Questions tagged [file-format]
Relating to the encoding format of data within files.
47
questions
42
votes
5answers
8k views
Why didn't C++ specify filename extensions?
Apparently even today there is no single "official" standard for C++ file extensions. There are just common conventions.
To me this stands out as an anomaly... file extensions are heavily ...
12
votes
3answers
5k views
How can I tell whether a DOS-looking exe. requires a 32-bit CPU to run?
Is there some simple method for determining if a DOS (or OS/2, or Windows etc.) binary (.exe or .dll) is 16-bit or 32-bit? The Linux file command just says "executable".
I want to ...
7
votes
1answer
131 views
Compucolor 2 emulator CCEmu's `.ccvf` disk format
This Compucolor 2 emulator uses disk images with the file extension .ccvf. Here is an example file. I would like to understand how to interpret that format.
I understand from the documentation that ...
4
votes
1answer
349 views
What does it mean when “The Good Old Days” have several seemingly identical downloads for the same game?
This happens for numerous games. If I search, for example, for "Spear of Destiny", I get this: https://archive.org/details/TGODFloppyCollection?and%5B%5D=spear+of+destiny&sin=
Four ...
4
votes
3answers
353 views
What is this Intel Hexadecimal-like file format in this Tiny BASIC dump?
I am looking at this Tiny BASIC dump which seems to consist of two sections, the first being a list of symbol addresses, and the second one containing Intel Hexadecimal records with a leading space:
...
17
votes
1answer
592 views
Where and when did the “.s” suffix for assembly-language source files originate?
The closest I was able to find on StackOverflow is What are .S files?, in which no answerer addresses why we use .s for assembly. (And .S for preprocessor/macro assembly; and gcc -S to produce ...
8
votes
5answers
2k views
Any tools (that actually work) for viewing PDF files in FreeDOS?
I recently installed FreeDOS on an old laptop and then transferred some dosbox based GOG games I own to the FreeDOS installation. The problem is the manuals for these games is in PDF format and I ...
2
votes
0answers
145 views
Has anyone heard of SCHEMA page layout tool?
I've found a text formatting tool, under the name of SCHEMA, which would accept an input language like
*RED
*0STA*NN*RG*1RL*0MCS1 20
*3/
*MDLorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
*MDconsectetur adipiscing elit,
*...
6
votes
1answer
213 views
What floppy disk format and layout and what disk image format are used for the Coleco Adam?
I just found out that emulators for the Coleco Adam use a disk image file format with the DSK file extension.
This is a very very overused extension on many different disk formats. Though a few DSK ...
3
votes
1answer
255 views
What is the *BEAST* event-recording software grammar?
I recently recovered a data-set my father (a biology professor) recorded at UC Berkeley in the 90s on Stickleback mating behaviors. He says the data was recorded using the "open-source BEAST ...
2
votes
0answers
137 views
Do the Tandy CoCo and the Dragon 32 & 64 use all the same disk image file formats?
Tandy's TRS-80 Color Computer "CoCo" and the Dragon 32 & 64 were very similar but not clones and not the same. Floppy disk versions used totally different DOSes and disk layouts.
Both ...
10
votes
1answer
352 views
Understanding the DMK disk image file format used by TRS-80 emulators
DMK is a low-level disk image file format used by TRS-80 Model I & Model III, Tandy Color Computer, Dragon 32 & 64, and MSX emulators. It's capable of representing copy-protected disks and all ...
1
vote
1answer
132 views
Opening a .zbd file
I have a .zbd file from my military service with sensitive information on it from 2004.
I have downloaded the ZoomBrowser from Canon, it does not recognize it as a file.
I downloaded the Zebedee ...
7
votes
2answers
905 views
How can I programmatically determine whether an Apple II .dsk disk image is a DOS .do image or a ProDOS .po image?
I'm interested in working with the most common Apple II disk image file format, .dsk.
(I only programmed these machines briefly in Basic around 1979-81 and have not been in the emulator scene, so I'm ...
3
votes
1answer
159 views
Do TRS-80 Model I and Model III load and execute /CMD files using specific memory addresses?
/CMD files on the various TRS-80 Model I and III OSes are machine code command files.
They seem to have some internal format but not really a file header.
They often start with 01 02 and then a 16-...
3
votes
1answer
113 views
What is the layout of the directory track on a TRS-80 Model I/Model III disk?
I've decided to add support for some more classic Z80 computers I used to use to my Ghidra modules, and the first Z80 systems I used were the TRS-80 model I and model III.
I've found documentation ...
5
votes
1answer
286 views
What is the format of the static libraries shipping with legacy Microsoft C for DOS?
I have installed Microsoft C 5.10 on DOS 6.22. It created a 'LIB' directory with static libraries to link against. Now I need to extract the symbols and the code for the functions from them, but can't ...
2
votes
1answer
108 views
Are the last 4 bytes in .SCL disk image files for Spectrum clones meaningful or spurious?
I recently added support for .scl images files to my Ghidra module which already supported .trd images. They are both representations of TR-DOS floppy disks as used mainly on Spectrum clones from ...
17
votes
1answer
3k views
How did large .COM files work?
An MS-DOS .com file is just raw code/data without header, thus no linking information, and was limited to be loaded into just one segment (64kB). That's the reason corrupted binaries would print "...
3
votes
2answers
648 views
What file formats were used for binary executable files on later Sinclair ZX Spectrums?
The last official version of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was the +3, released after the company was owned by Amstrad. It included a 3-inch floppy disk drive as used on other Amstrad computers.
But even ...
7
votes
2answers
723 views
Why does the .z80 emulator-snapshot format have separate fields for the 8-bit refresh register and bit 7 of R?
I've been looking at the .z80 file format for Sinclair ZX Spectrum games.
Most docs discussing the format include pretty much this wording:
Offset Length Description
-----------------------...
21
votes
8answers
4k views
Do the holes in Jacquard loom punched cards represent input data or program code?
I think they represent data because I feel it is a mechanical machine which is fully configured and the holes decide only that the thread related to each hole must be moved or not. Thus the holes ...
3
votes
0answers
357 views
What's up with the ASxxx and the “CoCo Disk BASIC binary format”?
The ASxxxx assembler system is a multi-platform assembler that
supports a lot of different CPUs, including Z80, 6800, 6502, 6809,
etc. I'm intending to use it to build software for a variety of
...
5
votes
2answers
580 views
How can I extract game data from Nitemare 3D files?
I am trying to reverse engineer an old Wolf3D style Dos game named "Nitemare 3D". I can get a raycasting engine with directional sprites running pretty easily using SDL2, but I have no experience with ...
15
votes
2answers
1k views
IBM mainframe classic executable file formats
Most modern platforms have pretty well-defined file formats; e.g. Windows uses PE, Linux and BSD - ELF (previously a.out), macOS - Mach-O, AIX - XCOFF and so on.
What were (are?) common executable ...
24
votes
5answers
5k views
How well known and how commonly used was Huffman coding in 1979?
Infocom's Z-Machine, designed in 1979, compresses text using a basic 5 bit code which is not very efficient in practice, achieving maybe a 1.5:1 compression ratio.
Huffman coding would be far more ...
4
votes
2answers
406 views
What was the format for .OBJ files produced by M80.COM for CP/M?
When DOS released in 1981, the assembler that came with it produced .OBJ files that were OMF format. However there was a predecessor to it, M80.COM that ran under CP/M and also used .OBJ as the file ...
9
votes
1answer
404 views
What are the best file formats for backup & emulation of retro game CDs? And why?
In other words, what are some factual, non-subjective reasons why you might choose (or avoid) a certain file format ? (For example, disk usage, audio accuracy, emulator compatibility, etc).
I'm ...
6
votes
3answers
451 views
Opening or converting GFA Basic files to something readable?
There is a bunch of GFA BASIC for Amiga files (the source code for Blender's ancestor, Traces, downloadable here: http://zgodzinski.com/blender-prehistory/) that I would like to peek at.
Despite my ...
6
votes
1answer
247 views
Cross-Compatibility of UCSD p-Machine Versions?
I currently have Apple Pascal (and Fortran, and PILOT) running on an Apple IIgs emulator on Windows. As near as I can tell, it's UCSD p-System II.something. I also have a DOS-hosted UCSD p-System, IV....
6
votes
3answers
673 views
How can I debug a Mac OS Classic application?
I have a Mac OS Classic application (a game) that I want to "debug". It has data files in a unique format than I am attempting to reverse-engineer. I've made some progress with a hex editor, but ...
12
votes
2answers
848 views
Origin of “tarball”
It seems to be common (at least among my section of the world's *NIX users) to refer to "tape archives" made with GNU tar or similar as "tarballs". I always thought this was a slightly odd choice, ...
16
votes
5answers
3k views
What determines which architecture an a.out executable runs on?
The ELF file format has an e_machine field in the header, which specifies which ISA the executable expects. And the e_ident structure also has an EI_OSABI field that specifies which ABI the executable ...
11
votes
1answer
450 views
How to open a CorelDraw WI wavelet-compressed image
I have a large sample of .WI images I need to convert to e.g. JPEGs, but the format now seems defunct.
The mimetype is image/wavelet.
The compression algorithm was developed by Summus, a US company ...
28
votes
3answers
5k views
Magnetic exposure to floppy disk damages file system and requires complete reformat?
What I noticed is, that formatting a floppy disk takes three times as much time for the same data amount as writing a file to the disk normally.
The accoustically perceivable jumps of the head between ...
17
votes
2answers
1k views
What is the difference between DriveSpace and DoubleSpace?
DriveSpace is the successor to DoubleSpace. Both are DOS systems that mount a Compressed Volume File as a drive, allowing ordinary programs to interface with a compressed drive without an intermediate ...
62
votes
6answers
14k views
Why did base64 win against uuencode?
From the the two methods of encoding 8-bit data as human-readable ASCII, for a time, uuencode format was more popular. USENET 'binaries' groups were filled with uuencoded posts with whatever goodies ...
20
votes
1answer
792 views
When was the relocatable object module invented?
During the time when programming was done in machine codes, there was no need for object modules; it just wouldn't make sense. People would write the whole program they needed to run in "zeroes and ...
11
votes
2answers
3k views
Documentation on Windows Explorer Shell Command Files
Windows Explorer Shell Command Files are a feature added to Windows with Internet Explorer 4 (95 / NT 4). They were used in the now-defunct Quick Launch bar to show the desktop, open IE4's Channels ...
11
votes
1answer
571 views
On-disk structures for Files-11 format (RSX11)
I'm looking for an explanation, or a link to documentation of the on-disk structures of the Files-11 format, that is, the format of disks used by RSX-11 on the PDP-11. Also known as ODS-1, the ...
12
votes
1answer
577 views
How are File Timestamps recorded in classic Mac OS?
When I save a file it has a 'Created At' and 'Updated At' Value saved as well. I would like to know HOW these values are saved? Are they saved as an integer representing a number of seconds since 1904?...
18
votes
2answers
733 views
What was the end of line convention for text files on the 8-bit Commodores
A two part question:
Did an agreed upon convention for end of line (EOL) within text files exist on the 8-bit Commodores?
If there was a convention, what was it?
6
votes
1answer
3k views
Converting ZX Spectrum .ipf files to .z80 or .tzx for use in Fuse on RetroPie?
I have a 'perfect' set of ZX Spectrum games (in .ipf format) that I would like to use in EmulationStation (RetroPie) but the Fuse emulator doesn't recognize .ipf files.
Are there any tools that will ...
5
votes
1answer
276 views
Magnetic tape data preservation format
What 'virtual tape' image format is most suited for data preservation i.e. can store metadata like density and media type of original tape, presence of data past EOT marker, parity/ECC bits etc.?
31
votes
5answers
4k views
What were the differences in floppy disk formats between Amiga and IBM/PC compatible computers?
The capacity in Amiga Old File System format (OFS, OS version 1.x) was 840KB, with the Fast File System ("FFS" (!)) introduced for OS 2.x onwards able to store 880KB. The PC format stored 720KB on the ...
11
votes
3answers
2k views
What format is the (Timex) Sinclair ZX Spectrum SCREEN$/.SCR file
What format is the (Timex) Sinclair ZX Spectrum SCREEN$/.SCR file and how is the fore/background and attribute data encoded within this format?
23
votes
2answers
5k views
How to convert Amiga DMS to ADF?
Our demoscene group managed to release only one demo before it fell apart, but these being the early days of the Internet in my country, and me getting lucky with obtaining access to it and creating ...
