How does one extract the BGM from a game?

[Electricfish]

I have heard of it being done before but did not manage to find out the details. Could anyone please enlighten me as to how this process is carried out?

[eliddell]

It's going to vary depending on what system the game was for (computer? PS2? Older console?) and how it was put together. If you're very lucky and the game is a computer game, the music may be held in separate files on the CD or in the installation directory, in which case all you have to do is figure out the format and convert it to something useful. Otherwise, your first step is probably going to be decompressing the game's image into separate files (in cases where that's even possible)--then you get to figure out the format.

There are a few utilities out there that can extract the music from games made for specific consoles, but they tend to be somewhat limited in function and difficult to find unless you know where to look. I've never seen one for PC games, probably because nearly every engine has a different mechanism.

An alternative method of dealing with computer games might be to set up a program that records everything being sent to your soundcard as you play the game, and then break it up into individual songs yourself. Of course, you'll pick up the SFX and any voices that way as well as the music, but for some games it might be the only practical method.

In most cases, it's easier to just go looking for the soundtrack CD or an image of same, if one exists for the particular game you're interested in. ;P

[Electricfish]

Thank you very much for replying!

Just in case you have any expertise with the particulars of my case, I'll just give you a brief run-through of the situation:

The game in question is Miracle Noton. I have tried finding an OST for it but to no avail and a few months ago I posted a request for it in the OST requests section but there's been no reply as of yet.

I downloaded the game as a .img file which I opened with MagicISO. I was able to play it fine and everything and when I open it in MagicISO it appears as a series of separate files or folders. Trouble is, I don't know which of these folders contain the BGM. From looking up the different file types on the internet I've narrowed it down to 2 possible files, one that ends in .bmx and one that ends in .arc. I then tried to find programs which would open either of these but had no success.

Would you have any advice based on that info? Or about that program that records things sent to the soundcard, is that free or easy enough to use? Its just I've lost my confidence in dealing with computers after all the fiddling I had to do to get Miracle Noton to just play on my PC

[eliddell]

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you--Real Life took over for a little while.

According to my research, no OST was ever released for Miracle Noton, or at least CD Japan's database doesn't contain any relevant albums that I can find, and they should know about anything released within the last twelve years or so.

I had never heard of either of those file types before you mentioned them, and dredging through the usual suspects doesn't show any software designed to play them back. Unfortunately, I know rather more about ripping music from console games, which have a limited number of formats, than I do for PC games, and even there my knowledge is purely academic--I've never tried it myself. If I had the files here in front of me, I would probably stuff a few of them into a hex editor and see if they had any useful header information, like the name of the program that created them, in them, but that's always a long shot.

Likewise, my knowledge of sound capture programs for Windows (I assume that's what you're on) is five or six years out of date at this point--and even if it weren't, my definition of "easy to use" tends to be . . . rather different from most people's.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

[Electricfish]

No its fine, and thank you very much for all the help you gave, even I wasn't sucessful it was good to get a bit of closure. Hmm I'd just heard of some people getting the OSTs off games. Maybe thats been blocked with modern technology or something. Ah well, its ok though, I can move on. : )

[Lookalike]

I don't have any specific knowledge of extracting background music, but I did find a couple of links that might help with identifying the extensions:

music file extentions

bmx extension

one more possibility for bmx file: link

arc sounds like an older compression file format to me; I think I remember it from my old atari, and file-extension.org seems to support this: arc file

hope these help in your search