HOW TO CHANGE MUSIC

Lots of people claim that they prefer "Encore Classic Card Games" to "Encore Classic Puzzle and Board Games" citing better music on the Card Games. This guide explains how to change the music files for ECPaBG so you can play your own custom soundtrack..

HOW TO CHANGE THE MUSIC

To change music files
1. Before making ANY changes, BACKUP YOUR EXISTING FILES.
2. Copy the Music folder
3. Rename the copy of the Music folder to oldMusic
4. Start the game
5. Through isolation testing, identify which files you would like to change.
6. Rename the target .OGG file by adding a helpful label like "Groove" to the end of the numbers that make up its name. This label should make the music selection you are altering.
7. Copy in your desired .OGG file of no longer than 15 minutes in playlength.
8. Rename the new .OGG file to match the original name of the target file.
9. Go back to environment and stop and start the Music selection you just changed until you're sure that you inserted the new OGG file into the correct musical selection.


To backup existing music files
1. Before making ANY changes, BACKUP YOUR EXISTING FILES.
2. Navigate to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Encore Classic Puzzle and Board Games"
3. Right click on the Music folder
4. Click Compress To... then "ZIP file"
5. If you have 7-zip installed, then right-click on the Music folder, and then click 7-zip> Add to Folder.


To perform isolation testing
1. Join one of the games, like Zilch. Which game? doesn't matter.
2. In the game click Options> Environment
3. There are 6 music selections, but each one references multiple .OGG files in the filesystem.
For instance, "Piano Solo" is actually three separate OGG files.
4. Turn the music on, and click the musical selection you find undesirable.
5. Listen to the music for a couple seconds, enough to identify it.
6. In the Music folder, start at one end and double click on each .OGG file, listening to each one long enough to confirm its the file you want to swap out.


To swap out a file
1. Once you id the OGG file you want to swap out, rename it and add a label like "Piano" to the end so you know where the backup file matches up in case you have to revert.
2. Copy the replacement .OGG file into the Music folder, then rename it to match the original filename of the .OGG file you are replacing.
3. If you really mess up, you backed up the entire folder, so you can restore the files to the original state.

MAP OF FILES FOR MUSICAL SELECTIONS

Stealth Music: used since 2003
2405571.ogg
2405572.ogg
2405573.ogg
2405574.ogg
2405575.ogg


Secret Agent: used since 2003
2405596.ogg


Jazzman:
2405018.ogg


Swing Town: These four tracks are re-used from Hoyle Casino Empire (2002). Mike Caviezel composed this music.
2405581.ogg
2405582.ogg
2405583.ogg
2405584.ogg


ElectroMusic:
2405541.ogg
2405542.ogg
2405543.ogg


Floating: used since 2003
2405511.ogg
2405512.ogg
2405513.ogg
2405514.ogg
2405515.ogg
2405516.ogg
2405517.ogg
2405518.ogg
2405519.ogg


Modern Groove: used since 2003
2405551.ogg
2405552.ogg
2405553.ogg


Piano Solo:
2405501.ogg - Debussy's Arabesque No.1
2405502.ogg - Chopin's Nocturne No.9 in B Major
2405503.ogg - Rachmaninov's 10 Preludes, Op.23: No.4 in D Major


PuzzleTheme: used as Main Theme for Hoyle Games since 2006
2405011.ogg ( I replace this with three minutes of seaside ambient sounds. Waves and seagulls are much more relaxing than the default theme.)


String Quartet: These pieces are re-used from Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, an RPG video game which Sierra On-Line published. Computer Games Magazine declared that Arcanum tied with Wizardry 8 for best role-playing game of 2001, in part because of its soundtrack, composed by Mike Caviezel.
2405561.ogg
2405562.ogg
2405563.ogg
2405564.ogg
2405565.ogg



Some of the games use unique music instead of the musical selections in Environment.

Placer Racer
3014410.ogg

Word Games/Anagrams: used since Hoyle Words Games (1999)
3000.ogg




If you also have Hoyle Classic Card Games, these may be assets you are interested in:
2405002.ogg - Nature theme from Hoyle Classic Board Games 1997. Later used as Rio Theme.
2405003.ogg - Cruisin' Theme from Hoyle 2001. Could really use a re-master.
2405004.ogg - Anticipation Theme from Hoyle Classic Board Games 1997.
2405005.ogg - Detective Theme from Hoyle Classic Board Games 1997.
2405006.ogg - Snakey Jake Theme from Hoyle Classic Board Games 1997.
2406007.ogg - Eastern Theme from Hoyle Classic Board Games 1997.
2405008.ogg - Orbit Theme from Hoyle Classic Board Games 1997.

TIPS FOR LONGER BETTER MUSIC

If you recorded a home video, and want to strip out the audio to use as an .ogg file, post it to youtube, then use something like tuberipper.com to strip out the audio.

If a song has bad audio, and you want to fix it up, look at bandlab.com's AI Splitter and Studio. Bandlab is a paid service, but I consider the $30/month fee well worth the money.

If you have two or three short songs, and you want to "glue them together" into a single .ogg file, look at clideo.com or one of several other online tools for merging audio files.

CHANGING SFX/ VOICE LINES

Sound Effects for the game are stored in "Encore Classic Puzzle & Board Games.pod".
Character lines are stored in Characters folder as <Character>.pod.
Face Maker voices are also in Characters folder where Human Voice Male 1 gets abbreviated as HVM1.pod

Copy the .pod file, then rename the copy to .zip extension
Extract all to a new subfolder.
Sound files are all in .ogg file format.

You may also notice .ini files in this archive. Those are board levels for Placer Racer in text only format.

This same trick also works to extract voice lines for the characters. In the Character folder, copy and re-name the original .pod file for the character whose lines you want to change. I record new lines and insert them into the FaceMaker voices for instance.
The first one to test is changing the contents of the file 37600000.ogg, which is the levelcheck test for the FaceMaker voices.


Inserting changed files into .pod archives requires knowledge of file attributes within PKZIP files and the ability to write and modify python scripts.

If you are interested at looking at the textures in "Encore Classic Puzzle & Board Games.pod", the .tex files can be viewed or converted to .jpeg with the paid version of a game extractor.