The "PacificFront"-Mod for CC2 was created by Taki. In February 2001 I made a small conversion of his "PacificFront"-Mod for CC2 to work on the Mac. Taki gave me the permission to present this conversion on my homepage to the entire Mac-community. It is possible to convert Mizuchi's sound file to Mac-format using my tool myMookX (such a Mac-sound file is posted at CCS.net inside the full package there). I created a new Terrain-file, a Mac-specific UI-file and a selfpatch-utility for the Mac-version of ABTF (including soldier color patching for the Japanese troops). The Battlemaker-files by Taki to use the mod correctly are offline since March 2003 at his site. Many suitable maps for the "PacificFront"-Mod for CC2 can be found on Hikehara's site, others are posted here with permission by the original map authors Manoi, Luer, NL_Atilla and Ron Gretz (maker of the CC3-PF-Mod). In February 2002 I began continuing the CC2-Betio map series for the PacificFront-Mod. Up today 4 Betio & 5 Guadalcanal maps are available. Since July 2003 we can have the PacificFront-sound file on the Mac, too. Reposting of the PacificFront-sound file for PC version in July 2004.

PacificFront-Mod for CC2

Due to the large size of the stuffed archives I have divided the Mac-version of the Mod into three parts:

Taki's Mod
(the slightly modified files from Taki, suitable for Mac and PC, version 2.4 of April 8th, 2001. Also modified Gadget#-files version 2.42: corrected Japanese VL-signs for MMmap and OVmap, 10 new Division badges for operation play; actual version of Jan. 11th, 2003)
PacificFront-Icon

(the Mac-specials: self-patching program for ABTF and a new "UI"-file, updated version of July 23rd, 2008, with soldier color patch for Mac according to Nembo's suggestions (soldier color patching tool for PCs is posted at CCS.net))

modified Terrain-file
(modified "Terrain" file: palm trees and corrected VL-flags, for Mac & PC; new edition April 8th, 2001 with improved trees)
PacificFront-Icon
CC2PacificFront sound file (by Masahiko Mizuchi) can be downloaded now here and can be converted to Mac-format using my tool myMookX. (for PC, version 1 of Sept. 1999)

This program runs under MacOS 8.5 - 9.2.2 / MacOS X (Carbon, PPC).

PacificFront-Icon
(Riccardo's further modifications to the PF-Mod posted here April 3rd, 2001 with Riccardo's permission: changed weapons, changed teams, changed BASE files)
My Map MosquitoBridge311
(my first map suitable for Mac & PC and for PacificFront and others as well, corrected version 3 (again corrected file Map311) out since July 18th, 2002.
Hikehara's Map310 (Betio1) in new slot 110 (Hikehara's map 310fromCC3 (15x10) is the converted CC3-map "Betio 1" by Emmanuel "Manoi" Bombaert", posted with their permission.)
my Map112 (Betio2) (the map Betio Western Fuel Dump (18x11) is the converted CC3-map "Betio 2" by Emmanuel "Manoi" Bombaert, posted with his permission)
Hikehara's Map111 (Betio3) (Hikehara's map 111fromCC3 (15x9) is the converted CC3-map "Betio 3" by Emmanuel "Manoi" Bombaert, posted with his permission.)
my Map114 (BetioTail) (my complete new map (19x12) is based upon a historical map of the eastern part of Betio Island (Tarawa Atoll), situation of Nov. 23rd, 1943)
Hikehara's Map132 (Okinawa1)
(Hikehara's map 132fromCC3 (14x10) is the converted CC3-map "Okinawa 1" by Han "NL_Atilla" Bos, posted with his permission.)
Hikehara's Map230 (Burma2)
(Hikehara's map 230fromCC3 (14x10) is the converted CC3-map "Burma 2" by Emmanuel "Manoi" Bombaert, posted with his permission.)
Hikehara's Map311 (Tinian4) in new slot 231
(Hikehara's map 311fromCC3 (13x11) is the converted CC3-map "Tinian 4" by Florian, posted with permission by Hikehara and Ron Gretz)
Hikehara's Map312 (Angaur2 / Hospital)

Hikehara's map 312fromCC3 (16x10) is the converted CC3-map "Angaur 2 / Hospital" by Luer, posted with permission by Luer, Hikehara and Ron Gretz. This map is needed by my Guadalcanal operation pack. Actual version 2 of July 28th, 2002.

Chris Gaskin's map

Hikehara's map 320fromCC3 (14x10) is the converted CC3-map "Parry1" by Chris Gaskin, posted with permission by Hikehara and Ron Gretz. Actual version of May 25th, 2003.

the map Canal1 = Red Beach LZ (Guadalcanal, Aug. 7th, 1942) (16x12, with Bridg100 file) is my conversion of the CC3-map "Guadal1" by NL_Oxcart. Actual shrinked version 2 of Jan. 11th, 2003.

the map Canal5 = Llu creek (Guadalcanal, Aug. 7th, 1942) (14x9, with Bridg101 file) is my conversion of the CC3-map "Canal5" by GI_Jonz. Actual version 2 of Jan. 11th, 2003.

You must go directly to the site for download, sorry.

Bloody Ridge map by Ron Gretz for slot 202 the map Canal3 = Bloody Ridge (Guadalcanal 1942) (19x14) is my conversion of the CC3-map "Canal 3" by Ron Gretz, posted with his permission. Actual version 2 of March 1st, 2003.
my Guadalcanal map for slot 204 a complete new map by me: the Japanese Airstrip south of Lunga Point (Guadalcanal), August 8th, 1942 (14x10). Actual version 2 of March 1st, 2003.
my Guadalcanal map for slot 203 a complete new map by me: the Henderson Field south of Lunga Point (Guadalcanal), August 20th, 1942 or later (14x12). Actual version 2 of March 1st, 2003.
PacificFront-Icon
my new operation package for the Guadalcanal maps, still beta (Betio instead of Tulagi) but it links the maps above together to 2 operations. You will need the original Map202, too. New files Map202, Map202.los and Roof202 included to have this map more PF-stylish. Actual version of march 1st, 2003.
  "Giretu", "Osaka Castle", the Tinian package and more CC2-PF-maps from Hikehara: see his site (offline at Taki)  
  CC2-PF-Battlemaker-files from Taki no longer available since March 2004.  
 
 
 

Many thanks to Taki for his PacificFront-Mod, to Hikehara for his maps for PF-CC2, to Riccardo for his further suggestions, to Cpl Filth for making sprite-editing possible, to Chris Ellens for his great CCedit for Mac and Tin Tin for his Texture Maker v2. Also a lot of thanks to all the CC3-PacificFront-MapMakers & Ron Gretz for their work on the CC3-PacificFront project: their site is a good source for PF-maps and other PF-stuff.

The things I did are discribed as follows:

Adopting the Pacific-Mod from Taki to run on the Mac

What it is
CC2 (also abreviated ABTF, CC2-ABTF) was the second game of the CC-series of games created by Atomic and presented by Microsoft to the Mac-community. It was also the last game of this series for the MacOS. The series was then continued by SSI for PC´s only (up to day CC3, CC4, CC5, CCM, RtB, CoI, CCMT), was later on aquired by UbiSoft and is now owned by Destineer Studios. The game CC2 was released in 1997 on a hybrid-CD, running under Windows and the MacOS as well.

Using of graphical resources in CC2
In the PC-version of CC2 the background-graphics (intro-picture, background-pictures for the menus, maps ...) are stored in the file "intrface.cc2". In the Mac-version of CC2 this pictures are stored in PICT-resources in the resource-fork of the file "UI" (be carefull: this file has no data-fork) and can be viewed/manipulated using Apple´s "ResEdit 2.1.3" (can be found at: www.apple.com). In the Mac-version the background-pictures have all the size 800 x 600 pixels and the maps the size 314 x 491 pixels (with the resulting filesize of 10.2 MB). The numbers and the names of these PICT-resources in the file "UI" are as follow:

- PICT-Resource-ID 1000 "splash" --> "Intro-Picture" (800 x 600 pixels)
- PICT-Resource-ID 1001 "Command" --> "Command Menu Screen"
- PICT-Resource-ID 1002 "Debriefing" --> "Debriefing Menu Screen"
- PICT-Resource-ID 1003 "net" --> "Multiplayer Connection Menu Screen"
- PICT-Resource-ID 1004 "Details" --> "Debriefing Details Screen"
- PICT-Resource-ID 1005 "Video" --> "Background for presenting the videoclips"
- PICT-Resource-ID 1006 "Requisition" --> "Requisition Menu Screen"
- PICT-Resource-ID 1007 "Briefing" --> "Briefing Menu Screen"
- PICT-Resource-ID 1008 "Supply" --> "Supply Menu Screen"
- PICT-Resource-ID 1009 "Main" --> "Battlemaker Main Menu Screen"
- PICT-Resource-ID 1010 "Maps" --> "Battlemaker select by Map Screen"
- PICT-Resource-ID 1011 "Battles" --> "Battlemaker select by battle Screen"
- PICT-Resource-ID 1012 "Forces" --> "Battlemaker force edit Screen"
- PICT-Resource-ID 1013 "over" --> "Overview Map Netherland´s East" (314 x 491 pixels)
- PICT-Resource-ID 1014 "over arn" --> "Map Arnhem Sector" (314 x 491 pixels)
- PICT-Resource-ID 1015 "over nij" --> "Map Nijmegen Sector" (314 x 491 pixels)
- PICT-Resource-ID 1016 "over ein" --> "Map Eindhoven Sector" (314 x 491 pixels)
- PICT-Resource-ID 1017 "about" --> "Copyright Screen with logos of Atomic & Microsoft"

All this pictures mentioned above are stored in "intrface.cc2" and "UI". Under Windows, the game takes the pictures only from the file "intrface.cc2", but under MacOS it takes them only from the file "UI", although both files resides on the CD and are accessible under both operation systems.

How to replace PICT-resources in the file "UI" on the Mac
You have to take a suitable graphic program, create a new file with filesize of 800 x 600 pixels at 16-bit color depth (because ABTF on the Mac is not able to handle millions of colours). Design now what ever you like in this new file. Save the new file as a resource, that means, place it into a resource-fork of a new file as a PICT-resource! (File/Save as .../ with Format: "PICT in Resource" and Option: Extras: Add Resource "ON"). Now open the resource-fork of this new file using Apple's "ResEdit 2.1.3" program (http://www.apple.com), select the resource by clicking on the PICT-icon, select your new created picture by double-clicking the now presented preview and you will see the entire picture in 100%-scale. Use the "Copy"-command from the menu. Then open the file "UI" with "ResEdit". Select the PICT-resources by clicking on the PICT-icon and select the picture you wish to replace by double-clicking it from the now appearing preview of all PICT-respurces in "UI". Use the "Paste"-command of the menu and the new picture will be now in the file "UI" as a resource. Use the "Save"-command from the menu and you will be able to continue with other pictures the same way. If you will not use the "Save"-command, you will probably run into memory troubles.
In some cases you will be able to "Copy" and "Paste" from any graphic program into resources opened by "ResEdit". But it's not guarenteed. Be sure to use 16-bit graphics and to fit the correct size of the PICT-resource you are going to change.

Using of textual resources in CC2
Under Windows the game takes its necessary textual resources (strings like "The Allies have won" ...) from the file "cc2rsrc.dll" (size 102 KB). Under MacOS this text strings reside in the resource-fork of the main program "A Bridge Too Far" itself. They are stored in one "stri"-resource, not editable with regular string-resource temples of ResEdit, but only with the universal hex-template. Due to the lack of a separate textual resource file under the MacOS-version of CC2, modifications have to be done directly in the resource-fork of the Mac-version of the main program, a "mission impossible" for Windows-user (because they have no access to resource-forks of MacOS-files). The dialog boxes and icons are stored in the Mac-version in the DITL- and Icon-resources of the main program, which can be easily changed using ResEdit.

Modify the file "UI" for the Pacific-Mod
Replace the PICT-Resource-ID 1000 "splash" with the picture stored in "Intro_Picture_PacificFront.jpg" (800 x 600 pixels) (see above). It is the screenshot of the intro picture of the PC-version of the Pacific-Mod provided by Taki. Or you can take the new build-up file "UI" from the second part "CC2PacificFrontForMac-Part2.sit".

Where to place the file...
The modified "UI"-file must replace the original file on a mounted volume-image of the original CD. Move it into the folder "Close Combat:Data:Graphics" (see below).

Necessary modifications to other files
I have removed the "LF"-chars from all text-based files which can be found in the DATA-folder. To patch the resources of the main program "A Bridge Too Far" on your harddisk you can use the little patching-utility (a genuine Mac-program) inside the second part of the package.

Where to place the other files ...
The modified files provided by Taki must replace the files on a mounted volume-image of the original CD. Place them in the "DATA"-folder in the root-directory: place the files of the folder "DATA:BASE" in the folder "DATA:DATA:BASE". Place the files of the folder "GRAPHICS" and the new file "Terrain" (from the third package "CC2PacificFrontForMac-Part3.zip") in the folder "DATA:GRAPHICS" (see below).

How to play the Pacific-Mod
To use the Pacific-Mod it is recommended to store the battlemaker scenarios for Pacific Front from Taki's homepage (at http://www3.plala.or.jp/takihome/ ) in the "Games:Battles" folder on your harddisk.

How to install and use Mods for CC2 under MacOS
1. Take your original CD.
2. Place it your CD-ROM-drive.
3. Install the program on your harddisk (small install).
4. To use Mods it is not necessary to change the installed files.
5. Replace the main program "A Bridge Too Far" with the updated version found on the web site of Microsoft (version 2.0b).
6. Create a disk image file from the original CD using "Disk Copy" or something else. Be sure not to make it read only. The volume's name must remain "Close Combat".
7. Place the Mod-Files at the correct places on this image as described in the ReadMe´s.
8. Strip all "LF"-chars from the "TXT"-files of the Mod, if they are coming from PC´s.
9. Remove the original CD from your CD-ROM-drive.
10. Leave the disk image mounted (activated).
11. Start the main program "A Bridge Too Far" from the harddisk.
12. If the program asks for movie-files (xxxxxxx.mpg not found), press the "abort"-button and click the mouse or double-click it. Even if the program asks for the CD in the SCSI-drive press the "abort"-button. Do not make a search, it will fail!
13. The program now will start, showing the new maps (or battles, campaigns), when you scroll down through the menu. Not replaced old maps will be also shown.
14. Select in the "Preferences"-option "Videos off", and you will be no longer asked for the CD or movies, but now the intro-picture will be displayed starting the game next time.
15. After finishing the game, you have to delete the disk image, DO NOT MAKE ILLEGAL COPIES OF THE SOFTWARE.

Changes in the file "Terrain"
Many thanks to CPL FILTH for his great work. Without his program "SprTool.exe" the easy handling of sprite files of CC2 is nearly impossible and the following work could never be done by myself. Please look at his homepage for further development on CC2-CC3-CC4-CC5-tools: www.student.oulu.fi/%7Epsaastam/

The file "Terrain" is part of the graphical environment of CC2. In the Mac-version of CC2, it resides on the original CD in the folder "Close Combat:Data:Graphics". In the PC-version it resides (after making a full install of CC2) in the folder "C:\A Bridge Too Far\Graphics". To replace original CC2-files in the Mac-version it is necessary to build up a volume-image of the original CD with read/write-access. In the PC-version it is simple: replace the file in the full installation on the harddisk.

The program CC2-ABTF stores some of its graphical data as sprites. All CC2-files containing sprites have a starting header. The first four bytes of this header are "SPRI". As CPL FILTH stated in the ReadMe-file of "SprTool.exe", the files resulting from extracting from a file will be named in sequence from image0001.x.y.tga to image9999.x.y.tga, where x and y are the hotspots of the sprites stored in the image-files.Dont change the names of the files, but feel free to try and change the image sizes or hotspots, that should work. The file "Terrain" contains 257 different sprites. The flags for victory locations and grenade explosion smoke are arranged as an animation sequence like GIF-animations. There are three special colors used by CC2, as CPL FILTH stated: white (0xFFFF) is transparent, the olive greenish is a shadow (0xE04E, IIRC) and 0xE036 seems to be a special color too. Most of the sprites have also a wide transparent area around the sprite, so creation of new, even greater sprites seems to be possible without disturbing the program.

What I made

In the file "Terrain" I replaced the European trees (green or brown leaves) by self-made palm trees (light green or dark green leaves). They are not so good-looking like the trees created by George Thanos, but their shadow fit to the old maps. I also replaced the German VL-flag by the Japanese one (and the relating flag-combinations). For more documentation about how I made it, see the CC2Guide-Terrain-file-v4.pdf at the Guides & Tools-Area of this site.

PalmTrees for CC2

myMookX v" and the patching of the sound file "CC Sounds" of ABTF

First: it is a MacOS-born file, byte-format is BigEndian, that means high-byte first!

Number of Sound entries is 323 as reported by PHIL LANE in 1998, the same as in the PC-file 'Sounds.cc2'. The reason why the programmers at Atomic did not stored the sounds in a resource fork (as usually done with MacOS programs) is the limit of the size of resource-forks: they are limited to 16 MB. So they stored it in the data fork of a file, but using the same data format as for 'snd '-resources as usual.

Now here is the file format of 'CC sounds':

- Header: first 4 bytes: number of entries = 323 = 00000143h
- 2584 bytes: directory with 323 entries à 8 bytes.
- each entry of the format: offset of the sound (4 bytes) from the start of the datas (NOT from start of the file), length of the sound (4 bytes) (this length does include the resource header length),
- 323 'snd '-resources in stereo, but written into the data-fork. (the original file contains only stereo sounds, but mono sounds are allowed, too).

The beginning of the sound datas is at byte 2588 (= hex offset from start of file 0A1Ch). In the original file the data format is: sampling rate 8-bit, 2 channel stereo, 44.1 kHz or 22.050 kHz. Header length of each data entry is 84 bytes (that means: it is an extended 'snd '-resource header), then the wave table of the sound datas follows. The header is a valid 'snd '-format-1 resource, in the original file always an extended sound header because all sounds are in stereo. It is unusual that resources are stored in the data fork, but in this case the programmers were forced to do so.

In July 2003 I made a little program running under MacOS 8.5 – 9.2.2. This tool can convert an entire PC-sound file of ABTF or of any custom made sound file of the ABTF mods (for example PacificFront, sound file by MASAHIKO MIZUCHI) from PC format into Mac format. Not much to say about it: it works.

The program can extract the PC-sound datas in 'WAVE'-file format from all sound files of the CC series from CC2 to CC5. Furthermore the program can extract the PC-sound datas out of the CC2 PC-sound file 'Sounds.cc2' in the file format of System-7-sounds to play them directly from the desktop. These System-7-sounds simply contain the sound datas in their resource fork as 'snd '-resources.

And the program can transfer the Mac-sound file 'CC Sounds' into two independend files (file #1 contains the sounds #0 .. #160; file #2 contains the sounds #161 .. #322), where the sounds are stored in the resource fork. From this resource fork(s) the program can play the sounds, and it can play single System-7-sound files. A description of the CC2-sounds is included in a popup menu (thanks to PHIL LANE for his work). To complete the little program it is able to import single sounds from the resource fork of a System-7-sound file into the two independend files and it is able to rebuild a new file 'CC Sounds' from this two files (simple: creating a new header and copying the resource fork datas into the data fork of the new file).

See my guide CC2Guide-MacSound-file-v3.pdf for more informations.

Mafi

my eMail Address

 

Last updated March 10th, 2012