VCOMP (Blaster Master)

File Format
Name	VCOMP (Blaster Master)
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Audio and Music VCOMP (Blaster Master)
Released	1991

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.

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).

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.

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.)

Sample files

• CMP_VOIC.ZIP → COMPUTER.EXE