vvendigo / Darklands

Darklands (1992 game from Microprose) python file reading utils and file format docs

Darklands

Darklands (1992 game from Microprose) file reading utils and preserved file format docs

Based heavily upon work of Merle (wallace.net/darklands) and Joel "Quadko" McIntyre. IMC decoding done with help of arcane remarks of Olemars from bay12forums. PIC reader/writer based od darkapandaman's JCivED PIC codecs finally.

Probably not suitable for Windows because of lazy filepaths handling.

Some outputs and file format docs online

Latest News

• Given up resolving MSG dialogs logic (it seems impossible - hidden in executable completely)
• PIC reader rewritten, writing added
• FNT reader - writting added
• IMC mostly resolved
• Enemy palette done
• MSG reader done
• FNT reader done
• FNT file format blurry contures
• IMC inner format partly dissected and documented
• IMC compression resolved.
• Up-to-date file format docs using updated Merle's XML files.

TODO (Short term goals)

• replace dicts by classes & clean up the code a lot (replace reader_* with format_* gradually)
• systemize readers/scripts interface/flow
• Fixing up-to-date XSLT

Repository contents

Dirs

• DL/ - put your Darklands installed files here

• game_patches/ - essential patches to upgrade Darklands to the latest version (.7)

• file_formats/ - gathered docs on DL file formats (up-to-date/ contains updated Merle's docs)

• tmp/ - you may direct output there

Scripts

Auxilary

• aux_color_bits.py - file bits to ASCII

• aux_color_bytes.py - file bytes to ASCII

• aux_count_bytes.py - file byte histogram counter

• aux_find_bytes.py - find bytes in file, limited by max distance from first found to last

• aux_generate_simple_map.py - very simple HTML map with cities and locations

• aux_check_pics.py - some PIC files scanning

• aux_show_fonts.py - renders system fonts usable by Pygame

• aux_hexdump_dir.sh - first N chars of hexdump of all files in directory

• aux_convert_pics.sh - convert all DL/pics/.pic to tmp/pics/.pic.png

Extracting

• extract_cat.py - extracts catalogue (.CAT) files

Generators

• generate_font_png.py - blits font archive to image
• generate_map_js.py - outputs map JS data struct
• generate_map_png.py - outputs HUGE image of DL landscape with city and village names
• generate_map_web.py - outputs HUGE webpage of simplified DL map with city info

Readers

• reader_cty.py - cities
• reader_drle.py - "DarklandsRLE" decompression (used for .IMC, in imap.cat, bc) (can decompress file if run directly)
• reader_enemypal.py - Enemy palettes
• reader_enm.py - Enemy types & enemies defs
• reader_exe.py - strings extraction - WIP (aux maybe?)
• reader_fnt.py - fonts reader
• reader_imc.py - battle sprites - WIP
• reader_loc.py - map locations (cities, villages, castles...)
• reader_lst.py - item types & attrs, saints and formula names
• reader_map.py - tile map
• reader_msg.py - dialogs
• reader_pic.py - image format (can convert .PIC to .PNG if run directly)
• reader_tacanim.py - mysterious file loaded before battle

Common libs

• utils.py

Misc

• dosbox.conf - to ease running of the game

Dependencies

• Pygame lib for imagery