Major Stryker Text Format
| Format type | Text |
|---|---|
| Text purpose | Story |
| Line endings | MS-DOS |
| Character set | ASCII |
| Games |
File Format
All Major Stryker text files are plain ASCII text files with DOS-style line breaking (0x0D, 0x0A).
A text file can contain multiple "pages". The first line of each "page" gives the number of text lines for the current page (not counting that first line) as a decimal number in ASCII text. The text lines have the following format:
NUMBER SPACE DOT STRING AT
SPACE, DOT and AT represent the ASCII characters " ", "." and "@".
The NUMBER (ASCII text) is a decimal number from 0 to 15, that defines the text color (mapping directly to an index in the EGA palette). However for the first line of each page that number may have a different meaning (see below).
Everything between the DOT and the AT becomes the string that is to be drawn onto the screen by the game. The game actually reads the whole line into a buffer and replaces the first AT in that buffer with a terminating 0.
Except for MISTEXT.MS? and ENDTEXT.MS?, the first text line of each page is treated as a headline and thus will be drawn using the big font and a background pattern. For headlines, the NUMBER does not map directly to the EGA palette. Instead, it is used as a tile offset for the background pattern, where 0 means green and 10 means red.
Note: The images displayed along with the text are hard-coded in the game and cannot be changed from within the text file.
Files in this Format
- BBSA.MS1
- FOREIGNA.MS1
- INSTRUCA.MS1
- ORDERA.MS1
- STORYA.MS1
- MISTEXT.MS?
- ENDTEXT.MS?
Credits
This file format was reverse engineered by K1n9_Duk3. 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!)