Decompiling the Cave Story 3D Website

Nov 30, 2020 at 1:53 PM
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One morning, I was browsing the NIS website (don't ask why) when I found this page. If you couldn't tell, it's the page for (in my opinion) the WORST Cave Story port EVER.
(Also, this was the description on the page:

Cave Story 3D is a side scrolling action adventure game inspired by the fan-favorite 2D original. Now in a full 3D world, Cave Story takes the proven 2D action, exploration into stereoscopic awesomeness. You wake up in a cave with no idea who you are or where you came from, but you know you must help a cute race of rabbit-like creatures beat the crap out of some crusty old doctor.

Their words, not mine.)

Anyhow, If you click the "Official Site" button, it'll take you to another page with more detail on the game. It requires Flash, so good luck trying to visit it in 2020.
Screen Shot 2020-11-30 at 8.38.06 AM.png
The thing is, on the bottom right corner of the site there is a small button that allows you to pick between 3 different Cave Story (e.g. The song that plays in the plantation) remixes, which are exclusive to this site and this site only.
Screen Shot 2020-11-30 at 8.38.50 AM.png

You can't find this music anywhere else. Now, since this is a Flash page, ripping the (epic) music isn't easy. After trying several programs, I've found that Flash Favorite is the only one that does the job. The only problem is, the music for this page is in some strange extension less format. The music file, when opened in a text editor, starts with the letters CWS, then everything else after that is gibberish. I've decided to post the contents of the page here, in case anyone wants to fiddle with it. Click here to download it off my Google Drive.
 
Nov 30, 2020 at 2:55 PM
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Haha, I remember visiting that site a few times several years ago, although I don't remember ever seeing the line "beat the crap out of some crusty old doctor."

The thing is, on the bottom right corner of the site there is a small button that allows you to pick between 3 different Cave Story (e.g. The song that plays in the plantation) remixes, which are exclusive to this site and this site only.
You can't find this music anywhere else.
I didn't immediately have the right tools handy to unpack that "music" file in the folder you posted, although if I'm not mistaken, you're probably referring to 3 music tracks that have been up on Youtube for a little over 9 years now:

These are very good remixes, no doubt, although it's kind of old news. In fact, I even made an org rendition of that first one several years ago.
 
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Nov 30, 2020 at 3:13 PM
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I remember visiting that site a few times several years ago, although I don't remember ever seeing the line "beat the crap out of some crusty old doctor."
I was talking about the page before the Flash one.
Screen Shot 2020-11-30 at 10.09.15 AM.png
Also, those videos of the remixes are just audio recordings taken from the website. Sure, I could have just recorded the audio playing off the website, but that's not my psychology. I want to rip the PURE AUDIO that was used.
 
Nov 30, 2020 at 5:38 PM
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Here you go:

Getting ahold of those was more complicated than I was expecting: there are actually two SWF files - `main.swf`, and `unit_top.swf`. The first one is just a loading screen which loads the second one, and the second one plays the music using those URLs.

I used 'JPEXS Free Flash Decompiler' to decompile the SWFs. main.swf loads unit_top.swf in `scripts/frame 2/DoAction`, and unit_top.swf loads the mp3s in `scripts/DefineSprite (83)/frame 1/DoAction`.
 
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Dec 7, 2020 at 8:03 PM
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You think there's any way of getting this website to work when Flash is gone? Since SWF file players exist and all.
 
Dec 8, 2020 at 5:30 PM
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You think there's any way of getting this website to work when Flash is gone? Since SWF file players exist and all.
There is. Apparently, there is a second SWF file called "unit_top.swf" that contains the actual website, but I didn't extract it from the page :|
 
Dec 8, 2020 at 5:32 PM
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Here you go:

Getting ahold of those was more complicated than I was expecting: there are actually two SWF files - `main.swf`, and `unit_top.swf`. The first one is just a loading screen which loads the second one, and the second one plays the music using those URLs.

I used 'JPEXS Free Flash Decompiler' to decompile the SWFs. main.swf loads unit_top.swf in `scripts/frame 2/DoAction`, and unit_top.swf loads the mp3s in `scripts/DefineSprite (83)/frame 1/DoAction`.
Think you can send the SWF files?
 
Dec 8, 2020 at 5:35 PM
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I asked Clownancy on Discord, but he is offline. Guess I'll have to try a different method of extracting SWF files.
 
Dec 8, 2020 at 9:43 PM
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Was kinda hoping it still had the character images and stuff in it, but no matter. I can just screenshot them all.
 
Dec 9, 2020 at 4:55 PM
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The images have to be somewhere in the SWF file or stored on the NIS website, like the music was.
 
Dec 9, 2020 at 5:02 PM
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There probably is, but it ain't showing up. Likewise, the SWF file itself doesn't have the Character, Story etc sections working.
 
Dec 9, 2020 at 10:07 PM
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Hmm. They must be hosted by the website. You should screenshot all the character pages for archival purposes.
 
Dec 9, 2020 at 10:28 PM
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Pointless double post
Do whatever you want with these. I suggest trying to make PNGs of the images used here.

Screenshot (2429).pngScreenshot (2430).pngScreenshot (2431).pngScreenshot (2432).pngScreenshot (2433).pngScreenshot (2434).pngScreenshot (2435).pngScreenshot (2436).pngScreenshot (2437).pngScreenshot (2438).png

Edit by DT: Space rescued

Off topic but why does Toroko's character profile have a different text font from everyone else
 
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Dec 9, 2020 at 11:16 PM
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Confirmed: Nicalis and NIS used Blender to make Cave Story 3D. Look at Balrog's "concept art".
EDIT: It's believed Nicalis just opened up Balrog's model in Blender to get a side pic for the site, it's unlikely Blender was used for the CS3D models
 
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