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Extract files from Wise installers without executing them.
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CYBERDEV cea1e2501b Patch version so packagers can make use of CMake
2025-02-15 21:52:29 +01:00
imhex Found new unknown OPs 0x19 and 0x1A 2024-10-31 00:57:45 +01:00
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README.md

Reverse Engineering Wise

Extract files from Wise installers without executing them.

The aim of this project is to extract assets from old game installers made with Wise installer without executing the PE/NE file (.exe), so they can be used with free software implementations of the game engine.

==============================================================
              Welcome to REWise version 0.3.0-debug
==============================================================

 Usage: rewise OPERATION [OPTIONS] INPUT_FILE

  OPERATIONS
   -x --extract      OUTPUT_PATH  Extract files.
   -r --raw          OUTPUT_PATH  Extract all files in the overlay data. Filename format will be 'EXTRACTED_%09u'.
   -l --list                      List files.
   -V --verify                    Run extract without actually outputting files, crc32s will be checked.
   -0 --raw-verify                Run raw extract without actually outputting files, crc32s will be checked.
   -z --script-debug              Print parsed WiseScript.bin
   -v --version                   Print version and exit.
   -h --help                      Display this HELP.

  OPTIONS (--list)
   -e --extended                  Also print languages and components.

  OPTIONS (--extract, --list, --verify)
   -f --filter       FILTER       Filter files based on their filepath. Multiple of these filters may be set. '*' will match anything, use '\*' to escape.
   -F --file-filter  FILTER_FILE  Path to a file that contains one filter string per line.
   -c --components   NAME         Filter files by components name. Note that default files are always included.
   -g --language     INDEX        Filter files by language index. Note that default files are always included.

  OPTIONS (any)
   -p --preserve                  Don't delete WiseScript.bin from TMP_PATH.
   -t --tmp-path     TMP_PATH     Set temporary path, default: /tmp/
   -d --debug                     Print debug info.
   -s --silent                    Be silent, don't print anything.
   -n --no-extract                Don't extract anything. Use WiseScript.bin at the given TMP_PATH, it won't delete it.

  NOTES
    - Path to directory OUTPUT_PATH and TMP_PATH should exist and be writable.
    - All files REWise does output will be overwritten when they exist!

Index

Acknowledgement

The WiseUnpacker project kick started this project by giving insight on how to inflate files from Wise installers. So a lot of thanks to mnadareski!

REWise is different in that it tries to understand and proper parse the WiseScript.bin, not everything is understood yet but it looks like most of that is relevant is.

Technical

NOTE: The PE build date will not be the same as the installer creation date (or release date) since the overlay-data is just appended to a existing Wise PE32 stub on creation of the installer. The supported installer release dates seen so far are between 1999 and 2003. While the PE build dates are between 1998 and 2001. NE files do not contain a build date.

A Wise installer is a PE or NE executable with extra data appended to the end of it (overlay-data at the overlay-offset). The overlay-data contains a Wise specific header. After the Wise header there is raw DEFLATEd data without file-headers, after each DEFLATEd data entry there is a CRC32 for the inflated data. The DEFLATEd data + CRC32 continues until EOF. Unless the installer is created with the zip support option, then before each DEFLATE data there is a zip local file header, and there is no CRC32 after the DEFLATE data since it is in the zip local file header.

The first inflated file is a .dib file we call WiseColors.dib, containing colors used by the installer, it is no use for us so we skip it.

The second inflated file is a binary file that has all sorts of data relevant for the installation (including custom file headers). Within REWise this file is named WiseScript.bin. Most time was spend on reverse engineering different WiseScript.bin files with a hex-editor (ImHex) so a WiseScript.bin can be parsed without as much of guessing as possible. One discovered struct that is the most relevant for extracting files that would be installed by the installer is (it contains file names, metadata, CRC32 and offset to deflatedata):

/* 0x00 WiseScriptFileHeader */
typedef struct {
  unsigned char unknown_2[2];   // seen: 0x8000, 0x8100, 0x0000, 0x9800 0xA100
  uint32_t deflateStart;
  uint32_t deflateEnd;
  uint16_t date;
  uint16_t time;
  uint32_t inflatedSize;
  unsigned char unknown_20[20]; // 20 * \0?
  uint32_t crc32;               // do not check when it is 0
  char * destFile;              // \0 terminated string
  char * fileText[langCount];   // \0 terminated string(s)
  unsigned char terminator;     // always \0? terminator?
} WiseScriptFileHeader;

On how REWise handles a WiseScript.bin file: SEE src/wisescript.h and src/wisescript.c.

PE build dates

NOTE: Stubs are patched on creation of the installer so we cannot do a sum of compiled installers and compare below. VsVersionInfo and StringFileInfo are patched and a value in a section somewhere up is patched to contain the overlay offset value.

VERSION BUILD DATE-TIME OVERLAY OFFSET SHA256
? 1998-10-02 22:36:51 0x3800 ?
? 1998-10-23 23:23:16 0x3800 ?
7.01 1998-11-09 21:17:09 0x3800 6a6266fc674bc61852d3e5dc2b3608de9205f518baf718880b81aa1a6179573f
? 1998-12-03 23:11:32 0x3800 / 0x3E00 ?
? 1999-02-05 23:07:52 0x3A00 ?
? 1999-04-05 18:07:26 0x3A00 ?
? 1999-04-08 22:24:47 .rsrc? ?
? 1999-05-21 22:48:48 0x3A00 / 0x5E00 ?
? 1999-08-17 17:25:48 0x3A00 / 0x5200 ?
8.11.0.505 2000-04-25 16:37:12 0x3A00 / 0x3C00 / 0x5200 23da437bde09458cd512644a139c6ce8d180187a9cc6d32e7bfef077ed99f580
8.12.0.508 2000-04-25 16:37:12 0x3A00 / 0x3C00 / 0x5200 23da437bde09458cd512644a139c6ce8d180187a9cc6d32e7bfef077ed99f580
8.14.0.512 2000-04-25 16:37:12 0x3A00 / 0x3C00 / 0x5200 23da437bde09458cd512644a139c6ce8d180187a9cc6d32e7bfef077ed99f580
? 2001-08-13 19:13:38 0x3A00 / 0x3C00 ?
9.01.202.0 2001-10-25 21:47:11 0x3A00 / 0x3C00 / 0x9C00 96a173c62f632140e9d14a7eee0d42f8ef62bee4b66ed317f2077bdfaa32376a
9.02.204.0 2001-10-25 21:47:11 0x3A00 / 0x3C00 / 0x9C00 96a173c62f632140e9d14a7eee0d42f8ef62bee4b66ed317f2077bdfaa32376a
??? 2031-05-20 22:54:01 0x4C00 ?

State

  • PE and NE support.
  • Installers build with zip support.
  • Multilingual installer support.
  • Multi-file/disc installers.
  • Patch support.

Known working retail installers

PE BUILD FILENAME NAME
17-08-1999 17:25:48 counter-strike.exe Half-Life Counter-Strike (2000)
17-08-1999 17:25:48 SETUP.EXE SWAT 3: Elite Edition (2000)
17-08-1999 17:25:48 setup.EXE Wild Wheels (2002) (aka Buzzing Cars)
25-04-2000 16:37:12 SETUP.EXE Half-Life Game Of The Year Edition (1999)
25-04-2000 16:37:12 Setup.exe Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001)

Shareware

A large collection of Wise installers is used to test REWise, see tests/extended/results/README.md for the current stats. A list of all the installer sources can be found here.

Known issues

  • The ScriptDeflateOffset isn't correct on some installers, there are still some unknowns on how to calculate this proper.

  • WiseScript OP 0x18 is not understood.

  • The code used to get the language/comp per file still has unknowns, therefore not all installers will work, but most do.

  • Installers where the inflated file size is larger then advertised, these will not work because REWise is strict about the advertised inflate size.

  • Installers that have weird extra bytes in the WiseScriptHeader.

  • Multi file/disc installers are current not supported.

  • To determine what Wise package/version was used other then the PE build date. However it looks like there is none, but: On Wikipedia is a list of different Wise installer releases, comparing that list to the tested installers (games) their PE build date it suggests that the targeted Wise installer versions are either one of these:

    • WISE Installation System version 7 (1998) (InstallMaker)
    • WISE Installation System version 7 (1998) (InstallMaster)
    • WISE Installation System version 8 (1999) (InstallBuilder)
    • WISE Installation System version 8 (1999) (InstallMaker)
    • WISE Installation System version 8 (1999) (InstallMaster)
    • WISE Installation System version 9 (2001)

Multi-disc installers

All multi-disc installers are current NOT supported.

A workaround is to append the .W02, .W03, etc.. to the setup.exe to make it work with REWise. Example: cat setup.exe setup.W02 setup.W03 > new_setup.exe

PE BUILD FILENAME NAME
25-04-2000 16:37:12 setup.exe Hitman Contracts (2004)
25-10-2001 21:47:11 Gothic2-Setup.exe Gothic II (2003)

GOTHIC II

Would be nice to support for the use with REGoth-bs or OpenGothic.

Other things that might be a problem

  • REWise is only tested on Little Endian systems.
  • Wise installers where the PE was build before 1998 or after 2001, or installers that where created/released before 1999 or after 2004.

Dependencies

NAME LICENSE URL
zlib Zlib https://www.zlib.net/

Many thanks to

Other projects

Resources on Wise