The Chaos Strikes Back utility disk includes a tool called the Portrait Editor. It allows you to change the name title and image of your champions in a Dungeon Master or Chaos Strikes Back saved game.
You can also save portraits for later use in .CMP files. The Chaos Strikes Back Utility Disk contains a set of .CMP files for all the Dungeon Master champions. Their new appearance is meant to reflect their higher level of experience in case you choose to import your Dungeon Master party.
The goal of this page is to describe the format of .CMP files.
Each .CMP file is 508 bytes long and contains:
The file format is the same for Chaos Strikes Back for Atari ST and Amiga.
I wrote a tool called CMPConverter v1.1 to convert files between .CMP and .bmp formats.
Notes:
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.
2 bytes: 91 A7 : Magic number for Portrait file (file signature).
7 words: System reserved use.
A value of 0001h in the second word identifies that the file originates from Atari ST.
The name can contain up to 7 characters and must be uppercase only. Allowed characters: “A to Z . ; :” and space. The string must be terminated with a 00 byte. If the name is shorter than 7 characters it is padded with 00 bytes.
The title can contain up to 19 characters and must be uppercase only. Allowed characters: “A to Z . ; :” and space. The string must be terminated with a 00 byte. If the title is shorter than 19 characters it is padded with 00 bytes.
The image is saved in Atari planar format. It is divided into 58 blocks of 8 bytes.
Each block of 8 bytes defines a half of a line (16 pixels). Blocks are listed line by line from the upper left corner of the image to the lower right corner.
Each pixel is coded on 4 bits (2^4=16 colors). Bit 0 is the least significant bit and Bit 3 is the most significant bit.
Please refer to the table below for the bit values/colors correspondance.
An example of an 8 bytes block with arbitrary values:
01001011 11100001 00001101 01001010 10100010 10101111 00101001 11111000
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | - Bit 3 of the 16th pixel
| | | | | | - Bit 3 of the 1st pixel
| | | | | - Bit 1 of the 16th pixel
| | | | - Bit 1 of the 1st pixel
| | | - Bit 0 of the 16th pixel
| | - Bit 0 of the 9th pixel
| - Bit 0 of the 8th pixel
- Bit 0 of the 1st pixel
The color palette is not saved in the .CMP files. It is the same palette as the one used in the game:
| Color Number | Bit values 3 2 1 0 | Color name | Original Atari ST RGB values (0-7) | Original Apple IIGS and Amiga RGB values (0-F) | Converted RGB values (0-255) | Color |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 (00) | 0 0 0 0 | Black | 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 00 00 00 | |
| 1 (01) | 0 0 0 1 | Gray 43% | 3 3 3 | 6 6 6 | 6D 6D 6D | |
| 2 (02) | 0 0 1 0 | Gray 57% | 4 4 4 | 8 8 8 | 92 92 92 | |
| 3 (03) | 0 0 1 1 | Dark Brown | 3 1 0 | 6 2 0 | 6D 24 00 | |
| 4 (04) | 0 1 0 0 | Turquoise | 0 6 6 | 0 C C | 00 DB DB | |
| 5 (05) | 0 1 0 1 | Light Brown | 4 2 0 | 8 4 0 | 92 49 00 | |
| 6 (06) | 0 1 1 0 | Dark Green | 0 4 0 | 0 8 0 | 00 92 00 | |
| 7 (07) | 0 1 1 1 | Light Green | 0 6 0 | 0 C 0 | 00 DB 00 | |
| 8 (08) | 1 0 0 0 | Red | 7 0 0 | F 0 0 | FF 00 00 | |
| 9 (09) | 1 0 0 1 | Gold | 7 5 0 | F A 0 | FF B6 00 | |
| A (10) | 1 0 1 0 | Flesh | 6 4 3 | C 8 6 | DB 92 6D | |
| B (11) | 1 0 1 1 | Yellow | 7 7 0 | F F 0 | FF FF 00 | |
| C (12) | 1 1 0 0 | Gray 28% | 2 2 2 | 4 4 4 | 49 49 49 | |
| D (13) | 1 1 0 1 | Gray 71% | 5 5 5 | A A A | B6 B6 B6 | |
| E (14) | 1 1 1 0 | Blue | 0 0 7 | 0 0 F | 00 00 FF | |
| F (15) | 1 1 1 1 | White | 7 7 7 | F F F | FF FF FF |
Here is the same table with the colors listed in the same order as they appear on the Portrait Editor screen:
| Color Number | Bit values 3 2 1 0 | Color name | Original Atari ST RGB values (0-7) | Original Apple IIGS and Amiga RGB values (0-F) | Converted RGB values (0-255) | Color |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 (00) | 0 0 0 0 | Black | 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 00 00 00 | |
| C (12) | 1 1 0 0 | Gray 28% | 2 2 2 | 4 4 4 | 49 49 49 | |
| 1 (01) | 0 0 0 1 | Gray 43% | 3 3 3 | 6 6 6 | 6D 6D 6D | |
| 2 (02) | 0 0 1 0 | Gray 57% | 4 4 4 | 8 8 8 | 92 92 92 | |
| D (13) | 1 1 0 1 | Gray 71% | 5 5 5 | A A A | B6 B6 B6 | |
| F (15) | 1 1 1 1 | White | 7 7 7 | F F F | FF FF FF | |
| 3 (03) | 0 0 1 1 | Dark Brown | 3 1 0 | 6 2 0 | 6D 24 00 | |
| 5 (05) | 0 1 0 1 | Light Brown | 4 2 0 | 8 4 0 | 92 49 00 | |
| A (10) | 1 0 1 0 | Flesh | 6 4 3 | C 8 6 | DB 92 6D | |
| 8 (08) | 1 0 0 0 | Red | 7 0 0 | F 0 0 | FF 00 00 | |
| 9 (09) | 1 0 0 1 | Gold | 7 5 0 | F A 0 | FF B6 00 | |
| B (11) | 1 0 1 1 | Yellow | 7 7 0 | F F 0 | FF FF 00 | |
| 7 (07) | 0 1 1 1 | Light Green | 0 6 0 | 0 C 0 | 00 DB 00 | |
| 6 (06) | 0 1 1 0 | Dark Green | 0 4 0 | 0 8 0 | 00 92 00 | |
| 4 (04) | 0 1 0 0 | Turquoise | 0 6 6 | 0 C C | 00 DB DB | |
| E (14) | 1 1 1 0 | Blue | 0 0 7 | 0 0 F | 00 00 FF |
Note: The original Atari ST RGB values were listed by Wayne Holder in an article he published (see below).
The original Amiga RGB values were extracted from the game executable.
The converted RGB values were computed using the following formula: Round(Atari ST value * 255 / 7)
Wayne Holder published the technical details of cmp files as a reply to users wanting to exchange portraits in the CPU Newswire online magazine from STR Publishing Inc. Issue No.4.03 January 19 1990. Here it is in its original form:
FTL RESPONDS! CPU/STR Spotlight FTL tries hard to satisfy!
===============================
THE FINE ART OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
=====================================
FTL Replies;
News Flash from Gestapo Headquarters!
- - -
Regarding the debate over my request to stop uploading saved games. I
think I can propose an alternate solution. As I mentioned before my
concern is primarily protecting our copyrights. I really don't want to
discourage people from trading Champions. However currently the saved
game file contains more than the Champion stats. In discussing this with
my staff we came up with the idea of creating a utility that would extract
only the Champion data from a game file and convert it into a form that
could be uploaded and directly read by the Chaos Strikes Back Utility
disk. Would this be an acceptable solution?
Editor Note;
to FTL....
Not only is the solution offered by you (FTL) excellent it also
illustrates clearly for all to see why this company is the success it
is.. These good people recognize the true value of customer support and
offer themselves to this ens unselfishly. Many thanks are offered for a
quick and equitable solution. Your sense of humor is to be applauded.
Your handling of this entire situation could easily be a lesson in
diplomacy and good will all of us can learn from. Again thanks.
---===**===---
Regarding the Champion picture files.
Here is a description of the format of these files.
(All offsets in bytes)
offset 0: 0x91A7 Magic number for Portrait file
offset 2: 0x000A System reserved use
offset 4: 0x0001 Identifies file originates from Atari ST
offset 6: 0x0001 System reserved use
offset 8: 0x0001 System reserved use
offset 10: 0x0000 System reserved use
offset 12: 0x0000 System reserved use
offset 14: 0x0000 System reserved use
offset 16: "NICKNME"0 Nickname (8 bytes total incl zero delim)
offset 24: "CHAMP TITLE"0 Title (20 bytes total incl zero delim)
offset 44: portrait data See note 3.
- - -
Notes:
1. Title is optional (first byte may be zero) but all Champions must
have a NICKNAME (offset 16)
2. Valid characters for nickname or title are uppercase A-Z comma
period semicolon colon and space.
3. Portrait is 464 bytes (32 pixels wide by 29 lines tall)
saved in Atari planar format as follows:
line 1 <16 bit plane 0> MSB is leftmost pixel
<16 bit plane 1>
<16 bit plane 2>
<16 bit plane 3>
<16 bit plane 0> LSB is rightmost pixel
<16 bit plane 1>
<16 bit plane 2>
<16 bit plane 3>
Lines 2-29 repeat as above.
4. Color palette is not saved in file but is assumed to be as follows:
color 0: 0x0000 Black
color 1: 0x0333 gray
color 2: 0x0444 gray
color 3: 0x0310 brown
color 4: 0x0066 cyan
color 5: 0x0420 brown
color 6: 0x0040 green
color 7: 0x0060 green
color 8: 0x0700 red
color 9: 0x0750 gold
color 10: 0x0643 flesh
color 11: 0x0770 yellow
color 12: 0x0222 gray
color 13: 0x0555 gray
color 14: 0x0007 blue
color 15: 0x0777 white
- - -
If anyone writes any useful utilities with this info I'd like to
receive a copy. Send it to:
Wayne Holder
C/O Software Heaven Inc.
6160 Lusk Blvd. Suite C-206
San Diego Calif 92121.
I wish to thank George Gilbert the developer of DMute. I used this tool to produce some sample .CMP files that helped me decode the whole file. I could have done it using the Chaos Strikes Back Portrait Editor but DMute was easier to use.