Duke 1 Level Format
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Duke 1 Level Format
| Format type | Map/level |
|---|---|
| Map type | 2D tile-based |
| Layer count | 1 |
| Tile size (pixels) | 16×16 |
| Viewport (pixels) | 208×160 |
| Games |
The levels in Duke Nukem 1 are stored in the files WORLDALx.DNy, where y is the episode number, and x is the level number, going from 1-9 then A-C. Oddly, level 2 is the intermediate level and level C is the demo level.
Level structure is very simple, each level is 128x90 tiles in size and consists of 11520 UINT16LE words (23040 bytes) of data. Each word controls what appears on one tile in the level. (The level has only one plane, containing background, foreground and enemies. Thus each word is sometimes called a ShapeThing. Because of this limit, the game has some interesting shortcuts to allow things to appear more naturally, such as an enemy tile using the tile before it as its background.) The following values control what appears:
| Range (hex) | Class | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0000-05FF | Flashers | Animated backgrounds or stationary backdrops, Duke can pass through these. |
| 0600-17FF | Backgrounds | Static background objects that Duke can pass through. |
| 1800-2FFF | Solids | Static foreground objects that Duke cannot pass through. |
| 3000-3059 | Active | This is the fun stuff, all the things that move, such as techbots, bonuses, items, Duke's starting location, hazards (spikes, force fields), doors, keyholes/access slots, conveyor belts and some special effect items (such as mirror floor and transparent windows). |
| 306A-FFFF | (Hacks) | Static foreground objects that Duke cannot pass through. The first tiles use tile images from BORDER.DN? and most of the later tiles are displayed as random junk. All of these tiles are clingable. |
Tile mapping
The Level's tiles use tile graphics from 8 files: BACK0.DN? through BACK3.DN? and SOLID0.DN? through SOLID3.DN?. Tiles from BORDER.DN? can also be used, though they are not "officially" supported.
Each file contains 48 tiles (at least the game loads 48 tiles from each file), so there are 384 "actual" tiles. Due to the way the tile graphics are stored in memory, you need to divide the tile value by 32 (EGA plane size of a 16x16 pixel tile) to get a tile index from the data stored in the level file.
| Range (hex) | File |
|---|---|
| 0000-05FF | BACK0.DN? |
| 0600-0BFF | BACK1.DN? |
| 0C00-11FF | BACK2.DN? |
| 1200-17FF | BACK3.DN? |
| 1800-1DFF | SOLID0.DN? |
| 1E00-23FF | SOLID1.DN? |
| 2400-29FF | SOLID2.DN? |
| 2A00-2FFF | SOLID3.DN? |
| 3000-367F | Varies, see below |
| 4000-? | current backdrop 1 (hack) |
| 8100-? | current backdrop 2 (hack) |
Active
The follow tiles appear to be manually mapped. These tile codes from the map do not need to be divided by 32, unlike the other tilecodes.
| Tile code (hex) | File | Tile index | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3000 | OBJECT0.DN1 | 0 | Bonus | Grey box, empty |
| 3001 | OBJECT0.DN1 | 5 | Interactive | Elevator |
| 3002 | ! ? | ? | Interactive | Left-moving conveyor belt start, must be left of end tile |
| 3003 | ! ? | ? | Interactive | Left-moving conveyor belt end, must be on right of start tile |
| 3004 | ! ? | ? | Interactive | Right-moving conveyor belt start, must be left of end tile |
| 3005 | ! ? | ? | Interactive | Right-moving conveyor belt end, must be on right of start tile |
| 3006 | OBJECT0.DN1 | 10 | Bonus | Grey box (0 @ OBJECT0.DN1), contains shoes |
| 3007 | OBJECT0.DN1 | 11-17 | Interactive | Rocket, tile below is replaced with default tile after rocket takeoff |
| 3008 | OBJECT0.DN1 | 18 | Bonus | Grey box (0 @ OBJECT0.DN1), contains ceiling-clinger |
| 3009 | OBJECT0.DN1 | 24-28 | Hazard | Flamethrower, firing to the right (three tiles wide including placement tile) |
| 300A | OBJECT0.DN1 | 29-33 | Hazard | Flamethrower, firing to the left (three tiles wide including placement tile) |
| 300B | ANIM0.DN1 | 0-5 | Enemy | Floating 1x1 robot with purple antenna |
| 300C | ANIM0.DN1 | 10-33 | Enemy | Jumping 2x2 robot |
| 300D | ANIM0.DN1 | 34-41 | Enemy | Wheeled 2x1 robot with blue wheels |
| 300E | ANIM1.DN1 | 0-31 | Enemy | 2x2 rotating wheel with flames |
| 300F | OBJECT0.DN1 | 43 | Bonus | Grey box (0 @ OBJECT0.DN1), contains raygun (ammo) |
| 3010 | ANIM1.DN1 | 32 | Enemy | 1x1 robot |
| 3011 | - | - | - | Exit door (only 1 instance allowed!) |
| 3012 | ANIM2.DN1 | 17 | Bonus | Grey box (0 @ OBJECT0.DN1), contains dynamite |
| 3013 | ANIM2.DN1 | 24-31 | Enemy | Flying orb monster, each shot removes one orb |
| 3014 | - | - | Decorative | Shimmering water effect, also affects tile below this one |
| 3015 | ANIM2.DN1 | 32-35 | Bonus | Red box (1 @ OBJECT2.DN1), contains soda can |
| 3016 | ANIM2.DN1 | 40-43 | Enemy | Green bitey creature walking up and down walls, facing right |
| 3017 | ANIM2.DN1 | 44-47 | Enemy | Green bitey creature walking up and down walls, facing left |
| 3018 | OBJECT0.DN1 | 44 | Bonus | Red box (1 @ OBJECT2.DN1), contains turkey drumstick |
| 3019 | ANIM3.DN1 | 0 | - | Bridge that explodes when stepped on twice (only 1 instance allowed!) |
| 301A | OBJECT1.DN1 | 0-3 | Hazard | Blue force field, horizontal |
| 301B | ANIM3.DN1 | 12-19 | Hazard | Rotating fan blades, blowing left |
| 301C | ANIM3.DN1 | 12-19 | Hazard | Rotating fan blades, blowing right |
| 301D | OBJECT1.DN1 | 8 | Bonus | Blue box (0 @ OBJECT2.DN1), contains football |
| 301E | OBJECT1.DN1 | 9 | Bonus | Blue box (0 @ OBJECT2.DN1), contains joystick |
| 301F | OBJECT1.DN1 | 10 | Bonus | Blue box (0 @ OBJECT2.DN1), contains "DN" floppy |
| 3020 | OBJECT1.DN1 | 13 | Bonus | Grey box (0 @ OBJECT2.DN1), contains robohand |
| 3021 | OBJECT1.DN1 | 15-18 | Hazard | White/blue force field, vertical |
| 3022 | ANIM3.DN1 | 20-47 | Enemy | Helicopter |
| 3023 | OBJECT1.DN1 | 19-23 | Bonus | Blue box (0 @ OBJECT2.DN1), contains balloon |
| 3024 | ANIM4.DN1 | 8-10 | Bonus | Security camera |
| 3025 | ANIM4.DN1 | 11 | Decorative | Brown spikes |
| 3026 | ANIM4.DN1 | 12 | Decorative | Rock, left half |
| 3027 | ANIM4.DN1 | 13 | Decorative | Rock, right half |
| 3028 | ANIM4.DN1 | 14 | Decorative | Grey rounded window |
| 3029 | OBJECT1.DN1 | 24 | Bonus | Grey box (0 @ OBJECT0.DN1), contains nuclear molecule |
| 302A | OBJECT1.DN1 | 33 | Hazard | Loose/falling ACME sign |
| 302B | OBJECT1.DN1 | 34 | Hazard | Blue reactor |
| 302C | OBJECT1.DN1 | 45-46 | Hazard | Spike, pokes up when walking over |
| 302D | OBJECT1.DN1 | 47-49 | Bonus | Blue box (0 @ OBJECT2.DN1), contains magenta flag |
| 302E | OBJECT2.DN1 | 2-4 | Bonus | Blue box (0 @ OBJECT2.DN1), contains radio |
| 302F | ANIM4.DN1 | 20-28 | Interactive | Teleporter, transports to tilecode 3030 |
| 3030 | ANIM4.DN1 | 20-28 | Interactive | Teleporter, transports to tilecode 302F |
| 3031 | ANIM4.DN1 | 31 | Hazard | Spiky round red bomb, bouncing |
| 3032 | - | - | Interactive | Player start point |
| 3033 | OBJECT1.DN1 | 14 | Bonus | Grey box (0 @ OBJECT0.DN1), contains access card |
| 3034 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 5-12 | Interactive | Access card activation point |
| 3035 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 14-15 | Interactive | Robohand activation point |
| 3036 | ! ? | ? | ? | Red girder, creates a bridge when Robohand activation point is used |
| 3037 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 21 | Bonus | Grey box (0 @ OBJECT0.DN1), contains "D" |
| 3038 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 21 | Bonus | Grey box (0 @ OBJECT0.DN1), contains "U" |
| 3039 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 21 | Bonus | Grey box (0 @ OBJECT0.DN1), contains "K" |
| 303A | OBJECT2.DN1 | 21 | Bonus | Grey box (0 @ OBJECT0.DN1), contains "E" |
| 303B | ANIM2.DN1 | 18-23 | Bonus | Purple rabbit thing, 5000 bonus points |
| 303C | ANIM5.DN1 | 1 | Enemy | Fire monster |
| 303D | ANIM5.DN1 | 12 | Decorative | Diamond-shaped wire mesh |
| 303E | ANIM5.DN1 | 13 | Decorative | Window showing through to backdrop, left half |
| 303F | ANIM5.DN1 | 14 | Decorative | Window showing through to backdrop, right half |
| 3040 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 23 | Interactive | Message, press up to read (blank message for most levels?) |
| 3041 | - | - | - | Screen display with Dr. Proton |
| 3042 | ANIM5.DN1 | 30-42 | Enemy | Dr Proton, E3 boss, killable ("I won it all!", game ends) |
| 3043 | ANIM5.DN1 | 30-42 | Enemy | Dr Proton, E1 boss, not killable (escapes to moon, game ends) |
| 3044 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 24 | Interactive | Door key, red |
| 3045 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 25 | Interactive | Door key, green |
| 3046 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 26 | Interactive | Door key, blue |
| 3047 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 27 | Interactive | Door key, magenta |
| 3048 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 37 | Interactive | Door lock, operated by red key |
| 3049 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 38 | Interactive | Door lock, operated by green key |
| 304A | OBJECT2.DN1 | 39 | Interactive | Door lock, operated by blue key |
| 304B | OBJECT2.DN1 | 40 | Interactive | Door lock, operated by magenta key |
| 304C | OBJECT2.DN1 | 28 | Interactive | Door, opened by red lock |
| 304D | OBJECT2.DN1 | 28 | Interactive | Door, opened by green lock |
| 304E | OBJECT2.DN1 | 28 | Interactive | Door, opened by blue lock |
| 304F | OBJECT2.DN1 | 28 | Interactive | Door, opened by magenta lock |
| 3050 | OBJECT1.DN1 | 8 | Bonus | Football |
| 3051 | OBJECT0.DN1 | 44 | Bonus | Turkey drumstick |
| 3052 | ANIM2.DN1 | 32-35 | Bonus | Soda can |
| 3053 | OBJECT1.DN1 | 10 | Bonus | "DN" floppy disk |
| 3054 | OBJECT1.DN1 | 9 | Bonus | Joystick |
| 3055 | OBJECT1.DN1 | 47-49 | Bonus | Purple flag |
| 3056 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 2-4 | Bonus | Radio |
| 3057 | ANIM4.DN1 | 31 | Hazard | Spiky round red bomb, stationary, explodes on touch |
| 3058 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 48 | Hazard | Spikes, poking up |
| 3059 | OBJECT2.DN1 | 49 | Hazard | Spikes, poking down |
Links
There are numerous level editors available, from the basic original ASCII one, to rather advanced ones capable of rendering animations.
- Maps can be found at vgmaps.com
- The original level editor is at Dook Nookim Klassik
- A reasonable level editor can be found at crystalshard.net
- Possibly the best editor is DN1MOD, which renders levels as the game does, by loading the game's graphics files [1]