yikes! your comments have solved my problem. i was in fact trying to retrieve 100000110100 for 2100. The way the .swf file is stacked side-to-side in binary made it difficult to see the error. Packing then unpacking works great.

print unpack("B*", pack("n", 2100))."\n";
[download]

gives me the correct answer '100000110100'
Thanks everybody.

jtrue