VCOMP (Blaster Master)

Latest revision as of 16:53, 9 May 2025

VCOMP (long name: Blaster Master VOC Compiler) is a DOS utility that converts a VOC or WAV audio file to a self-playing EXE file.

VCOMP is a component of versions 4.1-4.2 of Blaster Master, a toolkit for working with VOC files. Blaster Master and VCOMP were developed by Gary Maddox.

[edit] Format details

The executable part of a compiled file is pre-compressed with LZEXE. A copy of the original audio file appears in the overlay segment (refer to MS-DOS_EXE#Special file positions).

[edit] Identification

The first 6000+ bytes of a generated file are probably always the same, for a given version. All the distinctive bytes are compressed, but there are probably only two versions, so they could be identified in any number of inelegant ways.

Note that the signature-like bytes at offset 28, 7d 26 5c 7c, are not specific to VCOMP format. They appear in other Blaster Master files, for example.

[edit] Software

• bmstr41.zip - Blaster Master v4.1, with VCOMP v1.0
• BMSTR42.ZIP - Blaster Master v4.2, with VCOMP v1.1
• bmstr45.zip - For research purposes: Fake "Blaster Master v4.5", with fake "VCOMP v1.2" (which does not seem to produce working EXE files). Refer to WHATS.NEW from v4.6.
• BMSTR46.ZIP - Blaster Master v4.6. (For reference; does not include VCOMP.)

[edit] Sample files

• CMP_VOIC.ZIP → COMPUTER.EXE
• dexvert samples — audio/vcomp