                                 MEGA DEPACK
                                 -----------
                      (The ultimate depacker - sort of!)

                            Coded By M.Watson 1992

Revised on 24/4/92 to depack gollum progs and fix ice depack bug.
Revised on 25/4/92 to depack happy progs.
Revised on 26/4/92 to depack JAM packer v1 progs, LSD/JEK datafiles,
                             spectrum512 piccies.
Revised on 27/4/92 to depack pompey packed prog & dat files  
Revised on 27/4/92 to fix anther ice depack bug (2.3 prog files did not
always depack properly.
Revised (again!) on 27/4/92 to depack DCSquish programs.
Revised on 28/4/92 to depack 4pak programs.
Revised on 29/4/92 to depack automation chunk packed files.
Revised on 29/4/92 to depack old style ice packed files.
Revised on 29/4/92 to depack packed degas files.
Revised on 9/5/92 to work on pre TOS 1.4

Thats enough revisions for a while, I'll get down to rewriting it after my
exams. Dont forget to send any error reports or unrecognised files, every
letter will be replied to. Its a shame I am finishing college this year 
because otherwise I would have given my EMAIL address on JANET as well. 

  First a kind of disclaimer, the bulk of this program was knocked up in an 
afternoon when I couldn't be bothered revising for my finals for my degree.
So if it damages any data then i'm not responsible, Ok!

  So what does it do then? Well as it's name implies it is a multi file 
depacker. I decided to code it because I was fed up whenever I needed to depack
something (prog files in particular) I either had to laod it in to Monst or 
write a small adhoc program to do depack it.

  It supports 40 different file types both program and datafiles. The types 
supported are as follows :-

ATOMIC                v3.3 program and datafiles
ATOMIC                v3.5 program and datafiles
FIRE                  v2.0 program and datafiles
ICE                   v2.3/2.4 program and datafiles
ICE                   pre 2.3 program and data files
JAMPACKER             v1 program and data files
JAMPACKER             v3 program and data files using LZH
JAMPACKER             v4 program and data files using LZH
JAMPACKER             v4 program and data files using LZW
JAMPACKER             v4 program files using ICE
AUTOMATION            v2.3/2.51 program, datafiles (both chunked and not)
AUTOMATION            v5.01 program - see below and data files
LSD/JEK               v1.2 program files and datafiles
POMPEY                v1.5 program and datafiles
DCSquish              program files
4PAK                  program files
BYTEKILLER            program files
GOLLUM                program files both huffed and not
HAPPY                 program files
SPECTRUM-512          picture files
DEGAS                 picture files pc1-3
 
  To use the program select on the file to be depacked in the file selector.  
The program will then either display the file type and procede to unpack the
file or display a message that it is unpacked or unknown packer type (more on 
this later). When the file is unpacked a file selector will re-appear and you
can then enter the save file name or click on cancel to abort the save.
Following this you can then select another file to unpack or click on cancel to
exit the program.

  If the file type cannot be identified then it will try to determine whether
the file could be packed. If it is a data file and the first four bytes of the
file are ASCII and the next four are not then the header is displayed.

  If the above occurs then if it is not too much trouble I would like to 
receive the file so I can attempt to include it in the program. I would 
especially like pompey packed files and automation packer v 5.01 as well because 
my 5.01 is a pre-release and differs slightly from the full release version. So
if a program file is definately packed with 5.01 and it is not recognised then
please end it to me. My address can be found at the foot of this text.

  I'm unsure about the DCSquish compatibility as I only had one packed 
program to work from.

  Future enhancements include multi file depack depack and an improved
interface plus depacking any other files that I can find.

  If you want my opinion on the best packer then it has to be Atomic v3.5, 
although v3.3 comes close and ICE and FIRE were the best before that.

  This program was developed using and Atari ST with 2.5 meg, power drive 40mb
hard drive,Devpac2 and Easyrider V4 (for dissasembling depack code). And yes its
an original ST of 1985 vintage! I want a falcon!!

  This program is public domain and can be distributed freely by PD libraries
as long as the documentation and source code stays with the program.

  The source code is packed and can be unpacked using this program,(good
practice!)

My address is :- Mike Watson
                 59 Pilmuir Road
                 Forres
                 Morayshire
                 Scotland
                 IV36 OHE

  All letters will be replied to as soon as possible (once I've got my degree of
course). 

Thanks to New Order, Ride, Primal Scream, JAMC and The Shamen (amongst others)
for musical inspiration. All the authors of the packing utilities supported here who are
AXE(FIRE and ICE), OZZ(LSD/JEK,Automation), ALTAIR(ATOMIC - the best!!),
RALF HARTMANN(HAPPY!), Tim and Andrew Knipe(JAM PACKERS), DOUBLE CLICK 
SOFTWARE(DCSQUISH), JPM(POMPEY), TOM HUDSON(DEGAS), TRIO INC(SPECTRUM 512) 
and any other authors I have forgotten. Without your programs this utility 
would never have been written!

I'M MOVIN' ON UP NOW!!!! 

P.S I've included ATOMIC v3.5 on this disk so you have no excuse for having
programs packed with saddo packing routines. I never wrote this great packer
of course, that credit goes to ALTAIR(french I think).

ADVERTISMENT TIME!!!!!

Watch out for a great new shareware game, its a superb version of Asteroids
and has been written by Sinister Developments. The share ware details will
be along the lines of what Jeff Minter has pioneered ie a fiver gets you 
registered and in return you will get sent the next game by this new team.

It should be available by the time you read this.
