decompile/extract microsoft agent?

Question

I'm looking for a way to decompress or decompile a microsoft agent. for example the merlin agent

I'd like to extract the animations/images. best way i've found so far is. recording my screen with a pink background. and splitting the video... but this isn't really good practice...

any tips?

Answer 1

Years ago, I authored an MSAgent Character Data Specification, which documents the complete ACS, ACF, and ACA file formats.

I have used that knowledge to write my own MSAgent decompiler that can fully decompile an ACS file into its constituent image and audio files, and create a complete ACD file that can be opened in the MSAgent Editor.

You can download it from my website.

Answer 2

As for extracting the animations from the ACS file, which is the file for the MS Agent Character, it cannot be done with any known software. Over the years, I have searched for methods to extract the files from the ACS file, have found nothing even as of today (May 6, 2017).

Answer 3

You might be able to get somewhere using resourcehacker. At the least, separate out the useless parts from the useful.

I'm not sure what format they would have used for that, which makes this more difficult. Either way you need to first break open the container first.