Microsoft Comic Chat - Revision history

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2024-07-07T16:29:22Z

‎Identification

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2024-05-13T01:55:23Z

‎Software

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2024-05-03T16:02:37Z

‎Sample Files

Jsummers at 15:47, 3 May 2024

2024-05-03T15:47:09Z

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2021-08-02T22:33:45Z

‎Sample Files

Effect2: Created page with "{{FormatInfo |formattype=electronic |subcat=Graphics |extensions={{ext|avb}}, {{ext|bgb}} |released=1996 }} '''Microsoft Comic Chat''' was an IRC chat client that tried to re..."

2020-05-13T12:43:42Z

Created page with "{{FormatInfo |formattype=electronic |subcat=Graphics |extensions={{ext|avb}}, {{ext|bgb}} |released=1996 }} '''Microsoft Comic Chat''' was an IRC chat client that tried to re..."

New page

{{FormatInfo
|formattype=electronic
|subcat=Graphics
|extensions={{ext|avb}}, {{ext|bgb}}
|released=1996
}}

'''Microsoft Comic Chat''' was an IRC chat client that tried to represent a chat in the style of a comic book, with participants as graphical characters and their messages displayed in speech bubbles. It could use custom background and character graphics, given the extensions ".bgb" and ".avb", respectively. Characters and backgrounds were initially greyscale, but version 2.1 allowed the inclusion of color.<ref>https://www.mermeliz.com/cchars.htm#mschat21</ref> It was conceived, and its development led, by David Kurlander.<ref>https://kurlander.net/DJ/Projects/ComicChat/resources.html</ref> Comic Chat was released 1996 and last updated in 1999.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Microsoft Comic Chat]]</ref>

== Software ==
* Microsoft Comic Chat itself
* [https://archive.org/details/AVBuster AVBuster], [[C++]] program to extract images
** [https://pastebin.com/NdHLHRPJ Annotated source]
* [https://www.mermeliz.com/programs.htm Page with creation programs]

== Sample Files ==
* [https://www.mermeliz.com/cchars.htm Directory of pages with characters]
* [http://www.mermeliz.com/ccbacks.htm Directory of pages with backgrounds]

== Links ==
* [https://kurlander.net/DJ/Projects/ComicChat/resources.html David Kurlander's Comic Chat Resources]
** [https://kurlander.net/DJ/Projects/ComicChat/GettingStarted.html Comic Chat - How to Get Started]
* [https://mermeliz.com/ Mermaid Elizabeth's Microsoft Comic Chat Resources Link Page & Support] (Somehow still being updated in 2020)
** [https://www.mermeliz.com/phoenix-online/helpsite/cchelp.htm Phoenix Comic Chat Help]
* [http://www.angelfire.com/comics/botender/how2.html Microsoft Comic Chat How2]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090706192510/http://sniffles.ca/ Sniffles' Comic Chat Place]
* [[Wikipedia:Microsoft Comic Chat]]

== References ==
<references />

[[Category:Microsoft]]

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 == Identification ==
-AVB v2.1: Files begin with (hex) byte pattern {{magic|81 00 ?? 00 01 00}}. The only known values for the "??" byte are <code>01</code> and <code>02</code>. The next two bytes (offset 6) might always be {{magic|01 00}}, though this is not a signature -- it's a tag for the "Name" chunk that appears first in the file.
+AVB v2.1: Files begin with (hex) byte pattern {{magic|81 00 ?? 00 01 00}}, where the "??" byte is <code>01</code> or <code>02</code>. The next two bytes (offset 6) might always be {{magic|01 00}}, though this is not a signature -- it's a tag for the "Name" chunk that (always?) appears first in the file.
-AVB v2.5: Files begin with {{magic|81 81 ?? 00 02 00}}. The only known values for the "??" byte are <code>01</code> and <code>02</code>.
+AVB v2.5: Files begin with {{magic|81 81 ?? 00 02 00}}, where the "??" byte is <code>01</code> or <code>02</code>.
-BGB v2.5: Files begin with {{magic|81 81 03 00 02 00}}.
+BGB v2.5: Files begin with {{magic|81 81 03 00 02 00}}. The byte at offset 7 (the high byte of the first tag ID) might always be <code>01</code>.
 All files normally end with bytes {{magic|07 00}}.

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:47, 3 May 2024
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	'''Microsoft Comic Chat''' was an IRC chat client that tried to represent a chat in the style of a comic book, with participants as graphical characters and their messages displayed in speech bubbles. It could use custom background and character graphics, given the extensions ".bgb" and ".avb", respectively. Characters and backgrounds were initially greyscale, but version 2.1 allowed the inclusion of color.<ref>https://www.mermeliz.com/cchars.htm#mschat21</ref> It was conceived, and its development led, by David Kurlander.<ref>https://kurlander.net/DJ/Projects/ComicChat/resources.html</ref> Comic Chat was released 1996 and last updated in 1999.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Microsoft Comic Chat]]</ref>		'''Microsoft Comic Chat''' was an IRC chat client that tried to represent a chat in the style of a comic book, with participants as graphical characters and their messages displayed in speech bubbles. It could use custom background and character graphics, given the extensions ".bgb" and ".avb", respectively. Characters and backgrounds were initially greyscale, but version 2.1 allowed the inclusion of color.<ref>https://www.mermeliz.com/cchars.htm#mschat21</ref> It was conceived, and its development led, by David Kurlander.<ref>https://kurlander.net/DJ/Projects/ComicChat/resources.html</ref> Comic Chat was released 1996 and last updated in 1999.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Microsoft Comic Chat]]</ref>
		+
		+	== Format details ==
		+	(Information here is unofficial.)
		+
		+	A file consists of a 6-byte header, followed by a sequence of tagged "chunks", followed by a data section sandwiched between tags <code>06 00</code> and <code>07 00</code>.
		+
		+	There seem to be two major versions of the format:
		+	* The format used by Comic Chat v1.0-2.1. The format version number is 1, but we'll call it "v2.1" format.
		+	* The format used by Comic Chat v2.5. The format version number is 2, but we'll call it "v2.5" format.
		+
		+	The format version number is at offset 4-5.
		+
		+	It's not clear what the field at offset 2-3 is for. It could be something like a minor version, or file type, or to distinguish official and custom characters.
		+
		+	V2.1 files contain images in [[BMP]] format, though not necessarily interpreted in the standard way.
		+
		+	In v2.5 files, the image data is compressed with [[zlib]].
		+
		+	== Identification ==
		+	AVB v2.1: Files begin with (hex) byte pattern {{magic\|81 00 ?? 00 01 00}}. The only known values for the "??" byte are <code>01</code> and <code>02</code>. The next two bytes (offset 6) might always be {{magic\|01 00}}, though this is not a signature -- it's a tag for the "Name" chunk that appears first in the file.
		+
		+	AVB v2.5: Files begin with {{magic\|81 81 ?? 00 02 00}}. The only known values for the "??" byte are <code>01</code> and <code>02</code>.
		+
		+	BGB v2.5: Files begin with {{magic\|81 81 03 00 02 00}}.
		+
		+	All files normally end with bytes {{magic\|07 00}}.

	== Software ==		== Software ==

@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 ** [https://pastebin.com/NdHLHRPJ Annotated source]
 * [https://www.mermeliz.com/programs.htm Page with creation programs]
 == Sample Files ==

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 == Sample Files ==
-* [https://www.mermeliz.com/cchars.htm Directory of pages with characters]
+Various:
-* [http://www.mermeliz.com/ccbacks.htm Directory of pages with backgrounds]
 * {{DexvertSamples|other/microsoftChatCharacter}}
 == Links ==