DAT Format (The Lost Vikings)

DAT Format (The Lost Vikings)

Format type	Archive
Max files	Unknown
File Allocation Table (FAT)	Beginning
Filenames?	No
Metadata?	None
Supports compression?	Yes
Supports encryption?	No
Supports subdirectories?	No
Hidden data?	No
Games	The Lost Vikings

The DAT format is used by The Lost Vikings to store game data in DATA.DAT. This file contains pointers to data with LZ77-based compression.

File format

Signature

There is no known signature for this format, except the filename itself.

File entry

The beginning of the file contains 32-bit pointers to compressed chunks. There are 535 chunks. Data follows, in order, immediately after the pointers.

Format:

0..3: Offset to start of chunk
4..7: Offset to start of next chunk (also indicates where the previous chunk stops)
...

Compression

Each chunk is LZ77-compressed. Window size is 4096 bytes.

Chunk overview:

0..1: Uncompressed size (minus 1 - add 1 to this number)
2: Bitmask of the next 8 elements (raw (1) or dictionary (0))
3..x: 8 elements
x: Bitmask of the next 8 elements
x-y: 8 elements
...

For each element:

If raw:
0: Raw byte (append to output and to sliding window/dictionary)

If dictionary:
0..1: len+offset (4b len (3-18), 12b absolute window offset)

Copy data, byte for byte, from window, to both output and window/dictionary

Note: Sliding window is 4096 bytes, and initialized to 0 before decompressing. When decompressing, offset starts on 0 and increments.

Data overview

There are 535 chunks of compressed data with various length.

The game also operates with distinct "game screens", each with an index.

Game screens:

0: First level
1: Second level
...
36: Last level
37: Death screen
38: Menu, screen 3
39: Menu, screen 1
40: Menu, screen 2
41: Galaxy fall (between levels)
43: Intro level (demo)
44: Intro level part 2
45: Game complete
46: Game complete 2
47: Credits screen

Each screen have a screendata chunk, which is mapped as following (2 byte (LSB) index for each):

19F0:940C     C6 00 C8 00 CA 00 CC 00 28 00 2A 00 2C 00 2E 00  ........(.*.,...
19F0:941C     30 00 32 00 34 00 4B 00 4D 00 4F 00 51 00 53 00  0.2.4.K.M.O.Q.S.
19F0:942C     55 00 72 00 74 00 76 00 78 00 7A 00 7C 00 7E 00  U.r.t.v.x.z.|.~.
19F0:943C     80 00 9C 00 9E 00 A0 00 A2 00 A4 00 A6 00 A8 00  ................
19F0:944C     AA 00 CE 00 D0 00 D2 00 D4 00 71 01 7D 01 86 01  ..........q.}...
19F0:945C     8C 01 92 01 7E 01 AF 01 B0 01 B1 01 B2 01 DA 00  ....~...........

Screendata contents:

22: Index of next gamescreen
28: Type? (1: level)
41: Tilemap width
46..47: Chunk ID with tilemap
48..49: Chunk ID with tile definitions (pixels)
50..51: Chunk ID with metatile definitions (4 tiles)
67: N chunks of unknown type, length 14, terminated by FF FF
67+N*14+2: N chunks of palette data, length 3, terminated by FF FF

Offset 67 (unknown data):

0..1: Chunk ID? (list terminates if this is FFFF)
2..13: Unknown data

Offset 67+N*14+2 (palette):

0..1: Chunk ID (list terminates if this is FFFF)
2: First color index (multiply this with 3 and copy data to that destination, palette is 256*3 bytes

Palette setup:

1: Prepare array with 3x256 bytes
2: Load each chunk to its location (several chunks with different sizes may be written to the same index)
3: Set color 16, 32, 48, 64, ..., 240 to [0,0,0] (black)
4: Color 4 is special (transparent/background/...?)

Known chunks:

First image in menu ("Interplay (tm)" splashscreen):
390: Pointers to the other chunk IDs (81 B)
388: Tiles (9024 B = 141 tiles * 64 B) (tiles is 8 x 8)
385: Palette (384 B = 80 colors * 3 B)
386: Tilemap (560 B = 20 x 14 metatiles * 2 B). 52 unique metatiles (each metatile is 16 x 16 and consist of 4 tiles)
387: Metatiles (4 tiles forms 1 metatile) (416 B = 52 * 8 B)

394: Tiles for 2nd splashscreen in the menu

Tile format

Each tile is 8 x 8 pixels, with 256 colors (using a palette).

Pixels are organised as following:

0: Pos 0/0
1: Pos 4/0
2: Pos 0/1
3: Pos 4/1
4: Pos 0/2
...
14: Pos 0/7
15: Pos 4/7
16: Pos 1/0
17: Pos 5/0
...
62: Pos 3/7
63: Pos 7/7

Metatile format

Each metatile consist of 2 x 2 tiles (16 x 16 pixels).

Metatiles:

0..1: Upper left tile
2..3: Upper right tile
4..5: Lower left tile
6..7: Lower right tile

Each tile in this list is 16 bit LSB.

Bit 4: Horizontal flip
Bit 5: Vertical flip
Bit 6..15: Tile index

Tilemap format

Tilemap have 2 bytes (LSB) for each metatile.

Bit 0..8: Metatile index

Tools

The following tools are able to work with files in this format.

Name	Platform	Extract files?	Decompress on extract?	Create new?	Modify?	Compress on insert?	Access hidden data?	Edit metadata?	Notes
Camoto	Linux/Windows	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Wombat	Windows	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Blizzard DATA unpacker	Windows	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	partial support
Lost Vikings data extractor	Windows	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No

Credits

This file format was reverse engineered by Eirik. If you find this information helpful in a project you're working on, please give credit where credit is due. (A link back to this wiki would be nice too!)