Deathtrack Save Game Format

Deathtrack Save Game Format

Format type	Saved game
Save locations	Hub location between levels
Elements saved	Cash, per-driver records (most fields not yet identified)
Games	Deathtrack

Saved games (race cards) are .RCT files written to the current directory. The file is a plain 428-byte dump of the game's data arrays. It is not compressed, does not use the chunk format, and has no checksum or encryption. No .RCT file ships with the game.

Most of the fields have not been given a meaning yet. The table below documents the layout; the "source" column lists the offsets in the game's data segment (DGROUP) that the values are copied from or to.

File format

Header

Data type	Name	Description
char[4]	signature	RAC:. On loading, only the first byte (R) and the fourth (:) are checked
BYTE[424]	body	See below

Body

The body starts with ten records of 36 bytes (one per driver; index 0 is the player), each made of values taken from parallel arrays:

Record offset	Data type	Source (DS:)	Description
0	UINT16LE	96dc	unknown
2	UINT16LE	8e5c	unknown
4	UINT16LE	9b0e	unknown
6	UINT16LE	a8c4	unknown
8	UINT16LE	9238	unknown
10	UINT16LE	9a86	unknown
12	UINT16LE	5c04	unknown
14	UINT32LE	a22a	Cash/winnings
18	UINT16LE	1c5c	unknown
20	UINT16LE	9aa6	unknown
22	BYTE[10]	9926	Column of a 10×10 byte matrix
32	UINT16LE	9b6c	unknown
34	UINT16LE	1c48	unknown

At body offset 360 follow:

Data type	Description
UINT16LE[6]	Words from DS:1fc8–1fd2
UINT16LE[9]	Words from DS:1fd4–1fe4
UINT16LE[10]	Words from DS:0d24, 8eb8, 9b0c, 115e, 1160, 0d28, a670, 8dac, 8eb6, aa9e. The word at 0d28 is incremented once per race; 8eb8 is shown as a two-digit number after a successful save
char[14]	Player name (the terminating NUL is not saved)

Notes

• The same routine reads and writes the body, selected through a function pointer, so the layout is symmetric.
• The game's file picker lists directories (marked (DIR)) and *.RCT files, up to 220 entries and without a bounds check.
• Error handling is incomplete: if the open fails the game still closes a null handle, and a short transfer leaves the file open. The result of the final 14-byte transfer is not checked.

Source code

From re-deathtrack, the open-source browser port:

• docs/re/resources.md – save/load routine 1000:5368, picker 1000:4f28
• src/game/flow.js – translated implementation

Credits

This file format was reverse engineered by VorticonCmdr. 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!)