Here are some tools for doing things with data files from Microsoft Bob (and the Assistants from Office 97, since they use an upgraded version of the same format).
I'll write up a better description of this stuff at some point, but for now...
Live demo (requires a modern web browser):
- Assistants: https://wuffs.org/bob/actors.html
- Rooms: https://wuffs.org/bob/room.html
Created by Ash Wolf (https://github.com/Treeki). Licensed under the MIT license.
Think this is awful? Send complaints to me on Twitter: @_Ninji
Provides BobPack
and BobResource
classes. The BobPack
class parses a
file (.ACT, .ACP or .ANI) and exposes the resources inside (usually just one).
Each BobResource
contains the following:
- Payloads: WMF images and pose specifications (arrangements of images)
- RIFFs: Audio files in RIFF/WAV format
- Animation Groups: Groups of animation sequences containing commands to show poses, play sounds and jump
- String Groups: Groups of strings to be used in specific scenarios
Provides a rudimentary implementation of the WMF format that renders to a HTML5 Canvas.
Loads and renders actors from Bob and Office 97 (and also other animation files used in the Bob Home, just for the hell of it).
Expects actors to be placed in the actors/
directory and the home animation
files to be placed in the home/
directory.
Loads and displays rooms from Bob. Pretty buggy.
Expects the home animation files to be placed in the home/
directory, the
extracted WMFs to be placed in the upic/
directory and the converted room
data to be placed in data.json
.
VBA module to extract the Bob graphics from the UPIC.MDB
database. Tested
with Access 97 on Windows 98.
Removes the 12-byte headers from every extracted WMF in the upic/
directory.
Converts data extracted from the Bob databases to data.json
for use with the
room loader. Expects the following files:
Rooms.csv
: export of the Rooms table fromUTOPIA.MDB
Sobs.csv
: export of the Sobs table fromUTOPIA.MDB
soblists.csv
: export of the Sob Lists table fromUTOPIA.MDB
Pictures.csv
: export of the PictureStorage table fromUPIC.MDB
All CSVs should be exported using comma delimiters and quoted fields. The PictureStorage table cannot be exported directly -- you will need to create a query for it containing all fields except for the two containing binary data, and then export the query.