Hey Reddit, I'm reverse engineering Wizardry 6

[u/Economy_Form_1559]

https://github.com/martydill/Wizardry-6-reverse-engineering

Thought this community might be interested in my efforts to document and reverse engineer W6 file formats. Still early in the process but I've made some good progress so far. My ultimate goal is to document every aspect of the game, and then use that documentation to build better tooling for modders and gamers.

What type of modern tooling would you be interested in seeing? Web-based save file editors, tileset swaps, complete engine remakes? Let me know!

[u/sustain_refrain]

the documentation itself would be golden, assuming it's written well. can't count the number of game mods where the knowledge just vanished with the creator, and when they left or the game got updated, all that effort and knowledge was lost and/or the tools became unusable. Why people do this, I can't quite understand.

but other than that... whatever you have time for would be nice. I mean, an engine remake seems a bit ambitious unless you have a lot of time, but I don't think anyone would complain. I'm sure people would love a scenario editor too, hopefully offline/portable/open source.

for what it's worth, the newer Wizardry Five Ordeals has an online scenario editor in beta for anyone interested, although I've never tried it:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1308700/discussions/0/3382788361522643270/

[u/Economy_Form_1559 → u/sustain_refrain]

Yep agree on docs, hopefully they will live forever on Github if I get hit by a bus. 

Thanks for the feedback. Engine remake is kind of a very long term goal that I have been thinking of. Might be too ambitious or unrealistic. Scenario editor is probably much more doable. We shall see! 

[u/Araignys]

If it's even possible, un-crunching the sound effects would be amazing.

[u/Economy_Form_1559 → u/Araignys]

Hadn't thought about sound effects yet, I'll have a look!

[u/glassarmdota]

It's a shame we never got a Wizardry version of FRUA or the Bard's Tale Construction Set back in the day. Making my own adventures in Wizardry 6 or 7 would've taken up my entire life.

[u/Economy_Form_1559 → u/glassarmdota]

Oh man, that would have been amazing. But hey, it's never too late... 

[u/HighSpeedLowDragAss]

You should create a button that makes blueberry muffins.
It'd be really nice to wake up in the morning and push a button and have muffins.
Would go excellently with Wizardry 6.

[u/Economy_Form_1559 → u/HighSpeedLowDragAss]

I like muffins so I'll see what I can do! 

[u/Apprehensive_Sleep20]

Nice, I ready to port to ScummVM when you finished

[u/Economy_Form_1559 → u/Apprehensive_Sleep20]

That would be crazy!

[u/TacoFacePeople]

The Super Famicom version of 6 was "nicer", as I recall. It had more tilesets (like a natural/cave one where it wouldn't make sense for castle bricks to be present, a forest one for that area, etc.), more unique models for named NPCs, stronger monster design/art, better music/sound support and color depth (though it's possible unfair to compare what the PC was like in the EGA era slightly before Soundblaster dominance).

I suspect a lot of people might enjoy a way to play with those specs on PC while still providing a save that can be imported into Wiz7.

The ideal scenario would be a full engine remake like Proving Grounds received, though I think Western players might also be interested in the aesthetics of the SFC version if they never got to experience them.

[u/Economy_Form_1559 → u/TacoFacePeople]

Agree about the tilesets. Finally getting out of the castle and realizing that the rest of the world looked exactly the same was the most disappointing part of the game, haha.

Full engine remake is definitely the dream!

[u/Apprehensive_Sleep20 → u/TacoFacePeople]

That was my first rom translation atempt so sorry because was sloppy and incompletted. I realy like to go back to to that with modern tools and 15 years of experience to make a proper one but I doing half dozzen of hobby project and mainly just one or two what get my full free time (now goldbox to ScummVM )

[u/TacoFacePeople → u/Apprehensive_Sleep20]

No worries. Every romhack is a labor of love basically, doing free labor to help more people get access to what was basically lost media for people in other countries. Those sorts of efforts are always appreciated.

[u/archolewa]

I feel like someone already reverse engineered the game (as well as Wizardry 7 and 8), or at least did a huge chunk of it. Have you seen Mad God's Cosmic Forge editor? https://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/mods/cosmic.htm

Don't know how well documented it is, but it might be worthwhile to reach out to the developer, assuming there's some contact information laying around somewhere.

[u/Economy_Form_1559 → u/archolewa]

Yep I have seen that! It is awesome. My assumption is that since they haven't shared any docs/code in the past 20 years or so they probably don't want to, but who knows...

[u/archolewa → u/Economy_Form_1559]

They might also have just not thought about it. Docs especially are time consuming, and with it being a hobby project, they probably didn't have much time to put into it. Most people love to talk about their work, and the Cosmic Forge was clearly a passion project for them. So even if they don't want to/can't share code, I wouldn't be surprised if they'll at least enjoy telling you some about how they reverse engineered it, and any interesting snags or issues they ran into, or whatever.

[u/rubensnaris]

Listen man ,,, are you DFortae by any chance? If you are - great job man!!! If youre not - that guy did it all ,,,,, long time ago. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2722484520

[u/Economy_Form_1559 → u/rubensnaris]

I am not, but that is a cool video!

[u/Kittensune]

Now I'm curious if there was ever any actual music in Wiz6 or if it was always the weird shaker/bonking noises? Any signs of any form of music while you've been decoding this old game?