dmcsb 0.2.1

Dungeon Master Tools — extract data from Dungeon Master / Chaos Strikes Back files (GRAPHICS.DAT, DUNGEON.DAT)

Dungeon Master Tools

Dungeon Master Tools is a collection of Tools in Python for the Amiga/PC/Atari ST Game, packaged as the importable dmcsb package (published on PyPI as dmcsb — pip install dmcsb):

• dmcsb.dungeon (DungeonFile) - loads and extracts the data in DUNGEON.DAT (big-endian Amiga/Atari ST and little-endian PC)
• dmcsb.graphics (GraphicsFile) - library for GRAPHICS.DAT handling (big-endian and little-endian PC)
• dmcsb.versions - byte-order / game-version auto-detection (checksum registry + structural)

Byte order and game variant are auto-detected on load (see dmcsb.versions): a CRC32 registry of known files pins the exact release, falling back to structural detection (endian signature + item count). For GRAPHICS.DAT the matching bundled item map is then selected automatically (e.g. graphics_pc.map for a PC file).

Installation

pip install dmcsb              # optional: "dmcsb[pil]" enables GraphicsFile.to_pil()

or, from a source checkout, pip install -e . (or just run from the repo root — the package is importable without installing).

Command line

Installing puts a dmcsb command on your PATH (equivalently python3 -m dmcsb):

dmcsb dump GRAPHICS.DAT [out_dir]      # -> PNG/WAV/TXT/.bin + an HTML contact sheet
dmcsb dungeon DUNGEON.DAT --level 1    # print one dungeon level (map, things, champions)
dmcsb uncompress DUNGEON.DAT [out.dat] # write a decompressed copy (no parsing)
dmcsb identify GRAPHICS.DAT|DUNGEON.DAT # auto-detect the version / byte order of a file

dmcsb dump also takes --map / --palettes / --zones to override the bundled tables. The same three operations are available as standalone scripts in examples/ (thin wrappers over the library, runnable from a source checkout).

After loading a DungeonFile you can access all data from the object:

• hdr -> header dict
• maps[] / mapsinfo[str(level)] -> map descriptors (in file order / keyed by Level)
• thinglist[] -> 16 entries in storage order (None for unused types)
• things[name] -> decoded list by type: "Door", "Creature", "Weapon", "Sensor", ... (whole dungeon)
• things_on_level(level) -> things located on one level, grouped by type
• located_things(level) -> things on a level with their map (x, y) + sub-square cell (dir N/E/S/W)
• item_name(category, type) -> human item name (Weapon/Armour/Potion/Junk/Container/Scroll)
• text(textstring) / texts() -> decoded message strings (signs, ...)
• scroll_text(scroll) -> the text a scroll points at (via its TextStringThingIndex)
• champions() -> all champion sheets in the dungeon (name, title, gender, stats, skills); champions_on_level(level) -> only those whose sheet sits on that level (e.g. the Hall of Champions), with x,y; champion(offset) decodes one
• tile_data -> raw tile bytes; tile_grid(level) -> 2-D tile array
• text_data -> raw encoded dungeon text
• chksum -> trailing checksum word, or None if the file has none

for more info see: http://dmweb.free.fr/?q=node/217

The library is silent (no prints); load from a path, bytes, or an open file. Big-endian (Amiga / Atari ST) and little-endian (PC) files are both supported and auto-detected; d.endian ('>'/'<') and d.variant report what was detected.

from dmcsb import open_dungeon

d = open_dungeon("DUNGEON.DAT")          # or open_dungeon(data=raw_bytes)
print(d.hdr['OrnamentRandomSeed'])
print(d.mapsinfo['1']['Difficulty'])
for door in d.things['Door']:                 # every door in the dungeon
    print(door['Type'], door['OrnamentOrdinal'])

for name, items in d.things_on_level(1).items():   # only level 1, grouped by type
    print(name, len(items))

for i, visible, msg in d.texts():             # decoded scroll/sign messages
    print(i, repr(msg))
for c in d.champions():                       # initial party champions
    print(c['name'], c['title'], c['Health'], c['Strength'])

Text uses DM's 5-bit packing (3 codes per 16-bit word). The decoder handles letters, spaces, ., line breaks and the standard DM/CSB escape tables (so e.g. THE / YOU expand inside titles and messages); pass an escape= callback to override them. It targets the normal/"new font" text used by the Amiga versions. Champion statistics/skills are stored as hex nibbles and decoded to integers (Stamina is kept as the raw value, i.e. 10x the number shown in-game).

---

When you run the demo, it prints one dungeon level:

python3 examples/demo_dungeon.py [level] [DUNGEON.DAT]

level defaults to 1; the optional second argument is the path to the file (defaults to DUNGEON.DAT). For example python3 examples/demo_dungeon.py 5 shows Level 5. With no arguments, Level 1 is shown:

Map at Level 1 ----------------
  RawMapDataByteOffset: 376
  OffsetMapX: 0, OffsetMapY: 14
  Width: 31, Height: 31, Level: 1
  RandomFloorOrnamentCount: 2
  FloorOrnamentCount: 3
  RandomWallOrnamentCount: 3
  WallOrnamentCount: 12
  Difficulty: 1
  CreatureTypeCount: 2
  DoorOrnamentCount: 3
  DoorSet1: 1, DoorSet0: 0
  WallSet: 0, FloorSet: 0

Creatures/Wall/Floor/Doors used ----------------
Creature: 6, 10, 
WallOrnate: 33, 4, 35, 51, 15, 1, 49, 38, 46, 45, 44, 5, 
FloorOrnate: 2, 8, 1, 
DoorDeco: 4, 8, 3, 

MapData ----------------

  1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1   1 1 4 1 1   1 1 1         1     1 1 4 1   1 1 
  1     3     4     1       1 1 1 1 1 4 4 1   1 1 1 1     1   1 5 
  1 1         1   1 1 1 1       1 1 1     1   1 1       1 1 1     
    4         1   1 1   1   1 1           1   1   1 1 1     1 5   
    1                   1   1 1 1 1 1 1 1 5   4   1   1 4 1 1     
  1 1   1 4 1 4 1 1   1 1   1   1 1 1 1     1 1   2               
  1     1             1           1       1 1     1 1           1 
  1 1 1 1   1 1 1     1   1 1 1   1 1 1 1 1 1       1   1 1 1 1 1 
  1     1   1   2     1   1 1 1               1 1 1 1   1   1   4 
    1 1 1   4   1   1 1   1         1 1 1 1 1 1         1   1   1 
    1       1       1   1 1   1 1   1         1 1 1 1 1 1   1   1 
  1 1 1 1 1 1   1   1   1 1 1 1 1   1   1   1       4       1     
  1             1 1 1   4               1   1 1 1   1 1 1   1 1   
  1 1 1 4 1 1 4 1       1         1 1 1 1 1 1   1 1     1         
    1                 1 1   1 1   1 1 1 1 1       1 1   1 1 1 1 1 
    1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1     2     1 1 1 1 1   1     1       1   1 
      1 1 1               1 5     1 1 1 1 1   1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1   1 
              1 1 1 1     1       1 1 1 1 1         1 1 1 1 1   1 
  1 1 1 1 1 1 1     1     1   1       4       1                   
  1 1 1 1 1 1 1   1 1     1   1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1         1 1 1 1   
  1   1 1 1 1 1   1   1 1 1           4           1 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 
  1 1 1         1 1   1 1 1   1 1 1   5 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1     1 
    1           4     1       1   1 1 1   1                     1 
    1 1 1   1 1 1 1   1 1 1 1 1                     1   1 1 1 1 1 
        1   1 1 1 1                     1 1 1   1 1 1   1   1     
        1       1 1 1 1 1   1 1 1       1   1   1   1 1 1   1 1   
        1     3   1 1   1 1 1   1 1 4 1 1   1   1                 
        1     1     1 1   1       4         1   1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1   
        1     1     1 1   1 1 1   1       1 1 1     1         1   
        1     1 1 1       1 1 6           1 1 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 1   
      1 1 1 1     1       1   1 1         1 1 1                   
      1 1   1 1 1 1           1 1                   

The demo also prints every Thing on the level (grouped by type) after the map.

To just decompress a compressed dungeon to a raw file (no parsing):

python3 examples/uncompress_dungeon.py DUNGEON.DAT [output.dat]

The output defaults to <input>.uncompressed.

dmcsb package — GRAPHICS.DAT library

The graphics handling lives in the installable dmcsb package. It loads a GRAPHICS.DAT into memory and decodes images (IMG1/IMG2 Amiga·Atari, IMG3/IMG4 PC), the FNT1 font, sounds (SND1/SND2 signed, SND3 PC unsigned), text (TXT1 high-bit terminated, TXT2 null terminated) and the LAY1 screen layout. Byte order and the bundled item map are auto-detected per file. The data tables (image map, palettes, zone names) are bundled inside the package and applied automatically — you can override them by passing your own paths.

Use it in your own project (after pip install dmcsb — see Installation):

from dmcsb import open_graphics

g = open_graphics("GRAPHICS.DAT")   # bundled map + palettes auto-applied
# overrides: open_graphics("GRAPHICS.DAT", map="my_map.txt", palettes="my_pal.txt")
# from memory: open_graphics(data=open("GRAPHICS.DAT","rb").read())

len(g)                  # number of items
list(g)                 # [(index, type_name), ...]
g.info(i)               # {type, name, palette, sizes, compressed}

g.image(i)              # image/FNT1 -> (w, h, rgb_bytes)
g.image_indexed(i)      # -> (w, h, palette_indices) for your own coloring
g.to_pil(i)             # -> PIL.Image (needs Pillow)
g.font()                # finds FNT1 -> (w, h, rgb_bytes)
g.sound(i)              # SND1/SND2/SND3 -> signed 8-bit PCM
g.text(i)               # TXT1/TXT2 -> [str]
g.layout()              # LAY1 -> {'signature','ranges','records'} (relative coords)
g.endian / g.variant    # detected byte order ('>'/'<') and version key
g.first_of_type("LAY1") /  g.indices_of_type("SND3")

To dump everything into a folder of PNG/WAV/TXT plus an HTML contact sheet, see the example app (it consumes the library):

python3 examples/dump_graphics.py GRAPHICS.DAT gfx/
# optional overrides: ... gfx/ my_graphics_map palettes.txt zones.txt

---

Many Thanks to ChristopheF & Sphenx