DTA Format (Fury of the Furries)
| Format type | Text |
|---|---|
| Text purpose | Control |
| Line endings | None |
| Character set | ASCII |
| Games |
The PASSW.DTA file found in Fury of the Furries contains the passwords. One of these passwords is requested when the game starts, as a form of copy-protection.
The passwords were originally printed on a piece of card in the box with the game; printed in pale blue to thwart photocopying.
The file is not strictly a text file, but only the first 4 bytes are integers specifying the number of passwords in the file. After that, the passwords are all in ASCII.
Format
| Data type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| UINT16LE | rows | The number of rows in the file. |
| UINT16LE | columns | The number of columns in the file. |
| char[6 × rows × columns] | passwords | The passwords in ASCII. Each password is 6 characters |
Notes
The game asks for a password by reference to its location on the printed sheet. Originally there were 5 columns labelled A to E and 150 rows numbered from 1 to 150. So the game might ask for D122 for example.
The first password in the file is for A001 and the second is for B001 etc.
Each password is 6 characters, most of them of the form A9A9A9 i.e. alternating between an alphabetic character and a digit. But password B085 is the word 'FREMEN' one of many references in the game to Frank Herbert's novel Dune
Credits
This file format was reverse engineered by carbon14. 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!)