Bigtext

File Format
Name	Bigtext
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Executable envelopes Bigtext
Released	≤1992

Bigtext (also written BIGTEXT or BigText) is a menu-driven DOS utility, developed by Kevin Solway.

In simplest form, it converts a text file to an EXE file that, when executed, displays the text in a viewer. It also has some "e-book" features that support menus, etc.

Discussion

Bigtext was distributed as shareware. The unregistered versions do not approve redistribution of generated files. Unregistered versions 2.0+ put a prominent nag message in the generated files, making them essentially useless.

Format details

Each version of Bigtext has about 6 or 7 available EXE file templates, stored in abbreviated form in the "overlay" segment of the BIGTEXT.EXE file. The templates are essentially the same, but with different size limits on the amount of text. The limits range from very roughly 100KB to 420KB. Files made by a given version of Bigtext, using a given template, are all the same size (before any executable compression).

The text inside a file can optionally be compressed, which may allow a smaller template to be used. This option is turned on by default starting with v1.7.

Bigtext can optionally run a third-party executable compression utility on the generated file. It includes a copy of LZEXE for this purpose. This option is turned on by default starting with v2.4 or 2.5.

Identification

Files made by a given version and template are all very similar, and could be identified in any number or ways. But there are dozens of such combinations, plus there are lost and registered versions of Bigtext to account for. The frequent use of executable compression is another complication.

As for identifying all versions at once, more research is needed. There are some common plain-text strings that could help, though they're in different places in different versions.

See also

• Breeze Text-to-EXE and TextLife - Same author

Software

• Bigtext
  • Bigtext v1.1 and TextLife v2.6: [1] → MONSTER2.ISO → UTILS/UTILS_QT/TXT_2EXE.ZIP
  • v1.4: [2] → A014/TXT2EXE.ZIP
  • v1.5
  • v1.6
  • v1.7
  • v2.0
  • v2.3
  • v2.5: [3]
  • v2.6
  • v2.7: [4] → TEXTEDIT/BIGTXT27.ZIP
  • v3.0
  • v3.2

In some cases, the original text file can be recovered by running the EXE file in a DOS environment, and pressing 'T'. But this feature may be disabled or restricted.

Sample files

• PIPES_RP.ZIP → README.EXE (v1.1)
• [5] → BBS/BBSCAL3.ZIP → README.EXE (v1.4)
• ENEWSV1.ZIP → Most EXE files (v1.6)
• _1KJVTXT.ZIP → KJVHTEXT.EXE, README.EXE (v2.3)
• CGINDX10.ZIP → CGEO.EXE, CGMAN.EXE, README.EXE, TUTOR.EXE (~v3.0 registered?)