afinalunity

Tools for extracting files from A Final Unity, the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation game by Spectrum Holobyte.

Information on the different files in A Final Unity is documented in FILES.md, and ASTRO.md contains information specifically on the astrogation files.

The AFU directory contains the python module, and the various afu_*.py files are applications which perform various tasks:

• afu_to_png - Exports .png images
• afu_to_json - Exports information as .json files
• afu_to_wav - Converts audio files to .wav
• afu_astro - Combines astro.db with either a SAVEGAME file or ast_stat.dat to produce a .json with additional information about the game space
• afu_scan_all - Edits a SAVEGAME file to make all star systems visible and scanned
• afu_subtitles - Outputs a file containing subtitles for what is said in voice audio files

More details on each of those applications is provided below.

Image Files

The afu_to_png.py application converts .spr and .spt sprites, .rm and .scr backgrounds, .fon fonts, and .mrg menus to PNG. However, not all of those files are currently supported. It will also export images from computer.db.

The application requires the Pillow module to be installed.

If the standard palette file standard.pal is not in the same directory as the image file being converted, its location must be provided using the --palette argument. For example:

python3 afu_to_png.py transp.rm --palette other/directory/standard.pal

which will output the transporter room scene as transp.rm.png.

To convert a sprite or font file you must also provide a .rm or .scr background image upon which they would be drawn, using the --background argument. For example:

python3 afu_to_png.py brdgpica.spr --background bridge.rm

will output 31 pngs representing the frames making up the Picard bridge sprite. Another example:

python3 afu_to_png.py font2.fon --background bridge.rm

will output a png for each character in font number 2.

Finally, you can export all the images within computer.db, provided that compupnl.ast is in the same directory or provided via the --background argument. For example:

python3 afu_to_png.py computer.db

will output a png for all 49 images used to illustrate various computer entries.

Audio Files

The .rac .vac and .mac files contain audio. To convert these into .wav files you will first require sox to be installed and in PATH. Then run afu_to_wav.py with the path to the audio file as the first and only argument. For example:

python3 afu_to_wav.py redalert.mac

will output readalert.wav.

Finding Voice Files

There are a lot of .vac voice files, and finding the one you want can be time consuming. The subtitles for what the voice says are mostly contained within the .bst object and world files, and there's a utility to output them all to a file.

Run afu_subtitles.py with the path to a directory containing all the .vac and .bst files as the first argument.

python3 afu_subtitles.py path/to/bst_and_vac

It will output subtitles.json, which maps .vac filenames to subtitles of what the voice says.

It's not perfect yet, but the vast majority are correct.

Database Files

The .db files are databases. Specifically, computer.db contains the data available on the operations panel, while astro.db and astromap.db contain data on the sectors, systems, stations, etc.

To convert these into .json files, run afu_to_json.py with the path to the database file as the first and only argument. For example:

python3 afu_to_json.py astro.db

will output astro.db.json.

SAVEGAME Files

The SAVEGAME files are found in the install directory. SAVEGAME.0 is the default save for starting the game. Those numbered 1-9 are the slots you can save progress in. There is very early support for SAVEGAME files in afu_to_json.py.

For example:

python3 afu_to_json.py SAVEGAME.6

will output SAVEGAME.6.json.

It will export some information, but what's there isn't very complete or necessarily correct.

Investigating Star Systems

Many of the star systems are invisible in astrogation or are unscanned until the Enterprise travels to those systems, so you can't see what planets/moons they contain without doing a lot of travelling! The afu_scan_all.py application will edit a SAVEGAME file so that all systems are visible and scanned.

For example:

python3 afu_scan_all.py SAVEGAME/SAVEGAME.5

will make all systems in SAVEGAME.5 available to the player next time it's loaded.

Astrogation

The primary information about the in-game space is stored in astro.db, but that doesn't contain everything you might want to know. Some information is stored as state in a SAVEGAME file, or ast_stat.dat if you want the state at the start of the game. The rest of the information is generated at run-time.

The afu_astro.py application will allow you to export all of this information to one .json file. You need to provide it the path to astro.db along with either a SAVEGAME file or ast_stat.dat.

For example:

python3 afu_astro.py astro.db SAVEGAME/SAVEGAME.3

or:

python3 afu_astro.py astro.db ast_stat.dat

The resulting astro.json file is relatively large. So you can also filter it down by specifying the name of what you'd like to export:

python3 afu_astro.py astro.db ast_stat.dat --name "Steger Delta"

Thanks

A lot of information required for writing this came from the work of fuzzie.