Gods
| Levels? |  Editable |
|---|---|
| Tiles? | Editable |
| Sprites? | Editable |
| Fullscreen? | Editable |
| Sound? |  Partially editable |
| Music? | Partially editable |
| Text? | Editable |
| Story/cutscenes? | Partially editable |
| UI/menus? | Partially editable |
| Demos? | Editable |
Gods is a platform game by the Bitmap Brothers, published by Renegade in 1991 and ported to DOS in 1992. The DOS version is a direct port of the Atari ST original: all graphics are stored in the ST's native DEGAS low-resolution format and converted to EGA/VGA planar format by the graphics driver at load time.
Almost every data file in the game has a filename beginning with P. The P stands for "packed": every such file is compressed with PKWARE DCL Compression, regardless of its extension, and must be decompressed before use. The P is not part of the logical name the game uses internally (e.g. PLEV1A.MAP is loaded as lev1a.map). The only data files without the prefix, SINCOS.DAT, BEZIER.DAT and HISCORES.BIN, are also the only uncompressed ones.
The extension does not reliably indicate the format: .DAT is used for sprite atlases, demo recordings and lookup tables. Always decompress first, then identify the file by name.
The game world is made of four worlds, each split into two sublevels (A and B). Filenames use the world number and the sublevel letter, e.g. PLEV3B.MAP is world 3, sublevel B.
Tools
| Name | Platform | Archives | Levels | Graphics | Music | Sounds | Text | Saves | .exe patch | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| re-gods | Web browser | N/A | Edit | Export | Export | Export | Some | No | No | Open-source HTML5 port of the game, with an level editor (tiles, collision, objects, triggers and messages; saves playable .MAP files) and an asset viewer (images and sprites to PNG, music to MIDI, plays the sampled music). Needs your own copy of the game files. |
File formats
| Filename | Format | Details |
|---|---|---|
| P*.* (all packed files) | PKWARE DCL Compression | Compression wrapper around every P-prefixed file |
| P*.PI1 | Gods Image Format | Full-screen images and sprite sheets (Atari ST DEGAS) |
| PBITS??.PI1 PXTRA??.PI1 | Gods Tileset Format | Background tiles for each level |
| PALWAYS?.DAT POBJ?.DAT PLEVEL??.DAT PGUARD??.DAT ... | Gods Sprite Format | Sprite frame lists for the matching .PI1 file |
| PLEV??.MAP | Gods Map Format | Levels: tiles, objects, messages and triggers |
| PALFILS.0?? | Gods Level Data Format | Per-level hint text, spawners, levers and trap doors |
| POBJECTS.00? | Gods Object Table Format | Object names, descriptions, categories and values |
| PWEAPONS.00? | Gods Weapon Table Format | Weapon names, power and shop prices |
| PGOD0?.PAT | Gods Path Format | Scripted movement paths for flying enemies |
| PJOY??.DAT | Gods Demo Format | Recorded input for the attract-mode demos |
| PGODS.MUS PMUSIC.MUS PGODMUS2.MUS P*.RL | Gods Music Format | Music and sound effects (containers of Standard MIDI Files) |
| PDEMOSB4.SB | Gods Sample Music Format | Sound Blaster title music (digitised samples plus a sequence script) |
| HISCORES.BIN | Gods High Score Format | High score table and saved passwords |
| GODS.INI | Gods Configuration Format | Hardware and key configuration |
| SINCOS.DAT | Gods Sine Table Format | Sine lookup table |
| BEZIER.DAT | Gods Bezier Table Format | Cubic Bezier basis lookup table |
| PBUMLIST.BIN | Gods Worm Head List Format | Animation list for the world 4 guardian's head |
| PPLAYER.BIN PTANDY.BIN PBEEPER.BIN | N/A | Sound engine code (Sound Images, 1991), not data. PPLAYER.BIN drives OPL2, Sound Blaster and MPU-401. |
Notes
- Many table files carry dead fields that the game never reads (for example the second word of every sprite record, and the header table at the start of every map). These appear to be left over from Bitmap Brothers' development tools and can be set to zero.
- Most multi-byte values are big-endian, because the data was authored for the Motorola 68000. Exceptions are noted on each format page.
- GODS.INI and HISCORES.BIN are written by the game and the installer, so their contents differ between installations.
External links
- re-gods – play the HTML5 port in your browser (load your own copy of the game files)
- re-gods on GitHub – source code, plus detailed reverse-engineering notes in the docs/ folder