How to manually extract files from PC-3000 PCR archive

[eaxi]

I needed firmware, which was available only as PCR file. As I havent' PC-3000... I had to spend a few hours doing it by hand. The method is easy, but I didnt' see any public info about it, so I describe it, may be this will useful for others.
I tested this method on only few *.PCRs, so I dont' know if it works always
..
PCR files are FireBird databases, just like *.FDB files in PC3K distributions.
1) So first I installed FireBird - I installed this old version: Firebird-2.0.0.12654-0_win32.exe, because this version is mentioned in code. After install, we must start FireBird services, p.e. by
net start FirebirdServerDefaultInstance
net start FirebirdGuardianDefaultInstance
or from MMC GUI.
2) Next, we need any database browser supporting FireBird - I used IBExpert.
We must "Register Database": Server: Remote; Protocol: TCP/IP; Server Ver: Firebird 2.0, Database File: our *.PCR file; user: SYSDBA; password: masterkey [standard login to FireBird]
After our PCR database appeared on the list, we select: Tables->DATA->Data. Now we can see full content of database.
Modules are stored in DATA column - as 'blob'. To extract single module, I copied its' name from "MODULENAME", then clicked DATA - when blob-viewer is in "Hex mode", it opens the viewer and we can save the content, but it's better to set blob-viewer to "XML mode" - then saving dialog appears immediately and we can give previously copied correct name to this module. For sure all this can be easy automated in SQL to extract en masse all modules under correct names, but after successful extract I didnt' waste time for SQL
3) The last thing, which has to be done is unpacking extracted modules. There are stored in *.PCR as "deflated" = "zlib-ed", so we can see "78DA" header. I unpacked them with offzip: https://aluigi.altervista.org/mytoolz/offzip.zip, for example:
offzip.exe -a -z 15 -Q ROM.bin

Details on image:

[HaQue]

nice write up , thanks a lot!

[data-medics]

You know, I'd experiemeted for an afternoon trying to figure out how to do this, but I think I never got the right version of FireBird so it would never open for me.

Nice work!

Now, we just need someone to find a way to script a tool for easy extraction of all modules at once from a PCR file.

[eaxi]

@data-medics, use this:
http://interbase.borlandforum.com/impbo ... -Win32.exe
...
BTW, I dont' think public releasing of one-click tool extracting all files from *.PCR is a good idea.... If everyone without any knowledge could get access to their archives, they will just complicate *.PCR structure to prevent wholesale "stealing resources" ....

[fzabkar]

BTW, I dont' think public releasing of one-click tool extracting all files from *.PCR is a good idea.... If everyone without any knowledge could get access to their archives, they will just complicate *.PCR structure to prevent wholesale "stealing resources" .... :)

Stealing implies ownership. Ace owns the PCR format (or do they?), but not the firmware resources.