Jazz 2 Music Format

Jazz 2 Music Format

Format type	Music
Notation type	Tracked
Instruments	PCM
Max channel count	255 (practically limited to 64 by source formats)
Max track count	1
Max pattern count	256
Max order count	256
Tags?	Title, instrument names, sample names
Games	Jazz Jackrabbit 2

The J2B format is just a container for the custom format of the Galaxy Sound System, RIFF AMFF or RIFF AM.

Container Header

The file header is 24 bytes long:

Data type	Name	Description
char[4]	format identifier	"MUSE"
UINT32LE	format subtype	0xDEADBEAF (RIFF AM) or 0xDEADBABE (RIFF AMFF); indicates the file content, but is pretty useless (you should not rely on this at all!)
UINT32LE	size	Size of the complete file
UINT32LE	checksum	Checksum of the data block (before decompression)
UINT32LE	compressed size	Length of the data block before decompression (should be file size - 24 bytes)
UINT32LE	uncompressed size	Length of the data block after decompression
char[]	music data	This is the actual music file in either RIFF AMFF or RIFF AM format; It's compressed using standard zlib compression. Simply use zlib's "uncompress" macro to read this.

Data body

The uncompressed data body contains a module in either RIFF AMFF or RIFF AM format. Both formats are rather similar, but RIFF AM follows the RIFF conventions more strictly. RIFF AMFF was only used in early versions of Jazz Jackrabbit 2, which explains why RIFF AM is generally the more advanced format of the two. RIFF AMFF is internally very close to the XM format, with a few additions to support some S3M / IT commands.

Tools

The following tools are able to work with files in this format.

Name	Platform	Play?	Create new?	Modify?	Convert/export to other?	Import from other?	Access hidden data?	Edit metadata?	Notes
OpenMPT	Windows	Yes	No	No	Many	No	No	No
mod2j2b	Windows	No	Yes	No	No	MOD, XM, S3M, IT, MTM, 669	No	No	Some formats are converted rather poorly (e.g. MTM, 669). There are two different mod2j2b executables for AM and AMFF files.