# Media, files and protection

![Floppy disks, a compact disc in its case and a cassette tape](https://github.com/tanepiper/game-frame/blob/main/docs/assets/diagrams/banner-media.svg)

These pages cover what a game came on and what its files are, before the code that reads them
is traced. Read them during [re-inventory](https://tanepiper.github.io/game-frame/skills/re-inventory.md) and
[re-format](https://tanepiper.github.io/game-frame/skills/re-format.md).

- [CDs and DVDs](https://tanepiper.github.io/game-frame/media/discs.md): sectors and tracks, CD audio, Mode 2, the file systems, which
  image to work from, `discinfo.py`.
- [Floppy disks and booter games](https://tanepiper.github.io/game-frame/media/floppies.md): image levels from sectors to flux, floppy
  protection, PC games that boot without DOS.
- [Identifying unknown files](https://tanepiper.github.io/game-frame/media/files.md): signatures, entropy, structure from the numbers,
  comparing two files, simple obfuscation, timestamps.
- [Flash and Shockwave games](https://tanepiper.github.io/game-frame/engines/flash-and-shockwave.md): web games whose player no
  longer runs, SWF files and projectors, `swfinfo.py`.
- [Packed and protected code](https://tanepiper.github.io/game-frame/media/protection.md): packers, getting the code out, data decoders,
  debugger checks, copy protection and the port.

[Handling the game as evidence](https://tanepiper.github.io/game-frame/working/evidence.md) covers the habits that keep each
result repeatable: identifying the copy, keeping it unchanged, and tying findings to it.

![From a disc or disk image to the files, then to the code](https://github.com/tanepiper/game-frame/blob/main/docs/assets/diagrams/media-overview.svg)

## Ask your agent

```text
In my GameFrame project, find out what the game came on and what each of its files is.

1. Read docs/media/README.md and the re-inventory skill.
2. If the game is on a CD or disk image, run tools/disc/discinfo.py on it and record the
   tracks, the file systems and the dates.
3. Run tools/triage/filetypes.py on the game folder. List each kind of file with its entropy,
   and mark the ones that look compressed, encrypted or packed.
4. Record the hashes of every file (tools/triage/compare_trees.py --hashes) and where the copy
   came from, as docs/working/evidence.md describes.
5. Write it all in docs/FINDINGS.md. Commit nothing from target/, analysis/ or derived/.
```