X-Men Mutant Academy 2 .WAD [PS1]

Extraction and unpacking of game archives and compression, encryption, obfuscation, decoding of unknown files
tattersmatters
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2021 9:56 pm

X-Men Mutant Academy 2 .WAD [PS1]

Post by tattersmatters »

Hello! I'm trying to unpack a .WAD file from X-Men Mutant Academy 2 for the Playstation 1. This format is likely to be simple, given that a later game by the same developer (Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks by Midway Studios) has been figured out in the threads below. The script from those threads (mksm_ewdf.bsm) does unpack a bunch of files from this WAD (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GvhiJjMhQrWkgp6rjugJ5Qgs10OVq25S/view?usp=sharing), but I don't think they're what I was expecting, as there were only 607 files - some tools were able to find many more than that of just TIMs (sample shot of jPSXdec, which found over 2000 images). But I know there must be more stuff in there, as the WAD is 52ish megs, and those would only account for around 8 to 10 of those, if my math is anywhere near accurate.
Image

Any guidance would be appreciated! I'm hoping that, given a later format by the same dev was successfully figured out, this won't be very difficult. But given I've never done anything like this, I figured I'd at least start a thread so either someone can tell me it's super easy, or I can document my progress and findings for posterity. Thanks in advance!

MKSM threads:
viewtopic.php?t=8851
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8863
BloodRaynare
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2017 7:23 am

Re: X-Men Mutant Academy 2 .WAD [PS1]

Post by BloodRaynare »

I tried to make similar script, and the result are the same, only 607 files indeed. And I even checked sizes of the all unpacked files, and it was close to the original packed WAD file (51.4 MB).
tattersmatters
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2021 9:56 pm

Re: X-Men Mutant Academy 2 .WAD [PS1]

Post by tattersmatters »

BloodRaynare wrote:I tried to make similar script, and the result are the same, only 607 files indeed. And I even checked sizes of the all unpacked files, and it was close to the original packed WAD file (51.4 MB).

Interesting! I wonder what the missing link is here - I know for certain there are more than 607 pieces of data, but perhaps they're not stored individually like that? I think my next step is to dig into one of the utilities that found images/models/etc and see how they're operating.

Update: I just tried to open one of the unpacked files in jPSXdec, and sure enough, there are images in there. Looks like they're just grouped into the various .DATs? Which is exciting news! So it seems like it is being correctly unpacked after all, and my assumptions were wrong.