RSS Parrot

A bit of class theory

https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2025/03/a-bit-of-class-theory/

Published: March 15, 2025 09:47

There is a Ukrainian word “жлоб” (zhlob) with unknown origin, but probably coming from Polish żłób via Yiddish (and likely donating that meaning back, since in Ukrainian it means only a person while in Polish it’s not a main meaning and does not connect to…

NihAV: hardware-accelerated playback revisited

https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2025/03/nihav-hardware-accelerated-playback-revisited/

Published: March 10, 2025 18:04

Recently I’ve made a mistake of upgrading one of my laptops to systemd 24.04. I can talk about various quality of life improvements there (like brightness control not working any longer so I have to evoke xrandr instead) but it’s so useless rant that it…

Random NihAV news

https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2025/03/random-nihav-news/

Published: March 8, 2025 16:56

Since I can’t do anything about the world largest countries run by over 70-year old dictators, I try to find a distraction elsewhere. It usually works only until the next time I read next. Anyway, here’s something different for a change. With all the work…

na_game_tool 0.3.0 released

https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2025/03/na_game_tool-0-3-0-released/

Published: March 4, 2025 17:45

This is finally a release I’ve been wanting to make—with a format for each letter of the alphabet! It features about twenty new formats supported, a dozen of them being newly reverse engineered by me and the rest coming from NihAV, various open-source game…

Cinepak everywhere!

https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2025/03/cinepak-everywhere/

Published: March 2, 2025 17:37

First of all, I’m happy to announce that I’ve finally managed to reverse engineer a format for game called Wing Nuts which means I’ve finally collected formats for the whole alphabet. So I want to implement another format that I’ve REd and I can finally…

na_game_tool: penultimate letter

https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2025/02/na_game_tool-penultimate-letter/

Published: February 28, 2025 17:52

So now there’s just one letter left, hopefully it won’t take that long to find a suitable format. Meanwhile two formats for letter ‘o’ have been added, both formats are formally from Origin. One is FLIC-in-IFF used to store intro and ending for Ultima VII…

na_game_tool: another letter

https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2025/02/na_game_tool-another-letter/

Published: February 25, 2025 17:17

Finally I’m closer to the goal of having formats for every letter of alphabet supported in na_game_tool. Finally I’ve managed to add a format(s) starting with ‘y’. First, I was able to locate an obscure game ported to Windows from SEGA Saturn called Yumimi…

This fortnight in na_game_tool

https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2025/02/this-fortnight-in-na_game_tool/

Published: February 15, 2025 18:00

Since last time I’ve added a couple more formats: finally did Dragon’s Lair (PC port) videos—it turned not as bad as I expected after Space Ace; Jazz Jackrabbit 2 videos (from the decompiled decoder in Jazz² Resurrection) finally implemented Xilam DERF…

CinEApak

https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2025/02/cineapak/

Published: February 11, 2025 17:13

First of all I’d like to blame Peter Ross for ignoring this peculiar format from his favourite company. Apparently he prefers to dig Lead instead. Anyway, as I was scraping bottom of the barrel for FMV game formats to support in na_game_tool (and I still…

A bit on USA

https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2025/02/a-bit-on-usa/

Published: February 2, 2025 15:31

As usual, I don’t have to say what has been put to words in much better way by somebody else already. At the banquet, last winter, of that organization which calls itself the Ends of the Earth Club, the chairman, a retired regular army officer of high…