Keen 1-3 Tileinfo format
Overview
Commander Keen 1-3 has an internal tileinfo file that details the properties of its tileset, whether they block the player, whether they kill, etc. The location of these segments are as follows (For the decompressed executable of each episode only.):
| Episode | Version | Offset | Number of tiles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1.1 | 0x131F8 | 611 |
| 1.31 | 0x130F8 | ||
| 2 | 1.1 | 0x17938 | 689 |
| 1.31 | 0x17828 | ||
| 3 | 1.1 | 0x199F8 | 715 |
| 1.31 | 0x198C8 |
The file is divided into six 'planes'; each composed of two-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 * 12) bytes. The blocks in order are:
- Number of animation frames
- Behavior
- Top blocking
- Right-side blocking
- Bottom blocking
- Left-side Blocking
Plane functions
The first plane deals with animations. The valid values here are 0, 2 or 4, defining the three length of animation used in game. (0, 2 or 4 tile sequences.) The game scans this plane and organizes tiles into 'animation loops' To work predictably a row of 2 or 4 consecutive tiles should all have the value of 2 or 4 respectively. If this is not the case, the first tile encountered will be considered the start of the loop, and the next 1 (Or 3) tiles as part of it.
The behavior plane is how the tile affects the player, with quite a variety of effects as follows:
| Value | Effect | Value | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| -2 | Masked | 14 | Whiskey |
| -1 | Foreground | 15 | Raygun |
| 0 | Nothing | 16 | Pogo |
| 1 | Kills | 17 | Exit |
| 2 | Door 1 | 18 | Key 1 |
| 3 | Door 2 | 19 | Key 2 |
| 4 | Door 3 | 20 | Key 3 |
| 5 | Door 4 | 21 | Key 4 |
| 6 | 500 points | 22 | Message box pop-up |
| 7 | 100 points | 23 | Light switch |
| 8 | 200 points | 24 | Teleporter |
| 9 | 1000 points | 25 | Switch on |
| 10 | 5000 points | 26 | Switch off |
| 11 | Joystick | 27 | Ankh (Keen 3) |
| 12 | Battery | 28 | Ammo clip (Keen 3) |
| 13 | Vacuum |
The blocking planes can have values of either 0-1 (0-4 for top blocking) for each tile and control whether the player can move through that boundary. For example, the top blocking plane controls whether a tile can be stood on. A completely solid tile will thus have all its entries in these planes as 1. For the top blocking plane, the following values are valid:
| Value | Effect |
|---|---|
| 0 | Fall through |
| 1 | Solid |
| 2 | Slippery |
| 3 | Ice |
Notes
This format has been reverse engineered several times, most notably for the Tileinfo program for Keen.