Dungeon Files

Dungeon description

Dungeon files are called DUNGEON.DAT in most versions of the games. The Apple IIGS dungeon file is called DUNGEON.GAME (this version also contains an additional dungeon file called DUNGEON.BONUS for the Kid Dungeon). In multilingual versions, DUNGEONF.DAT and DUNGEONG.DAT are also used respectively for French and German versions of the dungeons.

Each dungeon file describes a complete dungeon with walls, doors, items, creatures, etc… It is possible to play completely new games by replacing the original dungeon files by new fan-made dungeons.

The file format for dungeons is nearly the same for all versions of Dungeon Master, Chaos Strikes Back and Dungeon Master II. Here are the few differences:

• Little endian or big endian
  Computers can store a word of data (2 bytes) in two ways:

  • Little endian: the least significant byte is stored first. Dungeons use this format on Apple IIGS, PC, Super NES, FM-Towns, PC-98 and IBM PS-V.
  • Big endian: the most significant byte is stored first. Dungeons use this format on Atari ST, Amiga, X68000, Macintosh and Sega CD.

  It is possible to convert a dungeon between these two formats by swapping the two bytes of each word of data (single bytes must not be swapped).

• Checksum
  A dungeon file may optionnaly include a 16 bits checksum (a word) at the end of the file. The games will accept dungeons with a correct checksum or no checksum at all, but they will reject a dungeon with an incorrect checksum (This was not checked with all versions).
  In Dungeon Master versions 1.x (Atari ST), the original dungeon files never have a checksum.
  In Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back versions 2.x and above, English dungeon files always have a checksum and non English dungeon files never have a checksum (this applies to the Dungeon Master dungeon, the Kid Dungeon and the Chaos Strikes Back Prison.
  In the Chaos Strikes Back dungeon and in the Dungeon Master II dungeon (including beta and demo versions) there is always a checksum.

• Compression
  Each dungeon file may be optionnaly compressed. Most versions of the games will accept both compressed and uncompressed dungeons, but for example Dungeon Master for Atari ST version 1.2 English does not support compressed dungeons. (This was not checked with all versions).

Here is a summary of the properties of the dungeons from all the available versions of the games on this site:

Notes

• The DUNGEON.DAT file in Chaos Strikes Back is the prison (the little two levels dungeon where you choose your champions when you start a new game). The main dungeon is stored as a saved game on the utility disk (the file is called MINI.DAT).
• In Dungeon Master II, the music to play on each map is not stored in the dungeon file.
• Dungeons can contain up to 256 maps of 32x32 tiles. Maps can be on 64 levels (several maps can be on the same level, like in the main exterior level in Dungeon Master II)

Detailed file structure

Here is a detailed description of the contents of the DUNGEON.DAT file from Dungeon Master for PC.
This example is used to show the structure of a dungeon file. Offsets would be different in other dungeons.
Notes:

• This file is 33357 bytes long.

In this part of the document, each section of the file is entitled with the following information: Offset hexadecimal (offset decimal) Size of section in bytes - Description of section.
Below the title of each section are details about its content.

0000h (00000) 44 bytes - File header

• 1 word: 0063 (99) : Random seed and Dungeon ID. This value is used to define where to display random decorations on walls and floors.
  It is also a unique value identifying the dungeon. Hint Oracle hints files refer to this value to associate the dungeon with the hints file. It is stored in the header of the hints file as described on Hint Oracle Files.
  Values are 99 (Dungeon Master), 8 (Chaos Strikes Back Prison), 13 (Chaos Strikes Back Dungeon), 0 (Dungeon Master II).
• 1 word: 2FFB (12283) : Size of global map data in bytes (total size of all maps)
• 1 byte: 0E (14) : Number of maps (in Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back, number of maps = number of levels)
• 1 byte: 00 (0) : Unused, padding
• 1 word: 06D5 (1749): Text data size in words (1749 words * 2 = 3498 bytes)
• 1 word: 0861 (0000 10 00011 00001 : X=1, Y=3, south direction) : Starting party position (must start on map 0)
  • Bits 15-12: Unused
  • Bits 11-10: Direction
    • ‘00’ North
    • ‘01’ East
    • ‘10’ South
    • ‘11’ West
  • Bits 9-5: Y coordinate
  • Bits 4-0: X coordinate
• 1 word: 068F (1679) : Object list size in words (1679 words * 2 = 3358 bytes)
• 16 words: Number of objects of each type:
  • 1 word: 00AA (170) : Number of doors
  • 1 word: 00B3 (179) : Number of teleporters
  • 1 word: 007D (125) : Number of texts
  • 1 word: 02AC (684) : Number of sensors
  • 1 word: 00B6 (182) : Number of creatures
  • 1 word: 006B (107) : Number of weapons
  • 1 word: 0079 (121) : Number of clothes
  • 1 word: 0023 (35) : Number of scrolls
  • 1 word: 0038 (56) : Number of potions
  • 1 word: 000C (12) : Number of containers
  • 1 word: 0118 (280) : Number of miscellaneous items
  • 3 words: 0000 0000 0000 : Unused
  • 1 word: 0000 (0) : Number of missiles
  • 1 word: 0000 (0) : Number of clouds

002Ch (44) 224 bytes - Map definitions

Each map is defined by 16 bytes (14 maps * 16 bytes = 224 bytes)

• 00h (00) 1 word: Offset of map data in global map data

• 02h (02) 1 word: This word is not used by Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back, where its value is always 0000. It is only used in Dungeon Master II.
  This word is a bit field defining which components are used on the map:

  • Bits 15-9: Unused
  • Bit 8: Door type 1
  • Bit 7: Door type 0
  • Bit 6: Portraits
  • Bit 5: Blue haze of teleporters
  • Bit 4: Stairs going down
  • Bit 3: Stairs going up
  • Bit 2: Nearly invisible pit. This bit is always set to 0 in the Dungeon Master II dungeon because it does not use this kind of pits. However the pictures do exist and they work fine, even with this bit set to 0)
  • Bit 1: Pit in the ceiling. Always set to 1 in the Dungeon Master II dungeon, probably because detecting that with the original dungeon editor was too difficult (as it would need to examine other maps)
  • Bit 0: Normal pit

  The exact role of these bits is not clear.
  If one bit for doors is set to 0 then the corresponding doors are not displayed and replaced by a grimacing face (the door frame is still displayed, though).
  The other bits can be changed from 1 to 0 without any visible impact as things are still displayed correctly.
  This word may be used to allocate memory for graphics or for color palette management. What is known is that the values are used by the code.

• 04h (04) 1 word: 0000 : Unused

• 06h (06) 1 byte: Map offset x

• 07h (07) 1 byte: Map offset y

• 08h (08) 1 word: Map size

  • Bits 15-11: Map height - 1 (Value 17 is stored in the header for a map with height = 18 tiles)
  • Bits 10-6: Map width - 1 (Value 16 is stored in the header for a map with width = 17 tiles)
  • Bits 5-0: Level number. Several maps can be at the same level in order to produce large levels. This is only used in Dungeon Master II where for example the exterior level (level 6) is made of 26 maps, resulting in a global size of 86x93 tiles. Here are the associations of levels and maps in the Dungeon Master II dungeon:
    • Level 1: Map 01
    • Level 2: Maps 02 03
    • Level 3: Maps 04 05
    • Level 4: Maps 06 07
    • Level 5: Maps 08 09
    • Level 6: Maps 10 11 14 15-19 22-34 37 39 41-43
    • Level 7: Maps 00 12 20 21 35 36 40
    • Level 8: Map 13
    • Level 9: -
    • Level 10: Map 38

• 0Ah (10) 1 word: Number of graphics

  • Bits 15-12: Number of floor graphics available for random decorations
  • Bits 11-8: Number of floor graphics available in the map
  • Bits 7-4: Number of wall graphics available for random decorations
  • Bits 3-0: Number of wall graphics available in the map

  Note: The number of graphics available for random decorations must be smaller than the number of graphics available in the map. The first graphics in the lists of available graphics (defined at the end of each map data) are used for random decorations.
  Random decorations are only placed on the sides of ‘Wall’ and ‘Floor’ tiles if they allow them (four bits to allow each side of the tile to receive a decoration). The program generates a random number between 0 and 29. If the random number is lesser than the number of graphics available for random decorations, then the decoration is displayed.

• 0Ch (12) 1 word:

  • Bits 15-12: Map difficulty. The difficulty (also known as ‘depth’) is used as an experience multiplier and to determine the initial hit points of generated creatures. Difficulty 0 produces permanent light, as in the Hall of Champions.
  • Bits 11-8: These bits are not used by the games, but there are some non zero values:
    Dungeon Master: Value 4 for map 3, Value 1 for map 5, Value 3 for map 12
    Chaos Strikes Back: Value 3 for map 0, Value 1 for map 1, Value 3 for map 2, Value 4 for map 3, Value 2 for map 4, Value 3 for map 5, Value 3 for map 6, Value 3 for map 7, Value 2 for map 8, Value 2 for map 9
    Dungeon Master II: Values 1 to 5
  • Bits 7-4: Number of creatures types allowed in map
  • Bits 3-0: Number of door decoration graphics (7 max)

• 0Eh (14) 1 word: Door indices. These indices define both the graphic to use and the door characteristics (used as an index in the ‘Door characteristics’ in Item 559)

  • Bits 15-12: Index for door type 1
    • ‘0000’ (0) Grate door
    • ‘0001’ (1) Wooden door
    • ‘0010’ (2) Iron door
    • ‘0011’ (3) Ra door
    • Other values: Unknown
  • Bits 11-8: Index for door type 0 (Same possible values as door type 1)
  • Bits 7-4: Map graphics style. Must be 0h in Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back because there is only one style available (other values cause graphical glitches or crashes). Here are the possible values in Dungeon Master 2:
    • 0: Blue zone
    • 1: Outside
    • 2: Cave
    • 3: Interior
    • 4: Skullkeep roof
    • 5: Mist
  • Bits 3-0: 00 : Floor and ceiling graphics style. Must be 0h in Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back because there is only one style available (other values cause graphical glitches or crashes). Unused in Dungeon Master II (always 0h).

The Dungeon Master dungeon contains 14 maps, one per level.
The Chaos Strikes Back Prison dungeon contains 2 maps, one per level.
The Chaos Strikes Back dungeon contains 11 maps, one per level. The last map is empty.
The Dungeon Master II dungeon contains 44 maps on 9 levels (there are maps on level 1 to 8, no map on level 9 and one on level 10). Here is a short description of each map:

• 0. Level 7 Sun Clan - Hall of champions
• 1. Level 1 Skullkeep - Roof
• 2. Level 2 Skullkeep - Lightnings corridor
• 3. Level 2 Skullkeep - Crystal room (Void entrance)
• 4. Level 3 Skullkeep - Ram trap
• 5. Level 3 Skullkeep - Moving teleporters (Ghosts)
• 6. Level 4 Skullkeep - 7 doors puzzle
• 7. Level 4 Skullkeep - Vacuum fuse (Archer-Guard, Flying chest)
• 8. Level 5 Skullkeep - Fire corridor (Dark Vexirk)
• 9. Level 5 Skullkeep - Boiler
• 10. Level 6 Skullkeep - Furnace
• 11. Level 6 Skullkeep - Main Entrance
• 12. Level 7 Skullkeep - Underground (West) (Dru Tan)
• 13. Level 8 Skullkeep - Underground (Flame Orbs)
• 14. Level 6 Sun Clan - North (Thorn Demons)
• 15. Level 6 Lightning Clan - North (Wolves)
• 16. Level 6 Sun Clan - Village
• 17. Level 6 Cloud Clan - Cemetary
• 18. Level 6 Sun Clan - Merchant - Weapons
• 19. Level 6 Sun Clan - Merchant - Food
• 20. Level 7 Lightning Clan - Underground
• 21. Level 7 Skullkeep - Underground (North) (Tiger Striped Worms)
• 22. Level 6 Sun Clan - Torham’s Home
• 23. Level 6 Cloud Clan - Crypt
• 24. Level 6 Cloud Clan - Merchant - Magick
• 25. Level 6 Cloud Clan - Southwest (Tree Gorgons)
• 26. Level 6 Skullkeep - Ground floor (Ghosts, Gigglers)
• 27. Level 6 Sun Clan - Northwest - Obelisks (Vortexes)
• 28. Level 6 Sun Clan - Merchant - Clothes and Armors
• 29. Level 6 Moon Clan - Forest (Axemen)
• 30. Level 6 Moon Clan - Village
• 31. Level 6 Moon Clan - Bad Merchant - Weapons
• 32. Level 6 Moon Clan - Bad Merchant - Armors
• 33. Level 6 Sun Clan - South - Skulkeep Entrance (Digger Worms)
• 34. Level 6 Moon Clan - Bad Merchant - Clothes
• 35. Level 7 Sun Clan - Underground (Cavern Bats)
• 36. Level 7 Cloud Clan - Underground
• 37. Level 6 Skullkeep - Pyro Wagons - Unreachable Room
• 38. Level 10 Void (Dragoth)
• 39. Level 6 Lightning Clan - South (Thieves)
• 40. Level 7 Skullkeep - Underground (East) (Sleletons)
• 41. Level 6 Cloud Clan - Northeast
• 42. Level 6 Moon Clan - West (Thieves)
• 43. Level 6 Skullkeep - Secret Entrance (Cavern Bats)

010Ch (268) 818 bytes - Index of tiles with objects on them (per column)

This section contains one word for each column in each map of the dungeon, from left to right and above to below. The sum of the widths of all maps is 409. (409 columns * 2 bytes = 818 bytes)

Each word contains the number of tiles having one (or more) object(s) on them encountered so far while browsing all the dungeon columns. The first word is always 0 because at the beginning of the very first column, no object has been encountered yet. The second word contains the number of tiles having objects on them in the first column. The third word contains the number of tiles having objects on them in the first and second columns, etc… Consequently, each word value is greater or equal to the previous value. The last word in this section contains the number of tiles having objects on them in the whole dungeon, excepted those in the last column of the last map. As there are no objects in the last column of the original Dungeon Master dungeon, the last word contains exactly the number of tiles having objects on them in the whole dungeon (this value is 1300).
The content of this section is used as a shortcut as it can be rebuilt easily.

043Eh (1086) 3358 bytes - List of object IDs of first objects on tiles

Each ID is defined by 2 bytes. 1679 (item list size) * 2 = 3358 bytes
There is free space at the end, filled with FF FF words. An FF FF word means that no object is referenced.
2600 bytes used (1300 objects), 758 (379 objects) FF bytes

Each tile has a bit to specify if there are objects on it. Tiles are ordered as in the dungeon file: from up to down, left to right, first map to the last map. The first object ID is located on the first tile having an object, etc…

When several objects are located on the same tile, only the first one is referenced here. Each object references the next object ID located on the same tile. The last object in a linked list has this next object ID: FFFEh

A given object should NOT be referenced by several other objects. The game engine does not allow this and will often crash or corrupt save games when you do so. However, there are few situations where it will work without causing any trouble.

Object ID

• 1 word:
  • Bits 15-14: Object position on tile: North/Top left (00) East/Top right (01) South/Bottom left (10) West/bottom right (11)
  • Bits 13-10: Object category
    • 0000 (0) Doors
    • 0001 (1) Teleporters
    • 0010 (2) Wall texts and messages
    • 0011 (3) Sensors
    • 0100 (4) Creatures
    • 0101 (5) Weapons
    • 0110 (6) Clothes
    • 0111 (7) Scrolls
    • 1000 (8) Potions
    • 1001 (9) Containers
    • 1010 (10) Miscellaneous objects
    • 1011 (11) Unused
    • 1100 (12) Unused
    • 1101 (13) Unused
    • 1110 (14) Missiles. There must not be such objects in a dungeon file, only in saved games. Otherwise they would stay in place in the dungeon because the associated event would be missing.
    • 1111 (15) Clouds. There must not be such objects in a dungeon file, only in saved games. Otherwise they would stay in place in the dungeon because the associated event would be missing.
  • Bits 9-0: Object number in list. Valid values range from 0 to 1021.

115Ch (4444) 3498 bytes - Text Data

Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back

Four types of text strings are found in a dungeon:

• Wall text: text that is displayed on a wall in the dungeon view
• Message: text that is displayed on the bottom of the screen (for example when entering the Prison in Chaos Strikes Back)
• Scroll text: text that is displayed when looking at a scroll in a champion’s inventory
• Champion text: texts that are never displayed. They are used to store the initial champion name, skills and statistics.

Dungeon Master II

Champion names, skills and statistics are stored in the graphics.dat file.
Some English text data is present in all Dungeon Master II dungeon.dat files (even in the non English versions). However this text data is not used in the dungeon (at least never visible while playing the game), except in Dungeon Master for PC 0.9 Beta. All other versions of Dungeon Master II store all the real text data in the graphics.dat file instead.

Fonts

The game uses two fonts to print text on screen. There are two versions of each font, an ‘old’ font that is used only in Dungeon Master for Atari ST versions 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 and a ’new’ font that is used in all other versions of Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back. The differences between the two fonts are highlighted on the images below:

• A font of 36 characters for wall texts (stored in graphics.dat item #120 in game engine versions 1.x and 2.x, or in item #258 in game engine versions 3.x)
  
• A font of 128 characters for messages and scroll texts (stored in graphics.dat item #557 in game engine versions 1.x and 2.x and also in Dungeon Master for X68000 3.0, or in item #695 in game engine versions 3.x)
  

Some versions include a third font in graphics.dat item #12 but it is never used. Later versions of the games do not include it anymore.

Encoding

Text data is stored as words. Each word contains 3 codes of 5 bits, and 1 unused bit:

• 1 word: 3 characters
  • Bit 15: Unused, always 0
  • Bits 14-10: First code
  • Bits 9-5: Second code
  • Bits 4-0: Third code

Here is the meaning of each 5 bits code:
0 to 25: Letters ‘A’ to ‘Z’
26: ’ ’ (Space)
27: ‘.’
28: Separator
29: Escape code 1
30: Escape code 2
31: End of text

When the game engine decodes dungeon text data, it outputs a string of bytes where each byte is the index of a character in one of the two fonts. Because the two fonts are quite different (numbers of characters and character indices) the game decodes wall texts differently than other texts.

• Codes 0 to 27: ‘A’ to ‘Z’, space and ‘.’

  • Wall text: a byte with the same value as the code is written in the ouput string.
  • Other text: the ASCII code of the character is written in the output string (ASCII codes correspond to the appropriate character indices in the font).

  For example, if code 0 (letter ‘A’) is found in a wall text, a 00h byte is written in the output string because character 0 in the wall text font is an ‘A’. However, if code 0 is found in another type of text, a 41h byte is written instead because the ‘A’ character has index 41h in the other font (this matches the ASCII code for ‘A’).

• Code 28: Separator
  The separator character is decoded differently depending on the type of text:

  • Wall texts: Separator is decoded as a 80h byte.
  • Message: Separator is decoded as a ‘Space’ character
  • Scroll and champion texts: Separator is decoded as a ‘Line Feed’ character

• Code 29: Escape code 1
  When code 29 is found, the next code in the text data is used as an index in a table of zero terminated strings. The corresponding string in the table is appended to the output string. Nothing prevents this escape code from being used in a wall text however it cannot work because the character indices in the table are all higher than 35 which is the index of the last character in the font for wall texts.
  Each string in the table contains a single character (2 bytes per string). The table is identical in all versions of Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back:

  61 00 62 00 63 00 64 00 65 00 66 00 67 00 68 00 
  69 00 6A 00 6B 00 6C 00 6D 00 6E 00 6F 00 70 00 
  71 00 72 00 73 00 74 00 75 00 76 00 77 00 78 00 
  30 00 31 00 32 00 33 00 34 00 35 00 36 00 37 00 
  

  Note that this escape code and the table above has no real use in the games.
  This escape code is used only twice in the French dungeons in the following versions:

  • Dungeon Master for Atari ST version 1.3 FR
  • Dungeon Master for Amiga version 2.0 FR
  • Dungeon Master for PC version 3.4 EN FR GE

  Both times it is followed by code 1Ah which outputs a ‘2’ character in the middle of strings where it is clearly a typo, in the message at (00,09,01) and in the scroll at (13,23,04).
  The values in the table seem to refer to the magic symbols in the font, but with a shift of 1.

• Code 30: Escape code 2
  When code 30 is found, the next code in the text data is used as an index in a table of zero terminated strings. The corresponding string in the table is appended to the output string. There are two distinct tables, one is used when decoding wall texts and the other when decoding other types of texts.
  Each string in the table contains up to 7 characters (8 bytes per string). The content of this table is not the same in all versions of Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back.

  Table for Escape code 2 in Wall texts: Each byte in these strings is a character index in the font for wall texts

  Dungeon Master for Atari ST versions 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 use this table:

              String (Hex)              Corresponding characters in font
  Code 0-1:   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ''
  Code 2:     13 07 04 1A 00 00 00 00   'THE '
  Code 3:     18 0E 14 1A 00 00 00 00   'YOU '
  Codes 4-31: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ''
  

  These versions of the game use the ‘old’ font.

  Dungeon Master for Atari ST version 1.3 and all other versions of Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back use this table:

               String (Hex)              Corresponding characters in font
  Code 0:      1C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  Code 1:      1D 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  Code 2:      13 07 04 1A 00 00 00 00   'THE '
  Code 3:      18 0E 14 1A 00 00 00 00   'YOU '
  Code 4:      1E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  Code 5:      1F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  Code 6:      20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  Code 7:      21 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   '''
  Code 8:      22 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  Code 9:      23 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  Codes 10-31: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  

  These versions of the game use the ’new’ font.

  Table for Escape code 2 in other texts: Each byte in these strings is a character index in the font for interface and scrolls.
  Note that when printing scroll texts on screen, 64 is substracted from the character indices of letters (A to Z only) so that they use the characters #1 to #26 in the font instead of the default characters #65 to #90.
  Dungeon Master for Atari ST versions 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 use this table:

              String (Hex)              Corresponding characters in font
  Code 0:     3F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   '?'
  Code 1:     21 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   '!'
  Code 2:     54 48 45 20 00 00 00 00   'THE '
  Code 3:     59 4F 55 20 00 00 00 00   'YOU '
  Codes 4-31: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ''
  

  These versions of the game use the ‘old’ font.

  Dungeon Master for Atari ST version 1.3 and all other versions of Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back use this table:

               String (Hex)               Corresponding characters in font
  Code 0:      78 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   '?'          Bug: this code is used in texts
  Code 1:      79 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '    <---- and should be '!' but character
  Code 2:      54 48 45 20 00 00 00 00   'THE '       #79h is empty in the font.
  Code 3:      59 4F 55 20 00 00 00 00   'YOU '
  Code 4:      7A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  Code 5:      7B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  Code 6:      7C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  Code 7:      7D 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   '''
  Code 8:      7E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  Code 9:      7F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ' '
  Codes 10-31: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ''
  

  These versions of the game use the ’new’ font.

  Both tables are stored in item 559 in the Atari ST versions and directly in the executable in other versions (you can refer to Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back Graphics.dat Item 559 for the Atari ST versions).

• Code 31: End of text
  When this code is found, text decoding stops.

The Dungeon Master dungeon contains four texts located on map (12, 0, 0) that are prefixed with a letter (A, B, C and D) and are displayed during the ‘Fuse’ sequence at the end of the game. There is specific code in the program to print these texts in the order specified by the first character and to not print this first character. In Dungeon Master for PC, these texts are not displayed (even if present in the dungeon) and replaced by the ending animation.

In Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back, the initial champion statistics and skills are stored as text in the dungeon file. In Dungeon Master II, this information is stored in the graphics.dat file.
These special texts have the following structure:

• Name: 7 characters maximum, followed by a carriage return.
• Title: 19 characters maximum. The title string is split in two parts of 17 + 2 characters. Each part is followed by a carriage return. The game concatenates the two parts of the title.
• Gender: 1 character (must be ‘M’ or ‘F’) followed by a carriage return. The gender makes not difference, it is not used by the game engine.
• Health: 4 characters.
• Stamina: 4 characters. This value is always 10 times the value displayed in the game.
• Mana: 4 characters followed by a carriage return.
• Luck: 2 characters. This statistic is not visible in the game.
• Strength: 2 characters.
• Dexterity: 2 characters.
• Wisdom: 2 characters.
• Vitality: 2 characters.
• Anti-magic: 2 characters.
• Anti-fire: 2 characters followed by a carriage return.
• Fighter: 4 characters, one for each hidden skill.
• Ninja: 4 characters, one for each hidden skill.
• Priest: 4 characters, one for each hidden skill.
• Wizard: 4 characters, one for each hidden skill, followed by an end of text character.

Notes:

• The name, title and gender use the same encoding as normal texts (see above).
• The statistics and skills use an hexadecimal encoding: only character codes 0 to 15 (0h to Fh) are allowed. Example: if in the champion text, the string for health consists of the four characters 0h, 0h, 3h and Bh then it must be interpreted as the hexadecimal value 0x003B which is equal to 59 health points in decimal.
• For the skills, each character specifies the initial starting level in each hidden skill and not the initial starting experience points.
  The visible skill levels are computed by adding the experience points (not levels) in the 4 hidden skills and then convert this experience amount to the corresponding skill level.
  Please refer to the Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back Skills and Statistics for the link between experience points and experience levels.
• In Japanese versions of the dungeons, the champion texts use the same encoding, unlike all other texts that are further decoded to produce Japanese characters (Shift JIS encoded). Champion names and titles cannot use Japanese characters. In these versions, the game engine is modified to not decode Japanese characters from champion texts.
• Dungeon Master II requires double amounts of experience points for the same experience level compared to Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back.

1F06h (7942) 680 bytes - List of doors

Each door is defined by 4 bytes. (170 doors * 4 bytes = 680 bytes)

Door objects must always be created on door tiles.

• 1 word: Next object ID.
• 1 word: Door attributes.
  • Bits 15-9: Unused.
  • Bit 8: Destructible by chopping.
    • ‘0’ Not Destructible
    • ‘1’ Destructible
  • Bit 7: Destructible by Fireball.
    • ‘0’ Not Destructible
    • ‘1’ Destructible
  • Bit 6: Button.
    • ‘0’ Door without button
    • ‘1’ Door with button
  • Bit 5: Opening direction.
    • ‘0’ Horizontal
    • ‘1’ Vertical
  • Bits 4-1: Ornate number (0 no ornate) Be careful to only use ornate defined in the map definition, otherwise glitched graphics will appear.
  • Bit 0: Door type (defines the appearance based on door graphics declared in map)

The attack power required to destroy a door depends on its type. The resistance values are stored in the graphics.dat file in item 559, offset 244h (4 words). Wooden doors are easy, grate doors are harder, iron doors are very hard and Ra doors are nearly indestructible.

21AEh (8622) 1074 bytes - List of teleporters

Each teleporter is defined by 6 bytes. (179 doors * 6 bytes = 1074 bytes)

Teleporter objects must always be created on teleporter tiles.

• 1 word: Next object ID.
• 1 word: Teleporter attributes
  • Bit 15: Sound.
    • ‘0’ No sound
    • ‘1’ Sound
  • Bits 14-13: Scope
    • ‘00’ Items
    • ‘01’ Creatures
    • ‘10’ Items / Party
    • ‘11’ Everything
  • Bit 12 Rotation type
    • ‘0’ Relative rotation based on current party orientation.
    • ‘1’ Absolute rotation from North.
  • Bits 11-10: Rotation
    • ‘00’ None/North
    • ‘01’ 90° clockwise/East
    • ‘10’ 180°/South
    • ‘11’ 90° anti-clockwise/West
  • Bits 9-5: Destination Y coordinate (without map offset)
  • Bits 4-0: Destination X coordinate (without map offset)
• 1 word: Destination map
  • Bits 15-8: Destination map (the game hangs if you teleport to a non existant map)
  • Bits 7-0: 00h Unused

25E0h (9696) 500 bytes - List of texts (wall texts, champion skills and statistics, messages)

Each text is defined by 4 bytes. (125 texts * 4 bytes = 500 bytes)

• 1 word: Next object ID.
• 1 word: Referred text in text data.
  • Bits 15-3: If Bit 2 = 0 and Bit 1 = 0, Offset in text data of beginning of text in number of words. Other cases are not decoded yet.
  • Bit 2: Only used in Dungeon Master II
    • ‘0’ Regular text
    • ‘1’ Text requiring translation
  • Bit 1: Only used in Dungeon Master II
    • ‘0’ Regular text
    • ‘1’ Text is actually a simplified sensor
  • Bit 0: Text visibility
    • ‘0’ Invisible text
    • ‘1’ Visible text

27D4h (10196) 5472 bytes - List of sensors

Each sensor is defined by 8 bytes. (684 sensors * 8 bytes = 5472 bytes)

Sensors are used to display decorations on walls and floors and to implement the dungeon mechanics.
There are many type of sensors. For some types, the effect of the sensor is different whether the sensor is on a floor tile or a wall tile.
Sensors can target a tile that can be any tile on the same map (‘Remote’ type) or the tile where the sensor itself is located (’local’ type).
Sensors can target other sensors, doors and pits (to open and close them), teleporters and trick walls (to enable or disable them) and texts.

• 1 word: Next object ID.

• 1 word:

  • Bits 15-7: Data (content depends on sensor type, see below)
  • Bits 6-0: Type (all sensor types are listed below)

• 1 word:

  • Bits 15-12: Graphic decoration ordinal in the list of allowed decorations (0 means no decoration). If there are several sensors in the same location, only the last one in the list is displayed and determines the active screen zones for mouse clicking.
  • Bits 11: Action target type
    • ‘0’ Remote tile
    • ‘1’ Local tile
  • Bits 10-7: Delay before action
  • Bits 6: Sound effect
  • Bits 5: Revert effect when stepping in and out of a tile
  • Bits 4-3: Action type
    • ‘00’ Set
    • ‘01’ Clear
    • ‘10’ Toggle (set if cleared, clear if set)
    • ‘11’ Hold
  • Bits 2: Once only sensor. When this bit is set, the sensor is disabled after its first activation by changing its type to 0.
  • Bits 1-0: Unused

• 1 word: This word has different meaning depending on the action target type (Remote or Local).

  For remote target:

  • Bits 15-11: Y coordinate of target tile
  • Bits 10-6: X coordinate of target tile
  • Bits 5-4: Direction (for a wall tile, determines which wall’s face is triggered, North East South West)
  • Bits 3-0: Unused

  For local target:

  • Bits 15-4: Action to execute
    • ‘0’ No action
    • ‘1’ or ‘2’ Rotation of sensors in the same tile. Sends the current sensor to the beginning of the list.
    • ‘10’ Experience gain in Ninja skill number 8. If the sensor is on a floor tile, all champions get the experience. If the sensor is on a wall tile, only the party leader gets the experience.
    • Other values: No action
  • Bits 3-0: Unused

Notes:

• Bug: if you put creatures and sensors on the same tile, the sensors must be located before the creature in the list of objects or the game will crash.
• Bug: Sensors should not be put on the same wall as a champion portrait or the champion portrait will display above the sensor graphic. However, you can have a text object on the same tile with no issue.
• Only tiles of type ‘Wall’ can have wall sensors. All other tile types are considered as floor regarding sensors.
• If you have a sensor on a strairs tile, it is only activated when you arrive by this stair, not when you leave to another level (maybe that was the purpose of the type 5 sensor, but it does not work).
• It is possible to have sensors on trick walls, but only without decoration or the game may crash. Activation is similar to a floor tile.

You can refer to the Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back Items properties page to find the complete list of index values to use in the Data field for each item.

Floor sensors

Wall sensors

Other sensors

All of the Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back sensors can also be used in Dungeon Master II except the champion portrait sensor which is not recognized. Dungeon Master II also includes many additional sensor types. Please visit kentaro.k-21’s web site for more information about them.

3D34h (15668) 2912 bytes - List of creatures

Each creature is defined by 16 bytes. (182 creatures * 16 bytes = 2912 bytes)

• 00h (0) 1 word: Next object ID.
• 02h (2) 1 word: Next possession object ID. When the creature dies, it drops its possessions on the floor. It is possible to place another creature, a text message or a sensor in a creature’s possessions. However this was probably never anticipated by the designers and definitely not used in the original dungeons.
• 04h (4) 1 byte: Creature type. Here are the possible values in Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back:
  • 0 Giant Scorpion / Scorpion
  • 1 Swamp Slime / Slime Devil
  • 2 Giggler
  • 3 Wizard Eye / Flying Eye
  • 4 Pain Rat / Hellhound
  • 5 Ruster / -
  • 6 Screamer
  • 7 Rockpile / Rock pile
  • 8 Ghost / Rive
  • 9 Stone Golem
  • 10 Mummy
  • 11 Black Flame
  • 12 Skeleton
  • 13 Couatl
  • 14 Vexirk
  • 15 Magenta Worm / Worm
  • 16 Trolin / Ant Man
  • 17 Giant Wasp / Muncher
  • 18 Animated Armour / Deth Knight
  • 19 Materializer / Zytaz
  • 20 Water Elemental
  • 21 Oitu
  • 22 Demon / Demon
  • 23 Lord Chaos
  • 24 Red Dragon / Dragon
  • 25 Lord Order / -
  • 26 Grey Lord
• 05h (5) 1 byte: Position of each creature on the tile. FFh is a special value when there is a single creature in the center.
  • Bits 7-6: Position of creature 4
  • Bits 5-4: Position of creature 3
  • Bits 3-2: Position of creature 2
  • Bits 1-0: Position of creature 1
• 06h (6) 1 word: Hit points of creature 1
• 08h (8) 1 word: Hit points of creature 2
• 0Ah (10) 1 word: Hit points of creature 3
• 0Ch (12) 1 word: Hit points of creature 4
• 0Eh (14) 1 word:
  • Bits 15-11: Unused
  • Bits 10: Important object, non flushable. This bit is only set for specific groups in the dungeon (defined by the creator)
  • Bits 9-8: Direction
    • ‘00’ North
    • ‘01’ East
    • ‘10’ South
    • ‘11’ West
  • Bit 7: Unused
  • Bits 6-5: Number of creatures in the group - 1
  • Bit 4: Unused
  • Bits 3-0: Used only during the game

Notes:

• Do not use creatures 25 and 26 in a dungeon: there is a bug causing graphical glitches and crashes because they cast undefined spells.
• If a creature is teleported to a map where this type of creature is not allowed, the creature is automatically killed. However, this will cause an error if the creature has possessions (this was fixed in CSBwin).
• In a group located on the same map as the party, the direction of each creature can be different. The program manages this at runtime only and the values stored in saved game files are ignored.
• In Dungeon Master II, items like trees and tables are considered as creatures.
• In order to correctly display Black Flames, it is required to add the adequate circular floor decoration.

4894h (18580) 428 bytes - List of weapons

Each weapon is defined by 4 bytes. (107 weapons * 4 bytes = 428 bytes)

• 1 word: Next object ID.
• 1 word: Item description
  • Bit 15: Used at runtime, for example set when torch is lit
  • Bits 14: Broken
  • Bits 13-10: Number of charges. For ‘Torch’ objects, this represents the Luminous Power.
  • Bit 9: Poisoned
  • Bit 8: Cursed. Falchions dropped by Animated Armours and Deth Knights have this attribute set.
    • ‘0’ Not cursed
    • ‘1’ Cursed
  • Bits 7: Important item. An important item will not be flushed if the game has no more free space to store newly created items. Only non important items can be flushed. This bit is only set for specific weapons in the dungeon (defined by the creator). Weapons created at runtime (dropped by creatures or launched by missile launchers) have this bit cleared.
  • Bits 6-0: Item type. You can refer to the Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back Items properties page to find the complete list of possible values.

4A40h (19008) 484 bytes - List of clothes

Each clothe is defined by 4 bytes. (121 clothes * 4 bytes = 484 bytes)

• 1 word: Next object ID.
• 1 word: Item attributes
  • Bit 15-14: Unused
  • Bit 13: Broken
  • Bit 12-9: Number of charges. This value is not used. There is a function in the game to decrement the number of charges of an object and it would decrement this value when called for an object of type ‘Clothe’ however this never happens as all actions causing a decrement of the number of charges apply only to object of type ‘Weapon’.
  • Bit 8: Cursed. Torso plate, Armet, Foot plate and Leg plate dropped by Animated Armours and Deth Knights have this attribute set.
    • ‘0’ Not cursed
    • ‘1’ Cursed
  • Bit 7: Important item. An important item will not be flushed if the game has no more free space to store newly created items. Only non important items can be flushed. This bit is only set for specific clothes in the dungeon (defined by the creator). Clothes created at runtime (dropped by creatures) have this bit cleared.
  • Bits 6-0: Item type. You can refer to the Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back Items properties page to find the complete list of possible values.

4C24h (19492) 140 bytes - List of scrolls

Each scroll is defined by 4 bytes. (35 scrolls * 4 bytes = 680 bytes)

• 1 word: Next object ID.
• 1 word: Scroll attributes
  • Bits 15-10: Used at runtime
    • ‘0’ Open (in hand)
    • ‘1’ Closed
  • Bits 9-0: Referred text in list of text objects.

Notes:

• Scrolls ignore the visibility attribute of the referred text
• In some versions like Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga v3.3, if the text is “MAGICMAP” or “CREANAME” then the scroll acts either as the magic map or displays the name of the creature in front of the party.
• There are 14 characters maximum on each line, including the end of text character but not the carriage return characters. If the end of text character is the 15th character on a line, then garbage will be displayed after. In some versions, you need at least two lines of text or the program will display an additional line with garbage.

4CB0h (19632) 224 bytes - List of potions

Each potion is defined by 4 bytes. (56 potions * 4 bytes = 224 bytes)

• 1 word: Next object ID.
• 1 word: Item attributes.
  • Bits 15: Important item. An important item will not be flushed if the game has no more free space to store newly created items. Only non important items can be flushed. This bit is only set for specific potions in the dungeon (defined by the creator).
  • Bits 14-8: Potion type. You can refer to the Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back Items properties page to find the complete list of possible values.
  • Bits 7-0: Potion power. In Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back, the power displayed to the player is obtained by dividing the power value by 40. The result is the symbol number between 1 and 6. There is a bug in the code that shows an underscore character instead of a power symbol for Potions with power < 40. This bug also applies to ‘Empty Flask’ which has Power = 0 (but not ‘Water Flask’).
    In Dungeon Master II, the potion power is displayed to the player with a bar.

4D90h (19856) 96 bytes - List of containers

Each container is defined by 8 bytes. (12 containers * 8 bytes = 96 bytes)

• 1 word: Next object ID.
• 1 word: Next contained object ID
• 1 word:
  • Bits 15-3: Unknown (Seems to have random content)
  • Bits 2-1: Container type. In Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back, the only valid value is 00 for the Chests.
  • Bit 0: Unknown (Seems to have random content)
• 1 word: 00 00 : Unused

4DF0h (19952) 1120 bytes - List of miscellaneous items

Each miscellaneous item is defined by 4 bytes. (280 miscellaneous items * 4 bytes = 1120 bytes)

• 1 word: Next object ID.
• 1 word: Item attributes

  • Bits 15-14: Used for Waterskin / Compass / Bones

    • ‘00’ Empty / North / Champion #1
    • ‘01’ Almost empty / East / Champion #2
    • ‘10’ Almost full / South / Champion #3
    • ‘11’ Full / West / Champion #4

    Also used by Illumulet & Jewel Symal (worn / not worn).
    There is a function in the game to decrement the number of charges of an object and it would decrement this value when called for an object of type ‘Miscellaneous object’ however this never happens as all actions causing a decrement of the number of charges apply only to object of type ‘Weapon’.

  • Bits 13-8: Unused

  • Bits 7: Important item. An important item will not be flushed if the game has no more free space to store newly created items. Only non important items can be flushed. This bit is only set for specific items in the dungeon (defined by the creator) and for the bones of dead champions (created at runtime). All other items created at runtime (dropped by creatures or launched by missile launchers) have this bit cleared.

  • Bits 6-0: Item type. You can refer to the Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back Items properties page to find the complete list of possible values.

4DF0h (19952) 0 bytes - List of missiles

Each missile is defined by 8 bytes.

• 1 word: Next object ID.
• 1 word: Missile object (dagger, fireball, …)
• 1 byte: Range Energy remaining. This value is decreased each time the missile moves. When it reaches 0, the missile stops moving. This value is used to compute missile damage when a collision occurs.
• 1 byte: Damage Energy remaining. This value is decreased each time the missile moves. This value is also used to compute missile damage when a collision occurs.
• 1 word: event index

4DF0h (19952) 0 bytes - List of clouds

Each cloud is defined by 4 bytes.

• 1 word: Next object ID.
• 1 word:
  • Bits 15-8: Value. Like Damage.
  • Bit 7: Unknown
  • Bit 6-0: Type (50 is special to creatures?) (fluxcage?)

5250h (21072) 12283 bytes - Map data

This section contains the data for each map in the dungeon, one after another without any separator. Each map is defined by a variable number of bytes consisting of the following parts and in this order:

• One byte for each dungeon tile. The number of tiles is computed from the map width and height stored in the map definition (byte count = map width * map height, be careful that the values stored in the header are the actual map width -1 and the actual map height -1).
• One byte for each creature graphic. The number of creature graphics is stored in the map definition.
• One byte for each wall decoration graphic. The number of wall decoration graphics is stored in the map definition.
• One byte for each floor decoration graphic. The number of floor decoration graphics is stored in the map definition.
• One byte for each door decoration graphics. The number of door decoration graphics is stored in the map definition.

Each tile is defined by 1 byte. Tile bytes are ordered by columns, from top to bottom.
The first byte is for the tile with coordinates X=0,Y=0
The second byte is for the tile with coordinates X=0,Y=1
After all the bytes of the first column, the next first byte represents the first tile of the second column with coordinates X=1,Y=0, and so on until the last column of tiles in the map.

• 1 byte: Tile definition
  • Bits 7-5: Tile type:
    • ‘000’ (0) Wall
    • ‘001’ (1) Floor
    • ‘010’ (2) Pit
    • ‘011’ (3) Stairs
    • ‘100’ (4) Door
    • ‘101’ (5) Teleporter
    • ‘110’ (6) Trick wall
    • ‘111’ (7) Empty tile. Only valid in Dungeon Master II.
  • Bit 4: Object(s) on this tile
    • ‘0’ No object on this tile
    • ‘1’ A list of object on this tile
  • Bits 3-0: Tile attributes depending on tile type:
    • Wall
      • Bit 3:
        • ‘0’ Do not allow random decoration on North side
        • ‘1’ Allow random decoration on North side
      • Bit 2:
        • ‘0’ Do not allow random decoration on East side
        • ‘1’ Allow random decoration on East side
      • Bit 1:
        • ‘0’ Do not allow random decoration on South side
        • ‘1’ Allow random decoration on South side
      • Bit 0:
        • ‘0’ Do not allow random decoration on West side
        • ‘1’ Allow random decoration on West side
    • Floor
      • Bit 3:
        • ‘0’ Do not allow random decoration
        • ‘1’ Allow random decoration
      • Bit 2-0: Unused
    • Pit
      • Bit 0:
        • ‘0’ Normal
        • ‘1’ Imaginary
      • Bit 1: Unused
      • Bit 2:
        • ‘0’ Visible
        • ‘1’ Invisible
      • Bit 3:
        • ‘0’ Closed
        • ‘1’ Open
    • Stairs
      • Bit 3: Orientation
        • ‘0’ West-East
        • ‘1’ North-South
      • Bit 2: Direction
        • ‘0’ Down
        • ‘1’ Up
      • Bit 1-0: Unused
    • Door
      • Bit 2-0: State
        • ‘000’ Open
        • ‘001’ 1/4 closed
        • ‘010’ 1/2 closed
        • ‘011’ 3/4 closed
        • ‘100’ Closed
        • ‘101’ Bashed
        • ‘110’ Invalid
        • ‘111’ Invalid
      • Bit 3: Orientation
        • ‘0’ West-East
        • ‘1’ North-South
    • Teleporter
      • Bit 1-0: Unused
      • Bit 2: Visibility
        • ‘0’ Invisible
        • ‘1’ Visible (blue haze)
      • Bit 3:
        • ‘0’ Closed
        • ‘1’ Open
    • Trick wall
      • Bit 0:
        • ‘0’ False
        • ‘1’ Imaginary
      • Bit 1: Unused
      • Bit 2:
        • ‘0’ Closed
        • ‘1’ Open
      • Bit 3:
        • ‘0’ Do not allow random decoration
        • ‘1’ Allow random decoration
    • Empty tile
      • Bit 3-0: Unused.

Each creature graphic is defined by 1 byte. The number of bytes is specified in the map definition.

Each wall decoration graphic is defined by 1 byte. The number of bytes is specified in the map definition. Here is the list of possible values for Dungeon Master:

• 00 Unreadable Wall Inscription
• 01 Square Alcove
• 02 Vi Altar
• 03 Arched Alcove
• 04 Hook
• 05 Iron Lock
• 06 Wood Ring
• 07 Small Switch
• 08 Dent 1
• 09 Dent 2
• 10 Iron Ring
• 11 Crack
• 12 Slime Outlet
• 13 Dent 3
• 14 Tiny Switch
• 15 Green Switch Out
• 16 Blue Switch Out
• 17 Coin Slot
• 18 Double Iron Lock
• 19 Square Lock
• 20 Winged Lock
• 21 Onyx Lock
• 22 Stone Lock
• 23 Cross Lock
• 24 Topaz Lock
• 25 Skeleton Lock
• 26 Gold Lock
• 27 Tourquoise Lock
• 28 Emerald Lock
• 29 Ruby Lock
• 30 Ra Lock
• 31 Master Lock
• 32 Gem Hole
• 33 Slime
• 34 Grate
• 35 Fountain
• 36 Manacles
• 37 Ghoul’s Head
• 38 Empty Torch Holder
• 39 Scratches
• 40 Poison Holes
• 41 Fireball Holes
• 42 Dagger Holes
• 43 Champion Mirror
• 44 Lever Up
• 45 Lever Down
• 46 Full Torch Holder
• 47 Red Switch Out
• 48 Eye Switch
• 49 Big Switch Out
• 50 Crack Switch Out
• 51 Green Switch In
• 52 Blue Switch In
• 53 Red Switch In
• 54 Big Switch In
• 55 Crack Switch In
• 56 Amalgam (Encased Gem)
• 57 Amalgam (Free Gem)
• 58 Amalgam (Without Gem)
• 59 Lord Order (Outside)

Each floor decoration graphic is defined by 1 byte. The number of bytes is specified in the map definition. Here is the list of possible values for Dungeon Master:

• 00 Square Grate
• 01 Square Pressure Pad
• 02 Moss
• 03 Round Grate
• 04 Round Pressure Plate
• 05 Black Flame Pit
• 06 Crack
• 07 Tiny Pressure Pad
• 08 Puddle

Each door decoration graphic is defined by 1 byte. The number of bytes is specified in the map definition. Here is the list of possible values for Dungeon Master:

• 00 Square Grid
• 01 Iron Bars
• 02 Jewels
• 03 Wooden Bars
• 04 Arched Grid
• 05 Block Lock
• 06 Corner Lock
• 07 Black door (Dungeon Entrance)
• 08 Red Triangle Lock
• 09 Triangle Lock
• 10 Ra Door Energy
• 11 Iron Door Damages

824Bh (33355) 1 word - Checksum

This word contains the checksum of all the previous data in the file.

Tested on PC34ML version (to be tested with other versions): if checksum is not present, no problem. If present and correct value, no problem. If present but wrong value, then the message “The game is damaged!” is displayed by the game.

824Dh (33357) 0 bytes - End of file

Compressed dungeons

This section describes the format of a compressed dungeon file. Once uncompressed, the data obtained has exactly the same format as an uncompressed dungeon.

0000h (00000) 28 bytes - File header

• 1 word: 8104 (33028) : File signature. If a dungeon file starts with this word value, the game will know that the dungeon is compressed.
• 1 dword: Size of the uncompressed dungeon data.
• 1 word: Unknown use. 000Ch or 0008h have been encountered.
• 4 bytes: List of the 4 most common byte values in the dungeon data.
• 16 bytes: List of the 16 less common byte values in the dungeon data.

0000h (00028) x bytes - Compressed data

The most common bytes in the uncompressed dungeon data are encoded as three bits ‘0xx’. The two bits after the first ‘0’ bit define the index in the table of most common bytes.
The less common bytes in the uncompressed dungeon data are encoded as six bits ‘10xxxx’. The four bits after the first two ‘10’ bits define the index in the table of less common bytes.
The least common bytes in the uncompressed dungeon data are encoded as ten bits ‘11xxxxxxxx’. The eight bits after the first two ‘11’ bits directly define the byte value.

In each byte of compressed data, bits are read from the most significant one to the least significant one. Once all bits in a byte have been used, the next byte is read from the file.

DungeonF.dat

Dungeon Master (PC) - French Dungeon Description [Credits: Jean-Claude]

This archive contains an Excel spreadsheet detailing the contents of the DungeonF.dat file (French dungeon)

Special Thanks

I wish to thank Zyx and Meynaf for their dungeon.dat descriptions, Sphenx for his precious help, Beowuuf for his DMute Hex guide, kentaro.k-21 for his description of the Dungeon Master II sensors and Paul R. Stevens for the source code of Chaos Strikes Back for Windows and for help about the compression algorithm.

History of this document

Version 1.8 - June 5, 2011

The text data section was updated with more details.
Added an Excel spreadsheet detailing the DungeonF.dat file from Dungeon Master for PC 3.4 Multilanguage

Version 1.7 - April 13, 2009

The list of dungeons has been updated to include all known original dungeon files.

Version 1.6 - February 14, 2009

Added some information supplied by Meynaf regarding the second word in Map Definitions

Version 1.5 - September 10, 2008

Added some information supplied by Meynaf: DM Atari ST 1.2 EN does not support compressed dungeons,
Define the first word as a dungeon ID,
Explained how some dungeon texts are stored in graphics.dat.

Version 1.4 - December 29, 2007

Updated the List of texts section.
Renamed the ‘Map exit’ tile type to ‘Empty tile’.

Version 1.3 - February 11, 2007

The last two bytes of creatures are in fact a word, they must be read as big or little endian depending on the platform.

Version 1.2 - December 10, 2005

Lots of additions and corrections supplied by Meynaf, including documentation of sensors.

Version 1.1 - March 4, 2004

Some additions and corrections suggested by Meynaf.

Version 1.0 - February 9, 2003

First release