Versions of the engine - TheVNConnoisseur/MICo_Guide GitHub Wiki

At the date of writing this page, there have been 2 main revisions of the engine. Minor revisions between file formats won't be taken into consideration here, since the game keeps updating these formats in subtle ways.

Main differences

Version number	Containers	Images	Scripts
1	.odn	No extension	Raw text
2	.dat	.mg2 and .mal	Compiled

Version 1

The initial version of MICo, was used starting from the game Imouto Ninshin, up till the release of Netoraren'ai -Ai Suru Kanojo ga Musunda Midara na Keiyaku-. Nothing too much out of the ordinary seems to be with this revision, since it seems to be very robust, albeit very rigid in terms of customization. The file paths for the data containers is hardcoded inside the game's executable, and the rest is probably hardcoded too.

The script files are simple text files, with developer comments included, because those don't get compiled at all, simply stored inside their corresponding .odn containers.

Version 2

The latest revision to the engine, was starting being used since Kangokujou -Ingyaku no Shihai-. This one features a way more flexible system, and surprisingly, has a built-in debug system. This was probably done because the script files are now encrypted, although they seem to use the same syntax as with the 1st revision of the engine, so to make the life easier to the developers, the game in debug mode will log every action the game does in detail.

Another big thing is that this version of the engine does allow the game to run without the files being in .dat files, making modding much easier. Sadly, none of the files that the game actually load can be decrypted/converted to more common formats, because the game decrypts them on-the-fly no matter what.