...we know that FF7pc was written in C++. Therefore, we must think within the limitations of that language when trying to reconstruct how FF7 can access and decode battle operations, etc, and that includes file I/O, and memory storage.
That leaves us with commands like ".read"; ".get"; and ".getline" for loading the battle animation data into memory, if I'm not mistaken...
C++ doesn't really have any limitations. Its not uncommon for most video games to have a lot of the operations that need to run very very fast (thousands of times per seconds, in some cases) written in ASM (assembly) blocks.
.read, .get, and .getline are not really effecient for the very specific and repetative purposes of a lot of the FF7 files. I would be more surprised if they didn't write thier own low-level file and memory IO functions than if they did.
They teach that in intermediate C++ classes. Its a fairly common practice as far as I can tell.
Remember that C++ and ASM pretty much go hand-in-hand, and you can write ASM directly into your C++ programs.
But then, Square programmers may also be a fairly lazy lot. So who knows?
And in case anyone is wondering, PSX games are programmed in a version of C++ as well -hooking into a propriatary Sony hardware API.[/b]