# Best way to capture text from a PC game?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-capture-text-from-a-pc-game/154270>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 11, 2003, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-capture-text-from-a-pc-game/154270 "2003-02-11T02:43:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-capture-text-from-a-pc-game/154270/1 "2003-02-11T02:43:20Z")

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I’m currently playing Exile III, a shareware game on my computer. It’s a rather complicated game and has extensive menus for listing scores of spells, potions, character attributes, etc… It would be very helpful if I could put all this information into lists that I could print out, but how?  
Most of this information appears to be stored as data in the main .EXE file, rather than anything like a Windows Help file. The menus display the data in a way that suggests that it’s stored in file/form/field format, but I haven’t a clue how I could access it directly.  
The only way I can copy the information as displayed is to do sceen captures- as pictures of text rather than text. This would be unimaginably tedious and cumbersome. I was thinking of seeing if I could dig it out of the EXE with a hex editor, but that sounds only marginally easier. Any other options?

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**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-capture-text-from-a-pc-game/154270/2 "2003-02-11T02:54:43Z")

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This is the [Table of Contents](http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/exile_iii.txt) of a walk-through at [gamefaqs.com](http://gamefaqs.com). It has lots of lists in it. If you’re worried about accidentally seeing something you don’t want to you can have a friend edit those parts out. It’s a great site.  
Exile III: Ruined World is copyright Jeff Vogel and Spiderweb Software.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Revision history
2. Introduction
3. The Basic Story
4. Skills of Characters
5. Traits of Characters
6. Creating a Party
7. The Status Menu
8. Plague Hunters
9. Artifact Quests ^UPDATED^  
10.Hard to Kill Monsters  
11.Mage Spells  
12.Priest Spells  
13.Alchemy and its Many Uses  
14.Magical Fields  
15.The Editor  
16.FAQ ^UPDATED^  
17.Thanks!  
16.Repeat Warning!

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-capture-text-from-a-pc-game/154270/3 "2003-02-11T02:54:46Z")

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Is [this](http://us.geocities.com/skyle_jc/dlfiles/boeguide.pdf) what you’re looking for?

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2003, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-capture-text-from-a-pc-game/154270/4 "2003-02-12T02:09:45Z")

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Or just look for the info online. :smack:  
Thanks everyone!

(although I’m curious how _do_ you get info out of an EXE file?)