Dave 2 Tileinfo format

Dangerous Dave 2 has an internal tileinfo file that details the properties of its tileset, whether they block the player, whether they kill, etc. Interestingly, despite Dave 2 using the Commander Keen 1-3 engine, it has a modified and greatly trimmed tileinfo.

The location of the internal file in the decompressed executable of the two games known to use it is:

Dave 2:         $2841E
Shadow: Knights $?

In a nutshell the file is divided into five 'planes'; each composed of one-byte entries. Each plane covers a specific property of the tileset, such as blocking-up or general behavior. The total size of the tile file is thus (tilenum * 5) bytes. The blocks in order are block-up, block-down, block-right, block-left, behavior.

The function of the planes is as follows, the first four can have values of either 0 or 1 for each tile and control whether the player can move through that boundary. For example the first controls whether a tile can be stood on. A completely solid tile will thus have its first four entries as 1. The last plane is how the tile affects the player, with the number of behaviors being severely limited from Keen. Properties are as follows:

00: Nothing  
01: Openable door [If sprite present] [Dave only]
02: Enterable door [Dave only]
13: Kills [Knives, bamboo]
99: Exit level

Notes

This format was reverse engineered by Levellass

Unlike Keen, there is no animation plane in this file, tiles do not animate at all, despite Keen having a revolutionary means of animating tiles.