HOW-TO: Extracting the music tracks from NFS: HP2 for PC
1. Introduction
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is a recent version of the popular NFS series of
racing games. It's not only a great game, it also features a very good
soundtrack. So good, in fact, that I wanted to listen to it outside of the
game, too. Apparently, I am not the only one who had that idea, and I've been
getting some requests on how to extract the music from the games data files. So
I decided to write it down properly once in this HOWTO rather than repeatedly
and poorly in emails.
2. Requirements
You need an installed copy of NFS: HP2, especially the music subfolder (in my
file sytem, that's K:\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2\audio\music). And then you
need the Game Audio Player (
http://bim.km.ru/gap/) to play and/or convert
those track?.asf files. (This is where experienced users can feel free to
stop reading and venture out on their own...)
3. Playing and Converting
GAP is a small download, under a megabyte. No install needed, so that's nice,
but it's still a bit of a weird program, at least for me: the program window
disappears when I click on it. It still works, though, by opening the playlist
window via the context menu in the task bar. Use Add File(s)... from the File
menu and add all the music files, then play them at your own discretion.
You'll probably want to play the music with your standard audio player instead
of the GAP. Select all files (or only those you want converted) in the playlist
and use Convert File(s) from the File menu. The dialog lets you choose the
format the audio files are to be converted to and where to save them. You can
also control the file names, however since the *.asf file do not seem to
contain any information on titles, that's pretty much pointless.
The WAV format requires some additional explanation: you can save the audio
files either as uncompressed (PCM, Pulse Code Modulation) WAV files, or you can
directly convert them to MP3 and various other compressed formats on-the-fly.
Personally, I prefer to save them as uncompressed WAVs and convert them to MP3
using LAME (
http://www.mp3dev.org) for a hopefully better quality.
4. Titles
The *.asf files don't come with any information on the title or interpret of
the songs, however, the file music.ini has all that info. It's a bit of a pain
to extract, but it's possible. Here's the list, copy/paste at will:
00 - Bush - The People That We Love.mp3
01 - The Buzzhorn - Ordinary.mp3
02 - Course of Nature - Wall of Shame.mp3
03 - Hot Action Cop - Fever For The Flava.mp3
04 - Hot Action Cop - Going Down On It.mp3
05 - Pulse Ultra - Build Your Cages.mp3
06 - Rush - One Little Victory.mp3
07 - Uncle Kracker - Keep It Coming.mp3
08 - Matt Ragan - Bundle of Clang.mp3
09 - Matt Ragan - Cone Of Silence.mp3
10 - Matt Ragan - Flam Dance.mp3
11 - Humble Brothers - Black Hole.mp3
12 - Humble Brothers - Brakestand.mp3
13 - Humble Brothers - Sphere.mp3
14 - Cykloid - ROM.mp3
15 - Bush - The People That We Love (Instrumental).mp3
16 - The Buzzhorn - Ordinary (Instrumental).mp3
17 - Course of Nature - Wall of Shame (Instrumental).mp3
18 - Hot Action Cop - Fever For The Flava (Instrumental).mp3
19 - Hot Action Cop - Going Down On It (Instrumental).mp3
20 - Pulse Ultra - Build Your Cages (Instrumental).mp3
21 - Rush - One Little Victory (Instrumental).mp3
22 - Uncle Kracker - Keep It Coming (Instrumental).mp3
4. Post Scriptum
Hope this was useful to some people. If you have anything to add, or further
questions you think I could help you with, feel free to send me a mail
(
[email protected]).
5. Legalese
This document be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal,
private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed
publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web
site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation
of copyright.
Copyright 2004 moonbender
