So maybe a poll could be launched to determine how many people are interested in buying a soundtrack in order to minimize the risk of producing/compiling it in vain? I personally would never think that a soundtrack could be a waste of time, but I understand that one has to take a economic point of view as well, so maybe a poll could help in finding out if a soundtrack compilation would pay off :?:
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